by Silver James
A stairway faced the door we entered while long hallways stretched off to the sides. Wood led me down the left hall, stopped at a door and unlocked it. He ushered me inside a room holding a large bed, an entertainment center with a big screen TV, and a chest of drawers—almost an exact copy of his apartment bedroom. He herded me toward a door on the far wall. “Bathroom. Hot shower. I’ll call Doc to come fix your cast.”
I dug in my heels. “Hot shower won’t do me any good without dry clothes. And I don’t have time. I need—”
“Do as I say.”
I backed up but he stalked me. “Hollywood…”
“Lainey…”
“But...”
“My territory, babe, my rules. You’re the one who showed up at my door.”
Technically, it was his gate where I showed up, but in my defense, I’d had no idea I was trudging through a flash flood toward the Nightriders’ inner sanctum—even though I’d been looking for it. Besides, I had no desire to see him. We’d parted ways. Okay, I’d kicked him out. I couldn’t afford to get involved with a badass biker like Hollywood. I couldn’t afford to get involved with the Nightriders, except I couldn’t afford not to. Not now.
First they took care of me, and then they threatened me and threw me to the wolves, a phrase far too literal given what I knew about Hollywood. I was on a Tilt-a-whirl spinning out of control and I couldn’t get off. I’d come to find Wizard since he worked at Chasin’ Tail, and I knew this was his night off. Instead, I got a pissed-off Dreamy McTall.
“Besides, I’m not here to see you.” He folded his arms over that very spectacular chest and arched a brow that only made him infuriatingly handsome. “I don’t have time for hot showers and your mind games.”
“Towels are on the rack.”
Too late, I realized he’d backed me into the bathroom. He pulled the door shut, right in my face, before I could respond. I reached to lock it, but there wasn’t one. Crap. My teeth started to chatter so the moment of truth had arrived. I had to get warm, but did I trust Hollywood?
Yes. In a completely illogical and likely insane way, I did trust Hollywood. He wouldn’t barge in and bother me. He wouldn’t bother to seduce me. Because he knew he didn’t have to. Damn him. I still had feelings for him. And maybe that’s why I’d come. Maybe I wasn’t here to throw myself on Wizard’s mercy, but to collapse into Hollywood’s arms so he could fix everything I’d so royally screwed up.
Shaking so hard now I could barely undress, I peeled out of my wet clothes and left them in a sodden heap in the sink. The water was steaming as I stepped into the shower and pulled the curtain shut. I knew time was running out, but Hollywood was right, damn him. I needed to warm up and get dry clothes before I could convince him to save my brothers. No. Not Hollywood. Wizard. Wizard was my friend. Hollywood was…I didn’t know what.
Hollywood
“I DON’T KNOW what the fuck she was doing out in the storm, much less half a mile away.” Digger and Easy weren’t convinced. “Did you find her car?”
Digger nodded. “Yup. She was headed this direction.”
That didn’t make sense. Why was she coming here? The last I heard, she’d made it abundantly clear that she wanted nothing to do with me. And the Nightriders wanted nothing to do with her. They were convinced she’d betrayed us and the Russian was a wolf’s whisker away from sacrificing her. He was torturing two people right this minute not a hundred yards away—two people involved in this whole fucked-up mess.
I paced the length of the hallway and came face to face with Sam. She shot daggers at me with her look, brushed past, and marched down the hall to her husband.
“Sam?”
“She needs dry clothes, Easy. I saw her when—” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder my direction. “Mr. Asshole there dragged her in here.”
“Sam—”
“Don’t fucking Sam me, Easy Cross.”
“This is club business, Sam.”
“Ask me if I care. I brought dry clothes for the girl. So shoot me.” She pushed past Easy, ducked into my room, and emerged a moment later, empty-handed. “I’m headed to the house. Don’t bother coming home unless you want to sleep on the couch.”
“It’s flooding out there.”
“And I have a four-wheel drive Jeep rigged to run and used to work search-and-rescue. Don’t push me, Easy. I’m really pissed at you right now. At all of you. Club business my butt. She’s Hollywood’s mate. Allegedly. And you’re all treating her like trash you can just wad up and throw away.”
She left Easy standing flat-footed and flounced past me on the way out. Gravedigger and I both eyed Easy but neither of us spoke. We weren’t stupid. The tension ramped up when Digger’s phone pinged with a text. I started pacing again while Dig exchanged messages with someone.
Why the fuck was Lainey out in a storm, headed here? Little Miss Two-face and I were way overdue for a long talk.
Chapter 20
Hollywood
LAINEY TOSSED HER left arm up in frustration. Her right remained anchored in its cast and a new sling. Doc Carson had fixed it up as best he could. We’d have to take her into his clinic for X-rays and a new cast in the morning. The burnt toast scent of her anger scorched my nose. What the fuck did she have to be angry about? I’d come with what I figured was good news. Then ammonia edged in.
“I need to go.” She said it quietly, head down.
“No.”
She huffed out a breath and my gaze caught on her chest, her breasts lifting and falling beneath the bulky gray sweatshirt with enough motion to make my mouth water.
“Why am I still here? I don’t get it. You’re done with me. So are the Nightriders.”
“Doesn’t work that way, babe.”
Pepper sauce spiked the odor of blackened toast. Determination. Interesting.
“You don’t want me here. You and the Nightriders have made my status infinitely clear. You don’t trust me. I don’t trust you.” She tried to move her broken arm and winced. “You think I betrayed you. Fine. Whatever. You people don’t owe me a damn thing and that works both ways. I’m done. Finished. I have to leave so I can figure out how to save Levi and Louie.”
“We’re not finished with you, Lainey. Like it or not.” I’m not finished with you.
Tears glittered in her eyes and something in my chest ripped open. “Doesn’t matter, Hollywood. I’m finished with you. Let. Me. Out.”
Back stiff, chin jutting, she marched toward the door. I snagged her good arm as she passed me. She flinched, ducked, like I was gonna hit her. What the fuck? Before I could ask, someone hammered on the door, yelled, “Time’s up! The Russian wants us. Now.”
Lainey
I WISHED I had an angel. Hell, I’d settle for a devil if I had a snowball’s chance of getting out of this mess. Since I had neither, I had no choice. Staring at Hollywood where he stood near the door, I did my best to look defiant.
“The clock is running out. I don’t have time to stand here debating. I didn’t have to come to you.”
He showed no emotion as he stared back, watching me through eyes feral and scary as all get out. “If you hadn’t, you’d be dead the moment we discovered you’d betrayed us.”
“You think I don’t know that?” I threw both arms up despite the sling on my right, and immediately saw stars. My cast was still mushy and it felt like the bones were jabbing each other. “Dammit, Wood, they’ve got my little brothers!”
“We’re aware of that, Lainey.”
“Then do something, okay?” I choked, had to bend over in a futile attempt to breathe around the panic and pain searing my lungs. “I’m sorry.” I didn’t look up. “You don’t owe me anything. The Nightriders already believe I’m guilty.” I stood straight, faced him. If it was just Mom or my brother, Larry? They’d made their beds. But Louie and Levi? The twins were only ten.
“Just let me go. I’ll figure something out. Maybe I can get enough money to satisfy them.”
“Money’s
not the question, babe.”
“Then what is?”
“You said it yourself. Trust.”
I slumped. “You don’t trust me. I understand, Hollywood. I do. You have no reason to trust me. But you just think about this. I still have keys to Chasin’ Tail, and the alarm code. I could have slipped into the office at first light, when no one was around. I could have downloaded this—” I dug the flash drive out of the pockets of my wet jeans. In the pile of clothes I’d found after my shower, only the sweatshirt fit. Would the moisture from being in my pocket do something to it? Maybe corrupt the information? I held my palm with the drive on it out to the men standing around me in a semi-circle.
“I have no idea what’s on this. It could be a virus, or it could be a fabricated set of books. The note said I should plug it in and follow the instructions.”
A man called Radar plucked the drive off my hand. He walked over to a long table with a lap top on it and started working with his back to the rest of us.
“I could have done what they said. But I didn’t. I came here. With that thumb drive. To tell you. You gave me a job when I needed one. No way was I going to betray you.” I laughed dryly. “You were nice to me. And I don’t want to be dead.” I lifted my left shoulder. “And I would be very dead, my body probably ground up for dog food or something if I had betrayed you.” I was attempting a moment of levity but it fell flat.
These men were hard. Cold. Cruel. I had no doubt that they’d killed people. I’d heard the rumors about the Russian once being a member of the Russian mob. I figured from his name Gravedigger knew where all the bodies were buried. Hardass. A man called Deadhead. Wizard. Radar. And Hollywood. Who wouldn’t even look at me now. He was leaning against the door looking all lazy and at ease, his feet crossed at the ankles, hands jammed in his front pockets so that his jeans rode low on his hips. Head down, eyes on the floor, like he didn’t have a bloody care in the world.
No one spoke. Everything I’d said fell into a well of deep silence. Fine. No help here. But since I’d “confessed” and turned over the evidence, maybe they’d let me walk out. I’d hitchhike home, figure something out. Maybe I could tell the bad guys I’d done what they asked, get my brothers back, and run like hell for Canada. Or Timbuktu.
I swiped at my eyes, hoping to keep my frustrated tears at bay. “I can’t stand by and let my little brothers get hurt. You aren’t going to help me. I get that. You have no reason to. Just let me go so I—”
“Not gonna happen.” Hollywood uncoiled and pushed between Wizard and Hardass.
“You have to let me go.” My voice broke and the tears came. “They’re just little boys. I have to do something.”
“I won’t let them get hurt, won’t let you get hurt. I’ll protect you.”
God. Hollywood looked so…angry. His face was all hard lines and the red sparks in his eyes terrified me. Before I could react, he’d grabbed my arm, jerked me against him. He smelled like baking bread and mesquite. He smelled like home. Like safety. I buried my face in his chest as his arms circled around me, holding me like I was something…fragile, something special.
“I’ll get them back, Lainey. I promise.”
I heard growls of dissent but I didn’t look up. “I’ll do anything, Hollywood. Anything the club wants. Anything you want.”
That got a growl from him. Someone knocked on the door. I heard it creak open, feet shuffling, whispered conversation. Hollywood tensed and it suddenly occurred to me that he was putting himself in the line of fire. These men might kill him for offering to help me. I couldn’t breathe around that thought.
“Release her, Hollywood.” The Russian stood right beside us.
Hollywood growled but he did as the other man said. He put space between us, a step. Then two. His hands slid from my back to grip my biceps.
The Russian stared at me and I forced myself to meet his gaze. I couldn’t remember doing anything more terrifying than looking into his eyes. As I watched, the expression in them softened though his face remained hard, his jaw clenched. He dropped my gaze, cut his eyes to Hollywood.
“The Hell Dog broke.”
Hollywood’s hands tightened but he held the Russian’s gaze. “And?”
“We have plans to make, yes?”
I didn’t know who to watch—the Russian or Hollywood. It was the twitch along Hollywood’s jaw that drew my attention. He was totally focused on the Russian now. If not for the convulsive clenching of his hands on my arms, I’d think he’d forgotten all about me. I held my breath.
Still staring at Hollywood, the Russian spoke. “Take her, Gravedigger.”
Chapter 21
Hollywood
LAINEY GASPED AND Gravedigger had to pry my fingers from her arms. She didn’t cry as he walked her out and gawddammit, I couldn’t do a fucking thing but stand there and watch that sonavabitch take her away. My wolf was going apeshit and I caught the growl emanating from Russki. I leashed my animal, breathed through the anger—the gnawing need to rip and tear and spill blood.
“They have her brothers,” I finally managed to say through elongating canines.
“We will find them.”
Hardass glanced at the door. A moment later, Gravedigger walked back in. “Gunner has her.”
That didn’t make me or my wolf happy.
“You must focus, Hollywood.”
Russki continued to watch me, waiting for a moment of weakness. I might not be Alpha, but I was a damn alpha wolf in my own right. I wouldn’t go belly up for him or any man. I looked him straight in the eye. “So what’s the plan, boss?”
Radar raised his head. “Motherfuckers.” He waved us over. “Not a virus exactly. If Lainey had plugged this in, we’d have been up shit creek for damn sure. Assholes are sophisticated, I’ll give them that. They’ve got a code monkey who is fucking good.” He flashed a feral grin. “I just happen to be better.”
“Explain, Radar,” Russki demanded.
“They dummied a set of books. Looks just like ours. Someone was in our system—”
“It fucking wasn’t Lainey.”
Hardy’s hand landed on my shoulder. “Back down, Wood. We know.”
I breathed in through my nose and let it out in a long huff. Radar gave me a quick nod before continuing.
“I don’t think they hacked in but I’ll have to look at the computer in Chasin’ Tail’s office to be sure. I think somebody was in the office and grabbed a screen shot, and their geek worked up the spreadsheets from that. They’re smart. They have what looks like a legitimate set of books and a shadow set. They added a trapdoor plus remote access software. They’d have a pipeline to our info.”
He fixed his gaze on the Russian. “Chasin’ Tail wasn’t always legit. Since you became prez, we’ve cleaned it up. The books are square. Their shadow spreadsheets are cooked, made to look like we’re laundering a shit load of money through the club.”
“If you were to install this software, would you be able to trace it back to the source?”
Radar leaned back in his chair and scraped his fingers over his beard stubble. As keyed up as I was, the sound rubbed me raw, like keys scraping a custom paint job on a high-dollar bike.
“I’ll need to do some coding of my own, Russki. We’ll want to use a dummy computer.”
“Why are they doing this?” Deadhead scratched his belly, his expression perplexed.
“That is the question, now isn’t it?” Russki replied. He glanced around, nailing each of us with his stare. “You have your orders. Call in whoever you need.”
My brothers headed for the door, some pulling out phones to send texts or to call reinforcements. A wave of nausea hit me and my heart hammered in my chest. Lainey. Something was wrong. She was hurt.
The Russian grabbed my arm. “The mating bond, yes?”
I managed a nod, figuring from his expression that I looked as bleak as I felt.
“You must hang on, Hollywood. For your brothers. And for hers.”
Yeah. It was all about brotherhood and family. Even when it was only about brotherhood and family.
Lainey
FISTS SLAMMED AGAINST the door and I jumped. I couldn’t help it. When my dad was around, it meant he was too drunk to find his keys and things were headed downhill in a hurry. I was shaking so hard I swear my bones were rattling. Sudden heat at my back and warm breath on my cheek caused me to jerk but the strong arm sliding around my waist held me still.
“Shhh, baby. You’re safe. I’m here.”
Safe. Wow. Now there was a concept I hadn’t considered since I was five and saw my dad slug my mom the first time. Wood’s body was tense, a coiled whip ready to lash out. But not at me.
“I’ve got this. I’ll take care of you. No sound, yeah?”
I nodded, mute as he’d asked. He slipped around me and the hair on my arms prickled. The guy gave me goosebumps and this time? It wasn’t in a good way. Power rolled off him. The big, black pistol in his hand hadn’t been there a second before. Greased lightning. That’s how he moved. There and gone, a sliding shadow sparking electricity.
He paused at the door, listening. I couldn’t even hear him breathe. More thumps and the door knob jiggled.
“Open the fuckin’ door, bitch. Time to pay up, one way or another. We know you didn’t do what we told you to. C’mon out here and get the first piece of this kid. Whaddaya think, Morton? A hand? Or maybe his tongue.”
I clapped my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. I knew Wood was dangerous, but could he take on those thugs outside the door? I’d seen them—far more up close and personal than I wanted. I watched shadows move in front of the window. Three, plus the thug at the door. Four goons. Heavily muscled, probably from steroids, they were monsters. Hollywood was lean. Broad shoulders, muscular arms, with strength hidden beneath his leather vest and long-sleeved black tee, but there were four of them—and they were all bigger.