“This is serious shit,” Hunter pressed. “Human fucking trafficking? We should talk to the feds!”
Mac shook his head. “The feds always want something—nothing’s ever free. Plus, we get a fed sniffing around here, they could get wind of the guns. I can’t risk the club.”
Now Ox spoke up. “Hunter’s right. That auction is messed up.” I could hear the anger building in his voice. Ox has a slow-burning fuse, but once he goes off…. “We can’t let that go on.”
“It’s not our town,” said Viking.
“I don’t care if it’s not our state!” Ox slammed his palms down on the table and, with his bearlike strength, it was enough to lift the opposite table legs off the floor. “No one’s selling women on our watch!”
Shit. This was going to end in a fight. Normally, Ox and Hunter were the calm ones but this thing was putting them on a collision course with Mac. And it’s all my fault, I thought, the frustration tight in my chest. This is why I never let the club get involved in my problems! I forced myself to calm down. Now I had gotten them involved, I needed to support my pres.
“No one’s saying we let it stand!” Mac growled. “We’ll stop the auctions. But we need to know what’s going on. We need to get hold of their President and ask him some questions.”
Ox slowly nodded, though he looked far from happy, and lifted his hands. The table settled back onto all four legs.
“Their pres is a guy called Hay,” I said, forcing my voice to be calm. “Mean fucker but not brave. We put a gun to his head, he’ll talk.”
“We need to get hold of him away from their clubhouse,” said Mac. “Make sure we have him outnumbered and outgunned.”
“I’ll go over there tonight,” said Hunter. “Sneak around and find out where he’s going to be.”
No one argued. Hunter does stealthy like no one I’ve ever met. He can be standing a foot behind you and you won’t know he’s there.
“Okay, then.” Mac stayed standing, maybe to remind us who was the boss. “We’ll meet up tomorrow morning, Hunter will tell us the place and time, and we’ll move.” He banged the gavel to end the meeting and everyone started to filter out. Ox was still muttering to Hunter about the auctions and I knew he’d be in a mood for days. Mac sighed in frustration.
I stayed behind until everyone had left. “Sorry,” I muttered. I thought back to how I’d reassured him, when I’d first brought Annabelle to the clubhouse. It’s done, I’d said. “Didn’t mean this to turn into your problem.”
Mac came around the table stood in front of me, slowly shaking his head. “We got your back, brother. When are you gonna figure that out?” He cocked his head to one side. “Why didn’t you ask us to go with you, when you rode to Teston to rescue her? We all would have come.”
I stared at the table. I knew he was right: they all would have rode out with me and stormed the Blood Spider’s bar. We could have put a stop to the auctions right then and there and maybe the Blood Spiders wouldn’t have come after Annabelle. It would have been easier, safer, saner. But….
But I couldn’t accept their help. I’d die for this club but I wouldn’t let them put themselves at risk for me. I gave, but I wouldn’t take.#p#分页标题#e#
Until Annabelle came along. She was the one thing I’d bend my rules for. They’d already helped me save her on the highway and now I was letting them go up against the Blood Spiders again. I hated it but I had no choice.
I stood up, shoving my chair back. I pulled Mac close and slapped his back. “I love you, brother.”
He thumped me on the back. But when we separated, I could see the concern on his face. We used to be tight, him and me. When we first set up our gun-running operation, it was me who he’d trusted to go with him to the Black Sea to meet the Russian mafia guy who’d be supplying us. But as the club bonded closer and closer, I’d always stayed a little way apart. Me having to accept help, this one time, had just made it even clearer that I normally didn’t. He wanted me to stop keeping the club at a distance. And I couldn’t.
As I walked out, I clenched my fists. This has to end. Tomorrow. I needed to finish this thing...and I’d kill that bastard Hay, if that’s what it took. Then Annabelle would be safe and things could go back to normal.
Outside, I found Annabelle standing in the sunshine, hand shielding her eyes as she looked up into a cloudless sky. She was facing away from me and I took a second to admire her body. My eyes traced a lazy “S:” over the pale, bare shoulders I wanted to grip and kiss and bite as I thrust into her from behind, down the elegant curve of her spine, in to the little dip at the small of her back, the smooth skin revealed by the gap between tank top and jeans, then out over those ripe ass cheeks, my eyes doing what my hands longed to. God, she was perfect. Her long red hair was billowing out in the breeze and, as I walked closer, the very tips of the strands just brushed my face. I stopped, closed my eyes and inhaled, smelling her. Honeysuckle shampoo coupled with that warm, feminine scent that drove me wild. I could have stood there all day.