Sinner's Steel

by Sarah Castille

  “Torture and death it is then.” Dax clapped his hands together. “And Zane thought this wouldn’t be fun.”

  Doreen shrank back the tiniest bit. “What about a door number three? Like I give you something and you give me something that doesn’t end up with Viper hunting me down and slitting my throat?”

  “What do you want aside from freedom?” Zane met her gaze, challenging, defiant. He liked her. Not in a sexual way, although she was an attractive woman, but because she’d been through hell and didn’t break. Kinda like his Evie, but with rougher edges and a harder heart.

  “Protection.”

  “You’re a prisoner,” Zane said. “Can’t get more protection than that.”

  “Not for me. For my kid. I don’t want Viper to get him. I want someone to look after him if I don’t make it. He’s with my mom, but she’s only interested in booze and drugs and her place isn’t exactly kid friendly.” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, a hesitant, slightly apprehensive gesture that was at odds with what they’d seen of her so far.

  “Why would he care about Axle’s kid?” Dax voiced the question that was on the tip of Zane’s tongue.

  Her eyes widened and she quickly looked down, worrying a thread on the rough wool blanket covering the bed. “Viper has no boundaries. I wouldn’t put it past him to grab my kid just to make sure I don’t talk to you.”

  Zane ran a hand through his hair. Something else was going on here, more than just an old lady who’d been unwillingly taken to pay her old man’s debt, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. “We’ll take it to the executive board, but you have to give us something as a show of good faith. You do that and Dax will write down your mom’s address before we leave and we’ll check it out to make sure it’s not a trap.”

  “He’ll be in the torture chamber,” she said quietly. “Under the clubhouse.”

  Zane’s head jerked up. “So there is a torture chamber?”

  “That’s where he puts all his prisoners. Looks like a medieval dungeon and the stuff that he’s got in there…” Doreen shivered, giving authenticity to her words even before her lips curled in disgust. “He likes to hear them scream. He likes their pain. Sometimes he keeps them in there for days or weeks. I heard he has another dungeon at his house, but I’ve never heard of anyone being taken there.”

  “Sadist.” Dax said. “Like that’s a surprise.”

  Doreen’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Never wanted to leave the Jacks as much as the first time I was sent down there to clean up. Axle was no saint but he wasn’t twisted like Viper. Torture turns Viper on. Even the hardest old ladies didn’t want to go to his bed after he’d been down there.”

  Zane’s jaw clenched. “How do we get in?”

  “The main door to the dungeon is outside the clubhouse. The yard is fenced off with electric wire and there are guards on the gate, as well as guards patrolling the grounds. And dogs.” She drew in a ragged breath. “Viper has the only key and he keeps it in his office.”

  “Don’t need a key when we have explosives,” Zane said.

  “Someone will need to get close enough to plant them. That’s not gonna be easy.” Doreen twisted her hands in her lap. “A couple of other clubs have tried. The guys who made it past the fence never made it out again. It’s a suicide mission for whoever you send.”

  “That’ll be me,” Zane said.

  T-Rex had sacrificed himself for Evie. Zane owed him a debt. And if he had to repay it with his life, he would die a happy man. He had held Evie in his arms one last time. He had a son to carry on his name.

  What more could a man want?

  FIFTEEN

  Don’t get distracted while doing your repair. You have one goal, and one goal only. Make it run and make it run good.

  —SINNER’S TRIBE MOTORCYCLE REPAIR MANUAL

  Perfect woman for Jagger, Evie thought as she shook Arianne’s hand. In the fifteen minutes she and Ty had been in Sparky’s shop, Arianne had barked orders at a couple of bikers, thrown a wrench at Sparky, and tuned up a V-Rod Muscle to the thudding beat of Saxon’s “Motorcycle Man.” A little heavy for midday, but no one complained when Arianne hooked her phone up to the speaker system and blasted the tunes.

  Evie tried not to stare, but it was hard to look away from the contrast of Arianne’s beauty—long, thick brown hair, startling green eyes, sharply-defined features—and the baggy gray coveralls she wore for her work as a journeyman mechanic in Sparky’s shop. Evie had always wondered what kind of woman could put up with Jagger’s forceful personality, but now she knew. Formidable in her own right, Arianne was his perfect match.

  “So you’re Zane’s new girlfriend.” Arianne gave her a frank, appraising look and gestured her over to the worn brown couch in the corner. Tucked away in the corner of an industrial estate, the corrugated metal warehouse had been converted into a spacious, brightly lit garage, complete with neatly filled tool racks, comfortable furniture, and work bays for five bikes.

  “I have to say I never thought I’d see him with a woman,” Arianne continued. “He’s a dark horse, our Zane. When I first came to the club, he thought I was a Black Jack spy sent to seduce Jagger and take down the Sinners, and he did everything he could to get rid of me.”

  “I’m surprised he’s still alive.”

  Arianne’s eyes widened and she grinned. “Jagger likes him so I let it slide.”

  “We’re not really together,” Evie said quickly. “We were friends growing up, and then we lost touch.” So they’d had sex. It hardly counted for a relationship, although she knew a lot more about Zane than she did about most of the men she had dated. But that was Zane before. Not Zane now.

  “Friends who have a son together.” Arianne nodded at Ty who was watching attentively as Sparky changed a tire.

  “Yeah. I don’t know how that’s going to work out. I mean, with the whole biker thing…”

  “Lots of the club members have kids,” Arianne said. “They just keep their home life separate from their biker life, except for Sunday rides and club parties when the old ladies show up and cause trouble. You’ll get a taste of that at the party tonight.”

  “Don’t scare her off.” Sparky, the Sinner road chief, and serious a contender for Tall, Dark, and Handsome Man of the Year, with his thick, brown hair and piercing blue eyes, wiped his hands on an old rag. “At least not until she’s given us the down and dirty about Jagger and Zane.”

  “That kind of information is only shared among old ladies.” Arianne smirked. “So unless you want to hang with Sandy, Dawn, Evie, me and a bunch of old ladies tonight, you’re out of luck.” She put her feet up on the coffee table, and her brow creased. “Evie’s also going to tell us what she was doing with Viper when Zane was riding around available for the taking, ’cause I’m guessing she’s a few years younger than me and given that Viper’s my dad, that’s kinda … not something I really want to think about.”

  Evie’s cheeks heated and she drew in a deep breath, inhaling the familiar scents of grease and paint. “I didn’t—”

  “And I’m outta here.” Sparky tossed the rag on a tool bench affixed to the wall. “Gotta get back to man stuff: fixing engines, tuning bikes, using tools—”

  “What I was just doing,” Arianne interjected.

  Sparky flipped her the bird. “Ty. Bud. C’mon over here and I’ll show you my manly socket wrenches.”

  “You don’t have to tell me anything,” Arianne said after Sparky had taken Ty to the furthest corner of the garage. “I just found it hard to believe when Jagger told me. I never saw any kindness in Viper. He was a cold, hard, cruel father, and a vicious, ruthless bastard who twisted my brother, and killed my mother because he thought she was having an affair.”

  Evie’s mouth opened and closed again. She was at a complete loss for words. Had everything between Her and Viper been an act? Every word? Every conversation? His gentle kisses and soft words? As with Derek and Mark, had she failed to see the monster behind the man? W
as she making the same mistake with Zane? How could she ever trust herself?

  “I’m sorry.” Arianne grimaced. “I shouldn’t have said that. You obviously saw a side of him no one else has seen. Maybe he was different with you. There were times when he was caring with my mother. Obviously. Or she would never have stuck it out.”

  Was that it? Or had she been wearing blinders all her life, shutting out what she didn’t want to see in her dogged pursuit of a dream that never was going to come true? “Maybe she stayed because of you,” Evie said. “I stayed in a bad marriage for Ty. That’s why I’m done with relationships.”

  Arianne lifted an admonishing eyebrow. “Better tell that to Zane. He came down here and laid down the law. It was the usual possessive, protective, territorial biker thing: you’re his, blah, blah, blah; he’ll kill anyone who touches you, blah, blah, blah; no one who wants to keep his balls can look at you, blah, blah, blah; don’t even breathe the same air … you get the drill.”

  “He said that?”

  “He said it with a difference.” Arianne’s smile faded. “Because he’s Zane. He doesn’t talk much, but when he says something, he means it.”

  * * *

  Sparky’s shop shook with the hard beat of metal music, the thud of the bass carrying up the stairs where Evie had just put Ty to bed before changing for the party. She had only packed one fancy outfit in her suitcase, a Scandinavian-style black dress in a crepe fabric with unique cut outs on the sides and front, and a wide bandeau strip across her breasts. Not really her style, but Connie had convinced her to buy it one Saturday afternoon by feigning a collapse in the store dressing room when she tried it on.

  Zane met her in the hallway at the foot of the stairs. He’d been out all day at the clubhouse dealing with the situation with T-Rex. Evie’s gaze skittered from the tips of his heavy, dust-covered biker boots, to his low-riding jeans, snug in all the right places, and then over his muscle-hugging T-shirt to his tanned, frowning face. Memories of what they’d done last night sent a wave of heat through her body and her cheeks flushed.

  “You’re showing a lot of skin.” His frown became a scowl as his gaze swept over her body. “Do you know what it does to a man when he gets a glimpse of something he’s not supposed to see?”

  “Does that mean you like it?”

  Zane splayed his hand under the back panel of the dress, his fingers skimming the edge of her panties as he pulled her against him. “It means I only got two hands, and there’s a lot of brothers who won’t be able to take their eyes off you since you’re showing more skin than dress.” He pulled his hand from beneath her dress, and slapped her ass. “Go change.”

  Evie cried out in surprise. The slap was more of a sting than true pain, but the responding throb in her sex shocked her, made her wonder what would happen if he slapped her again. But the sudden thrill quickly turned to indignation.

  “Seriously?” Evie glared at him, her mouth agape. “You’re ordering me to go and change my clothes? I’ve seen some of the clothes the old ladies are wearing. I look like a nun compared to them.”

  “You got a habit upstairs, I’ll be a happy man.”

  “I’m not changing, Zane.” She leaned against the wall, folded her arms over her chest. “Even if we were together, which we’re not, I wouldn’t let you tell me what to wear. I went through that with Mark. He was insecure right from the start because he never felt he could measure up to you and Jagger. When he lost his job, he started drinking again and that just made it worse. And when we had to rely on my income, he couldn’t deal with it. He started following me around, trying to cut me off from my friends, checking my phone, and showing up at work. He threw out some of my clothes, called me a slut…”

  “Jesus Christ. Once we get T-Rex, I’m fucking going after him.” Zane leaned one elbow beside her and traced the cutout on the left side of her dress with his free hand, his finger warm against her skin. “What if I ask real nice?”

  Evie bit back a smile at his sudden change in demeanor. “Jagger saw my dress. He didn’t have a problem.”

  “Because you aren’t his.” He slid his hand beneath the front panel of her dress, his finger dipping down to her mound, sending a sizzle of erotic sensation straight to her clit. “You’re mine.”

  Flustered by his possessiveness given that she’d pretty much booted him out of her room last night, she had no idea what to say. And when he pulled her in close and lowered his face until their noses were almost touching, she wanted nothing more than to run her tongue over his lips and forget about speech all together.

  “You showing something that belongs to me makes it my problem,” he murmured.

  “I don’t belong to you, Zane.”

  “Last night.” He feathered kisses along her jaw, following her jugular to the hollow at the base of her throat. “Says you do.” His hands slid down to her ass and his fingers dug into her cheeks. “Way I feel now, thinking of the brothers lookin’ at you, touching you, and you showing off what you shared with me last night, says you do.”

  Desire pulsed through her, a deep throb that intensified with every second. “It was just sex.”

  “You and me, sweetheart … it’s never just anything.”

  “C’mon you two. Jagger’s about to give a speech.” Sparky’s voice pulled Evie out of the moment and she clasped Zane’s hand.

  “Looks like I win by default,” Evie said. “I wouldn’t want to disrespect Jagger by missing his speech.”

  He stared at her for a long moment, and then he dropped her hand and slid his arm around her waist. “It’s gonna be a long fucking night.”

  They made their way into the shop, now emptied of bikes and filled with bikers. Zane introduced her to Cade, the club treasurer, a blond, blue-eyed, drop-dead gorgeous biker with a cheeky smile, and his old lady, Dawn, who could have passed for his sister. After chatting with them and meeting a few more bikers, she spotted Tank sipping a beer at the far edge of the garage and excused herself to join him.

  “You’re looking kinda down.” Relieved to be away from the crowd, she eased herself up on the bench beside him, her feet dangling off the floor.

  “Missing T-Rex.”

  Evie wasn’t surprised. In the short time she’d been around the Sinners, Tank and T-Rex were always together. “Yeah, I was surprised the Sinners were having a party when T-Rex was still … with Viper.”

  He shrugged. “It’s Jagger’s way of boosting morale before the big raid. We’re goin’ in to get him, and he says not all of us are gonna come out in one piece.”

  Evie caught her breath. “Jagger’s sending you on a suicide mission?”

  “We gotta get T-Rex. We don’t leave brothers behind. And while we’re there, we’re gonna take down the Jacks. They’re outta control. One-percenters like us don’t got many rules, but we got some and the Jacks are breaking them all. No one is safe—old ladies, kids, even civilians.”

  “Is everyone going on the raid?”

  Tank gave her a sympathetic look. “Every brother who can ride. Even the family men. We’re all in or we’re all dead, the way things are going now. Zane’s on point. That means he’s going in first, taking the biggest risk. He says it’s ’cause he owes T-Rex a debt and if someone’s gotta die—”

  “No one is dying on my watch.” Jagger came up behind Evie and rested his hand on her shoulder. “And this isn’t going be some haphazard raid. Everything will be planned with military precision. Nothing will be left to chance.”

  “Except we don’t know if T-Rex is alive or dead.” Tank’s voice wavered. “Or even if he’s in the Black Jack clubhouse.”

  “We got some good intel on that this afternoon, brother.” Jagger made a fist and bumped knuckles with Tank. “We all care about T-Rex and we’re gonna bring him back. But maybe I’ll save all that for my speech. I’m going to get an update from Shaggy, and then we’ll toast T-Rex.”

  Sparky and Shooter waved them over to the makeshift bar after Jagger left, and soon had Evie lau
ghing about how the club picked biker road names from events that happened when each biker was a prospect. Road Kill, Rubber, Sweet Cheeks, and Hard On had suffered the most from the Sinners’ collective sense of humor. Executive board members were allowed to use first names when they were elected and Jagger, Zane, Dax, and Cade had taken that option.

  “What’s Zane’s road name?” She hadn’t even thought to ask, just as she hadn’t thought to ask Viper’s real name. Evie made a mental note to ask Arianne, not that she planned to see Viper again, but she still couldn’t understand why she had seen a different side of the man, one that no one else had seen, and why that man had disappeared the night she met him at Riverside Bar.

  “Tracker. ’Cause he can hunt down anything or anyone that’s gone missing.” Gunner, a giant of a man and well-suited to his role as club enforcer, shoved four Tequila Slammers across the bar, and Evie grimaced. Nothing went to her head faster than the fizzy combination of tequila and soda. Exactly what she needed tonight.

  They did two slammers each and then Tank raised his third glass.

  “Here’s to T-Rex.” Tank covered the drink with his hand, slammed it on the counter, then shot it back with one gulp. Beside him, Sparky did the same, and then Shooter followed suit.

  Evie covered her glass, but before she could slam the drink on the counter, a warm, broad hand covered hers, and Zane came up behind her. “I think you’ve had enough.”

  Oh did he now? Evie pressed her lips together and glanced over at Tank with his wide eyes and vigorously shaking head. How utterly humiliating. As if she didn’t know how much she could drink.

  “Okay.” She looked back over her shoulder and forced a smile for the dark, glowering man behind her, arm tensed for the moment he removed his hand.

  Zane grunted his approval and slid his hand up her arm to her shoulder, his touch sending a sensual prickle over her skin. “Maybe we should—”