“Okay,” Larkin cut in. “Then tell me who put you up to this.”
Leeroy stared at him for a second before shaking his head. “I can’t. I just can’t.”
Larkin nodded at Noble, who pushed himself upright and walked lazily over to Leeroy. Noble slowly unsheathed a long, wicked-looking knife.
“What you doin’?” Leeroy asked.
Noble took the knife and slowly ran it down Leeroy’s thigh, cutting a long, thin red line into his flesh. Leeroy screamed.
“Ah fucking bastards!”
“Leeroy, come on now,” Larkin said as Noble stepped back. “Our boy Noble here is very good with that weapon. He can do this to you all night long, and trust me, it only gets much worse.”
“I’m very creative,” Noble added. “Been wanting to try some stuff out lately.”
Leeroy shook his head. “Fuck, please. I can’t tell you.”
Larkin nodded at Noble, who stepped up and looked over at Janine. “You might want to look away,” he said to her.
She looked back defiantly. “I’d rather watch.”
Noble grinned and then took the tip of one of Leeroy’s ears. With a smooth motion, he lopped it off, and Leeroy screamed.
“Now don’t move,” Noble said. “If you do, I could make it worse. I have to get the other one.”
He moved around Leeroy, took his other ear, and cut him again. Leeroy just screamed and screamed.
Larkin stepped up to him again. “I can make it stop. Tell me who put you up to this.”
“Burke! It was fucking Burke!”
“Does Jetter know?”
“Yes! Yes, he knows. Fuck, he knows.”
“Why?”
“They didn’t explain this shit to me,” he said.
Larkin nodded at Noble, but Leeroy started talking fast.
“Okay, okay. Boys think Jetter wants to take the Demons back. We kill the girl, make you weak, and then take you out and put Jetter in your place. I think that’s the plan, just please stop.”
I shook my head, surprised. “Fuck, that bastard.”
“This was all to take over the Demons?” Janine asked, anger and dismay in her voice.
Larkin walked over to us. “It would make sense. Jetter is known to try shit like that.”
“But the Demons?” I asked. “Just makes no damn sense. We’re too big for that.”
“Jetter thinks he’s invincible.”
“What do we do?” Janine asked.
“I’m not yet sure.”
“There’s nothing you can do,” Leeroy called out. “Jetter is going to outthink all of you fucking bastards. Even if you know, he’ll still win. We’re Rebels for life.”
Larkin nodded at Noble.
Noble plunged the knife deep into Leeroy’s chest. Blood welled up, and Leeroy stared at him, shocked, before collapsing back.
“Good riddance,” Noble said, spitting.
“What a fucking mess,” Larkin said, eyeing the blood and the body. “Get the pledges in here to clean it up.”
I turned to Janine and expected to see her staring, horrified, at the dead body with a knife in its chest, but instead she was just looking thoughtfully back at me. “What?” I asked her.
“Nothing. Just wondering what to do now.”
“You okay?”
She shrugged. “That’s the second guy with a knife in his chest tonight. I guess I’m used to it now.”
Larkin turned toward us. “Come with me, you two.”
He led us back out of the locker and down the hall. We moved into his office, shutting the door behind us.
“Got a plan?” I asked him.
He stepped up to Janine. “I am so, so sorry, Janine,” he said. “You know I love you, and I hate what this has done to you.”
“It’s okay,” she said softly. “I wanted to help. I really did.”
“Actually, there is one more thing I want to ask you to do.”
“Anything,” she said. “Anything to make all this worth it.”
He grinned and looked at me. “What about you, Clutch? Up for one more job?”
I laughed, grinning broadly. “Fuck yes I am.”
And so he told us his plan, and my smile just spread with every word he spoke.
31
Janine
I stared at myself in the mirror, the veil pushed up over my hair, and couldn’t help but laugh.
My wedding day. I never really thought this day would come, despite everything we’d gone through to get here. I wanted it to happen if at least to help save the club that had raised and protected me.
“You look amazing,” Caralee said. “Seriously. If I were a guy, I’d have such a big boner right now.”
I looked at her and laughed. “A big boner?”