Dawn curled her hand around the edge of her cut. Aside from the look that always filled her with dread, something was off with Jimmy tonight. Unusually confident, overly cocky, he sat like a king with his supporters huddled around him, as if he fully expected to win the upcoming election, and he was here just putting in time.
Sweat trickled down her back. If he won the election, she would have to take the girls and leave town despite the risk of the police tracking her down. He’d come for her, and nobody, police or Sinners, would be able to stop him.
No. Dawn put the brakes on the fear train and rallied herself. She was a Sinner. She wasn’t alone. She had a plan to deal with the video tape of the fake drug deal and regain custody of her children. No more running away.
By contrast, Shelly-Ann was doing a lot of running away. Dawn didn’t know which of the Brethren bikers had invited her ex sister-in-law, but for the first time ever she was delighted to see her. Unfortunately, Shelly-Ann clearly wasn’t feeling the love, or maybe she sensed Dawn wanted to speak to her. Whatever the reason, whenever Dawn tried to corner her, she managed to slip away.
“You still worried about Cade?” Arianne opened six beers in rapid succession and placed them on Dawn’s tray.
Dawn shook off her morbid thoughts. “He hasn’t returned my messages, and when I asked Jagger if he knew where he was, he said it was Sinner business. I know this isn’t real, but I’m wearing a cut, and Cade is…”
“Your old man.” Arianne gave her a soft smile. “Yes, he is. And you deserve to know. I’ll talk to Jagger as soon as he’s done talking to Wolf.”
Dawn finished serving the drinks on her tray, casting the odd surreptitious glance at Jagger’s table. For the most part, Sinners and Brethren sat with their own, but here and there Sinners and Brethren mixed, and so far no one had been shot, stabbed, or hit over the head with a bottle.
After dropping off her tray with Arianne, she headed to the restroom. Pushing open the door, she was so distracted by memories of her heated encounter with Cade by the sink, that she almost walked past Shelly-Ann drying her hands.
“Shelly-Ann. I’ve been wanting to speak to you all night.”
“This isn’t a good time. Jimmy’s waiting for me. Maybe later.”
Dawn stepped in front of the door and turned the lock. “How about now? We never really get a chance to talk and we might get distracted outside.”
“Really, I gotta go.” Shelly-Ann gestured to the door.
“Not until I say my piece.” Dawn folded her arms and leaned against the door. “All this time, I’ve been trying to find a way to get my girls back, and you held the key.”
Shelly-Ann gave her a puzzled frown. “What are you talking about?”
“You took the video of the setup. You gave the drugs to the investigator. My girls were taken away because of you. I would never have known but you’re still using the same stickers on your quarters.” At least she thought the bags held about twenty-five dollars worth of coke. She’d never made it close enough to the box in Shelly-Ann’s living room to tell.
Relief flickered across Shelly-Ann’s face so quickly Dawn wondered if she’d seen it. And then Shelly-Ann’s face twisted in a sneer. “So what? Who’s gonna know? You think I’m gonna testify that I helped Jimmy set you up? You saw what happened to that PI. Jimmy doesn’t give a damn that I’m his sister. He’ll kill me. He almost killed me when he found out his money was—”
She cut herself off with a sharp breath and leaned right up in Dawn’s face. “Give it up. Stop fighting, ’cause you’re not gonna win. Now get the hell out of my way.”
But Dawn wasn’t about to move. Not until she had the whole story. “Is that the money he’s after? Why does he think I have it?”
“Because I told him you had it.” Shelly-Ann’s voice rose in pitch. “I had to do something. I didn’t know that money he left with me wasn’t all his, so I started dipping into it. Once I started, it was hard to stop. I never thought he’d hurt me. He never hurt me before. And there was so much. Bags and bags of the stuff. I didn’t think he’d miss a few thousand here or there. But then I decided to treat my friends to a weekend in Vegas, and we had some bad luck at the tables.”
“You gambled with Jimmy’s money? Are you insane?” She would have felt sorry for Shelly-Ann if she hadn’t fingered Dawn as the thief.
“I made a mistake, okay? And I needed to make it good so I leaned on you, and I expanded my drug distribution, got a line into some political big wigs. I figured it wouldn’t take too long to make it up, but then the Sinners started putting heat on the Jacks, and Jimmy came for his money. Viper’s money. He said Viper had helped him sell a few crates of guns he’d stolen from the Brethren and they’d split the proceeds.”
“Oh God, Shelly-Ann. Viper’s money.” Now, she did feel sorry for her ex sister-in-law. Once Viper found out what had happened—and he would—he would show her no mercy.
“Jimmy went fucking crazy.” Shelly-Ann dabbed at her eyes with the sleeve of her fancy jacket. “He beat me in front of the girls. He was gonna kill me. I had to tell him something. So I showed him my busted door and told him how you and the Sinners came and took it.”
“How could you?” Dawn’s voice echoed in the small room. “You took my children away. You put us at risk. You set Jimmy on me. He destroyed my house and almost killed me.”
“How could I?” Shelly-Ann shouted. “This is the world we live in. It’s not nice. It’s not safe. It’s not all flowers and sunshine. There are no happy families. The world breaks you when you’re a kid and then you gotta deal with it the rest of your fucking life. You think Jimmy and I had it good? Our mom died of a fucking overdose and our dad drank himself to death after using us as punching bags and sex toys for a couple of years. We were bounced around from foster home to foster home because Jimmy wasn’t right in the head and he’d do scary shit like kill the family pets or try to suffocate babies. We were beaten, starved, and abused. No one gave a damn. So we learned to do what it took to survive. And that’s what I did when Jimmy came for the money. I survived. And if you don’t know how to do the same, then you deserve whatever Jimmy’s got coming for you.” She grabbed Dawn by the shoulders and shoved her to the side. “Now get out my damn way.”
“Don’t touch me.” Dawn’s hand curled into a fist and she punched Shelly-Ann. Not a tentative blow, like she’d given Stan, but a real-honest-to-goodness-wind-up-and-swing-full-force punch that sent Shelly-Ann to the floor. “That’s for me and my girls. And you will testify about the setup, because if you don’t, whatever Jimmy was going to do to you will be nothing compared to what I will do. No one fucks with me or my girls.”
Someone thudded on the door. She half expected it to be Banks, but when she heard Cade’s voice, her heart warmed.
“You okay in there, babe?”
“Yeah.” She stepped over Shelly-Ann lying stunned on the floor. “I got this.”
* * *
“Fucking hell.” Cade moved to the side as Shelly-Ann pushed her way past him in the hallway, her face swollen and red and her eye half shut. “You do that?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Proud of you, sweetheart.” He gave her a hug and Dawn laughed.
“You didn’t even ask why.”
“Didn’t have to. Knowing how you feel about violence, I figure she must have deserved it.”
“She did.”
While Dawn told him about her altercation with Shelly-Ann, Cade discretely gestured to T-Rex and the prospect to follow Shelly-Ann. Yeah, his girl had this, but he wanted to make sure it didn’t come back on her in any way.
“I thought you weren’t coming,” she said as he led her to the dance floor. Jagger caught his eye and frowned, but Cade didn’t give a damn if he provoked Mad Dog. In fact, he hoped Mad Dog started a fight so he would have an excuse to off the bastard tonight, instead of hunting him down tomorrow.
“Got a lead on a coupla guys who were in the van with Mad Dog. I know how Banks
doesn’t like blood spilled on his floors, so Zane, Gun, and I took a little side trip.” He tensed, worried about her reaction, but Dawn just laughed.
“I thought Mad Dog’s group of supporters was looking a little thin.”
“Five down. One to go.” He held up his hands. “But I washed up before coming here.”
“That’s sweet in a fucked-up-violent-biker-gets-revenge kinda way.” She turned to face him and Cade rumbled his approval. God, she looked hot. Tight black dress showing way too much cleavage. High heels, totally inappropriate for waiting tables. Little white apron. Her beautiful hair flowing over her cut in a golden wave … Hell, he knew what every biker in the bar was thinking and he wanted to kill them all.
Mine.
They reached the small dance floor at the back of the bar and her gaze fixed on him as if he were her anchor in the storm. He wanted so badly to take her away—shelter her from this world—he could almost taste it. But another part of him, impressed at how she’d handled herself, wanted more.
“I’m a bad girlfriend…” Dawn mouthed the words to the song as she laced her hands around his neck, her body swaying to the beat.
“But you’re a damn fine old lady, and I’ll prove it to you when I have you alone and in my bed.” Unable to stop himself, Cade slid his hand up her thigh beneath her dress, his finger tracing along the edge of her stocking.
“Later,” she whispered.
Desire shot through his veins with violent intensity, and a wave of possessiveness crashed over him so hard he could barely breathe. “Banks got an office here?”
She laughed and tilted her head into his palm. “No way would he give it up. He heard what you did at Riders.”
“That was a good night.”
“The best.”
Cade bent down to kiss her, frowning when she tensed and leaned away. He followed her gaze to Mad Dog, standing in the corner, his face a mask of rage. And although he knew it would only inflame the situation, he pulled her close and covered her mouth with his—a full-on, one-hand-in-her-hair, one-hand-on-her-ass, totally possessive kiss that was as much a statement for her as it was for Mad Dog.
Take that you fucking bastard.
“Let’s get outta here, babe. I can’t wait to get you home.”
* * *
Jimmy followed them through the bar after the dance, gaining on them as they neared the door. Dawn tried not to look, but she couldn’t help herself. She wouldn’t put it past him to shoot them in the back. She couldn’t understand why Cade didn’t look, but he kept walking with the same even, measured steps, his arm around her, his free hand nowhere near his holster where it needed to be.
“Cade…”
“Shhh.”
“Mad Dog.”
“I know.”
The door swung open when they were ten feet away and the only thing that kept her from running into the relative safety of the street was Deputy Sheriff Doug Benson and the five policemen behind him.
“Fuck,” Cade muttered. “What’s he doing here?”
“I don’t know.”
“Doug?” She took a step toward him, but he looked away. “What’s going on?”
“We’re looking for Jimmy ‘Mad Dog’ Sanchez,” Doug said in a voice loud enough to be heard over the music. “I have a warrant for his arrest.”
“Doug.” Dawn grabbed his sleeve. “What are you doing? I said I didn’t want to go ahead with this.”
“Someone has to protect you since you won’t protect yourself.” Doug pulled his hand away.
“It’s a setup,” Jimmy shouted as one of the police officers snapped the handcuffs around his wrist. “The whole party was a set up to get me arrested.”
The music stopped and the bar fell into silence.
“Fuck. We trusted you.” Wolf glared at Jagger. “We came here in good faith and what do you do? You set us up and tipped off the cops to arrest one of our brothers.” He wasn’t really angry. Dawn could see it in the way his lips twitched at the corners. With Jimmy in jail, he had no challenger in the election. But he had to publicly show support for his brother, so he was doing the minimum to save face.
“Nothing to do with us.” Jagger held up his hands in mock defense. “You got a brother wanted by the cops, he should know better than to show his face in town.”
“Fucking bitch,” Jimmy screamed at Dawn as the police dragged him to the door. “I know you did this. You set me up. You think you’re so tough wearing that cut? You think they’re gonna be able to hold me? Not with the friends I’ve got. You don’t even understand what you’ve unleashed. I’m coming for you. I’m coming and you’re gonna suffer like you never suffered before.”
TWENTY-THREE
When there is nothing to lose, there is nothing to fear.
SINNER’S TRIBE CREED
Cade threw himself into the spare chair in the prospect’s makeshift IT office and kicked the door shut. They had set the prospect up in an unused room at the back of the clubhouse, and Cade had authorized the purchase of what looked to be way too much computer equipment. So far nothing much had come of the investment except some fancy Sinner’s Tribe screensavers and new phones for all the brothers. But then, they hadn’t really given the prospect an opportunity to prove his worth. Maybe now that the situation with the Brethren was resolved …
He and Jagger had spent the morning on the phone with Wolf. With Mad Dog in jail and the election only one day away, Wolf had the presidency all but wrapped up, and he’d called to discuss the details of the patch-over.
A patch-over Cade still didn’t want. Yeah, they could use the extra bodies, but the Sinners were still the dominant club in the state, and now that they knew how the Jacks were growing their numbers, they were in a position to take the Jacks down hard. So why did they need to put the Sinner patch on a bunch of bastards who had not only challenged Sinner dominance, but also turned a blind eye to Dawn’s suffering?
“Bad day?” The prospect pounded on his keyboard, his back to Cade. He wore a red T-shirt that said AMORAL INDIVIDUALISM in white letters across the back. Cade didn’t know what the hell amoral individualism was, but it sounded smart.
“You could say that.”
“You look like shit.”
He probably did. After the party, he’d taken Dawn home and made love to her all night long, showing her just how much he admired her courage and even more how much he liked watching her dance. But after she fell asleep, and the first rays of morning light filtered through the curtains, he lay in bed and stared at her cut, neatly folded on the dresser. Benson’s actions had pushed them into an uncertain future. With Mad Dog in jail, she no longer needed the cut, and he didn’t know what he would do if she tried to give it back.
“Got something for you to do.” He handed the prospect a piece of paper. “Man named Lou. Lived in Seattle about ten years ago. Connected to a family named Delgado. I want to know where he lives now, and I want to know everything about him.”
“Consider him found.”
“Keep it quiet. Just between you and me.” Although when the time came, he wouldn’t have any trouble rounding up a few brothers to pay Dawn’s uncle a visit. Maybe he’d bring the prospect along to toughen him up. And of course Dax, so they could have a little fun.
The prospect turned away and tapped on his keyboard. “I’ve been waiting for a job like this. When I first started hanging around the club, I told everyone I’m about brains not brawn. I can hurt people worse with my computer than you can with your fists. I can wipe out bank accounts, freeze credit cards, hack into secure computers and steal information. I can erase your criminal record or give you a rap sheet a mile long.”
“If you could really do that, you’d have the Feds after your ass so bad…”
“They offered me a job.” The prospect hit a button and the printer lit up. “I coulda been wearing a suit, working for the man, taking home six figures and driving a nice shiny BMW. Instead I joined an underground hacker group, learned some new skil
ls, and put my education to good use.”
“Why?”
“I got a mission. Justice and revenge. I’m gonna destroy the people who destroyed my family. But first I’m gonna make them suffer.”
Cade folded his hands behind his head. “And here I was worried about you. Now you’re sounding like a biker. But you gotta let that out around the club. Go pick a fight. Shoot something. You gotta make yourself stand out. The reason you don’t have a name yet is ’cause you haven’t done anything to make people notice you. Everyone is known for something.”
“What about you?” The prospect gave him a quizzical look. “I know executive board members don’t have to use a road name, but you musta had one.”
“Raider. And before you tell me it’s a cool name, you should know that it had nothing to do with the MC, and everything to do with a sorority that wanted some biker loving, and a night Gun and I had one too many beers.”
The prospect tried and failed to hide his laughter. “That’s fucking awesome. Says it all. I hope your old lady doesn’t find out. Might make her worried you’ll go back to doing whatever it was you did to earn that name.”
“I’m done with that shit,” Cade said. “No more boozing and babes for me. I’m gonna be a one-woman man.” He just had to convince Dawn to keep his cut.
“So what are you still doing here when Mad Dog’s outta jail? Shouldn’t you be protecting your old lady?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Cade shot out of his chair and grabbed the prospect’s shirt, yanking him forward. “We were just talking to Wolf, making plans for the patch-over this morning. He didn’t say anything.”
“Maybe he didn’t know.” Sweat beaded on the prospect’s forehead. “I got a line into the sheriff’s office, and a hookup to a police scanner. They released Mad Dog at noon. He got some big-shot lawyer from New York handling his case. I just found out about it, but I figured you already knew.”
“Christ.” He released the prospect and called Dawn. When he left early this morning she was getting ready to take the girls to the park. When she didn’t answer, he sent her a text telling her to get the girls, pack some bags, and meet him at home. There was a safe house above Sparky’s shop. He’d take them there until after the election.
The Sinner’s Tribe Motorcycle Club, Books 1-3 Page 61