RIDING DIRTY (Steel Titans MC Book 4)

by Franca Storm

  “I tagged Nolan’s car. The sound you heard is a notification telling me he’s on the move.”

  She looked shocked for a minute. But in the next an actual genuine smile spread over her face. “Very nice.”

  “Quicker than the way you were gonna go about keeping tabs on him, yeah?”

  “And how do you think that was?” she challenged, amusement dancing in her gaze.

  “Hacking into surveillance and traffic camera feeds. Activating any contacts you’ve got in the area. And, maybe, even trying to turn some of his staff with a bribe or a threat to get them to report on his movements. Right on, huh?”

  “Yeah,” she admitted, crossing to me, her eyes dipping to the phone in my hand. “So, where’s he headed?”

  “Ain’t clear yet. I was working on it when you burst on in here.”

  “Well, if you’d told me about this sooner, I wouldn’t have jumped into action when I heard the alert.”

  “Doubt it. You’re jumpy and hella intense right to the core.”

  My gaze darted to my phone screen again and I tensed automatically.

  Willa picked up on it. “You have a suspicion about where he’s headed, don’t you?”

  I drew my eyes from the screen and locked on hers. “Warlow.”

  “The home of the Steel Titans Motorcycle Club.”

  “Right you are, darlin’.”

  She frowned in thought, then started shaking her head. “Why would he risk that? He’d be heading to your stronghold, putting him at a major disadvantage even with his muscle at his back. Not to mention, you coming at him alone made it clear you weren’t acting with the club’s backing, so it stands to reason that he’d already have ruled out you heading back home with things as they currently stand, your mission being incomplete. He’d suspect you’d be laying low somewhere close by.”

  “You’re running with the assumption that he’s thinking logically right now. After what I did to him, all that fear and rage coursing through his system could have sent him off the deep end. People don’t always react rationally. Emotions and shit get the best of them now and then.” My gaze flicked back to my phone and the ball of tension that’d been growing in my gut eased up a bit when I saw Nolan’s path veer away from the straight-run to Warlow. “Like I said, I weren’t certain.”

  “He’s headed away from the club now?”

  “Yeah. There’s one other place nearby, but it made no sense to me why he’d be headed out that way if it weren’t for Titans.”

  “What other place?” she pressed, coming closer.

  “The Strikers MC compound.”

  “It’s abandoned now.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Maybe Nolan’s looking for another stronghold, knowing Indulge has been compromised by you, and sticking it to you at the same time by choosing a place that belonged to Nik Stone.”

  “Nah,” I said, knowing Nolan too well to think he’d go there for that reason alone. Only one other thing made sense. “He’s been called there.”

  “What?”

  I eyed her. “What’s the status on your research into the surviving Strikers MC members?”

  “Well, given that all of that was derailed by you going after Nolan, not complete.”

  “So, nothing’s in motion?”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” she said with a sly smile. “I’ve ruled out most of them being an issue and I have a plan in motion to lead them away from temptation and becoming a problem.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “How the hell can that happen?”

  “I’ve had a contact of mine offer them all lucrative positions in his conglomerate, positions that will take them far away from both Steel Titans and Strikers territory. Their lives will be raised up significantly and they’ll never have to want for anything again.”

  “That’s next-level work there, darlin’.”

  “I’m very good at what I do.” She gave me a look. “As long as I’m given the time to do it.”

  “Look, I never clued you in on Nolan, because I knew you wouldn’t be on board. It ain’t exactly low-profile, covert, or none of that manipulative stuff that you go in for to take care of a threat for your clients. And I already explained why I couldn’t wait on him being dealt with.”

  “All right, let’s let it lie now then.”

  I nodded and got back down to the issue at hand. “Who’s taken up this offer so far out of all of them ex Strikers boys?”

  “All, but two of them.”

  “What’s their names?”

  “Clay Wallis and Blake Freeman.”

  My blood ran cold.

  Adrenaline spiked.

  I couldn’t hide my reaction. It was too damn obvious for sure.

  “What, Slade? What aren’t you telling me? Both of them are rookie-level enforcers. Why do you looked so concerned?”

  Fuck.

  I moved away and grabbed my jeans off the back of the armchair in the corner by the bedroom door. I pulled them on, buckled the belt, then strode out of the room.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” she called, rushing after me.

  I reached the kitchen and opened the top corner cabinet and pulled out the bottle of whiskey in there. I’d just screwed off the top and downed a large burning gulp when she caught up with me.

  “Slade! You don’t just walk away from me when we’re in the middle of a discussion.”

  I took another gulp. “Needed a drink, all right? Chill, woman.”

  She stared at me long and hard. I was expecting her to go off on one again, but I got a surprise when, instead, she snatched the bottle from me and took a swig herself.

  Off my look, she shrugged and told me, “If what you’re about to tell me is that bad, then we’re both going to need something to take the edge off.”

  I took the bottle back from her and downed some more.

  I slumped down onto one of the breakfast bar stools and revealed, “Blake Freeman is Nik’s son.”

  She blinked hard, trying to process it. “He’s… are you sure?”

  “I went to a shitload of trouble to get their DNA for proof, so, yeah, I’m sure. Freeman is his bastard son, a product of Nik and some club whore named Eleanor Freeman. She kept the kid off his radar for years, until the idiot went looking for his old man when he was a teenager. It ended up getting his mom killed, Nik being enraged that he’d had a kid he’d never known. He’d wanted a son to carry on the bloodline and all that, to continue on the club’s legacy. As soon as he found out about him, Nik brought him into the club, took him under his wing, and basically taught him every fucked-up thing he knew.”

  “If that was the intention, why wasn’t the kid a club officer, or in a position of power and significance? He was merely an enforcer, one of Nik’s many.”

  “Because their father-son relationship was toxic. Freeman became a wild card, worse than his old man. And Nik was crazy paranoid that the kid was gonna make a play to take the club right out from under him before he was good and ready to hand it over. So, he kept him down and kept him busy.”

  She nodded, taking my intel in, working quickly to process it.

  “Why didn’t you tell me this immediately? Why wasn’t it in the reports you gave me?”

  “Figured you’d think it made it way too personal for me.”

  “And you thought I wouldn’t work with you?”

  “Well, you ain’t exactly on board with the whole Nolan thing and that’s personal.”

  “My issue with that wasn’t about it being personal. It was the unplanned, unhinged way you took it once you let the personal nature of it impact you and take you over.”

  “Yeah, well, being so intense and controlled for so long ain’t good. It takes a major toll. And, yeah, there’s times when the pressure gets too much and it has you snapping, no matter how hard you try to reel it in.”

  I watched her swallow hard, my words getting to her, and clearly hitting her right where she lived. Interesting.

  Before I could ma
ke much more of it, she steered back to the subject of Freeman, shaking her head in disbelief. “I had no record of this. There is no record of this.”

  “To protect him from Nik, Eleanor kept it off any official records. Nik kept it that way afterward as well, so that Freeman didn’t become a target.”

  “You never told your club?”

  “No.”

  “Why not? If you knew this, you could have used it. You could have taken Freeman out and delivered a debilitating strike to Nik, by extension.”

  “Because, darlin’, that’s next-level darkness right there. Taking out the kid of my enemy to win? It’s fucked. I wasn’t gonna become Nik just to beat him.”

  Seemingly entranced by my words, she stepped right up to me and pressed her hand to my chest, over my heart. Smiling, she said, “So, this is fully-functional then. You’re not actually the merciless, unfeeling bastard that you’ve made yourself out to be.”

  “Looks like. But don’t go spreading it around. Doubt anybody would believe it, but best not to risk it. I can’t have people knowing that.”

  I swallowed hard at the intensity coming off her. Her hand on my chest weren’t helping matters neither. Felt like it was burning right through me, heating my blood. The urge to rise to it, throw her down on the counter and fuck the living shit out of her was hardly contained. It was a hell of a strain to hold it back.

  But I had to. If there ever was gonna be a time, this weren’t it. We had shit to do.

  So, I grasped her wrist and eased it off my chest, telling her, “I gotta give the club a heads up on this. If things go south, they gotta be ready.”

  “It could have a domino effect, Slade,” she warned. “Steel Titans could react and spark a war with Nolan and Freeman.”

  “Nah, Titans won’t act without my word.”

  “Liam West is currently Acting President. He has the authority and the means to take action on a threat like this.”

  “There’s more to it than that. He respects my lead, trusts me. He ain’t gonna screw with that.”

  “What about the situation with Gabriel Clarkson a few months ago?”

  I gritted my teeth at her continuing to question my word. “That was different. He weren’t himself. He’s all good now.”

  She didn’t seem fully convinced, or at ease about it. But she gave a nod anyway, probably realizing it’d be more trouble than it was worth to try to stop me from giving my boys the warning they deserved about what might be coming their way. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll step up my investigative efforts where Freeman is concerned. I’ll also reach out to Ricky.”

  “Just stick to the investigation. Forget about Rick for now.”

  She frowned. “Why would I do that? There’s no closer link to Freeman than him. If anybody can get a handle on what’s going on as quickly as possible, it’s Ricky.”

  I scoffed. “Don’t you see it?”

  “See what?”

  “I’ve had him keeping an eye on this, making sure nobody restarted the Strikers. Now it looks like Freeman is and we ain’t heard shit from him? Don’t sound good, does it?”

  “You think he’s betrayed you? Well, us?”

  “Why ain’t it crossed your mind?”

  “Because he’s a trusted ally.”

  “Yeah, an ally until he ain’t.”

  She shook her head vehemently. “I don’t believe that.”

  I stilled at her words and took her in.

  She was as paranoid as me, maybe even worse, actually. She always accounted for every little thing. There was reason to have doubt here. But she wasn’t questioning it, wouldn’t even allow herself to question it. I could only think of one reason for that.

  Even knowing it was a risk to get near her again because of the pull between us, I couldn’t help stepping up to her in my determination to get to the bottom of this, to hear the words right out of her mouth. This complicated things. She should’ve damn well told me right from the get-go. “You’re fucking him, yeah?”

  She stood her ground like she always did, didn’t move a muscle even with me throwing a good load of my intimidation factor at her, right in close quarters. “We were together once. Very briefly.”

  “Briefly, huh?” I couldn’t help snapping. “I thought more of Rick than being a quickdraw.”

  She rolled her eyes, because, yeah, I weren’t exactly living up to my age right now. “I meant it wasn’t more than a one-night thing.”

  “Taking on this job… is that part of some game plan for you to get another ride on his dick? That it? Your endgame?”

  Her hand came at me so fucking fast that I didn’t see it until it was already delivering a stinging slap across my cheek. The force behind it had my head snapping to the side, a grunt escaping me.

  “How dare you? My personal life is none of your business, nor does it impact this mission. Lock it up right now, you asshole. Am I being clear enough, or do you want to experience what I’m truly capable of?”

  Asshole. Yeah, I was being an asshole. And I didn’t know why. Why did it bother me so much that she’d fucked Rick one time, ages back? I wanted to believe that it was because I was worried about her being in league with him, having his back more than mine, which could end up proving fatal for me and maybe even for my brothers too. But, at the heart of it, I didn’t think that. It didn’t make sense. It was the fucking between them that bothered me. But, thinking about it, it could’ve been anybody she’d been fucking.

  Goddamn it. It weren’t about Rick. It was all about her.

  Knowing that just made everything so much worse.

  My defenses kicked in automatically.

  That familiar wall came up.

  I shut down.

  I couldn’t bring myself to offer up an apology. It would point to where the animosity was coming from. And I couldn’t have that. I had to keep a distance between us. Hell, it weren’t just protecting me, it was in her best interests too. Getting mixed up with me could only ever lead to a death sentence.

  I stepped back from her. “Get a hold of him and see what’s up,” I told her, brushing past her and heading for the kitchen door. “I’m gonna do what I do best. Take care of my club.”

  9

  ~Slade~

  “DELAYED?”

  I gritted my teeth at the suspicious tone in that one word from Liam.

  It was the last thing I needed right now. Things were fucked-up enough as it was. I couldn’t have him becoming another complication to add to the pile of crazy I was already dealing with.

  “Yeah, delayed. I ain’t gonna be back at the club when I thought. You got a problem with that?”

  Unlike normally when I got heavy-handed and he and all the boys backed down right off the bat, doing whatever they could to avoid my bad side emerging, Liam blew right past it, like it’d never been said, asking, “What’s going on, Slade?”

  “Told you already. It ain’t nothing yet. Don’t got proof on it. It’s all just suspicions about Freeman and Nolan right now. All you gotta do is maintain the beefed-up security we got on Titans territory. As soon as I know more, I’ll get the intel right to you. Making a move right now ain’t on the cards. We need more, need confirmation, or we’re gonna be riding right into another war that the club don’t need after everything it’s already been through.”

  “Yeah, I get all that, and I agree. I meant, what’s going on with you, personally speaking?”

  “What you talking about?”

  “Well, first off, you say you just happened to get word about this possible Nolan and Freeman situation, while you’re supposed to be on vacation. Why would you still be tapped into all that if you’re on a break from being Prez? Second, you never gave any details about this apparent vacation of yours and it isn’t exactly like you to take time out in the first place.”

  For a long time, Liam had been hesitant and unsure of himself when it came to taking up the Prez mantle. But after what’d gone down with him when he’d lost it after the hit he’d take
n during our takedown of the Strikers MC, he’d basically rebuilt himself and come out of it all the stronger. Before I’d taken a break from the club to deal with my lingering enemies, I’d stepped up my training with him, pushing and testing him, making damn sure he’d be ready for the promotion to the big, bad leader of the Steel Tians MC. This call with him was proving just how great a job I’d actually done. He’d grown harder, ballsier, and he was bringing a load of resolve and grit to the table now. He was acting like a leader, like me.

  Hell, I was proud of him. But it was also biting me in the ass. He was a smart guy, astute. With his suspicions growing, he wouldn’t just let it lie. Nah, he’d start looking into it, maybe even try to track me down. The phone I was using right now was untraceable and secure, but there were loads of other methods he could call on to get the job done.

  Nah, I couldn’t have that.

  I didn’t want the club brought in on all this bullshit. It was bad enough that I’d had to put them on alert with this potential Nolan and Freeman situation. The club had been through way too much lately. The boys needed a break, needed good things coming their way now. Not all this darkness, danger and pain slamming into them. It was my responsibility anyway, not theirs. These were my enemies that were coming at me for things I’d done. And, with me on my way out, it would be shitty and wrong to call on the brotherhood for my own ends.

  But I had to give Liam something to get him to chill.

  There was only one thing he’d buy. It was a big part of the truth, so I weren’t outright deceiving him.

  “I gotta clear my head. All that bull with Nik, taking down the Strikers, everything with the club… it’s been a lot. It ain’t settled for me yet. I gotta take a step back for a bit and get my head on straight.”

  “I get it. I thought you’d been off lately. Being messed up myself at the time, I’d put it down to me being paranoid.”