Delta strode through the door, and my body went on point like a hound that had treed its prey. He glanced at me and then away, moving away from me to the bar.
He ignored me so I flirted with Crow. He had a thing for me, and if I liked hairy overweight guys, he’d be my man. These guys didn’t follow the Brotherhood’s muscle-bound example—most of them were kind of flabby and all around worse for wear. The Brotherhood bikers had always been muscle and gristle instead of fat, so I guess I thought that’s how they all were.
“You’re too damn cute for words. You should come on to the back with me.” Crow smirked.
A cold chill raced through me as I glanced into his dead eyes. He might be a friend to Delta, but I got the impression that if I were alone, it wouldn’t be a request. Just like with the Remington, I understood these guys were not my friends.
Glancing over at Delta, I said a small prayer of thanks. He could have been like Crow and his ilk, but he wasn’t. I’d pushed him hard, yet he still protected me. Damn it. I hated to admit the Brotherhood bikers were damn decent.
And now they were going to what? I wasn’t sure but I knew it’d be illegal. Delta and the others were risking their freedom and their lives because of me. Sure, they’d say it was about honor or some shit, but in the end, I’d called and they were here. My fucking white knight rode a Harley. I’d always dreamed of a white knight swooping in to save me, but he’d never ridden a Fat Boy and wore leather.
The door jingled, and I turned to the side to see the best damn sight I’d seen in two years. Zero strode in with that ruffled ebony hair and trademark smirk. Behind him a step was the redhead I’d lost my virginity to. I jumped off the tabletop where I’d been sitting and flung myself into Mark’s arms.
He stumbled back with a laugh. “Hey, G, I missed you too.” His voice had deepened some and he was a different man, or maybe a man, period. Another guy followed them—I didn’t know that kid.
“Mark, you’re sexy with those muscles.” I gave him a smacking kiss on the lips. “Tell me what’s happening at home. What’s A doing?”
Mark chuckled and guided me to an empty table. Kicking a chair back with his foot, he sat down and pulled me onto his lap. I happily sat there. He was as familiar as my room at home yet completely different. “You’ve changed.” I narrowed my gaze and tugged his goatee.
Zero and the other biker walked over to where Delta held court.
“And you haven’t.” He flicked my chin. “Still getting in trouble and calling me to bail you out.”
I frowned. “I think I called Avi, and Delta answered.”
Now Mark frowned. “Are you two together?” Everything in him tensed.
Were we together? I sort of wished we were, but that would be a fantasy. He’d all but run away from me every time we’d been close. Besides one night wasn’t a relationship, not that I was telling him that. “Please, he’s got too much ego and too little respect for me.”
Mark stared at me with those eyes that knew all my secrets. I wanted to hide away but I couldn’t ever hide from him. “You slept with Zero, why not Delta?”
“Fuck you!” I tried to pull away but he held me tight.
“Stop throwing a fit.”
I froze and stared at him.
“I ain’t the boy you used to boss around, G, get that straight, yeah?”
“Did you just biker yeah me?” My temperature was close to boiling.
“I did. You better get me now because I ain’t chasing you like a whipped pup.”
“I didn’t ask you to.” A pain pressed into my chest, making it hard to get a decent breath. “I didn’t...” I turned away from him.
“You did and I let ya. But that’s over.” He squeezed me in a comforting way. “We got heat and passion—just no goddam sense between us.” He whispered the words into my hair.
I just sat there trying to sort the way Mark had turned my world sideways. This man was the guy I’d known and he wasn’t. I needed space and time to figure things out. “I want to get one thing clear with you.”
“Get over here.” Thorn’s booming voice cut me off.
I looked up and saw the Raven Renegades were gone. I sashayed over to Zero and gave him a big hug. He was the same anyway—all he ever wanted was a good fuck. I frowned at Delta for making me face Mark and putting me in this goddam situation. Well, I had put myself here, but I didn’t like being square between two alpha bikers bent on telling me how to live my life.
“Okay, you three take off—the less time here the better.” Thorn made eye contact with Zero, then Mark.
That didn’t make sense. We could wait here. “I want to wait—”
Thorn’s quiet gaze scared me silent. He was one alpha biker I wasn’t arguing with.
“Right, I just need to get some things.”
Thorn used his boot to slide my bag across to me. “You need to go.” He must have collected my stuff for me.
Mark nodded like a perfect soldier and hauled me out to a slick-looking Charger. At least it wasn’t motorcycles because I didn’t think my thighs were up to the challenge.
Chapter 14: Delta
I needed some fucking fresh air. Seeing Glory with Sharpie and Zero was far worse than watching her flirt with the Renegades. Sharpie had a claim on her and that pissed me off even more. I didn’t want her, couldn’t want her, but I did anyway.
A black sedan pulled up in front of my room. No one should be down there since Thorn and I had the two rooms at the end. As I got closer, I noted the dark jackets and wide shoulders. It had to be more of DeLuca’s men. How the fuck had they found us so quickly? Had they marked me? Tagged the guy we’d captured? Too many questions and not enough answers.
I pulled my knife from my back pocket—never left home without at least one knife. I walked past the car, acting completely oblivious and let myself into the room. I heard the car doors open and the shoes hit the pavement. They rushed the door and I let them run in with no resistance. The first guy stumbled as the second guy plowed into him. I kicked the first one in the head and brought my heel down on his head to make sure he was out. Never leave an opponent to come back after you.
I shoved back and kicked the other guy in the chest, then came down on him, holding the knife to his throat. He immediately stilled. With my free hand, I patted him down and discarded the gun I found in his waistband, fucking unprofessional.
“Get up, go to the chair.”
He swung wide, trying to clock me, but I grabbed that arm and twisted until I heard the snap of bone. I pushed him forward and he went. In a few quick moves I had him secured to the last chair in the room. I bound the guy on the floor with the handcuff zip ties I always carried.
“We will just keep coming.”
“Tell me how you found me.” This was twice they’d found us when they shouldn’t have.
“I found him.” He bent his head toward the still unconscious guy.
The statement might be true, but I didn’t think it was the whole truth. A good bluff is how I ended up with a million bucks, so I decided to bluff again. “That’s not what he told me.”
The guy looked from me to my cut. Why was he looking at my cut?
“Just because I lured you in doesn’t mean I didn’t know.”
He spat blood onto the motel carpet. “Then keep on wearing it because when we don’t come back, he’ll send others after you.”
“You should know better than to fuck with my colors.” They’d pay for tarnishing what was mine.
He sneered and I knocked him the fuck out. I knew enough for now. I beat ass over to the Nest and tracked down Crow, the Raven Renegades prez.
“I need shit that will locate trackers, wires—that kind of high-tech shit.”
“Wish that sweet piece had stuck around.”
I wanted to fuck up his face for talking about Glory that way. I d
idn’t like the look in his eyes, but I had enough enemies right now. “She’s going home.”
He pointed to another biker. “Take him shopping.”
I followed the tall, thin biker down a hallway and outside to room one. Inside the furniture had been removed and shelving lined the walls and stood in rows in the center of the room.
“Back here.” He weaved through the shelving units to the very back of the room. “This is the surveillance shit, likely this one will help you.” He pulled down a device from the top shelf. “It fell off a federal truck, latest technology out there.” He flicked two switches on the device and then started at my boots. “Lift your boot, sometimes you can walk on one.”
Now I hadn’t considered that, but it’d be a useful way to track bounties. “You have those?”
“Yeah, expensive though. They’re the new bio kind... We have 12 hour, 2 day, or 3 day bio trackers—only onetime use.”
“I rarely can retrieve the normal kind so that’s not a factor for me.” It was good that I’d won so much in Vegas because I was going to splurge here. I loved tech toys. JoJo would be so damn jealous. And Elle would try to steal them. “The app’s easy to download?”
The guy nodded. “Yup, as long as you can download off market apps.” He laughed as if anyone who came to this room wouldn’t have already done a jailbreak on their phone.
It was standard in our club, and we had two prospects who were great at all the phone tech shit.
“So what do you want?” He wanded up my jeans and the front of me. He made it to the top and twirled his finger for me to turn. The device beeped three times and went silent then three beeps again.
“Fuck, you have one of the bio ones on you. There’s no way to know how long it will last.”
A burning anger consumed me. They had sullied my cut and insulted me. I would make them pay. “You got something that will block the signal?”
“Nah man, I don’t. I haven’t even researched how to block them. I’d fuck that prick up.” The guy shook his head. “So whatcha want?”
“Give me four of the two-day bio trackers, that wand, a sharp knife, three throwing knives, and two Glocks.” I turned and looked at the semi-automatics. “Give me one of those too.” I pointed to an MP 5.
He whistled low. “I may need a damn calculator, that’s over ten G, you need approval?”
I shook my head. The club wouldn’t be paying for these toys.
“And extra ammo. And a handful of the normal trackers and two grenades.”
“You going to war?” The man eyed me in a new way. Most did once they saw the bloodthirsty side.
“They fucked up my girl and now my colors. What would you do?” Why did I say stupid shit? She wasn’t mine, and likely she’d be another brother’s woman before this situation was finished. No way my brothers would let her slip away again. Women like her were coveted in the club. She had the hardness needed to thrive and the sweet we all craved.
I craved her but I wouldn’t give in, so I’d push her out of my system.
“I’d take all my brothers and decimate those bastards, but you’re talking mob, and that’s serious shit.”
“So I need serious weapons.”
“I’m Cash by the way.” He stuck out a hand. “Don’t think we really met before. I just took over the armory.”
“Nice gig.” It was a big job and that said a lot about the guy in front of me. “I’m Delta. I’m a Vegas kind of guy, so I see you boys fairly often.”
“You should plant out here—we could use another good club to have our back.” Independent clubs like the Renegades and Brotherhood were different from the national ones. A chapter in every major city gave a different flavor to a club, so the independents tended to stick together.
“Not really our goal, but it’d be sweet to be close to Vegas.”
“If we had another strong independent at our back, we’d move back to Vegas in a minute. The damn mobsters are too fucking bold.”
I spied the black leather cuts they used for members on a back shelf. “Add one of those to the pile.” I nodded my chin to the cuts.
“We don’t sell them, but you can have one. You burning that one?”
“Nah, I’ll put it to good use.” I didn’t believe in wasting opportunities. “Do the bio trackers work on skin?”
“What they were made for, although they work on any surface, and water doesn’t matter. They just quit working when the electrical charge wears down.”
I nodded. “The damage?”
“Twenty large and that’s the price I give people I like.” He assessed me with the cool savvy of a business man.
“Ten in cash and wire transfer the rest?” With a nod and handshake the deal was done. I wired the money and told him I’d bring over the cash. “I need a bit to fix my cut. Can I do that here?”
“Yeah, need a leather needle too?”
He moved to the small desk back by the bathroom, leaving me to slice off all my patches. Each one stoked my rage. My name, my one percent patch, our location, the small logo patch, the bounty hunting insignia Rebel had created.
The hardest to slice off was the image and club name on the back. I planned revenge as I popped each stitch. I’d sewn each of these stitches and they were part of my identity. I might be questioning my place in our organization, but that didn’t change my loyalty in my club and what we’d achieved. Once the cut was just a vest again, I scanned the vest with the tool I’d purchased. The wand beeped, showing the tag had been placed. But I wasn’t assuming there was only one tag, so I wanded each of my patches and they were clean. And those boys in my room got to stay alive. If they’d tarnished the patches, I’d have skinned them and left their corpses in the middle of Vegas.
I spent the next hour sewing each one back in place, then slid the new cut over my shoulders, but it felt foreign. I’d lived in my old cut for ten damn years and this one wasn’t it. Cash headed over with three duffels loaded with my purchases.
“Man, you have skill, took me twice as long to do that.” He nodded to my cut.
“I got all kinds of skills, most are deadly though.”
Cash laughed and smacked my back. “That I believe.” We separated and I headed on to my SUV, and he moved toward the Crow’s Nest. I stowed the weapons in the back of the SUV and thought about going to the room to check on my prisoners but they didn’t need my attention yet.
I strode inside the bar but the place was deserted. Thorn and Eagle sat at a back table and a couple of the older club members nursed beers at the bar. Apparently, Glory had been the draw.
Thorn turned his attention to me. “Well, what did you find out?”
“They bio-tagged my cut.”
Thorn growled low in his throat.
“I agree.” Fucking with a biker’s cut was stupid, because it was the worst insult you could hand one of us. “This is a new one, but I kept the stripped vest in case we need to send a message.”
Thorn grinned and turned all kinds of scary—I wasn’t a man easily intimidated, but I was glad I hadn’t pissed him off. “Let’s load the garbage up. We don’t need to bring trouble to the Renegades.”
True enough. We crossed the parking lot, I laid down the back seat to make room for our cargo before I joined Thorn inside. With a shove, I rolled the one guy out of the room, pushed the chair down the steps. Hefting up the chair and the guy, I heaved it in the back of the SUV. The asshole’s lip and nose bled, but he’d see worse tonight. Thorn carried the second guy bound to another chair out and tossed him in next to the guy in the chair. Both guys were wide-eyed, lying on their backs staring up at the roof. The whirl of spinning wheels made it all kind of comical, but those guys weren’t laughing. Hurrying back into the room, I dropped three hundred on the bed for the chairs we’d taken, then grabbed the last guy taped to a chair we’d borrowed from another room. Thorn was be
hind the wheel, so I tossed the last fucker in the back. He smacked against the wheels of the chair and groaned. I shut the back gate and hatch before climbing into the passenger seat.
Eagle stood at the driver-side window talking to Thorn. “You sure you don’t need me?”
“I need you to figure out more about DeLuca, and you can’t do that in the desert. We’ll take out the garbage.” Thorn and Eagle clasped hands before Eagle took off in a rented truck.
“We need to teach a lesson and I have a place in mind.” Thorn turned the SUV back toward Vegas. “You sure sending her away without you was the right play?”
Who was this dude and what had he done with the badass I knew. “You going soft?”
He gave a single shake of his head. “You two had something, I could almost taste it.” He gave me that steady stare of his that had made lots of enemies crack.
“And I don’t want it, so I did the right thing—the only thing.”
Thorn nodded. “May not be that easy.”
I ignored that comment and focused on the mission. “What do we need to know? You know what it’ll take to make this right.” I didn’t phrase it as a question.
“DeLuca gone, and his organization wrecked.” Thorn squeezed the wheel tighter. “Leave a void in Vegas, and that’ll be on us to make right too.”
“The Renegades—”
“Short-term fix at best.” Thorn cut me off. “But we can’t let DeLuca keep chasing after us, sending fuckers after us at his leisure.”
“That will be two families we’ve crossed,” I reminded him.
“You may be out here for a long while keeping an eye on the situation.” Thorn didn’t look my way but I saw the vein pulsing in his temple. That meant shit was as real as it got. Most of the time, he didn’t give off any tells. The man had been through such serious shit that nothing really registered anymore.
“Me? I’m nobody.” I didn’t want to take the lead.
“You’re a soldier. Are you questioning the orders?” Thorn glanced over with those dead eyes.
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