Dark Limits: Alpha Brotherhood MC

by Evelyn Glass

  “No!” Nicole growled. “No cops! They are not our friends.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “Then what the hell were you implying?” Nicole demanded. “Hasn’t he taught you anything?”

  “I… I really don’t know how to ride yet. But… but in time—”

  “Don’t be cute!” Nicole wheeled her arm back to hit her when Cade took hold of her arm.

  “Hurting her is off limits,” Cade said.

  “Didn’t seem to bother you back at Mona’s,” Nicole spat.

  “That’s your one free pass for being the heiress to the throne or whatever the fuck you think you are,” Cade continued. “No more chances, Nicole.”

  “So you’re just going to let her run to the cops?”

  While that didn’t seem like the worst idea in the world, Dawn tossed her head back and brought her palms to her back. “I was talking about Mona,” Dawn said. “Do we need the cops?”

  Shrinking where she stood, Nicole backed away and flicked Cade off as she headed back to her bike.

  “You got one minute now,” Nicole said. “Make it less if you can.”

  As soon as she was alone with Cade, Dawn sighed and started to explain herself when his firm palm surrounded her mouth.

  “Not another word,” he whispered. “And no cops. Don’t you know how deadly that can be for all of us?”

  Shaking her head under the force of his fingers, Dawn only breathed easily when his hand fell away.

  “Of course,” she started. “Of course you wouldn’t want that heat on your tail. But at the end of the day, maybe it could solve everything for—”

  “For the enemy, Dawn! Not for us.”

  She started to roll her eyes when Cade took hold of her chin and peered hard into her eyes.

  “You really don’t know,” he said. “So much for having your finger on the pulse.”

  Cade started to push her back, and Dawn nearly fell away and into the ground when Cade’s arms surrounded her body, and he pulled her close to his chest.

  “Sorry,” he muttered. “How could you know?”

  Part of her wanted to kick him hard and take off into the night, maybe try her luck when it came to stealing his bike again. But she dragged her fingers down his chest, her eyes coming to rest on his taut thighs as she moaned.

  “I don’t know, Cade,” she confessed. “But maybe… maybe if you just tell me.”

  “Dawn, don’t.”

  He sat her down on a tree stump and tried to brush a strand of hair from her face when Dawn sat up straighter and grabbed his shoulders.

  “I get it, Cade,” she said. “Lots that you wouldn’t want the fuzz to see. But it can’t be as bad as all that.”

  “But it can,” he said. “They used to be on our side. We hoped that would hold out until we could come back.”

  “And… and when you didn’t?” she asked.

  “Our man was called Lomax,” Cade said.

  “Ben?” Dawn asked. “But he’s been retired for—”

  “And now Bauer is on the other side. Along with the rest of the force. Panthers got that trump card locked and loaded. Nicole makes some sense when she says that we can only help ourselves.”

  The fear in his eyes nearly tied her tongue, and Dawn started to back off when she opted for folding her arms around his neck and pressing her lips close to his ear.

  “I can help you, too,” she promised. “When we get back home, I could work behind the scenes. Michael would love a shot at the cops if they’re as corrupt as you say.”

  “No!”

  Cade forced her to her feet, and his fingers pressed down against Dawn’s neck. She stared to wince and plead for release, even as his hands were sweet, when she centered on his stare and felt her lips curling into a smile.

  “Because only you can push me around, right?”

  Cade leered before pulling away, and he turned his back, his fingers pouring through his hair as his shoulders heaved.

  “Because it’s too dangerous,” he said. “And even if I… even if I have to send you away, you can never make that move, Dawn.”

  She started to protest when the roar of a series of engines rolled across the nearest hill, and Dawn started in spite of herself. Her fingers clung to Cade’s arm, but he reached for his knife, the moonlight just hitting the blade, as he hissed for Nicole to back away from the oncoming melee.

  “No deal, Cade,” the girl said. “I’ve been waiting for this for far too long.”

  Abandoning Dawn and rushing to her side, he tried to take hold of the redhead’s arm when she swatted him back with a strength that belied her size. Dawn’s eyes grew wide at the sight of the assorted Alphas dismounting in waves. As they drew their guns, Dawn’s ears registered the click of their triggers, and she leapt into action.

  “Don’t shoot!” she screamed. “It’s one of your own! And he’s with his sister!”

  Stumbling as she ran, Dawn nearly lost her footing and felt her body careening towards the ground when Cade swooped around to collect her in his strong arms, his jaw like steel and his eyes hard as he stared at her.

  “Keep out of this!” he said. “I’ll deal with them.”

  “But can you deal with her?” Dawn asked.

  She pointed a slim finger in Nicole’s direction, and she recognized George and Lenny moving through the throng. Both men’s face seemed to register their surprise at the girl all grown up, but Dawn noted the tenderness in Lenny’s stare as he started to hang his head.

  “What’s that all about?” George asked. “Something you ain’t telling us?”

  Lenny started to speak when Nicole wriggled closer to his side. Dawn watched the girl’s shoulders tense, and even though she couldn’t see her eyes, something almost sweet seemed to pass between the pair when George seized hold of his throat and lifted the smaller man off the ground.

  “What have you got to say?” George demanded. “Or do I have to beat the truth out of you?”

  Lenny’s toes just touched the ground, as Cade rolled his neck and stepped into the breach.

  “Hold the hell up, George,” Cade said. “Let’s just all take a deep breath and—”

  “What do you know about it?” George asked. “You in on it, too?”

  “No, I—”

  “That other bitch along for the ride making you soft? Making you forgot your place and where your loyalties are supposed to lie?”

  With quick skill, Cade disentangled George’s fingers from Lenny’s neck, and as the smaller man sputtered and stumbled backwards, Cade stared George down.

  “You want to say that again?” Cade asked. “Or you want to wise up and take it back?”

  “You’re not in charge any more, Veep,” George said. “Not out here.”

  Dawn saw the other Alphas starting to emerge from the blackness. Two men stayed in the shadows, and they scared her even as she couldn’t see their faces. Maybe because she was unable to decipher their features. But George loomed large as he stepped into the fray.

  “Did you bring her here to pass her around?” George asked. “Might be kind of fun if—”

  “Shut your god-damned mouth, you bastard!”

  Cade landed a hard blow against George’s chin, and as the one of the unknown men tried to suck in a clean breath, Cade started to speak when George extended his leg and tripped Cade where he stood. Dawn felt that his body could absorb the impact and still come up swinging when she saw his fingers fumbling with the knife. Fearing that the tip would make contact with his taut flesh and send his blood spilling onto the dark grass, Dawn leapt into action and pulled him back to her body.

  “Careful,” she started. “I wouldn’t want you to lose you now.”

  But her hold caused him to lose the knife, and George’s eyes glistened at what he thought might prove a fairer fight when Nicole collected the knife and waved it just under George’s sweating face.

  “Maybe he’s not in charge,” Nicole said. “But maybe I should be.”


  The sound of Lenny’s light laughter hit the air, and George smirked when the one of the men that Dawn stepped into the moonlight and snapped his fingers. He was slim and tall with toned arms rippling under a tight t-shirt and tighter jeans. He hardly looked old enough to shave let alone lead the Alphas into battle, but something in his stance caused George to back off. And even as Cade stayed strong, he lowered his head and muttered under his breath.

  “Not trying to step on any toes here,” Cade said. “Here for the powwow is all.”

  “That a fact?” the man-boy asked. “And what is the deal with this one?”

  “This… this is Dawn.”

  Cade folded his arm around her shoulders and dragged her closer to his side. Dawn felt taller so near to him, and she wanted to back his story up, to prove that she was far from the enemy when Cade kneaded his nails into arms. It was an unspoken order, and something that she was not sure that she wanted to follow blindly. But it was his turf. And she was still the outsider, not to be completely trusted.

  At least not just yet.

  “Got plenty of girls ready to play while we plan,” the boy said. “Or did you forget who’s in charge?”

  “Not at all. Reese.”

  Dawn barely stifled a laugh. Was this really the person that was going to save the day and get the Alphas back what they thought was owed to them, what belonged to them? Maybe they would be better off with—

  “Hey!”

  Nicole still held the knife tightly in her fingers, and she moved to meet her brother’s eyes, her lips fixed in a straight line as her gaze stayed like stone.

  “Think you might want to amend that, little brother,” Nicole said. “High time I took my rightful place. And don’t say that you don’t need the help.”

  Reese looked as if he’d seen a ghost come to life, and he tilted his head one way and then the other when his cold laughter invaded the air and he swatted at her leather-clad shoulder like a typical boy dismissing the competition because she was simply of another sex. But what had Reese Whitaker suffered that could rival anything close to what his sister had been through?

  “From you?” Reese said. “You started this.” He sounded even more like a child than he looked, as he took a small step away from her, his smirk intensifying as he circled around her. “Think you should have stayed scared and just let the men handle things.”

  And at the sound of that, Nicole charged forward, knocking her brother to the ground as she held the knife to his throat.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “Nicole!”

  Cade’s cry did nothing to divert the redhead from her intended course of action, and she kept the blade poised as she swiped the air over his face and gritted her teeth. Fearing that he would be caught in the crossfire, such as it was, Dawn kept Cade as close as possible, and she met his eyes when he whirled around to face her.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked.

  “Don’t you think that they should sort this out, Cade?”

  “Not if it kills him. Or her.”

  Shrugging Dawn off, he started to pry the siblings apart when Nicole unexpectedly tossed the knife into the darkness. Cade tried to fall into or at least find the handle of the weapon when Nicole pulled on Reese’s spiky hair. The boy cried out in pain, and Nicole either didn’t hear or didn’t care as she poked her fingers into her brother’s eyes. Reese seemed blinded for a moment, and Nicole seized the chance to knee his ribs and keep him confined under her thighs. In another life, Dawn might have laughed. Just a brother and sister falling into old habits instead of trying to talk it out. However, the old wounds cut too deep.

  “Don’t try to put me in my place,” Nicole said. “This is as much mine as it yours.”

  “Pop sure didn’t think so,” Reese said. Nicole seethed, and again Cade tried to intervene when Dawn gripped his hand.

  “Let her do this,” Dawn whispered.

  “Dawn you don’t know what you’re—”

  “Some Veep. Like totally pussy whipped!”

  Scanning the darkness, Dawn just made out a lean figure pulling on a joint before flicking the flaming tip into the grass. Someone she didn’t recognize. Someone that Michael might.

  Someone that Cade did.

  His hand left hers and curled into a fist. Dawn could feel him on the attack when Nicole’s shrieks held him place as the girl slapped her brother hard.

  “Because he was ashamed of me.”

  “And what do you think I am right now?” Reese said.

  The Alphas started to step into the light when Cade lifted his palm into the air and narrowed his eyes.

  “My word still counts,” he grumbled. “And you will hold your fire and let them settle this. In the family.”

  Dawn scanned the crowd for Lenny, but now she couldn’t make him out among the throng. He could easily be hidden behind one or more of the bigger men, and Cade’s word seemed like it was about to bear little to no weight when he stood taller and jutted his chin forward.

  “I said no one move!” Cade said. “You want to take me on?”

  Even as she felt his muscles, Dawn had to wonder if he was crazy or brave or something that she would never be able to define. It would only take a second for the other Alphas to envelop him and tear him apart. And if she clung to him hard enough, Dawn felt certain that she’d lose her own life or worse in the commotion. Yet, no one made another move when Nicole hissed sharply.

  “I think you should just hold the fuck still!”

  Nicole growled like a wild animal and started to beat her brother about the head. Reese endured the blows for all of a second before suddenly leaping to attention and pushing his hands into her shoulders. Reese seemed to gain the upper hand as he drove her into the ground, and Nicole whimpered lightly as her brother’s face began to soften.

  “Know you’ve been through hell and all,” he said. “And we’ll get you your justice or whatever if you just listen to me.”

  “Because you’ve done such a fucking bang up job so far?”

  Reese started to answer when she crushed her heel between his legs, and the so-called boss winced as he fell back and worked overtime to catch his breath.

  “Think you still know everything about everything, Dawn?” Cade asked. Dawn had no answer as he helped Reese to his wobbly legs, and he smoothed the dirt from the boy’s back. Nicole tumbled into the trees. She disappeared for all of a second before returning with the knife in hand and a look to kill crossing her pale face.

  “You want to see the burns?” Nicole asked. “What they really did to me? Maybe that would make you make a man’s move instead of just hiding out like a little bitch?”

  “Little… you can’t talk to me like that!”

  Reese wriggled away from Cade and pulled on his sister’s auburn locks. Nicole screamed and swiped at the chest that kept curving away from the blade when Cade got between them again and barked for them both to retreat to their mutual corners.

  “You’re not in charge!” Reese reminded him.

  “And you’re not one of us,” Nicole chimed in. “Not really and—”

  “Well look at that,” Cade said. “The kids can finally agree on something.” He started back to Dawn’s side, and she nearly had her hand in his when George caught Reese’s ear.

  “Power play, Boss,” George said. “Probably wants to pit you two against each other so he can reap the spoils.”

  Dawn’s blood boiled as she charged forward and slapped his surprised face, hard. George looked like he had never felt a blow before, and Dawn couldn’t help but smile at the feel of her own power. Part of her wanted Cade to look to her with pride in his eyes. Wasn’t an old lady, his old lady supposed to know how to old her own? Cade’s stare stayed blank, but Dawn rode the rush forward and got right in George’s face “You really are as dumb as you look,” Dawn spat.

  The bearded man rubbed his cheek and grimaced. She was ready to make the move again when George lunged forward and shoved her back to Cade.


  “Keep her quiet or I’ll pass her around and think nothing of it!” George threatened.

  “Careful,” Cade said. “You shouldn’t offer what isn’t yours.”

  George appeared ready to charge again when Nicole ducked her head like a bull and rammed her brother backwards. Reese’s limbs flailed as Nicole fell on top of him and started to strike blow after blow into his chest and head, as she rattled off all the ways that she had been hurt, lifting up the leather vest and revealing her chest to put the point on it.