by Franca Storm
Slade was a flight risk. Not just because of what had happened a few hours ago, but because he wasn’t the type of person who could handle being benched very well. He was a ticking timebomb in that respect. Also, he’d gone off half-cocked with his whole ill-advised attempted takedown on Adrian Nolan, so it was just smart to assume that it could easily happen again. So I’d put safeguards in place. One of them was the ability to track him wherever he went. The first night we’d come here, right after he’d gone to take a shower, I’d taken the opportunity to plant a tracker in his motorcycle boot. I’d also made the decision not to have his bike transported up here. It was still parked in the lot of that cheap, shitty motel he’d been staying at.
I shook my head to myself. Maybe it was better this way, with this wall between us. I’d thought that tearing that down would have made it easier for us to work together, all the harshness and defensiveness falling away. But I’d made a mistake. Letting him in threatened to undermine me, my stability, my levelheadedness, and my conviction. He’d hit a nerve with all his talk about my situation, his warnings about what will happen if I don’t call it quits.
It was because I knew he was right.
I was holding on by the skin of my teeth.
Whenever I closed my eyes, blood, death, and pain took hold of me. I couldn’t relax, couldn’t let my guard down. Last night had been the first time in ages and that had invited disastrous complications.
But, at the same time, I was good at what I did. Hell, I was the best. Maybe, I was also a little bit addicted to it. The adrenaline rush. Kicking ass. The power I lauded over people, the control I wielded. The fact that I made a difference and helped people.
What the hell would I do in its place? Where would I be without Shadow? I knew that I couldn’t just walk and delve into retirement. I had to be something, someone. I couldn’t stand the idea of being… nothing.
One thing at a time.
I had two very complicated missions ahead of me.
I needed to keep my eye on the ball, then and only then would I deal with everything else.
I pulled my phone from the back pocket of my jeans. I’d been waiting on a call for a while now. I had been firing off shots for the last hour, so it was possible I hadn’t heard the notification come in. As I swiped open my phone, I saw that the notion had just been wishful thinking. Dammit.
Where the hell was Ricky? What was taking him so long? Was something, or someone, preventing him from getting back to me? Was he in trouble? Or, had Slade been right? Had he turned?
No, I wouldn’t believe that. Rick Vale had always been an ally to me. He’d proven himself time and time again. Moreover, I knew that he wouldn’t do anything to put me in danger, to hurt me like that, or screw me over. Although I didn’t feel the same way, I knew that he had an affinity for me. He was aware of where I stood on the matter and he’d taken the rejection like a champ. But the feelings were still there on his end nevertheless.
At least I’d gotten confirmation from my other contact. Clay Wallis, the remaining former Strikers MC member outside of Blake Freeman had taken the job offer, and he’d already relocated to start his new life away from his problematic and pitiful former one and anybody connected to it. It meant that Freeman hadn’t been able to recruit a single surviving former member of the Strikers MC to his cause. And I wouldn’t believe that Ricky had been the exception to that.
I was just about to stow my phone back in my pocket when it started ringing. I took note of the caller ID.
Rick Vale.
Finally.
Hoping it was good news and that I’d been right about his loyalties, I swiped to answer and spoke cautiously, “Shadow.”
His voice came harsh and rushed down the line, demanding, “Did Slade go after Nolan?”
I stilled, then responded evasively, “Why do you ask?”
“Adrian Nolan has made contact with Blake. The only thing the two of them have got in common is a dangerous enemy. Slade. Nolan was keeping quiet, not actively going up against Titans, because he knows the price of starting a war like that. He’s a businessman and war ain’t good for profits and all that. The only thing that could’ve shifted his priorities is if Slade made a move.”
Okay, the jig was up. Time to lay it out there and get down to it. “There was an attempt on Nolan’s life, yes.”
“Shame it was just an attempt. Jesus.”
“Where are they now?”
“Nolan’s come down to him at the abandoned Strikers MC compound.”
“You’re absolutely sure about this, that Blake Freeman is at that compound, and that he and Nolan are together?”
“Of course. You want proof? How about the fact that I saw it with my own eyes? Saw Nolan and his army of suited bodyguards walk in here. Saw Blake shake his hand—well, the one that weren’t fucked up and bandaged—and lead him into Nik’s old office that the kid’s commandeered as his own now.”
I frowned. “You’re telling me that you’re with Freeman?”
“Yeah. How else do you think I have this intel? As soon as I got wind about the kid trying to bring the club back to life, I made him believe I was on board. I’m a goddamn double agent.”
“That’s incredibly risky. We could’ve found another way.”
“It woulda taken too long and we never woulda known about Blake’s activities. This early, we still got a shot of stopping it before it gets too far.”
Shit. “You’ve done enough, pull out now, I’ll take it from here.”
“I can’t be doing that, sweetheart. We need more details to be able to act in a way that ain’t gonna get us all nabbed by the law, or fucking well killed.”
“You’re on borrowed time.”
“Well aware. It is what it is.”
“Ricky—”
“Willa, I shoulda got out long ago, but I didn’t. Missed my window. It means there’s only one way shit’s gonna end for me. At least I can do some good before I go out.”
“No. It’s never too late,” I countered. “Get out and come to me. I’ll protect you.”
He chuckled down the line, but it lacked humor. “I’m willing to bet you’ve already got your hands full with Slade. He don’t exactly take well to being under somebody’s protection. Lisa tried and it didn’t go down well.”
“What do you mean?”
“She gave herself over to Nik to protect Slade. Of course, Slade wouldn’t stand for that, so he went after her. Nik lost it, thinking he’d finally got the woman he’d wanted for so long, only to have it about to be ripped away by Slade. He couldn’t have her, so he wasn’t willing to let anybody else have her. When Slade got there, he killed her, right in front of him.”
“Oh my God,” I breathed.
“Yeah, that old bastard was pretty fucking dark. It got worse as he got older and more bitter.”
“I’m aware.”
“Believe it, or not, his son is another level of that.”
The sound of footsteps crunching nearby had me spinning around sharply.
I was more than a little caught off guard—a sensation I absolutely abhorred—to see that Slade had managed to approach me so quietly that he was only a couple of feet out. Jeez, the guy was good.
He held out his hand demandingly. “Hand me the phone.”
“Slade—”
“Don’t start, woman. Just hand me the goddamn phone. Let me talk to him.”
I hesitated for a couple of moments, then Ricky spoke down the line, obviously hearing our exchange in the background. “Hand it over, sweetheart. He’s a stubborn ass. He ain’t gonna let it go. Do yourself a favor, yeah?”
“Devil spawn,” I muttered as I closed the distance between us and shoved the phone into Slade’s hand.
He smirked. “Hell bitch.”
He shifted the phone in his hand, then surprised me by putting it on speakerphone mode and holding it between us. He was sharing, not trying to cut me out of it like I’d thought.
“Rick?” he spoke
, that deep, gravelly voice of his so commanding and forceful in just that one word.
“Yeah, Prez.”
The sarcasm in Ricky’s response wasn’t lost on Slade. But he merely rolled his eyes, then blew right past it, keeping his focus on the situation at hand. “Shut down all that bullshit of yours and open your ears, fucker.”
“I’m listening,” Ricky relented.
Slade shifted his weight, then said, “You ain’t sacrificing yourself. Your time ain’t up yet to go out in a blaze of fucking glory. So get your ass to this safe house right the hell now. You don’t and I guess I’m just gonna have to send Willa down there to drag you back here. That’ll put her in a shitload of danger, which, from how you feel about her, I’m guessing you don’t want. So get up here and bring that truck of yours. I need you to pick my bike up on the way. It’s at the motel I was staying at. I’ll text you the address. You got me?”
There was a brief pause down the line, which had me tensing.
Then Ricky’s voice sounded again, “Fine. I’m on my way.”
“Good. Hurry your ass up,” Slade said.
He hung up before Ricky could say another word and handed the phone back to me. “There. It’s handled.” His gaze darted behind me at the targets in the distance. “Go back to what you were doing. You ain’t gonna get in a solid shot if your head ain’t clear.”
“It still isn’t,” I blurted out, before I could stop myself.
He stilled and eyed me curiously. “Yeah? Why’s that?”
It was beyond clear that he already knew the answer, but he was fishing. He wanted me to admit it, to admit that it had something to do with him. Everything to do with him.
I swallowed hard and put the words out there, words that I hated to utter at the best of times, to anybody, “I’m sorry.”
He remained silent, his only reaction, a slight arch of his eyebrow.
Dammit. He was going to make me work for it.
“I apologize, okay? I shouldn’t have said all of that in your bedroom this morning. I don’t think what happened was a mistake. In fact, I think we both needed it, to break the tension that’s been building so painfully between us.”
“All right, so you’re sorry. That it?”
“I…”
No. It really wasn’t.
But I couldn’t… I couldn’t seem to say it, to put it out there.
I couldn’t really admit it to myself. It was out of my wheelhouse.
Unprecedented.
Dangerous.
Unnerving.
Reckless.
He got the message and shook his head at me, then turned on his heel and stalked away back toward the house.
I scrubbed my hand over my face in distress and no small amount of frustration as I watched him go.
Shit.
15
~Slade~
WHAT THE FUCK?
I stepped out of the shower and reached for my towel, only to find that it wasn’t in its usual place. The blue one was mine. It was always in the same spot, where I always left it. I hadn’t checked when I’d come in earlier, because I’d been in a rush to take a quick shower so I could make it for the strategy meet we had in ten minutes.
I located it crumpled in a heap on the floor, soaking wet, next to a gray guest towel that Rick had used earlier when he’d taken a shower. Fucker.
I strode across the cold tile and ripped open the bathroom door, intending to find him in the basement where Willa had put him up when he’d arrived here last night. I made it down the hall, making a sharp turn toward the basement stairs, barking, “Hey, asshole! My towel’s a wet mess on the—”
A body slammed into mine, cutting off my tirade, and knocking the wind out of me.
“Shit!” a sexy, raspy voice cried.
I looked down to see Willa looking up at me, her eyes wide, her mouth hanging open with the surprise of our collision.
She was pressed up against my wet, naked body.
That familiar desire flared between us.
I could feel the heat from her all over my exposed skin.
My cock started to react.
And then something smacked into the back of my head, jarring me from the moment, and making me jerk back from Willa.
I managed to catch what had hit me, finding myself clutching a clean, dry towel. Turning, I found Rick grinning between the two of us.
I took another step back from Willa and fixed the towel around my waist.
“What the—” I started, about to lay into him.
He held up his finger and cut in, “I made pancakes. Want some?”
“What I want is for you to fucking well—”
“Yes, we would,” Willa interrupted, stepping around me and walking to him. She shot me a look. Play nice.
I gritted my teeth and responded, “Fine. I’m gonna get dressed. Meet you there in a few,” I told them.
They both gave me a nod and headed back toward the kitchen.
I strode to my room and threw open the door way harder than I needed to.
Jeez. What was my problem? It was clear that it was about more than a stupid towel. But I was the one who’d asked Rick to come to the safehouse. I’d ordered him here.
I crossed to the dresser and pulled out a pair of boxers, black jeans, and a matching black tee. As I dressed quickly, I tried to figure out what was going on with me and why I was being so hostile. I was aware they’d fucked and I’d accepted it, as much as you ever could those kind of things. So, it weren’t that.
I’d just shrugged my tee on when it hit me.
A roadblock.
That’s what he was right now.
It weren’t his fault. It was just the timing. He’d walked into it without knowing a thing about it. I was sure he’d figured it out even in just the few hours he’d been here. The tension between Willa and me weren’t exactly hard to hide. The thing was, she was welcoming the interruption and upheaval. She wanted to keep pretending this thing between us didn’t exist, that we hadn’t both gotten under each other’s skins. But there was something there.
I hadn’t been looking for it. I definitely hadn’t wanted it. I’d gone twenty-odd years without thinking about going there again with a woman. And, yeah, the timing weren’t the best with me about to retire and go to ground. But, to get anywhere worthwhile, you had to ride out the twists and turns. You just had to keep going, keep riding. And, this was just another curve in the road.
The only thing left to do now was to damn well lean into it.
***
These pancakes are damn good.
I eyed Rick across the counter. “Didn’t know you could cook.”
He flashed me a smug grin. “Make you wanna drop your panties for me, Slade?”
“That what you want? Another Prez’s dick to suck?”
His only obvious reaction was his fork stilling just before his mouth.
But I knew him well enough to see that my comment had him bristling. Served the fucker right. Did he really think he could come at me with no consequences? He was getting cocky with Willa around. He had a lot to be cocky about, because she really was something. To say the woman could hold her own didn’t even begin to cover it.
“My bad, all right? This whole safehouse thing ain’t my deal. Tensions are high with what’s going on. You got my respect, Slade, you know that, yeah?”
All right then. I eyed him steadily. “If I didn’t, you wouldn’t be here. And I don’t just mean in this safehouse.”
“I get it, you spared me.”
“Yeah, well. You’re a good guy who was just caught up in a shitty situation.”
“That fucker, Nik, is gone, and I still am. Guess it’s my lot in life,” he muttered bitterly.
“There’s always a way out.”
“Let’s hope.”
He didn’t sound the least bit convinced. More than that, he spoke of hope, but it seemed he’d lost all his. Maybe long ago. Thinking back to the Strikers MC takedown, he hadn’t exactly f
ought hard to protect himself and save his own life. He’d been through the wringer for way too many years, because of Nik Stone and that fucking club. Unfortunately, no matter how hard you tried, how tough you were, everybody had a breaking point. While I was just close to reaching mine and recognizing that had me carrying out this whole retirement mission, it seemed like Rick had already reached his. I’d already suspected as much, given his willingness to continue as a double agent, risking discovery by Freeman. He’d been all too ready to sacrifice himself.
He was done then. There was no way I could let him in on the mission to sort Freeman and Nolan. Having a guy with a death wish on your team was a major risk. There was a willingness to lose buried in there, and not that deep neither.
“Hope has nothing to do with it,” Willa spoke finally. She’d been quiet the whole time, which was unlike her to begin with. More unlike her, was the fact that she’d been staring out through the kitchen window as she munched on her strawberry-topped pancakes. I’d had my focus set on Rick mostly, because I’d been having a hard time dealing with her eating her strawberries. Damn, the way she sucked on the things, then nibbled around the sides, before popping what was left into her mouth, was just too much for my cock to take. I knew she wasn’t doing it on purpose either, because she was seriously spacing out. It just made it sexier that it was natural and unplanned.
“You got a plan, huh?” Rick spoke.
“When don’t I?” she tossed back.
Rick gave her a way-too-sweet smile and clasped her hand on the counter, stroking his thumb over the back.
My body tensed. A wave of possessiveness that I’d never felt in all my life grabbed hold of me in a brutal fucking grip. It was so sudden and new that I couldn’t fully keep it in check. It had me clenching my fists, a growl rumbling from me.
Willa noticed and jerked her hand from Rick. Rick’s gaze darted to mine, a mixture of surprise and confusion on his face. And then a slow grin spread over his features, realization obviously setting in.
Willa suddenly rising to her feet cut right through it, as she announced, “Enough eating and relaxing. Time to put things in motion.”