by Jani Kay
The boys were playing pool, some hanging by the bar, others around the dartboard, as if nothing unusual was happening. A few women were chatting away on the couches, holding their kids on their laps.
Thank fuck. All those drills in the past had paid off. Everyone was acting as if this was just any Sunday night at the clubhouse. I swallowed hard. Fuck, I loved these people.
Harrison nodded toward the rooms. “Open every door. We won’t rest till we find the girls. I know they’re here. The sooner they come out, the better for everyone. I’ll tear this place to fucking pieces if I have to.”
I believed him. Rage was radiating in waves from every pore in his body.
I just hoped that Ratbag got it right.
Chapter 18 ~ Ryder
My heart nearly jumped out of my chest.
“Hello, cousin. Fancy seeing you here.” Lexi’s sultry voice behind me sent goosebumps scattering across my skin. Jesus fucking Christ. Why was she still here?
“Lexi,” Harrison growled, “Where’s Jade? Is she still in the bathroom?” His gaze went to the door from which Lexi had just emerged.
“Nah, she went home ages ago. Jade and me had a huge fight. As usual. She stormed out of here, saying she’d never go anywhere with me again. Sorry, Cuz,” she looked at him from under her lashes, all apologetically, as if she knew she’d done wrong.
“Jade’s left? How come I didn’t know that? This place is under surveillance 24/7.” Smirking, he grinned at me. “Yeah, just in case you didn’t know,” he said, a clear warning in his tone.
“Yeah, I convinced her to come to the barbeque with me. You know, after what happened with Marcus, I thought she should get out a bit. So I dragged her here. Then we had a fight, and she went home. Probably sulking in her room now.”
Harrison dialed a number on his phone. Smart fucker. My hands were clammy as I fisted them by my sides, my heart racing, pumping adrenaline through my body.
“Jade? Where the fuck are you?” he barked down the phone.
I watched the expression on his face soften as he heard her voice. Yes, I wanted to know too. Where the fuck was Jade? Ratbag was nowhere to be seen.
Harrison closed his phone and instructed his second-in-charge to call back his troops.
One of the women piped up. “Oh yeah, Ratbag took Jade home ages ago. She said she had a stomachache.”
I swallowed hard. Ratbag must’ve taken her out the secret back way. While I was relieved that she was safe and that we’d avoided a bloodbath here tonight, I didn’t want her at home and so far away from me.
“Lexi, you’re coming home with me. Get your stuff. Let’s go.”
“OK. But only because I was ready to go anyway. I got a bit too much sun today, and I’m tired. But Harrison?”
He cocked his head. “Yeah?”
“I’m a grown woman. And I work here. It’s my job to be here. This is how I earn my rent. You have to respect that. OK?”
“Find another job, Lexi. You aren’t coming back here, sweetheart.” He turned to me. “Consider this Lexi’s resignation. She just quit her fucking bar job.”
Harrison placed his gun back into its holster and took her by the arm. “Jade’s in her room, reading, as you predicted. I’ll have a talk with her tomorrow about coming here. Neither you nor Jade will put a foot in this place again. Are we clear, little cousin?”
Lexi nodded. “Let me just get my stuff,” she said as she wriggled free of Harrison’s hand on her and went behind the bar to get her purse.
I saw Razor go after her. I had to distract Harrison.
“You said your sister is safely at home?” I quirked an eyebrow, keeping my voice as neutral as possible.
“Yeah. And she’s never coming here again. Of that, I will make one hundred percent certain.”
Watching the last of the cops filter out of the clubhouse, I smirked. “Well, you guys can stop snooping and watching us. We can take care of our own.”
“Yeah? Like the raid by the LA Demons? Getting him shot?” He nodded his head toward Cobra. “You think you’re safe? I’ve got news for you. You delve into criminal activities, you’re never safe. I’ll give my last breath to ensure that. Consider this a friendly warning. Next time I come here, I will rip this fucking place apart. Got that?”
My fists balled by my sides. Self-righteous prick. “I hope our paths don’t cross again anytime soon. I don’t know if I can reel it in enough not to punch your smug face and make you bleed,” I retorted. Fuck this shit.
Why the hell did Jade have to have a brother who was a fucking cop? Especially one out for vengeance? But that wasn’t going to stop me.
No, it only made me more determined to fight for her. Our worlds may have been colliding, but I knew what I wanted: Jade.
I wasn’t letting anything tear us apart. None of this bullshit was going to stand in my way because I had no other choice—Jade was the woman for me. I knew that now. I didn’t want to be in this world if it was without her.
So bring it on. I was ready to fight for my Princess till my last breath.
Fuck yeah.
Chapter 19 ~ Jade
“Sis. Would your planning to move out have anything to do with the Scorpio Stinger MC? And in particular a man named Ryder Knox?”
I sucked in a breath. Jesus. How did he know?
“Where did you get that idea?” I was trying to buy time. I had to find out how much my brother knew before I gave him an answer. Maybe he was just guessing. Growing up in a house with an attorney for a father and a cop for a brother had schooled me well in the art of interrogation. And now that I was a qualified lawyer myself, I used those tricks to my own advantage. Always answer a question with a question. It worked every time.
“I have my informants. Plus, I know you’ve been on the back of his bike. Dad told me about the night with Marcus. I must say, as much as I hate bikers, I kind of owe him one for saving you from that scumbag.” Harrison’s jaw and fists were clenched tightly. His protective instincts were in high gear. I had to use this to my advantage.
“Yeah, can you believe what Marcus did? So when Ryder appeared out of nowhere, it was like my savior arrived on a shiny metal horse. At the time, it was the best option.” I shrugged, trying to play it down. I didn't want Harrison sniffing around Ryder.
“OK, I get that. But you should’ve taken a taxi straight home. Not gone off for the night with a biker boy. After The Incident, I didn't think you’d ever do such a thing, Jade.” His voice was stern, and a deep frown furrowed his brow. I hated seeing him so glum.
“Harrison, that was a long time ago. We have to let go of those bad memories and move on with our lives. We can't let what happened ten years ago still cloud our lives and our future.”
He groaned as he sank back in the chair and closed his eyes. I knew his pain was still there, but he had to let the scab grow over it so that it could finally heal. Keeping the wound raw only meant it would never get any better.
I placed my hand on his arm, stroking gently. “The bikers who killed Amy and the others were all apprehended and served their sentences. They have done their time. But you, living like this—you’re the one still serving time.”
His eyes flew open and he sat forward, grabbing my wrist and twisting till it hurt.
“Don’t say that, Sis. I can't ever let it go. That would mean I’ve let Amy and her memory down.” He paused for a beat, clearly lost in his thoughts. Raw pain flickered in his eyes. He swallowed hard before he continued, his voice sadder than I'd heard it in a long time. “I never told you this, because you were too young: Amy was seven weeks pregnant. We were going to tell our parents a week later. I was going to marry her.”
“Oh God, Harrison, why haven’t you ever told me before? Now I understand your pain so much better. Her death was a terrible thing. But the baby—” I slapped my hand over my mouth. Finally I was getting why Harrison carried so much hatred toward bikers and MC clubs, and refused to let it go.
His shoulders slump
ed as he leaned forward, his head in his hands. “All of that was taken from me. By bikers with illegal guns. I can never let that go. I will hunt fuckers like them down, and stop that from happening to anyone else,” he ranted, his pain in his eyes.
“That’s noble of you, Harrison. I get where you’re coming from. But Amy—she would never have wanted you to suffer this much and for this long. She’d want you to be happy—even without her. That’s how much she loved you.”
He ran a hand through his hair, despair evident on his face. “There isn’t a day that passes that I don’t think about her, about what could’ve been . . . you’re probably right in saying that Amy would’ve wanted me to move on, but it’s not that simple.”
I rubbed slowly up and down his arm. “You’re not going to like what I’m going to say to you now. But just hear me out.” I took a deep breath. Giving my older brother advice wasn’t something I’d done before—especially about matters of the heart. But seeing him still hurting this badly, made my heart squeeze. “Maybe there is someone else out there for you. Someone who can bring you happiness.”
Waiting with bated breath for his reaction, my heart pounded in my ears. Had I gone too far?
Harrison shook his head. “I doubt I can even allow myself to love again. It’s just too painful. And if something ever happened to you, I don’t think I’d be able to cope with that. That’s why you have to promise me to stay away from the biker guy. It can't work out—you’re from two completely different worlds. I don’t want to see you get hurt, but even worse, if he so much as damages a hair on your head, I’ll be after him. And it won't be pretty.”
“You’re my big brother, and you care about me—I get that. But you can't stop me from seeing who I want to. I'm a big girl now. If I want to see Ryder . . .”
“So you are seeing him then!” he barked.
Damn. I walked straight into that one. Harrison outwitted me after all by catching me off-guard. He grabbed my upper arms and shook me. “Jade. Have you forgotten what kind of people they are? That they kill innocent people? How could you?”
“It’s not like that,” I retorted, annoyed that he was jumping to conclusions before knowing the story. “I’ve known Ryder for a while now. Yes, his background is different to mine, but that doesn’t make him a bad person. It merely means we are different in some ways. But we are both humans, with the same wants and desires. Besides, I’m not dating him, so calm down.”
“Calm down? Shit, Jade, I’ve got news for you. Ryder Knox and his little gang are on my radar. The shooting that went down a few months ago? That was based on illegal guns being shipped around. The same kind of guns that killed Amy and my friends back then, and that still kill innocent people every day now. I will bring those motherfuckers down, even if it costs me my life.”
I jumped up, my hands on my hips, and stared at my brother through narrowed eyes. “For a smart man, you’re so damn stubborn. Like Ryder said, even the law gives him more credit than we do, by believing he is innocent till proven guilty,” I huffed.
Harrison shook his head. “Fuck me. It’s worse than I’d thought. What? You’re quoting a biker now? Jesus, Jade, what’s gotten into you? I think I need to hunt that fucker down and put an end to this shit before it gets out of hand. You’re going nowhere near Biker Boy again. Are we clear? I’ll arrest him, and throw his fucking ass into jail if you don’t listen to me.”
“On what grounds?”
”You don’t realize I have a whole fucking file on the Scorpio Stinger MC and their rivals. I can dig up dirt and make it stick. And I will if you don’t stay away. You have no fucking idea what you’re getting into. These bikers are criminals. They deal in illegal guns, and drugs, and extortion.” A vein ticked in his neck. His lips were drawn into a thin line as he stared at me through narrowed eyes. It’s not pretty. And I won't allow you to be any part of that shit. Do. You. Understand?”
Blood rushed to my head and anger swirled in my gut. “Just because Ryder had a tough upbringing doesn’t make him a goddamn criminal. You can't generalize like that.”
Harrison’s fists clenched and unclenched. The frown between his eyes deepened. “OK. I wasn’t going to tell you this . . .” He closed his eyes for a few seconds. When he opened them, they were hard and calculating. “Ryder killed a man. His own father, no less, when he was only a kid of eleven.” His voice had a hard edge I couldn’t ignore. ”That just smells like trouble. He was in juvie for years. That’s how he got tangled up with the Scorpio Stinger MC. And now he’s their VP. Come-on Sis, even you know what all of that means.”
Harrison wouldn’t lie to me.
All the blood drained from my face as I went cold.
“Yeah, I can see Ryder omitted to tell you about his childhood. Killing a man is a big deal. And he did it in cold blood, and had no remorse after. That makes him a psycho killer. Dangerous. Like fuck am I letting him anywhere near my little sister.”
“Harrison!”
“Do you hear me Jade? Over my fucking dead body are you hooking up with a biker. I’ll kill him with my bare hands if he touches you.”
Chapter 20 ~ Ryder
For the first time since meeting Cobra that fateful day in juvenile detention, I wanted to kill him. I’d never have believed that this day would come. But it had. Cobra was staring me down, anger seething from his pores. In his neck, a thick vein protruded and throbbed, and a grim expression was on his face.
“Look, I'm mad as hell at Mia for inviting Jade in the first place. But Mia didn't know about the connection with her cop brother. But you, Ryder . . . you could have stopped it all from happening. I don’t appreciate the fucking cops showing up at the compound. It could’ve turned nasty. For fuck’s sake, we had old ladies and kids here.” He closed his eyes for a minute. When he opened them again, pain was etched across his face. “I have nothing against Jade as a person. But I can never allow the bloodshed and loss of our family again on my watch.”
“I know, brother. This is on me, not you.”
He scrubbed a big hand over his face. Cobra looked tired. All of this had taken a toll on him—the shootout, him nearly dying, Mia losing the baby, the cop raid last night. He looked older than his thirty-six years.
“I tossed and turned all night about this. And I’ve come to a decision. Neither Jade nor Lexi can ever come to the compound again. It’s too fucking risky. And I'm all done with taking risks where my family’s lives are involved.”
The blood drained from my face. “What are you saying, Cobra?” I snarled. My gut turned upside down—I knew what was coming, and I didn't like it one bit.
“I’m saying that you should forget about that woman. I’ll deal with Razor and Ox about Lexi. But now, I’m telling you—brother to brother—that you should walk away from Jade while you still can, and before it brings more shit to the club.”
I shook my head. Had I heard right? Cobra was telling me in no uncertain terms to end it with Jade? Fuck.
“Cobra. You don’t know what you are asking, man.” Sweat formed on my brow, and I felt a trickle run down my back. Cobra didn't understand. Give up Jade? I was beyond that stage. The realization hit me with full force, making my knees so weak that I had to grip the ends of his desk to keep myself standing upright. My knuckles were white as I held on, my brain in a whirl.
“I'm fully aware of what I’m asking. I'm asking that you sacrifice pussy for the club. It’s always been an easy decision for you, Ryder. A no-brainer. Why the resistance now?”
“Well—this time it’s different. Because Jade isn’t just pussy to me. She’s my bitch. My woman. I fucking love her. Yeah.” There: I’d finally declared it, to my boss and president no less. Finally, I was able to formulate all those crazy feelings into words.
Cobra’s eyes widened and his skin went ashen. He slammed a fist on the table.
“Fuck. Why her, Ryder? Of all the fucking bitches in the world . . . It can't work, brother. You’re from different worlds. She’s the rich bitch, and yo
u’re the bad biker. Do I fucking need to remind you of that?”
“Christ, Cobra, do you think I chose this? Do you think I wanted to love the snarky bitch that pushes all my buttons—good and bad? No. I didn't choose it. It chose me. My fucking heart can't be told who to love and who not to love. It fucking is what it is, brother.”
I sank into the chair, spearing my fingers through my hair. This was as fucked up as it could get. Cobra telling me to let go of Jade. Did he fucking know what he was asking of me?
I hung my head, letting it rest on my chest as I closed my eyes. Anything. I would do anything for Cobra, anything for my brothers and the Scorpio Stinger MC.
Anything, but this.
Because fuck me, now that I’d tasted the love of a woman as sweet as Jade, I wanted more of it. Cobra could not be asking me to give up this one thing I wanted more than my next breath.
Cobra cleared his throat. “As your president, I'm asking you, Ryder. I'm asking for all the lives of your brothers, past and present. Let Jade go. You know there can come no good of it. You know it’s fucked. It will lead to bloodshed. You know.”
I jumped up from the chair. Fuck. I needed to punch something—anything. I slammed one fist into the wall, then another. It hurt like fuck, but it was nothing like the pain of my heart that was breaking in two. I'd waited all my life to feel like this. Since the day Marianne had left, and never come back. Since when first the emptiness, and then the hatred had filled my heart. And now that I’d finally found my woman, Cobra was forbidding it?
“Cobra. You’re my brother. I love you as if you were my own flesh and blood. Because to me, you are. But what you’re asking—it’s impossible. Jade is a part of me I don’t want to live without. She’s what makes all the years of pain and torment worthwhile. Because I now understand that I had to go through all of that to get to her, so that I could understand what a special gift it is, to be given a love like that. And you, of all people, should know how it feels. Imagine me asking you to give up Mia.”