Tonight she had come to collect.
She recognized the tall, broad-shouldered bartender from the last time she’d visited Bunny’s pool hall with Arianne and shoved a fifty-dollar bill across the counter. That night she’d left with Cade and wound up in his bed for the second time. He made her come four times in as many hours and then she sneaked out before daybreak, ashamed of herself for breaking her own rules about one-night stands, but more afraid that if she stayed she’d break them again.
“I’m looking for Bunny. Tell him Dee wants to see him.”
The bartender pocketed the bill without looking up. “He knows you’re here.”
Dawn gestured for Banks and Arianne to join her, but when they reached the counter, the bar phone buzzed and the bartender put out a warning hand.
“One second.” He answered the phone, listened, and then hung up without saying a word. “Leave Jagger’s bitch and the muscle outside.”
Banks moved so fast all she caught was a blur at the corner of her eye, before he grabbed the bartender by the throat and yanked him down on the counter. “Don’t much care for your disrespect, beer boy. Maybe you want to rephrase your request.”
The bartender’s face turned red, then purple, and he flailed and struggled in Banks’s powerful grip.
“He can’t talk.” Dawn made no effort to hide her exasperation. “You’re crushing his windpipe. I’m sure he’ll be more polite if you allow him to breathe.”
Banks huffed and released the bartender, shoving him backward from across the bar. “How ’bout you try it from the top?”
The bartender paled and his hand flew to his throat. “Not my rules. No leather. No muscle.”
“Am I the muscle or are you the muscle?” Arianne grinned at Banks. “Since we’re both wearing leather it’s hard to tell.”
“I’ll go in alone,” Dawn said with a bravado she didn’t feel in the least. Cade was in Whitefish, and for once he wouldn’t be around to swoop in and save the day. Tonight was her night, and although she felt apprehensive, she also felt a tingle of anticipation. This was the world she had run from. Now she was back, and this time no one would push her around.
“We’re here if you need us.” Banks folded his arms. “And I’m watching the door.”
The bartender nodded and she followed him down a narrow hallway to a door guarded by two bald, thick-necked bouncers. They moved to let her pass and Dawn stepped into Bunny’s office, a drab room containing only a metal desk, a small window, and three chairs.
Pasty-faced and balding, with rounded shoulders and a visible paunch, the man sitting behind the desk could have blended into any crowd save for his eyes, cold, hard, and obsidian black.
“You.” Bunny leaned back in his chair and folded his arms behind his head. His two security guards, tall and heavily built, shifted on either side of his chair.
“Me.”
“What do you want?”
Dawn twisted her hands together. “I’m calling in my mark. There’s a video out there that shows me supposedly buying crack from a PI. Jimmy set it up to take my kids away. I want to find the PI, and I want to know who was behind the camera. I got a copy of the video from my lawyer.” She put a hand into her purse. The security guards moved forward as one. Bunny shook his head.
“You don’t have a mark with me. And if you did, you used it up when you brought Jagger’s old lady here and his goons almost slit my throat.”
“You and Arianne made a deal. That had nothing to do with me. I just made the introduction.”
“I wouldn’t have met with her if not for you. Don’t like to get involved in biker business.” He waved a dismissive hand and picked up his pen.
“But … I…” Her throat tightened and she couldn’t say the words out loud. God, she’d been so naive when she was with Jimmy, so goddamn trusting in a world where everyone was ready to stab you in the back.
“You want a favor from me, Dee, you know the price.” He looked up from his desk. “Been a long time since I saw you dance.”
Bile rose in her throat. She couldn’t do this again. She wouldn’t pay for favors with her body even for the slim chance of getting back her girls. This was a line she wouldn’t cross. There had to be another way, something Bunny might want from her … or from the Sinners.
“I’m not Dee anymore. I’m Dawn and I’m a Sinner old lady.” She spun around to show him her cut. “I don’t dance anymore, but I’m sure the value of having a mark with the Sinners would far outweigh any pleasure my dancing might give.”
“A Sinner mark?” Bunny sat back and stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. “I heard you ran away from the Brethren. Didn’t think you’d ever come back into the game.”
“Neither did I, but I discovered a strength I never knew I had.”
“Sinner strength?” He gestured at her cut.
“My strength.”
Bunny smiled. “I got dealings with the Jacks. Don’t want to get on their bad side.”
“That’s nothing compared with what will happen if you get on the Sinners’ bad side. You got a taste of that last year.” She tapped her throat in the same place Bunny sported a scar from Jagger’s knife. “My old man has a protective streak, same as Jagger’s, and he won’t be happy if he finds out you asked me to dance.”
He raised an appreciative eyebrow. “Maybe the Jacks won’t hear about it.”
“Maybe they won’t.”
“Maybe I’ll look at the tape. Sinners can owe me a favor.” He held out his hand, and Dawn gave him the USB stick she’d picked up from her lawyer’s office on her way to the pool hall.
“Maybe we will, or maybe we’ll come back and slit your throat and finish the job we started last time.”
“Christ.” Bunny chuckled. “You’re almost as bad as Jagger’s old lady.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” She turned to leave and the door burst open. Chest heaving, Cade stepped over the bodies of the two guards in the hallway and pointed his gun at Bunny. Gunner, Arianne, and Banks tumbled in after him.
“End of the fucking line.”
Dawn sighed and covered the gun with her hand, pressing it down. “Put that away, honey. We’re done here.”
* * *
“He’s a dead man.” Cade gripped Dawn’s elbow to steer her clear of a drunk on the sidewalk. His body shook with unspent adrenaline and the remnants of the fear and anger that had been pulsing through him since Jagger called to tell him what was going on. Jagger had a sixth sense for when Arianne was doing something he wouldn’t like, and when he’d texted to find out where she was, she told him the truth. The message got passed along. Already at the Conundrum border after dealing with the Demon Spawn scum, Cade had raced to Sticky’s, arriving only minutes too late.
“He’s doing me a favor,” Dawn said. “Why do you want to shoot everyone who makes you angry?”
“I’m a Sinner. That’s what Sinners do.”
“Not always,” she said softly. “That’s not what Arianne does. Or T-Rex. That’s not what the club agreed when Wolf offered an olive branch. And if you’d hurt Bunny, I would never have had a chance to find out who was responsible for that video.”
He winced inwardly as her barb hit home. Every day he held back from going after Mad Dog was a day a piece of him died. That bastard was still on the streets, when by all rights he should be lying in a cold grave. If not for fucking Mad Dog, Dawn wouldn’t have put herself in danger by going to see Bunny. If not for Mad Dog, she wouldn’t be in danger at all.
And she wouldn’t need Cade.
“I told you not to go there.” He tightened his grip on her arm, close to dragging her down the street. Damn. He couldn’t calm down. It was too much … Bunny, the pool hall, all those bastards eyeing her up … the things that could have gone wrong …
“And then you said yes.”
“I didn’t think you were serious.” He growled his frustration. “Or that you would even consider going there without me. And I
was … distracted.” Too agitated to continue the conversation in public, he led her into an alley off the street, and drew in a deep, calming breath, his nose wrinkling at the fetid smell of decay and the cloying scents of piss and stale beer.
“Nothing happened. He refused my mark and asked me to dance. I changed his mind. I didn’t go there alone. I’m not stupid. He knew Arianne and Banks were outside. He wasn’t going to hurt me.” Dawn folded her arms and leaned against the brick wall. “In the end it worked out well. I don’t always need you to rush to my rescue whenever there is a hint of danger.”
“You’re in danger every fucking minute of every fucking day, and I can’t take it anymore.” He thudded his fist against the brick wall. “I got a need to protect you that I don’t even understand. I thought my heart was gonna explode when Jagger called to tell me where you were. Only reason everyone in that pool hall isn’t dead is ’cause I brought Gun with me and he held me back.” He leaned in, resting his forearm beside her head, caging her with his body.
Startled, she looked up, and he almost drowned in the emerald depths of her eyes.
“I know you can protect me,” she said softly. “I don’t doubt that. But I need to stand on my own feet. It felt good to see Bunny. It felt good to tell him I wouldn’t dance. And it felt damn good to come up with a solution that didn’t involve fists or firearms. I want to stand up to Jimmy the way Arianne stood up to Viper, the way I stood up to that guy in the park. I know you’re planning to go after Jimmy after the election, and I want to be part of that.”
His body shook with emotion. “I get that you want to fight your own fight, but some fights you can’t win. My mom never won her fight with my dad. After years of abuse, she finally moved out, but the week after I was sent overseas, she went back to him. In the end he hit her one too many times, and she died from a subdural hematoma. I never confronted him. Never saw him again. He died in jail. I could never understand why she went back.”
Dawn stroked his jaw, her eyes warm with understanding. “Because that kind of abuse twists your mind. It saps your strength and confidence. You feel worthless and incompetent. You believe the demeaning comments. You don’t think you deserve any better. You think no one cares. Every day is a fight to survive. Every night you hate yourself for not running away. You feel humiliated and alone, and sometimes the abuser can seem like a comfort in the storm, especially on the good days.”
“What did he do to you?” he asked, although he knew. He’d lived through it. And it was all he could do not to jump on his bike and shoot Mad Dog dead, or die trying. Just the thought of Dawn suffering the way his mom had suffered stoked a fury inside him so fierce he thought he might explode.
“He beat me.” Her voice was surprisingly calm and even, a startling contrast with the rage that suffused his veins. “He made me strip and dance for his friends. He treated me like a piece of property and shared me around. He kept me isolated and humiliated me. Sometimes after it was really bad, he would apologize and buy me flowers, and then it would be okay until it started again.”
“I wasn’t there to protect my mom in the end, but I’ll damn well be there for you.” Cade clasped her chin between his thumb and forefinger and turned her head roughly, forcing her to look at him. “I’ll do what has to be done to end this. You may want to face him, but we both know you’ll never pull that trigger. And even if you could, I won’t let you bear that burden.”
“Cade … no.”
Overwhelmed by a tumult of emotion, he stepped away. “You may not want my help and protection, but you will have it. Even if it means going against my club so you never have to face Mad Dog again.”
SIXTEEN
I will show no mercy when mercy is not deserved.
SINNER’S TRIBE CREED
Dawn waved to the bus driver as the city bus lurched out from the bus stop and into the street, somehow working its way past a black cat that had bedded down for the night on the asphalt. Exhausted from a late shift and the emotional upheaval of the day, she wanted nothing more than to fall into bed, and she was profoundly grateful to Cade who had arranged to have her bed replaced, and the damage to her home repaired by a small army of junior patch. Maybe tomorrow she would be able to think clearly again and decide just how deeply she wanted to get involved in the Sinner’s Tribe. As if she weren’t drowning already.
She unlocked the front door and then stepped inside, closing and bolting it behind her. But as she reached for the light, her skin prickled in warning.
Too late. Maybe she shouldn’t have made that wish the other night.
“Welcome home, love. Come give your old man a kiss.”
Ice flooded her veins and she turned to see Jimmy sprawled on a chair in her darkened living room. “How did you get in here?”
He gestured for her to approach him, scowling when she didn’t move from the door. With his face half in and half out of shadow, his hoodie bunched around his neck, and his all-black attire, he looked every inch the monster she knew he was.
Run. She should run. But dammit, this was her house. Plus she knew he wouldn’t let her get away that easy. There would be some trap lying outside: Brethren hiding in the bushes, a gun in his hand hidden by his side.
“You know me. I can get in anywhere.” He leered and she recoiled at the double entendre, wishing she could erase every minute she had spent in his bed.
“Get out or I’ll call the police.” She pulled her phone from her pocket with one hand and reached into her purse with the other, feeling for her weapon. She’d loaded the gun after Cade dropped her off at work, never thinking she would have to use it so soon.
Jimmy pushed himself out of the chair and ambled toward her, seemingly unaffected by her threat. “I want my fucking money. Then you’re gonna come home where you belong and I’ll teach you again what it means to be mine.” He struck her with his closed fist, sending her flying sideways across the room. The purse fell from her grasp and she landed on her back beside the coffee table.
Stunned, slivers of pain shooting up her back, her face throbbing, she could only watch as he tugged open his belt and closed the distance between them.
“Did you think I wouldn’t find out you stole from me? Or that you’ve been parading around town in a Sinner cut? Did you think Shelly-Ann wouldn’t tell me? I’ve put up with your shit far too long.” He whipped off his belt with a crack and Dawn’s breath caught in her throat. Jimmy had left her alone for the better part of three years. Why did he want her back now?
“Time for a reminder about how this relationship works. Then you’ll get that money and come home with me so you can be reminded of it every day.”
“I don’t understand. I thought we were done. You have someone new.” Grimacing at the pain, she pushed herself to sitting and searched for her purse.
Jimmy tugged open his fly and scowled. “I’m sure you’ll understand just fine when it’s my dick inside you instead of that fucking Sinner’s dick. Shelly-Ann saw you playing happy families in the park.” His face twisted and spittle bubbled at the corner of his mouth. “I saw you,” he screamed. “I saw him kiss you. I saw his fucking paws all over you. You’re my old lady. My wife. And you’re a fucking whore and a thief.”
Every alarm bell in her body triggered in warning. He was past the point of restraint, past the point of rational thought. The few times he’d been like this she’d barely managed to get out of their apartment alive.
Dawn rolled, her arm outstretched toward her purse, but Jimmy was on her before her fingers caught the handle. He straddled her hips, his weight pinning her to the floor.
“You got two choices, bitch.” He caged her jaw, forcing her mouth open with his thumb as his fingers pressed against her windpipe, cutting off her air and making it impossible to scream. “You can lie nice and quiet and take what I’m gonna give you, or you can put up a little fight and I’ll whip you and fuck you and beat you and fuck you again.”
Dawn’s heart pounded so hard she thought it woul
d crack a rib. How had she ever looked into those cold, dark eyes and seen a savior? How had she ever thought Jimmy cared? She inched her fingers toward her fallen phone, fighting the darkness threatening her vision.
“Tsk. Tsk.” Jimmy released her and snatched the phone from her grasp. “You thinking of calling for help? Do your new Sinner friends know how you earned your keep for the Brethren, little whore? Does your damn Sinner? I’ll bet he’ll lose interest pretty quick when he finds out just what a skanky bitch you really are, when it’s my cum filling your pussy. Maybe we’ll make some more damn brats. He’s not gonna want you all knocked up. I sure didn’t.”
Dawn sucked in a breath of cool, clean air and tried to stop the trembles racking her body. She closed her hand into a fist and remembered the moment she hit Stan and how she’d imagined he was Jimmy.
“No one’s coming to help you, love. Not the police. Not the Sinners. And definitely not that fucking prick who can’t keep his dick out of other people’s business.” He threw her phone against the wall, grinning when it slid to the floor with a sharp crack. “Cheap. Like you.”
“Jimmy. Please. Stop.”
Without hesitation, he shoved up her top. Dawn shivered as the cool air slid over her heated skin. The urge to hit, slap, punch, and fight him away was almost overwhelming, but experience had taught her if she used her hands against him, he would either pin them above her head or bind her wrists, and right now she needed her hands free to get her gun.
“Fuck, I missed these tits.” He gave her breast a vicious squeeze through her satin bra. “Did you know I picked you up off the streets just ’cause you had the nicest tits I’d ever seen? Whore tits.”
Bile rose in her throat as he pawed at her breasts. Her purse lay discarded, open, and within reach. While Jimmy was distracted, she slid her fingers inside, barely daring to breathe until she felt cold steel. When he moved to shove up her bra, she yanked out the gun and held it with two hands, pointing the barrel at Jimmy’s chest.
“Off.”
Jimmy froze and then he smirked. “You playing that game again? You think I don’t know it’s not loaded? You don’t have what it takes. You never did. That’s why you never fit in with the Brethren. And deep down you’ll never shoot me. I’m the man who saved you from the streets, gave you a home, a life, a job, discipline, two sniveling brats, and all the fucking you couldn’t handle.”
The Sinner’s Tribe Motorcycle Club, Books 1-3 Page 54