“Yeah, so this is a bit more complicated than I thought…”
“No shit, Pres.” Tate pushed on the edge of the long table with his feet, leaning backward in his chair until the legs rose up in the air. “Is it ever simple when rich broads are in the picture?”
“True.”
“Well, now that we know the lay of the land, just let me know who I have to shoot, maim, or kill and we’ll be golden.”
“So let me get this straight. You want us to take on the entire Italian mafia. That’s almost as dumb as my sticking my fucking nose where it didn’t belong in the first place.”
Cole added, “And your hand…And your dick.”
“Shut it, smartass.” Silas slouched back in his chair, wondering what Sabrina was up to in her guest room at the back of the clubhouse right now. He had no intention of letting her stay in his room, even if his beast protested like a five-year-old after a candy binge. There was distraction, and then there was getting too attached to let go. Keeping her addictive smell on his things twenty-four seven would classify as the latter. It would end up overtaking his senses and consuming him. He didn’t need that right now.
Clearing his throat, he got back to business. “Anyone else have anything to add? Speak now or…you know the damn drill. And I need a few drinks so I can sort through this mess.”
He glanced around the table at Cole, Tate, and Axe. Dean, the prospect, was out there tending bar while the twisted claws pulled their weight by helping to clean out debris from the explosion. There was a lot left to do to make the clubhouse feel home again—if that could happen at all right now.
Tate said he’d be right back and headed to the bar, returning a few minutes later with two bottles of whiskey and an envelope. He passed Silas the envelope and one of the bottles. “Here you go.”
“Thanks. What the fuck’s in the envelope?”
“No idea. Dean said someone dropped this off while we were gone. Apparently we had an interesting visitor.”
“Does our visitor have a name?” Silas’s eyebrows narrowed. He frowned, turning the clean but creased envelope over in his hands. He didn’t recognize the elegant, cursive writing on it.
“Well, it was mostly just a hand, Pres. Some guy drove up in a limo and rolled down his window enough to stick out a meaty paw and drop the envelope out the side. One of the officers was out working on his ride when he noticed it. By the time he snatched up the message, the limo was already rolling out. So no, not enough interaction to grab a who, what, where, when, or why.”
“Fuck,” Silas muttered, shaking his head as he ripped it open.
He read it once, then another time. Yep. They were all royally fucked. Silas rubbed the side of his head with a long exhale. Some days he just wanted to be somewhere else. This was one of those days.
“Well?” Axe leaned forward and held out his hand for the letter.
Silas passed it over without a word. He took a few long swigs of booze, slammed down the bottle, then he leaned back in his seat with steepled fingers. “Shit’s about to go down. We need backup. Cole, start rounding up the other charters. See if anyone’s free and if they can make it here before tomorrow night.”
“Sure thing,” Cole replied without even knowing what was going on.
For a split second, Silas’s chest got tight at the idea that he had such a loyal, badass vice president. He followed orders first and asked questions later. That type of loyalty was hard to come by, and valuable at times like this when improvisation was going to be needed.
“Thanks, bro.”
By now the letter was making the rounds. Tate stared at it as if the piece of paper would explode in his hands. It was an invitation to a meeting with the padrino, Sabrina’s father, in two days. He was out of the country on business but wanted to discuss their mutual interests and threats to future dealings. It was strange at best. The worst case scenario was grim.
“So we’ll get going on this thing, Cole?”
The invite was only for Silas and his VP, but he sure as shit wasn’t leaving anything open-ended. He had no doubt that someone as powerful as the Italian padrino would leave anything to chance when it came to either business dealings or the possible abduction of his daughter. Silas was anticipating the big guns. So it wouldn’t hurt for the Beartooth Brotherhood to bring out some secret reinforcement of their own so if shit went south, they had more guns watching their six.
“Yeah, give me two hours and I’ll have a list. I’ll have Jenny pull up our weapon inventory to see if we have any shipments that haven’t gone out yet that we can use in a pinch.”
“Before you go, let’s talk options.”
“Sure. What are you thinking?”
“First, there’s a chance the padrino had nothing to do with the two kidnapping attempts on Sabrina or on giving the order to the panthers to bomb the clubhouse. If that’s the case, we can show him we’re actually allies against whoever’s behind it…assuming he’ll give us the chance to tell him we were protecting her.”
“Assuming he’ll let us talk at all,” Axe said.
“Agreed. The other possibility is he ordered it all, and this invite is to get us out of the way so he can continue whatever he was up to. It doesn’t make sense to me, but it’s possible.”
Tate put the letter on the table and leaned forward. “And then there’s the bugs planted at his daughter’s place. If he knew about them, then first, he’s a sick fuck for listening in on his own kin like that, but more important than that is he knows someone went there to grab her, and that you stopped them, Silas.”
That was fucked up. It also meant he heard Silas go all grizzly on the men, and that he did the nasty with Sabrina. “Let’s just hope he had nothing to do with the place being wired.”
Cole rapped on the table with his knuckles. “Whatever goes down, we’ll be ready.” He got up, gave a mock salute and left the room.
“Don’t have to tell that fucker anything twice, do you?” Tate noted.
Now all that was missing was a little more intel. Silas mentally cringed at what he was about to do but knew the call had to be made at some point. It was only a matter of time, and they needed to clear the air without hitting the padrino’s radar. Otherwise tension would make business go south in less than two seconds. He spun his burner phone on the table, rehearsing what he’d say next. Flipping it open, he hit the speed dial and pressed the device to his ear.
“I was wondered when you would call,” Mr. Giovanni began. “It is rather important that we have a conversation, Mr. Corrigan.”
“Yes. That’s why I phoned.”
“You have my fiancé. I’m keen to get her back here with me.”
Interesting. So Giovanni knew. The question was whether he found out on his own or from another source. Maybe he was the one who planted those bugs at Sabrina’s place.
“I’m simply keeping her safe.”
“I don’t play nice when my things are stolen, you understand?”
“We didn’t kidnap her, if that’s what you’re suggesting. Look, this is a misunderstanding—” Silas brought his voice and his tone down a notch. There was no point having a full-scale verbal war.
“I don’t see it that way,” Giovanni blurted out. “Neither does our mutual friend, the padrino. He sees our current predicament as very black and white. You have what’s mine. Your best next move would be to give it back.”
“Hold on a second.”
“It’s late, and I have someplace to be tomorrow. Get her back here before I return in twenty-four hours.”
“I’m not good with demands.”
“Well, you’d better start getting good with mine, Corrigan, or next time I’ll take out every last one of you. Don’t think I can’t pull together the resources to have a few pounds of C-4 strapped to a club member, instead of that minor light show outside your place last night.”
The fucker was admitting it now.
“You son of a bitch!” Silas went off, releasing the rage that chan
neled through his being until he was shaking with it. “You’re the one who fucked with us?”
“A little tip, Corrigan. Next time, don’t shit where you eat next.” There was a chilly burst of laughter across the line. “You bring my fiancée when and where I tell you to, and I won’t retaliate any further. Just remember that the Beartooth Brotherhood isn’t the only gunrunning charter in the area. You aren’t crucial to my operation. No one is irreplaceable. Do you see where I’m going with this, or would you like me to demonstrate?”
Silas managed to hold onto his temper long enough for the line to go dead.
He flung the cell phone at the wall, watching the pieces shatter across the room.
“I take it he wasn’t offering us a free subscription to Playboy.”
Silas snorted at the poorly timed joke, narrowing his eyes at Tate. He spread both palms out over the worn, scarred table, looking around the place he’d called home since he was five and could maneuver into the big chair at the head of the table. Would he really see his dream—his family—attacked, beaten down and killed over something so stupid as a good piece of ass?
“I need to have a talk to Sabrina. You guys can start prepping everyone.”
“I’ll call the lockdown.” Axe fiddled with his pocket knife and sniffed, leaning forward in his seat. “Any other protocol you want us to observe while you’re otherwise engaged?”
“Yeah, make damn sure my mother stays out of my way. I don’t want to hear her shit right now.”
“I’ve got that covered,” Tate raised his hand and chuckled. “She’s a sucker for my dick.”
Silas’s eyebrows raised nearly to his hairline, but he kept his comments to himself. Cindy was a grown woman. If she wanted to risk having casual sex with a twisted son of a bitch like Tate, that was her own damn choice. He just didn’t want to know about it. Ever. “Don’t mention that again or you and I are gonna have a problem.”
“You got it, boss man.”
23
Sabrina
Sabrina was sure something was up. The whole clubhouse was humming with tension. Everyone was busy and so much less rowdy than her first night there. All that edginess had a life of its own around the place. They were bracing for something to come to them. She intimately knew that feeling, like waiting for the boogeyman to appear from out of nowhere.
I suppose being bombed last night could do it.
Unsure what she could do about it, she let it go, opting to curl up on the edge of the bed on top of the covers and relax. For all the action and lack of sleep in the last almost thirty hours, she should have been dead tired. So far, this recent clubhouse stay consisted of being put to hide out in a random room, and minimal interaction with anyone in the MC, except for Jenny. It would have been great to get some rest and forget everything going on, at least for a couple hours.
That’s not gonna happen.
This situation was a disaster waiting for her to let down her guard long enough to send her reeling. No one would say a word to her. Anytime she asked Jenny, the woman would avert her eyes and back away as if Sabrina had the plague. She was probably feeding off the president’s vibes. Silas wasn’t exactly thrilled with her at the moment, but in a sense, the feeling was mutual. But then again, how would any two people feel after angry sex? Angry, unprotected sex which was mind-blowing as hell and temporarily suspended any resentment between them, at least until they came crashing back down to reality. On the other side of a session like that, she soon remembered that the man—who also could turn into a bear at will—was involved in business with her father. She couldn’t overlook either fact for very long, no matter how much he’d rocked her world in the shower.
“Yeah, hot wild sex with a guy-slash-bear I can’t be with…because that totally fits into this Bizarro world of mine,” Sabrina scoffed, grabbing a pillow and hugging it to her chest. “Not that I’d even want that in the first place.”
The truth was that being embroiled in secrets, crime and violence was in her blood. She was not new to the shady business dealings of underground gangs or illegal activities, so accepting Silas as a lawbreaker was a whole hell of a lot easier than accepting that he turned into a beast at will. She hadn’t probed for any other specifics about what he was, mainly because they’d been a little busy in the shower together, and since then he had given her the silent treatment. Jenny had shown her the guest room, talked pleasantries, and here she was now holed up in a tower like a movie princess waiting for her prince to get a wake-up call.
Screw this.
Screw all of this!
Sabrina bolted up from the bed and walked over toward the door. No matter what anyone else in the MC thought, she was still going to live her life—even in captivity. If they were going to judge her for bringing hellfire to their parade, she could take the damnation much better with some alcohol in her system. She turned the doorknob and was halfway through the door when she bumped into a familiar chest steamrolling her backward into the room.
“We need to talk.” Silas didn’t waste any time stepping into the room and slamming the door behind them.
“Do I get to have an opinion for this talk, or will it be one-sided again?” She crossed her arms over her stomach and licked her lips, eyes narrowed and ready for battle. “We can’t keep screwing each other’s brains out every time there’s a problem. That doesn’t solve anything.”
“We can’t keep screwing each other period, doll, but that doesn’t mean it ain’t gonna happen again.”
Sabrina blinked, knowing full well that conclusion was inevitable, and was really hoping to get one or two more good ones in the books before she retired for the rest of her life in a sexless marriage with Lorenzo Giovanni. All roads led to the one outcome she hated, but there was no getting out of it.
I might as well admit it.
My fate is sealed.
Maybe if she played the part of the dutiful wife, he’d be more than happy to let her keep her job at the law office.
“Sabrina? Are you still here with me? Too busy fantasizing about me deep inside you, or all the hot sex you’ll be missing when you’re gone?”
She blinked and forced herself back into the conversation. “Wait, did you say gone? As in, out of the clubhouse and walking on my own in daylight kind of gone?”
“More like tied to another guy until kingdom come kind of gone.” Silas leaned against the wall and ran a hand through his hair. Was it her imagination or did he look a little upset about her leaving? “Your fiancé made some nasty threats. He wants you back before a meeting with your father in two days. I don’t exactly want him to make good on his bullshit. So you’re going with us.”
“Great. Back to being chattel again. How lovely.” Now she really needed that drink. Or a few. “Why aren’t you acting as if I should know something about this meeting? Where’s your usual suspicion?”
“I left it back in your bathroom with the goon squad.”
Sabrina cocked her head and studied his vacant, slightly stressed expression. “So that’s it?”
“Just about. We’re all leaving in less than twenty-four hours, at which point you’ll no longer be my problem. The way I see it, there’s no sense not trusting you, when you belong to business people I have to trust in order to do my job.”
“I don’t belong to anyone, Silas. I’m a person, not a thing.”
“Think again, because if you stop for a second, you’d realize you want me to own you. In fact, I already do, where it counts.”
“You own me?”
“Where it counts, yes.”
“And where’s that?”
He stepped forward and ducked his head to her ear, tapping lightly on her temple. “In there,” he whispered. “Admit it. When you close your eyes and picture the life you really want, it’s me you see protecting you.” He lightly slid the back of his hand down her cheek and neck, across her shoulder, and down her arm. “And there, when you think about who you want touching you all over.” His hand moved around he
r waist to her back, pulling her into his chest until she could feel his hardness against her belly. “And here, when you imagine what it feels like for a real man to swallow you whole. Face it, Sabrina. I. Own. You.”
That spiel left her breathless and longing to agree with him, but she had to stop herself. Only a minute ago he was turning her over, and now he was telling her he’d own her mind, soul and body for the rest of her life?
She forced the logic to re-enter her brain. “When are you ever going to realize that women aren’t playthings or commodities for you to collect and trade?”
“Funny, you didn’t have an issue with it a little while ago in your shower. I’m sure you’ll remember when you beg this bad boy to fuck you again, sweet cheeks. It is what it is. Accept it.”
She didn’t want to admit it, but her blood went hot from the tips of her fingers to her toes. “Why are you here, Silas?” she breathed out, taking a shaky step back.
“Here.” He dug through his pockets and pulled out her phone, holding it out towards her. “You can have this back. Kind of pointless to hold onto it when the only people you could tell already know you’re here.”
She took it without a word, then she took another step back. “Thank you.”
“Sure.” He eyed her up and down. “Well, that’s it.” Silas made to leave the room and for obvious reasons, she didn’t want to see him go—and hated to admit it to herself.
“Wait. Silas?”
He turned and shoved his hands in his pockets. “What?”
“I was born into the lifestyle. I get it, but you don’t have to do it this way…what I mean is, there are better ways to run an MC than working anywhere near my father.”
His eyes narrowed. “What are you getting at, Sabrina?”
“I have an idea.”
24
Outlaw MC Bear Page 12