Kade

by Eryann O'Moraíne

  The front door opened and Lyndsie came back in. She had taken some of the women and kids home as their men had decided to stay. All club girls were banished to the upstairs living room. Sketch was standing at the top of the stairs to keep them from eaves dropping. “Is that really necessary?”

  The men looked to where she was pointing at Zora taped to the chair. Her raised eyebrows making them feel like scolded children. Hernandez ducked his head and explained Zora’s seating choice. “She tried to kick my nuts off Miss Lyndsie.”

  Lyndsie was the daughter of a military man, married one and birthed two. She was used to the crudeness and cursing but still tried to keep it as refined as possible. “Language. And I have heard the ‘F’ word too much this evening as well.”

  Zora snorted out a laugh, letting her head fall back to stare up at the ceiling. Lyndsie had let a F-bomb go of her own.

  Sawyer took the rifle from Weasley with a little effort and laid it on the table with the other things they had taken off Zora. The man actually pouted at not being allowed to hold it any longer. “Time for some answers girl.”

  Zora continued to look at the exposed beams above her. The place had once been some kind of shop and warehouse before the club bought it and they had kept most of the feel of the old building. Guess they thought it manlier.

  Kade ground his teeth at her lack of reply. Lyndsie saying she was Mayhem’s daughter was enough to prove her identity for now. He had a couple guys out scouting for her vehicle. Best to get all her gear in one place and do a check to see if they could use anything to determine if she was telling them any truths. “What the fuck did I do to you?”

  Lyndsie smacked him in the head as she walked by him for the cuss word. He ducked his head at her reprimand.

  Zora sighed and started counting to herself the number of beams.

  Sawyer reached out and kicked the chair she was in.

  With a growl, Zora slowly took her gaze from the beams to the men in front of her. “What?”

  Kade popped his neck in frustration and then winced when it pulled on the patch job of his shoulder. Tucker had warned him not to pull on the stitches he had put after all was settled and the kids were out. “I swear, if you don’t start talking soon, I’m gonna…”

  Zora arched her left eyebrow making the stones in the barbell there sparkle with the movement. “You’re going to do what? You so don’t scare me. Your big dumb ass couldn’t kill a man face to face, you have to do it by sabotaging his munitions. So, you ain’t going to do shit to me, at least not with witnesses.”

  The men looking at her all took turns looking at each other. She ignored the expressions of disbelief on their faces.

  Sawyer shook his head at her. “What the fuck you talking about?”

  “Language!” Lyndsie yelled from the kitchen.

  Zora sat up straight in her chair and rotated her shoulder, the audible pops of the adjustment loud in the now silent room. She had nothing to hide. “That asshat you call a VP killed my dad.”

  Kade took a step towards the restrained woman. “The fuck I did.”

  “Kade! Language!”

  Sawyer crouched down to be on Zora’s level. All the men here were so much bigger than her small five foot two frame. He rubbed his hand over his face. “Your dad’s death was an accident.”

  Leaning forward, Zora got in Sawyer’s face. Her gut was telling her to listen after reading the faces around her, but her heart was telling her she needed to get even for what was done to her father. “No. Fucking. Way. He would never make that kind of mistake. I have proof.”

  The backdoor opened and the two men Kade had sent to find her vehicle came in. Harry and Lloyd, as they were called since they were the dumb and dumber of the crew, were arguing as they walked down the hall to the dining room.

  Kade turned to the dumb duo. “Where is her shit?”

  Harry and Lloyd, not their real names of course, were big guys. Each around six and half feet and over two-fifty. It was this reason their response brought a laugh from the group. “We couldn’t fit in her car.”

  Zora laughed. She had left the car unlocked so she could get away fast, so she knew they had not had to break into it with that comment. But her car was small, a present when she had graduated college, a Mazda Miata MX-5. Turbo.

  Kade rolled his eyes at the two of them. He turned back to Zora and her accusations. He had not killed Mayhem. He had loved him like a brother, hell a father figure with the difference in their ages. Like all the guys here, they were family.

  Bending down, he planted his huge hands on the armrests of the chair and got in her face. She did not draw back even when his nose was a hairs breadth away from hers. “Let’s get something straight. I did not kill your dad. Clear?”

  Zora cocked her head, her gut still twisting for her to listen to him, she ignored it. If he pressed forward just a bit more, they could kiss but she was not thinking of that, she was wondering if she was quick enough to bite that lush lower lip. That would get him out of her face. “Liar.”

  Kade stood back up with a roar. Rubbing his hands over his bald head, he pulled them down his face and the scruff there.

  Sawyer knelt back down in front of her, elbows on his thighs, hands dangling down between them. “Alright, little girl, I’ve had enough of your mouth. Kade did not kill your father. Where is this proof you say you have?”

  Zora sat back in the chair they had her taped too and smirked again. “I’m not a little girl. I’m twenty-five. It’s at my place.”

  Sawyer snapped his fingers and the men in the room jumped to attention. “Where?”

  Zora turned to Lyndsie, who had just come from the kitchen with a cup of coffee in her hands. “I’m hungry.” She was stalling to piss him off.

  Sawyer snapped his fingers in Zora’s face. When the young woman turned back to him with a sneer on it, he demanded of her again. “Where?”

  Zora rattled off her address. No sense in hiding it, they could find out on their own as it was not exactly a hidden location. She lived in the next town over. Had a small apartment over the laundromat, all legit like. After her dad’s death, she had just had to sell the house, not that she wanted to live there anyways after what happened. “On my laptop.”

  Sawyer turned and pointed to a group standing near the hallway to the garage. “Take two trucks. Get all her shit and bring it here.”

  Zora jerked in the chair. “Like hell. I don’t belong here or to you. You just can’t take my stuff.”

  Kade smiled snidely down at her, his big arms crossed over his chest. “Wrong, little girl. You are all alone, as Mayhem’s daughter, you are our responsibility. Blood by club. Got to take care of those left behind.”

  Zora took a deep breath as she closed her eyes and returned her face to the ceiling. “Good luck.”

  ~Chapter Three~

  Zora found herself seated on the third floor in a large bedroom – slash - living area. All the modern chrome, black and grey appealed to her sense of style. The pops of lime made her smile at it. Tough guys with interior design leanings. She wondered if all the rooms were the same. Maybe Lyndsie had decorated the place. Or a club ho.

  Her zip cuffs had been removed and a plate with a sandwich and chips was in her lap. She was happily humming to the music coming from the floor below and munching away. She was wiggling and bopping on the cushions of the leather sofa while stuffing chips in her mouth.

  Sawyer was watching her as Kade pulled up something on his laptop in the office corner of his room. They had brought Zora here to get her away from all the men below. He figured she would either escape or kill one of them. She stopped dancing and cocked her head.

  Zora had her sandwich part way to her mouth. Duffy’s Mercy was being played and the hard asses she had tangled with did not seem the type even with the half dozen women that had been in the living room area she had seen. “That’s my playlist.”

  One corner of Kade’s mouth cocked up as he typed away on the machine in front
of him. Just because her car had not been returned did not mean that Harry and Lloyd had come back empty handed. They had found a small hip pouch under the driver’s side seat. Her wallet and phone along with another nine had been in it. Some other stuff they had turned over to the tech specialist they had on crew as well. Tech was currently checking the phone over and must have found her music.

  Halestorm’s Mz. Hyde came on next and Zora started singing along as she pulled the crust from her bread. The girl had a voice. “I can be the bitch, I can play the whore, or your fairytale princess who could ask for more. A touch of wicked, a pinch of risqué, good girl gone bad, my poison is your remedy.”

  Sawyer was watching her. Watching Kade too. There were more sparks then there should have been between the two. Sure, she had tried to kill him, but this was sexual, you could smell it, it was so thick. It was interesting. The phone in his pocket rang. His eyes lifted to the woman across the room from them, rolling her shoulders back and forth to Promiscuous now, mouthing the words, nodding her head as she re-tied her boots having finished with her food.

  He hit the speaker button and laid the phone on the desktop. “We made it past the trigger. Wasn’t easy but we are all here and still got our dicks. But we got another problem Gunny.”

  “What is that?” Sawyer and Kade were looking to where Zora sat trying to look innocent on the couch while listening to the phone call.

  “Listen.” The phone went quiet and then he could hear what they were talking about. A deep bass growl. And then more joined in, they were back off the door but for sure in her apartment.

  “Zora. How do they get in?” Sawyer asked her.

  Zora gave him an innocent face. “Figure it out asshats. They like pork chops but love steak.”

  She was referring to the dick comment, tube steak. Kade rubbed his head again with both hands, if he had hair, he would be pulling it out. His frustration evident in his voice. “Just let us do this. How do they get in?”

  Zora smiled sweetly at them.

  Sawyer heaved a big sigh in her direction. “Shoot them.”

  Zora jumped to her feet. “They shoot my dogs you mother fucker and you won’t leave this room alive.”

  Sawyer stood up from leaning on the desk and crossed his arms over his chest. She was entertaining. “You’re unarmed.”

  Zora mimicked his stance. “Am I?”

  Kade leaned back in his chair so deep it creaked with the effort of not tipping. Frustration evident in his tone. “Zora.”

  “Dość.” Grandda had been of Polish decent and taught her the language. She would not have her dogs killed so giving up the command was the only method. They would shoot them to complete the job given per orders.

  She heard the command given to her dogs, but the growling only increased in volume.

  Sawyer spoke into the phone on the desk. “Put it on speaker.”

  He looked at Zora standing in front of him and Kade, to where her hands were at her sides. At his arched brow, she raised them to shoulder height. There were a number of things laying on the desk top she could use as a weapon.

  Zora stepped closer to the phone and gave the command herself. “Dość.”

  She heard the growling stop and the sound of her locks being opened. Just because they had her keys would not have got them inside. But they had been able to disarm her system and now her dogs were standing down. They were in her space, whether she wanted them there or not. Kade and Sawyer continued to watch her as the sounds of men entering her apartment came through. “Gunny, we got another problem.”

  Sawyer hung his head at Zora’s grin. “What now?”

  “I’ll show you.”

  The phone chimed to alert a sent text.

  Sawyer flipped his finger on the screen to change apps. A picture filled the screen. He looked up at Zora who was still standing in front of him with her hands raised. “I told you…”

  Kade picked up the landline on his desk and waited for someone to pick up after choosing an extension. “Tech, get up here.”

  Zora stood in the garage as the two SUVs backed up to the open garage doors. She had watched as the men sent to her place had cleared it out thanks to the body cams they had on their Kevlar vests once Tech had entered the room she was in. Silly boys, those vests would have been nothing but more shrapnel if they had not disarmed her door.

  She had tried walking them threw her set up to keep them from triggering her data wipe and the charges that would incinerate it all. But they were all thumbs and Sawyer had sent Tech out to get it taken care of while the others had packed the rest of her things. The last view she had of her place was the empty walls and the sad furniture as a guy named Ghost locked up behind him, making sure they were all clear. Even her dogs were in the cars.

  It was sad that her personal belongings only took the cargo area of one of the vehicles. Her computer set up was in the hold next to a large black garbage bag and a stack of dog beds and stuff. Dishes, linens, all that had been deemed replaceable and left for the next tenant. Pathetic really her dogs had more than she did. The truck to her left opened and Ghost came around the back from the driver’s seat and popped the hatch.

  Zora gave a two tone whistle and her dogs snapped to attention like the men had at Sawyer’s command earlier. And earlier it had been, it was almost three in the morning now. She smiled at the lulling tongues and pittie smiles that greeted her. “Skipper, Private, Rico.”

  Kade watched the dogs jump from the back of the cars at their names. They were pure muscle and intimidation. Then he laughed at their names. “Like the penguins?”

  Zora’s smile faded as she looked up from where she was loving on her dogs in spite of the grease stained cement. Despite her gut telling her otherwise, she still said this man killed her dad. Damn, that infernal instinct and her father and grandda’s training that told her to trust it. The proof she had did not lie. “Dad loved that movie. He named them. They were his.”

  Tech had a cart from the garage and was stacking her equipment on it. It would disappear like her readers and tools had when her pouch had been returned to her before he left. If he could get in without triggering a wipe, he deserved a very big ‘atta boy’.

  Sawyer walked up to her and stood looking at the dogs sitting around her. What the hell was he going to do with her? All rooms were occupied, and he would not force his men to bunk together. They had had enough of that in service and on missions. Twenty-four rooms on site and numerous guys living off with wives or girlfriends. A couple houses of them all sharing rent and such too. Another building was needed for housing. He had nearly fifty men under his command here. And that was not to mention the out of service members. His club was nearly a hundred strong.

  Lyndsie came out to see Ghost drop the single bag of belongings in front of Zora and hand her a clothes basket of pictures and miscellaneous bric-a-brac without a word as was his M.O. The girl had so little. “Is that it?”

  Sawyer nodded. He had watched with her and Kade as her place was cleared, relaying things she wanted over his phone when a camera would touch on something. He had not wanted to leave her alone or just in Kade’s care just yet to be able to watch with all his equipment in the ops room. He had had to settle for his phone and Kade’s laptop once Tech sent the link up. “You got room at your place, right?”

  Lyndsie was shaking her head and backing up. Sawyer had made this call and she was not going to be responsible for the trigger happy woman and her huge dogs. She liked dogs but those more of a fit in a purse size. “Don’t even think it.”

  Sawyer sighed as a jumbo bag of dog kibble was off loaded next to the garbage bag of clothes. He cut his eyes to where Kade was talking to Tech over the cart of electronics. The stuff on there was just as good, if not better, quality as what they had here for ops monitoring. He nodded to himself at the men standing around. He would see if there was a spark between the two if they did not kill each other tonight. “Take it all up to Kade’s.”

  Kade snapped his
head up at the same time as Zora. Their gaze locked before turning to Sawyer. “Like hell.”

  Zora gave him her falsely sweet smile. “It’s okay. Your bed is big enough for us.”

  The men with their arms full of her things laughed at the brazen comment, thinking her wanting some of their vice president after trying to kill. She might be able to succeed with her thighs, or a well-placed pillow.

  Zora stood and snapped her fingers twice and the dogs followed her to the double doors. “And the couch will fit you just fine as well.”

  Kade glared at her retreating back as the men snickered at him for being kicked from his own bed when her comment cleared up their dirty thoughts.

  ~Chapter Four~

  Zora was awakened by blinding bright sunlight as someone jerked open the blackout curtains she had closed before climbing into Kade’s huge bed with her dogs. True to her word, they did fit. One on each side of her and one at her feet. No room for another person. She was so sure they would keep Kade out that she had stripped down to her underwear and a tank. Her tee, pants, socks and bra were in a pile at the foot of the bed where she had stepped out of them after a quick search that proved futile for a weapon. The desk had even been cleared. “What the fuck?!”

  Sawyer stood with his arms crossed looking at her and the dogs. She squinted up at him. “Where is the rest of it, Zora?”

  Kade was sitting up on the couch, she could see a pile of clothes on the floor at one corner and he had a sheet tossed across his lap. The large bandage white on his tanned skin. Apparently, he was so comfortable with her, he chose to sleep nude. Scratching her ratted head, she looked around the room. She was not slow, even when rudely awaken after only a few hours’ sleep. She knew what he wanted. “Here. This is it.”

  Sawyer shook his head again. “Wrong answer.”

  When he reached for her, Rico snapped at him. The click of jaws just missing flesh had the other two alert and up guarding their mistress. “Nope. All I own is what you see.”