Cinder

by Harley Wylde

  I nodded and watched him leave the room, meaning that I was now alone with Forge, a man who resembled more of a mountain than a human. The giant took a seat across the room and watched me. I took in the ink on his arms and peeking out of his shirt. He was intimidating, but if he could keep me safe, then I would adjust to his presence.

  “Thank you for helping me,” I said.

  “Glad to do it,” he said, smiling slightly. “Don’t worry. Cinder will come to his senses and want you back.”

  I didn’t think so. It was a nice thought, but not likely to ever happen. The man was probably glad that he wouldn’t have to deal with me anymore, if he’d even noticed I wasn’t there. For someone who had professed to be so worried about me, it was rather telling that I’d managed to slip away so easily. I only wished I could forget Cinder, but I knew that I would carry the memories for as long as I lived. I’d felt so safe with him, so cared for, until I’d learned he wanted me gone.

  Even as my heart ached, I reminded myself that I was better off away from him. After everything I’d suffered, I deserved a bit of happiness, but not at the expense of someone else. If Cinder was miserable with me around, then it was a good thing I wasn’t there anymore.

  Chapter Seven

  Cinder

  I wasn’t sure if I was relieved that it was time for Church, or disappointed that I was here and not discussing things with Meg. I hadn’t missed the look on her face when she’d walked off earlier. Her bedroom door had been shut when I’d left the house, and I’d decided to give her some space. Hopefully, she’d be willing to listen when I was finished here. I hadn’t meant to hurt her.

  “What do you have for me?” I asked Shade.

  “More like what do Wire and Outlaw have for you,” he said. “They were able to remove Meg’s picture from The Inferno’s systems and took down that bidding site. Outlaw sent them a little present too, a virus that will disable their systems for a while. Not the perfect solution, but it buys a little time. Wire also said he was tracking where the photo originated, so he could have a name for us shortly.”

  “We need to send them a message,” Scratch said. “Something that will make those fuckers think twice about coming after our women again.”

  “Meg’s not mine,” I said, “but I agree that we have to do something. This shit isn’t acceptable.”

  Jackal snorted.

  “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I demanded.

  “Sure she isn’t yours. No offense, Pres, but you’ve gotten closer to Meg than anyone here. You’re the number one person she trusts, and that’s saying something after the hell she’s survived.” Jackal shrugged. “If she’s not yours, then I don’t think she’ll ever belong to anyone.”

  I didn’t like what he was saying, but I couldn’t exactly refute his words either. Meg really wasn’t mine, would never be mine, but I knew he was partially right. If I didn’t claim her, then she might not ever let someone get that close to her again. The woman had a lot of love to give, if she’d just allow some of those walls to come down. It was understandable why she felt the need to protect herself, to keep distance from everyone, but it was no way to live.

  Havoc folded his arms and glared at the table, his muscles tense and his teeth grinding together. I didn’t know what the fuck his problem was, but I’d gotten the biggest fuck you look when he’d stepped into Church. No one else had noticed so I’d let it slide until I could talk to him one on one. It wasn’t like my Sergeant at Arms to do something like that, which meant something happened to piss him the fuck off, and he seemed to blame me for it. Havoc was too valuable to the Devil’s Boneyard to start a fight over some bullshit, so I’d wait and hear him out before I decided if I was going to rip the fucker’s head off for that disrespectful shit.

  “Any other news?” I asked.

  Cowboy lifted a hand. “I know I’m not an official Dixie Reaper anymore, but I help where I can… as long as that help isn’t going to put a target on my wife and kids.”

  “From what we can tell, they’re just after the Devil’s Boneyard women,” I said. “I can’t guarantee they won’t turn to the Reapers if they find out you’re helping us. If you want to go home to protect your woman and kids, then I’d understand.”

  He shrugged and looked at the other Reapers. “I’ll stay, unless I feel my family is in danger.”

  Hawk rubbed the bridge of his nose before pushing off the wall. The Reckless Kings were taking this threat seriously and sent their VP from Tennessee along with two other club members. I’d thought there were more coming, but something seemed to have come up last minute.

  “I think it’s safe to say The Inferno is a pain in all our asses,” Hawk said. “Taking them down will be next to impossible, but if we tackle them one fucking town at a time, then we might make some headway. They don’t have a big foothold in this area yet, but it’s not stopped them from fucking with y’all.”

  “So take care of the issue here, then what?” Bats asked. “The Dixie Reapers haven’t had an issue with them yet. I know we’re family in a sense, but that doesn’t mean we’d have been hit by The Inferno. By being here, we’ve put a target on our club, but no way we were going to sit out while women and kids were threatened.”

  Bats hadn’t been around our club much, but right now I was glad the Reapers had sent him. He’d brought Cowboy, Zipper, and Flicker with him. Again, I’d thought there were others, but for some reason I had a half dozen men missing from the other clubs. I didn’t know what emergency had cropped up, and I hadn’t had time to ask. At the moment, my focus was making sure the women here were safe. After I dealt with this shit with my club, then I’d lend a hand to the others.

  “If we stop them from infiltrating this area,” Hawk said, “then we can handle another area, then another. Reckless Kings has a chapter in nearly every state from the east coast to the west coast. I’ve been told by my President that all the chapters are on board for taking out the trash.”

  I nodded. “So we need to come up with a plan to get rid of these fuckers in a way that will guarantee they don’t darken our doorstep again. They’re pissed we thwarted their plans before. Even though those weren’t official Prospects or patched members, The Inferno is still seeing it as an attack on their club.”

  “They snatched Janessa and were going to kill her,” Irish said, his face flushed in anger. “They didn’t suffer nearly enough.”

  “Agreed,” I said. “They came after us first and we were defending our own. They don’t care, though. The Inferno don’t give a shit about family, and especially don’t care about women. They treat theirs like trash.”

  “How do you know that?” Cowboy asked.

  Rocket stepped forward. “Because I know one of their women. She knows I’m Hades Abyss and doesn’t want to bring trouble to the club, but she’s given me some intel on what happens to women with The Inferno.”

  He gave a nod to Shade and a folder slid down the table. I flipped it open and wished I hadn’t. Hearing what those fuckers did and seeing it were two different things. Picture after picture showed one abused woman after another. Each one tortured in a way that made my stomach turn. There was no way some of them had survived their injuries. I didn’t know if these were club whores, their old ladies, or just random women they’d picked up to play with, but whoever they were, they needed help. I hadn’t left Meg and the others in Colombia, and I knew I wouldn’t sit back and let this stand in my own fucking country, a country I’d signed a contract to protect when I’d joined the Marines. I might not be active duty anymore, but as Meg had said… once a Marine always a Marine. It wasn’t something you just shut off.

  “Jesus,” Hawk muttered as he looked at the pictures.

  “Some are club whores,” Rocket said. “Most are random selections. The ones who don’t end up in the ground are sold to the highest bidder, no questions asked. I know you took down Silva in Colombia, but this is on our own soil.”

  “This shit can’t stand,” I said.
“Hawk, I don’t think going after them one at a time is going to be an option. If the sadistic fuckers are capable of this, and considering their substantial numbers, they’ll just regroup, recruit more members, and be an even bigger threat than before.”

  “I’ll call Beast,” Hawk said, mentioning their President. “Whatever is decided, the Reckless Kings will help any way we can.”

  The VP for Hades Abyss ran a hand through his hair. “We’re with you too, however far this goes, we’re in it for the long haul.”

  “Thanks, Fox,” I said.

  “We have a new chapter,” Fox said. “Based in Mississippi -- small place outside Jackson. I can contact their VP and give them a heads-up. I have a feeling they’ll want in on this, even though their numbers are still fairly small. All of their officers are ex-military. Like you, they took an oath and still plan to uphold it.”

  “I’ll take as many hands on deck with this shit as I can get,” I said. “Contact anyone you can, see who you can get on board for a nationwide attack. If we take them on one chapter at a time, we leave ourselves vulnerable to retaliation. We’ll strike all of them at the same time, not give them a chance to scramble and call in reinforcements. I want these fuckers in the goddamn ground. Hear me?”

  I looked around the room and saw everyone nodding or acknowledging my words in some way. I wasn’t playing with these assholes anymore. No one came after my family. The attack on Janessa was random at first, or so we’d thought. I’d assumed, incorrectly it seems, they went after her a second time because her vehicle was familiar. Now I wondered if they’d known she had a tie to this club or the Reapers and had sought to send a message to us. Now that the others in the club were targeted, I believed that had been phase one of their plan. Retaliation didn’t seem as likely anymore, and if this was retaliation, then they were taking it too fucking far. Maybe the wannabes weren’t acting entirely on their own. I now believed that someone higher up was pulling the strings and setting their little puppets off to create chaos. Even if they were coming back on us for taking out their men, this shit was intolerable. I’d been around too fucking long to take this lying down. No more. Not in my fucking town!

  “We’ll reconvene tomorrow morning, same time. That should give everyone a chance to discuss this shit with their clubs. Anyone in a day’s driving distance who wants to join us, we’ll find room for them.” I banged the gavel. “Now get the fuck out of here.”

  Havoc remained behind and I studied him. I could tell there was something weighing on him, something that had infuriated him. He didn’t say a fucking thing, just glared at me. He might be a big bastard, but I hadn’t held my own as President of the Devil’s Boneyard by my charm and good looks. If I had to, I could knock Havoc on his ass. Might be time I reminded him of that.

  “You going to stare at me or tell me what the fuck is wrong with you?” I asked after another five minutes passed.

  “What you did to Meg was wrong,” he said. “I know you’re my President, and you know I respect you, but that was fucked up, Cinder.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “You fucked her, then made her feel like a damn club whore,” he said. “If you weren’t going to start something real with her, then you should have scratched your itch with someone else.”

  I stood and placed my hands on the table, leaning into his space. Didn’t matter that he was right. No one spoke to me like that. “Let’s get one thing straight, boy. I’m the President of this fucking club, and a damn sight older than you. Unless you want me to kick the shit out of you, you’ll keep a civil tongue in your head when speaking to me. What happened between me and Meg is exactly that… between us. I don’t need you or anyone else telling me how to treat her.”

  “You sure about that?” He stood, then walked out.

  I didn’t know what the hell that last comment was about, but I was going to find out. I left the clubhouse and went home, intending to have a heart-to-heart with Meg. If she was upset and telling everyone else about it, then that shit was going to stop. She needed to talk to me and not my Sergeant at Arms. Or more likely, she’d confided in Jordan, which was about the same thing since that woman never kept shit from Havoc. I knew that Meg had been dealt a rough hand, and I’d gone along with everyone else and babied her, given her the space I thought she needed. Then she’d come to me and I’d taken her to my bed. I’d made it clear, repeatedly that I didn’t do forever, so if she got it in her head that sleeping with me would change my mind, that was on her.

  I stepped into my home, shut off the alarm, and found the women in the living room. All of them except Meg. Even the kids were accounted for, all staring at some cartoon on my sixty-five-inch TV. Not my intended use for it, but as long as they weren’t screaming or tearing shit up I couldn’t complain. Kids weren’t my thing, never would be.

  “Where is she?” I asked, wondering if Meg was still hiding in the bedroom.

  Jordan crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her chin at a stubborn angle. “Not saying.”

  Clarity glanced at Jordan, then gave me a sympathetic look. Always the sweetheart of the group. She had some iron to her when she needed it, but for the most part, Clarity was a little angel. Her sweetness had attracted my VP and won over the hearts of every man in my club.

  “She’s not here, Cinder,” Clarity said.

  “Not. Here.” I looked at each of them. “Where the fuck is she?”

  Since they hadn’t called anyone, I had to assume she’d left of her own accord and hadn’t been snatched from my damn house. How the fuck she’d gotten out when the alarm was set I didn’t understand. No one knew the passcode except me and Havoc. Unless… shit. With the way Havoc was acting, I could see him trying to help Meg out and turning the alarm off. It wasn’t smart, though. There was too much danger out there for her, even inside my own gates.

  “She left after you treated her like trash,” Jordan said. “She’s not on Devil’s Boneyard property anymore. She was off the property before your precious Church even started.”

  I staggered back a step and looked at each of them, seeing the truth of Jordan’s words in each of their faces. Meg had left the compound, knowing how dangerous it was out there. She’d preferred that to staying here with me? I hadn’t meant to hurt her that badly, but I’d wanted to be honest with her. It had seemed like the right thing to do at the time, even if I hadn’t maybe put it as gently as I should have, but now I had to wonder just how badly I’d fucked up.

  “I’ve looked up to you,” Jordan said. “But what you did with Meg was wrong, and you know it. She’s fragile and you used her. If you didn’t intend to keep her, then you should have never touched her.”

  Damn. Jordan and Havoc both saying the same fucking thing to me. I was pissed, but at the same time, I had to admit that they were both right. I’d known from the beginning I couldn’t offer Meg a future, not at my side. I’d taken her anyway. I’d acted selfishly in that moment, and it had hurt a good woman.

  “You’re right,” I said. “I shouldn’t have touched her. I’ll have to look for her. She can’t get very far without any cash. I’ll bring her back and talk to her, make her understand that it was never my intention to hurt her or treat her badly.”

  “Too late,” Josie said. “She’s not in Florida anymore.”

  Not in Florida? What the hell? And then it all made sense. All the missing men from today’s meeting. They weren’t on a sudden errand for their clubs. They were getting Meg out of here, away from the Devil’s Boneyard, and away from me. It hurt, and I couldn’t deny that I was scared as shit that something bad would happen to her. Just because I didn’t plan to marry the woman didn’t mean I wanted her to come to harm, get captured, or even killed.

  “Where?” I asked.

  “None of us will tell you,” Jordan said as she brushed past me. “Not until you get your head out of your ass. When you can admit that Meg means more to you than a quick fuck, then maybe I’ll tell you where she went. D
on’t bother asking the other women. They don’t know anything other than Meg went away and left the state.”

  Jordan started to leave and I reached out to grab her arm, gripping tighter than I’d intended if her surprised cry was any indication. My Sergeant at Arms growled from the doorway and physically removed my hand from his wife before pulling her into his embrace.

  “Havoc, what the fuck?” I asked.

  He placed a hand on her belly and looked her over, and it suddenly made sense, his overprotectiveness, the rage I’d seen simmering just under the surface. The last time Jordan had been pregnant, he’d been in Colombia. He’d missed everything except the last part of her pregnancy, and it seemed he was a bit out of sorts this time around. This wasn’t entirely about the way I’d treated Meg. He’d knocked up Jordan again, which meant he’d be a damn bear to live with until the kid was born. Fucking perfect.

  “Congratulations seem to be in order,” I said.

  “We didn’t want to say anything until the time was right,” Jordan said. “I just found out two days ago.”

  “I wasn’t trying to hurt your wife, Havoc, and you damn well know it,” I said.

  Jordan patted his chest and smiled up at her husband. “He’s been like that with everyone. Poor Jackal gave me a hug when he dropped off Josie and the kids, and I thought Havoc would tear his head off.”

  “Can someone please tell me where Meg is? I need to make sure she’s safe.”

  Jordan shook her head. Havoc glanced at me, then shrugged. “She made it to her destination in one piece without any trouble. That’s as much as I’m saying right now.”

  Fucking fantastic. I should make an example of him, but part of me admired that he was trying to keep Meg safe, even if the asshole was protecting her from me. I let them leave and made myself scarce when the others came for their women. Should have known my VP wouldn’t just leave shit alone. Scratch found me in my office, and he shut the door behind him.