by Jani Kay
But today was different.
Cobra and a group of guys had gone to deliver the weapons. The deal was finally going down. I suspected it was Cobra’s way of getting everyone’s respect back, to show that he was back at the helm and as strong as ever. The barbeque was a cover so that anyone watching would think it was just another family day at the MC quarters. But it wasn’t. Everyone was cagey, pretending to be enjoying him or herself, but acting a lot more subdued than usual.
It didn’t surprise me when Cobra ordered me to stay at the clubhouse to look after the women and kids while he took a team out to do the job, excluding me, Ratbag and Hammer. In a way I was relieved. I knew Summers was watching me with hawk’s eyes, so if I were at the club all day he could watch as much as he liked. That must have also been part of Cobra’s reasoning. He didn’t want me to lead him straight into the cops’ hands.
“Ryder!” Jamie screamed as he saw me, and practically tripped over his own feet to get to my side. The way his face lit up when he saw me made my heart squeeze. I loved the kid. I brushed his hair with my fingers before throwing him in the air. Since the time we’d spent together in the Beverley Hills house, we had a special bond that would never be broken.
“Hey, little man. Have you been a good boy for Mama?”
He nodded vigorously, his smile wide. I dug into my pocket and produced a candy bar. I'd be in trouble with Mia, but what the hell, every kid deserves to be spoiled a little now and then. He squealed with delight as I helped him open the wrapper so he could get his sugar hit.
I lifted him onto my shoulders and made my way over to greet the rest of the crowd. Grabbing a beer from the cooler, I chatted to most of the people, trying to act as normal as possible, in spite of a gnawing feeling in my gut that wouldn’t settle.
Narrowing my eyes against the glare, I looked up toward the sky. Dark clouds hung low, pregnant with rain, and had shifted in front of the sun. A shiver ran down my spine.
“Have you seen the kid’s face?” Ratbag laughed. “It's full of chocolate. Mia’s gonna have your balls if she checks it out.”
Shaking off the foreboding swirl in my gut, I swung the boy off my shoulders and grabbed a paper napkin to wipe the evidence. His hands were covered in chocolate too, but he was licking them clean. He held out a small finger, inviting me to taste. “Nah, kiddo, chocolate and beer don’t mix.”
I cleaned his hands before he got the chance to wipe them on my clothes. Not because I was particular about my jeans, but because I hated how that would remind me of Jade all day. After a bath, she usually rubbed moisturizer into her skin and wafts of coconut and vanilla fragrance filled the air—it was very close to how chocolate smelled.
Ratbag fetched a ball from the veranda. He twirled it on his finger and showed off his mad soccer skills. “Let’s play some ball, huh?”
“Yay,” Jamie screamed and ran off to round up the other kids.
Chapter Forty-Four — Ryder
We kicked the ball around for a while, the kids running up and down in a pack. Hopefully Jamie would get rid of some of the energy that the sugar spike had given him so that I wouldn’t be in trouble with Mia. I knew better than to mess with a mother and her kids.
I decided to slip inside and leave the youngsters with Ratbag. I hadn’t greeted Mia yet—she and some of the women were preparing salads in the kitchen. I wanted to check in on her to see how she was handling what was going down.
Stopping in the club barroom to grab another beer, I bumped into a few bitches playing pool. Because most of the guys were away today, the clubhouse was open to everybody who was part of our strange family, even the club whores who weren’t usually invited to family events. Cobra was being cautious—he preferred to have everyone together under our roof so that we could keep an eye on things. Weird stuff had happened in the past—like the time a club whore was used against us and wound up dead—so I understood why he deemed it safest to keep all the bitches close. That way it was us who controlled the situation, and not our enemies. It made sense to me.
April, one of the bitches I’d hooked up with randomly before, saw me first. “Hey, Ryder, come play with us.”
Not missing the double entendre, I shook my head. “Nah,” I grunted, sorry that I’d been so engrossed in my thoughts that I hadn’t noticed she was there.
Ordinarily these bitches knew their place; Cobra made sure of that. He’d warned them to stay clear of old ladies and to shut their mouths or they’d be thrown out of the club forever. Mostly they valued their place at Scorpio Stinger MC and I didn’t think they’d want to risk getting chucked out, so they never mingled with the families.
It had been an unspoken rule at our club since Cobra became pres. If he’d had his way, he wouldn’t have had any loose women around, but he appreciated that they were a necessary evil for some of the boys, especially the ones who hadn’t picked old ladies yet—like me a few months ago, before I ran into Princess.
“Aww, it feels so strange without the guys here. We need a diversion, and you’re so yummy.” She was purring as she gazed at me from under her lashes. I didn’t know the blonde standing beside her with the double F tits who was pushing her chest out to make them look even bigger—she must’ve been a fairly recent addition and a friend of April’s, because she was dressed exactly the same way. Why was it that women did that?
“We could spread you on the table, Ryder, and play with your balls.” The brunette on the other side of the table giggled as she twirled her hair seductively, her eyes resting on my crotch. She was practically fucking me with her eyes. I remembered fucking her once, a long time ago. “And I just love sucking cock.”
“Slow down with the wine, ladies. And focus on the balls on the table.” I laughed, but I was anxious to get the fuck outta here. Theses bitches were horny as hell.
“That’s not as much fun. I'm thirsty, Ryder. I could lick your balls.” April touched herself between her thighs, licking her lips at the same time. “And then I could sit on your face, baby.”
At one stage of my life I would’ve had all three of them come to my room for a bit of play and rough sex. In fact, I would’ve probably fucked them right here first, if I was sure none of the kids would come into the club room. As far as I knew not one of them was an old lady, and they sure weren’t acting as if they belonged to anyone. They were here to get laid, and since most of the guys were away, their idea of fun right now was me.
I wanted to grab another beer, but that would’ve meant I’d have to get closer to them, and that was dangerous—these club bitches had no shame. Changing my mind, I shrugged and went in the opposite direction toward the kitchen.
I don’t need a beer that badly.
“Ryder, what happened to you, babe?” April called after me. “You used to be so much fun.”
I ignored her and kept going. Yeah. Things had changed. I had changed. I no longer wanted random pussy. It just didn’t do it for me anymore.
As soon as Isabella saw me, she cooed from her highchair, raising her arms for me to pick her up. Now this girl I could cuddle and hug and not feel guilty. I lifted her out of her chair and kissed her chubby cheeks. She gave me a big sloppy kiss back, much to everyone’s amusement. I sauntered over to Mia, who looked tired and worn down. In spite of the dark circles under her eyes, she was still a strikingly beautiful woman.
Frazzled and weepy, Mia was just as opposed to the weapons deal as I was. After her husband nearly lost his life on the last attempt, I couldn’t blame her. She’d been through hell in the last year: it was time she was cut some slack.
She wiped her brow with her apron and stood on tiptoes to kiss my cheek.
“Hey, Ryder. Missed you,” she whispered.
“Missed you too, Mia. And the kids.”
“Sometimes I wish we were still back at the big house. I was worried about Cobra at the time, but hey, nothing has changed. It's months later and here I am—still worried.”
Her eyes misted up and I knew she was fighting back the tears. I t
ucked a strand of her long, chocolate hair behind her ear and planted a kiss on her forehead.
“Don’t worry. Cobra and the boys will be fine. Nothing will happen to them today.” I don’t know why I said that, but I genuinely believed it. And if my words could put Mia’s mind at rest, I’d be happy to help.
“Let’s show Ryder how you can clap your hands,” Mia said to her daughter in an effort to lighten her mood. She started singing a kid’s song and Isabella giggled and started clapping her puffy little hands in time to Mia’s tune.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. My baby girl would never get to do this. The loss hit me straight in the heart. But I couldn’t show my feelings. I ground my teeth together, clenching my jaw. Fucking Summers had taken this from me.
Rage swirled in my gut as my heart shattered. These contradictory emotions were fucking with my head. And I couldn’t even tell Mia.
“Ryder, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” She stared at me for a long moment, trying to figure me out.
“I just need another beer. I’ll be fine.” I tried to smile, but it was a pretty lame attempt.
“Cobra made you the babysitter. You’re watching over the kids today, huh?” The amusement in her voice made me laugh. I nodded.
“Just keep an extra eye on Jamie, please. He had another asthma attack, and I’m worried about him.”
“Sure, Mama Mia,” I said, placing Isabella back in her chair, my back to Mia. I wanted to get back outside and watch over our family. My eye had started twitching, and I definitely didn’t want Mia to see it. All the guys teased me about it, but she knew better.
It frightened the living crap out of her.
Me too.
Chapter Forty-Five — Ryder
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a movement. It was something glistening in the sunlight. Fuck, it was cliché as shit; it couldn’t possibly be anything suspicious. Could it? My nerves were raw. After everything that had happened during the last few months, it took the smallest thing to trigger my twitching eye.
I'd regretted ignoring the premonitions I’d had before, so this time I was double-checking. Even if I made a fool of myself, I’d rather err on the safe side. Since the last incident with Harrison and the cops, I’d convinced Cobra to put up security cameras everywhere so we could see what was going on outside our walls. Cobra didn’t need much of a hard sell; his nerves were as frazzled as mine.
Not wanting to seem too obvious, I sauntered over to the security room. Yeah, Hammer had set up a fucking state-of-the-art system any Swiss banker would be proud of. We were lucky to have the talented fucker on our team.
Pushing the door open, I was surprised as fuck that nobody was in the room. Wasn’t the point of having these cameras so that we could watch what was going on? Especially today? I growled; somebody was going to shit. Checking out each of the monitors in turn, I looked carefully for clues. I wasn’t trained to do this, but I knew I had to look for anything that appeared to be out of place. Just as I finished going through the monitors, coming up with nothing, Hammer walked in.
“What’s up, brother?” He lifted his chin in greeting.
“I should be asking you that question. Where’s the person who should be watching these fucking cameras?” I angled my head toward the screens, waiting for an explanation.
“He got the fucking runs—said his stomach is cramping and he had to run to the toilet. That’s why I’m here now. Anyway, why are you here?” He raised an inquisitive eyebrow at me. It wasn’t like me to check up on my brothers.
I trusted everyone to do their assigned fucking job, and didn’t keep watching over their shoulders to verify they were doing it right. I mean, there were only so many hours in a day; I had my own shit to worry about. But today I was worried about everything, especially as I hadn’t been at the club as much as I usually did. What if I missed something important?
“I saw something glisten outside. Too many bad movies in my youth.” I chuckled, feeling like a fool. I should leave the job to the experts and go do my part.
Hammer knew me too well. “Your fucking eye is twitching. Why is that?”
“Don’t know. Had it all day, but it's getting worse,” I admitted. There was no point in lying; anyone just had to look at me to see the fucking twitch go crazy. If only I could control it.
“Let’s look again, shall we? Maybe I see something you missed?”
I patted his back. Hammer was a good friend. He’d rather appease me than laugh it off. I appreciated that about him. After about three minutes he turned to me. “Nah, Ryder, it's just a shitload of bad movies—”
He stopped mid-sentence. “Hang on . . . those weren’t there before.” He zoomed in on a frame of the building next door to ours. Large drums and pallets were stacked in the driveway all along the wall that separated us.
“They’re just wooden pallets.” I chuckled nervously. I didn’t want to spook Hammer unnecessarily.
“No, they weren’t there this morning. It's fucking Sunday. Nobody works that yard on Sundays. Something isn’t right.”
He pressed a few buttons and took a closer look. He let out a long slow breath.
“We’re being watched. There are a few fuckers inside the building. The reflection you saw . . . it was probably when somebody opened the window. Must have caught the sun for a second or so.”
“Really? What the fuck?” I took a step closer to stare at the screen.
Hammer went to his computer and hit a few keys. “Jesus.”
“What?”
“That cop fucker you hate. And somebody else. A giant of a man. They’re dressed in camo. Means they’re up to something.”
“Summers? Are you fucking serious? What’s the prick doing inside the building?”
I stood over Hammer’s shoulder and narrowed my eyes. Heavy rain clouds had moved in front of the sun on and off for the last half hour, threatening a storm. It was dark inside the room, but I could see their faces because of Hammer zooming in. My gaze fell on a brute of a man, almost bigger than Ox.
I’d thought Ox was a freak of nature, but this dude was a tank. He was gesturing wildly with his arms. The person he was speaking to was none other than fucking Harrison Summers. Seemed like they were arguing.
Who the hell was the giant man, and what the fuck were they doing here? Had they gotten wind of the deal going down off base right now? Fuck. Alarm bells went off in my head—I had to warn Cobra and the boys.
“Get hold of Cobra. Tell him,” I barked. Unease settled in my gut. The arms deal was going down in less than a fucking hour, and here was trouble brewing. I could just smell it.
Hammer sprung into action, grabbing the special phone he’d set up for emergencies like this. But before he could even get hold of Cobra, something drew my eye back to the screen in front of me.
Jesus Christ. Somebody was clearing over the wall. Our wall. Into our compound. In broad fucking daylight. Granted it was ominously dark with the clouds sitting so low in the sky, but I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“Fuck!” I shouted, pointing to the screen. Hammer lifted his head just in time to see the hooded man jump into the compound, landing on his feet.
My heart nearly leapt out of my throat as he made his way to where my Scorpio family was enjoying the barbeque. Everyone was busy dishing up and going inside to the clubhouse, probably to get out of the way of the threatening rainstorm.
The man was dressed in black from head to toe, a balaclava over his face, so that only his eyes shone through the slits as he stalked toward the people, crouching close to the wall. Stunned, I watched in horror—it was all happening so fast . . .
“Stay. Watch,” I shouted to Hammer as I drew my gun and bolted out the door toward the outside square. My heart beat so hard in my chest, I was sure to have a few cracked ribs. Sweat poured down my forehead and into my eyes as adrenaline rushed through my body.
“Watch out!” I yelled. “Get down to the ground!” I burst through the doors into the square. The man
had beaten me here. What the fuck did he want?
Everyone hit the ground, except for little Jamie. He stood there, dumbfounded, his big brown eyes wide, staring at me. He was just about to burst into tears when the man stormed down on him and scooped him up like an eagle on his prey. It was as if I saw everything clearly in slow motion.
Fuck. No.
Not one of the kids.
This fucking horror movie playing out in front of me had better be a fucking bad dream that I was going to wake up from at any moment . . .
“He’s got Jamie! No. Somebody, stop him!” Mia wailed as she got to her feet, her arms stretched out as she stumbled and tripped and smashed back down onto the concrete, screaming.
Ratbag was the closest. The man was running back in the same direction as what he’d come over the wall, with Jamie tucked under his arm. Ratbag lunged at him, knocking him sideways into the wall. Jamie screamed bloody murder as his head hit the wall with a thud so loud, I could hear it from where I was standing.
I aimed at the man’s head. This fucker was going down. I squeezed the trigger. The sound of the gunshot rendered me nearly deaf. That’s probably why I didn’t hear Ratbag’s scream as he went down.
Jesus fucking Christ! Had I just shot Ratbag?
Immobilized by fear, I stood there for what felt like an eternity. The smell of gunpowder filled my nostrils, bringing with it all kinds of bad memories. I watched as Ratbag’s legs folded under him and he crashed to the floor. Slow motion—it was all happening in fucking frame-by-frame action.
The man pushed away from the wall, blood streaming over his hand. Jamie’s little body was lifeless as the man hoisted him over his shoulder and disappeared out of sight.
A full-blown panic attack gripped me, sending my already racing heart into near arrest. This was fucking déjà vu. Visions of Max as a boy flashed before me. Cold sweat broke out on my skin as I remembered what he had looked like after Tiny had thrashed him brutally against the wall.
Ratbag!
He lay there. Dead still. Fuck.