Devil’s Mate(4)

Cara was bothered by the fact that her father had slipped. He had used the words without heeding who else was around. Only three of the non-Kris Tribe members had come in and they had been riding with Nico since before Cara was born, but still, it was not like her father to be careless. He had something on his mind; she could see that as clearly as she could see the concern in his expressive dark eyes.

“Have you been sleeping in your books again?” Nico asked, breaking into her thoughts.

Cara flushed. “No, why?”

“You’ve got ink on your cheek.”

Her hand went to her face. From behind Nico, Ion’s laughter rang out. He stepped forward, his strange light gray eyes flashing, as Nico sat at the head of the table. Cara glared at him and Ion gave her a long amused look from beneath the heavy fringe of his eyelashes. Those eyelashes framed his slate-colored irises, making him look moody, emotional and incredibly sexy.

Ion was tall and trim. He had a way of lounging against doorframes, counters and bikes that was guaranteed to melt the panties right off a woman’s fanny, as he so indelicately put it. His mouth was long and wide, his nose a trifle too large. If Cara hadn’t grown up with him and known him for the asshole he frequently was, she might have found him attractive. As it was, she could barely stand to be in the same room as him.

And this was the man everyone thought she should mate and marry!

She would die first. Cara didn’t care if they were the only two Kris left who were not intermated, or that they alone had the purest blood in all the tribe, or that their child could be the most powerful one ever born. She would not have slept with Ion if someone had boiled him first. The man was a dog and he treated women like they were too.

“We’ve got to do something about this new club.” It was Sammy who finally spoke as they all sat down at the table to eat. “They’re literally muscling our guys out at every turn. They somehow managed to wipe out Clive’s boys without so much as a fight. I just heard from Clive; he’s freaking out, and I can’t blame him, if what he’s saying is true.”

“What happened?” Nico asked.

“I don’t know what happened to them, but Clive swears he was riding point one minute and riding alone the next. It was up in the canyons — he turned around but there was nothing there, not even a bit of chrome. They were just gone.”

“Maybe they sent them off the side?” Ion asked. “Down into one of the canyons?”

Sammy shook his head. “Clive’s been sitting point since we were in Vietnam together. He would have heard a big truck, or anything else that would have been capable of sending five guys off a road and into a canyon. He says there was nothing and I believe him.”

Ion stuffed hot, fresh bread into his mouth and spoke with his mouth full. “Maybe he’s getting too old. Maybe he’s got roar deafness. It happens.”

Sammy slammed his hands down on the table. Cara was the only woman who looked up from her meal. Jaelle and the others ignored Sammy’s outburst — they didn’t have to look to see his aura like she did. Jaelle had the sense and Drina was an empath. The others all had their own gifts.

Sammy came halfway out of his seat, his grizzled head trembling with anger. His sunburned, deeply lined face held rage but it also held fear. “I was with Clive through shit that makes most of what we do as club look like a cakewalk, you little shit!”

“He’s still old, and so are you,” Ion replied, undaunted.

“Enough,” Nico said. It was quiet, that single word, but everyone felt its power. Nico gave Ion a warning look before he said, “Sammy, tell Clive to come to see me tomorrow.”

“I can’t. He hightailed it.”

Nico’s mouth dropped open. Cara’s nerves tightened. Clive had been with Nico forever. What could make him run.

“I see,” Nico sighed.

Cara’s nerves tightened even further as Nico turned to Drina’s son Darva and asked, “Have you heard about anything else like that?”

Darva nodded. “The girls in the clubs have been coming up missing and then they turn up at that club down on 17th. It used to be run by Todd, that old guy. He was always cool with us, but the new owners aren’t. I haven’t even been able to get a feeler out on who’s running that place now.”

“It’s being run by that new motorcycle club in town,” Sammy said. “They’re going to be a problem.”

All the Kris tensed. “So we have missing crew and a new club in town,” Nico said. “Has anybody seen or heard from them?”

Nobody had. The Non–Kris members of the Tribe started to drift out. Nico said nothing as he watched them go. The last one there was Sammy, and his face was troubled as he asked Nico, “What kind of dudes can make a crew vanish into thin air, Nico? I never heard of anything like that, not even in Nam.”