by Ali Parker
My father surprised me by laughing. “Ross is a complete ass. I agree.”
“Another toast to Ross, then.” Sabian grinned.
The two men toasted again, and I rolled my eyes. “Enough, you two. Let’s move on from this. It’s literally all anyone wants to talk to me about. I can’t believe how many calls I’ve gotten from family who I haven’t spoken to since my high school graduation.”
“As is the Cooper way,” my father said.
Dinner went more smoothly than I would have ever dreamed. Sabian wowed my parents with his good manners, sarcastic humor, and wise commentaries on love and life. I was proud to be sitting beside him, to say the least. He held himself with confidence, despite being thrust into such a foreign situation to him. My parents seemed not to intimidate him at all—not that I thought they would. I suspected Sabian was a man who was not intimidated by anyone.
I liked that about him.
In fact, I was quickly realizing that I liked (or more than liked, if I was being honest with myself) everything about him. All throughout our meal and the drinks we shared afterward, I found myself getting caught up in him; in watching the way his Adam’s apple bobbed when he took a drink, or how only the right corner of his mouth curled upwards when he was faking amusement. I found myself aching for him to look at me.
Just look at me.
And when he did look, he saw all of me. He would hold my gaze in a way I couldn’t define with words, but I understood with my soul. It was strange, and thrilling, and all together everything I had ever wanted to feel with a man.
He was the kind of man I wanted as my fiancé—my real fiancé.
Maybe he would be willing to keep playing along for a while. Maybe there would be no reason for us to have to put a stop to this. I wasn’t ready to. Spending this kind of time with him was too enjoyable to walk away from. I needed him as badly as I needed air, and I hated how corny the thought sounded in my own mind.
Not to mention there was the added bonus of my parents loving him.
Of course, they thought he was a businessman. They knew nothing of his true nature and that of the people he surrounded himself with. If my mother ever came face to face with Ryder, there was no doubt in my mind she would faint.
The night wound down just after ten o’clock, and my parents walked us to their door. They gave me a hug, and my father shook Sabian’s hand before we left with a wave and stepped onto the elevator.
I shot Sabian an approving look as we began descending. “A stellar performance yet again. Oscar worthy, in my opinion.”
Sabian chuckled as he unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt and rolled them up to his elbows again. Then he popped open the top two buttons at his throat. I nearly jumped his bones right then and there in the swankiest condo elevator in New York City.
I resisted, but only by a hair.
The drive back to my place was strenuous on my body. An ache that I knew all too well had formed below my belly and was screaming at me to make a move. Sabian was sitting beside me with one hand resting on my knee. He was being polite, I assumed, and his eyes scanned the busy streets as we rode along until we pulled up at my apartment building.
The driver opened the door for us, and we slid out.
Sabian walked me to the front door of the building.
I turned on my heel, nearly careening into him. He caught me by the elbow as I braced myself with both hands flat against his chest. I looked up at him and breathed in the musky scent of his cologne. My knees threatened to give out on me.
“Would you like to come up?” I asked.
The smirk that touched his lips did me in. I threw my arms around his neck and pressed myself tightly against him as I sealed my lips over his. His hands wandered down to grip my waist. He held me in his strong hands and pulled me into him before reaching down to cup my ass. A low sound in the back of his throat told me that yes, he would like to come up.
As we continued to kiss, I fumbled to try to get my keys out of my purse.
Then his cell phone rang.
Sabian let out an irritated growl as he broke away from our kiss and checked his phone.
“What?” he barked.
The deepness and the irritation in his voice turned me on more. He was pissed to be taken away from our moment.
Good God, what had I done to deserve him?
I watched as his eyes narrowed and his eyebrows drew together. I was instantly reminded of the way he had looked earlier in the evening when he was waiting for me on the bench.
Something was wrong.
Chapter 17
Sabian
“Slow down,” I said as Jax’s panicked voice filled the phone. “Where are you?”
He told me he was at Ryder’s. His voice shook, and I heard him swallow.
“I’ll be right there,” I said, and I hung up the phone.
I met Angela’s eyes. They were wide and worried and flicking back and forth between mine as she clutched her purse anxiously to her chest. “You have to go?” she asked.
I nodded. “I’m sorry. I do.”
“You’re sure you can’t stay just for a drink or two?”
“I’m sure.” I cupped her cheek and gave her a quick kiss. Her lips tried to follow me as I backed away. “I’m sorry, Ang. I’ll catch up with you later.”
I turned and didn’t look back. I jogged across the garden to my car parked at the curb. I didn’t bother with my seatbelt. I didn’t bother with anything that delayed my departure from the Upper East Side or the rest of the drive to Ryder’s house.
That included red lights. I blew through three of them in the course of five minutes. I had a close call with a white minivan that had me white-knuckling the steering wheel and muttering a stream of curses out the window.
I felt sick. Really sick. Jax had sounded unlike himself, and I knew something serious had happened. My imagination was running wild, and all I could think about was whether or not everyone was alive.
And if they weren’t, who drew the short straw?
Nausea and panic rolled through me, and sweat beaded on my forehead. The feeling was terribly familiar, and I wracked my brain trying to remember the last time I had felt so fucking awful.
It didn’t take long to recall the anxiety, terror, and crippling grief I suffered the night my brother was killed.
I stepped on the gas pedal and raced through another red light. Car horns blared around me. Fuck them all. They could carry on with their vanilla lives, driving to and from the office, worrying about their mundane problems. I had a real crisis unfolding before me. I needed to get to my MC.
When I pulled up to Ryder’s house, I left my car parked half in the driveway and half on the sidewalk. I didn’t care if I got a ticket. There was no other place to leave the car as the drive was filled with other vehicles. I spotted Jax’s truck, as well as Axel’s. A sense of relief flooded through me.
At least I wouldn’t have to tell Angela her brother had been killed.
I strode through the front door and drew up short in the living room.
Everyone was sitting down. Ryder was in his seat beside the TV, which was on mute but playing a re-run of a cage fight from earlier in the week. To my right was Jax, who was sitting in the corner of the sofa. His knee was bouncing furiously, and he didn’t even look up at me as I locked eyes with Ryder.
He held my gaze, and I felt everyone else in the room turn to look at me.
Axel, Caleb, Derek, Jax, me, and Ryder. There was only one of us missing.
I leaned sideways against the back of the sofa. Jax was still staring straight ahead, and I could feel the sofa shaking from his persistent knee bouncing.
Ryder was still staring at me. My mouth had gone dry, and my fingertips were tingling. The room was full of a sense of heaviness, and I knew it for what it was.
Confusion. Loss. Grief.
Anger.
I finally found my voice, and when I spoke, Jax flinched, apparently completely unaware that I had arrived.<
br />
“Where’s Hyde?” I asked.
They all turned to me, but no one spoke a word. Ryder’s eyes remained fixed on me as I took another step into the room. For the first time in a long time, Ryder didn’t say anything about me standing on his carpet in my dirty boots. When his mother owned the house, she used to go after us with a temper that scared the holy hell out of me if we didn’t take our shoes off at the door.
“Where the hell is he?” I asked. I hated how weak my voice sounded, how scared I sounded. I forced myself to swallow and took a slow, deep breath. As I exhaled, I closed my eyes. The darkness behind my eyelids offered a brief reprieve from the reality that had just befallen me; the reality that one of my friends was probably gone. One of my brothers.
“Somebody fucking answer me,” I breathed, opening my eyes to look hard at Ryder. “Now.”
Ryder got to his feet, and the already silent room somehow became even quieter. My hands balled into fists at my sides, and my nails bit into my palms as I braced myself for whatever words were about to come out of his mouth.
But when his lips parted, no words came out. Ryder’s face contorted into a snarl of rage, and he put his back to me. He lifted a hand to his brow, and I noticed that he was shaking.
When Axel stood from his place on the sofa beside Jax, he commanded the attention of all of us. I faced him, and we locked eyes. His expression was calm, neutral, and impossible to read. He was compartmentalizing, I realized, and as he started speaking I wondered how he was able to keep it together so well. It was as if he were reading the ingredients on the back of a pasta sauce label.
“Dani got a call earlier tonight about a homicide. She called Ryder from the crime scene and let him know that it was Hyde.”
Even though I had been expecting this revelation, the words still hit me like a kick to the gut.
“Where?” I asked, my voice only an octave above a whisper.
“About a hundred feet into the trees behind the old shop,” he said evenly.
My teeth were clenched so hard my jaw ached. “Don’t make me ask any more questions. Just tell me the whole of it.”
Axel nodded his understanding. “It took a while to get any of the details. Dani called just after Jax called you. It’s still fresh for all of us, so keep your head on, all right?”
I nodded once. It was all I could manage.
“Hyde was beaten to death with a blunt object. It looks like he was killed there in the woods. His body hadn’t been moved. Dani said there are signs that he fought back. There were also signs that he was brought there and did not arrive of his own free will. They’re going to do an autopsy, but Dani doubts we will get any answers from it. She thinks he was killed with a baseball bat, and she suspects there were at least four attackers.”
Jax moved over as I swayed on my feet, and I sank down into the corner spot he had just vacated. I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees, then buried my face in my hands. “When does she think it happened?”
“Not long ago. Maybe two hours, tops.”
I glanced at the clock ticking away on the wall above the television. If Dani’s estimation was correct, which it probably was given her expertise, Hyde had been murdered while I was charading around as Angela’s fiancé and sipping wine with her parents.
“There’s more,” Axel said.
“Of course there is,” I growled.
“There was a note left beside his body. Here.” Axel handed me his phone. There was a picture on the screen. “Dani read it aloud to us. It’s evidence now so she knew we wouldn’t be able to get our hands on it.”
I found myself looking down at a snapshot of a crumpled piece of paper. It was speckled in blood, and the writing was neat and slanted:
It has not been fun watching you all run around like free men while TJ rots in a prison cell. Be warned, Lost Breed. I am coming for you, and I will swallow you up, one by one, until all that remains of you is your legacy of violence, crime, and death. Mark my words, Johnny Moretti. This is the end of all of you.
I handed the phone back to Axel. “So the cops are going to come knocking,” I said.
Axel nodded and sat back down on the sofa. “I would expect so.”
I looked around at the others. Caleb and Derek were on the opposite sofa, and neither of them would look up to meet my eye. Grief was written clear as day on their faces, and I doubted they would be able to speak a word if they tried. Jax was stiff beside me, still bouncing his knee. Axel was calm and watching Ryder, who still had his back to us.
“Ryder,” I said, my voice firm now.
He didn’t respond to me. Instead, he rubbed his forehead furiously.
“Ryder,” I said again, and this time, my tone was not so friendly.
He turned over his shoulder. “What?”
“Are we not going to talk about the fact that this note mentions TJ?” I asked. “This is the fucking Black Hearts all over again. I warned you. I warned all of you that this shit wasn’t done with. In that house, when it was all over, TJ told us that everything had already been set in motion, and we brushed it under the rug because it was easier to ignore it and carry on with our fucking bullshit routine rather than bring the fight to them. Now Hyde is dead.”
Ryder let out a low growl and took a step toward me. “You have an issue with my leadership?”
I got to my feet as well and heard Jax suck in a warning breath beside me. Damn them all. Damn myself. I didn’t care about any of it. “What leadership?”
Ryder took a menacing step forward, and I matched it with one of my own. He pointed an accusing finger at my chest, and I could see the fire burning in his eyes. He was holding onto his rage, but only barely. “After everything I’ve done for you, you have the balls to—”
“Yeah,” I bit back. “I do. I’m indebted to you, Ryder. We all are. But that doesn’t mean I can’t call a spade a spade. We fucked up. And this time, it cost one of our lives. What are you going to do about it?”
All heads in the room turned to our leader. He was motionless under our gazes and my scrutiny. “You think I’ve done a shit job?”
I didn’t answer him.
Ryder shook his head and laughed. There was no hint of amusement in the sound. It was cold. “What was I supposed to do, Sabian? Things are changing. There was more at stake than just our necks. Things are changing in the MC. I couldn’t risk the lives of Dani or Ellie. Or Holly or Jamie. I’m making decisions that impact families now. Children.”
“We should have finished them when we had them on their knees,” I growled.
Jax stood behind me and clasped a hand on my shoulder. “This isn’t helping anyone.”
I yanked myself out of his grip. “Answer me, Ryder. What the fuck are we going to do?”
Ryder drew himself to his full height and pushed his shoulders back. He lifted his chin and looked me in the eye. The anger was still burning fiercely, but I knew the rage wasn’t directed at me. “We let the police find the guilty party,” Ryder said. “And then when we have their names and we know their faces, we kill them.”
I nodded. “I’ll be ready.”
“This stays between us six,” Ryder said. It was strange to hear him say six instead of seven. “Do what is best for your families and your loved ones to keep them out of this. It’s going to get messier before it gets better.”
Axel and I shared a look.
“I won’t see her,” I said, and I meant it. If I had to push Angela away to keep her safe, I wouldn’t hesitate. Things with the Black Hearts needed to get sorted before I even considered seeing Axel’s sister again. I had to keep her away from this at all costs.
“Good.” Axel nodded.
Caleb and Derek both stood and engaged in the conversation for the first time since I arrived. Derek ran his hands down the front of his jeans. “I’m going to go to Hyde’s folks’ place. They’ll have heard from the cops by now, but I want to make sure they’re all right. Offer them the support of the Lost Breed.”
<
br /> Ryder nodded his approval. “Send our condolences. Tell them we will cover all funeral expenses.”
“I’ll come with you,” Caleb offered.
Derek accepted, and the two of them headed to the door.
“Hey,” Ryder called after them. They both paused and turned back. “Keep your heads on a fucking swivel. It’s not safe for any of us right now. Tell the others what happened. But remember, the six of us are handling this. No one else.”
Derek and Caleb left the four of us standing in Ryder’s living room. Ryder was glaring daggers at me.
“Get the fuck out of my house,” he spat.
I didn’t have to be told twice. I turned and left, and as I made my way down the driveway to my car, I could hear Ryder arguing with Jax, who was no doubt trying to defend me and my big mouth. I’d been in hot water with Ryder before. I could get away with saying things to him that the others couldn’t simply because of our history. To him, I was my brother, and I filled those shoes now. I would never shy away from speaking my mind.
I ripped open my car door and paused with my other hand resting on the hood. I let out a furious yell as I wound back and drove my fist through the rear window. The glass shattered, and a couple shards imbedded themselves between my knuckles.
I slid into the driver’s seat and reversed out of the driveway like a madman, tires squealing, and peeled off down the street, the bloody pieces of glass in my hand catching the light of the streetlights above.
Chapter 18
Angela
I had been gnawing the inside of my bottom lip for the last fifteen minutes so intently that my mouth now tasted of blood.
Sabian had ignored my last three calls. After he left my house in such a hurry on Wednesday, I figured it would be wise to give him some time to sort through whatever had happened. I was worried, naturally, but I didn’t want to overstep and inject myself into a situation that was none of my business. Sabian could handle himself.
I hoped.
But after two days of hearing nothing from him and not being able to get through to him, my worry had changed into genuine concern.