by Franca Storm
But, after our struggle to let one another in, him slamming the door closed now was brutal and more than a little disappointing.
It wasn’t just about now either, until the pause of his was over once he’d dealt with his current enemies. Given what he did, and the nature of club life, it was extremely likely there would be more. So, would we just press pause every time one of them came at him and Iron Kings? Not only was that a hell of an emotional rollercoaster, but it wasn’t healthy.
He needed to find a way to handle both.
Otherwise, I was out.
I wouldn’t let anyone drop me, then pick me up whenever it was convenient for them. Least of all, the man I loved.
Loved?
Was that what this was?
Was that why I was so upset?
Crap.
“Miss Moore?”
Well, thank God for the interruption.
I spun in the middle of my office to see Ella standing at the door.
She was an amazing organizer, multi-tasker, and efficiency expert. I’d hired her company to take care of everything involved in the cleanup and restoration of my home, aside from my office. Getting the latter up to par and active once again had been a hell of a task in itself.
“How’s it going?” I asked her.
“We’re finished up. Your home is livable once again. Organized and spick and span.”
Relief coursed through me. “Amazing,” I said, crossing to her. “You really live up to your recommendations.”
“I know,” she said in that self-satisfied way of hers. She was extremely confident, bordering on arrogant, and I loved it. She’d earned that attitude, for sure.
We shook hands and she handed me back my spare keys, telling me, “I’ll email you the invoice in a few days.”
“Perfect.”
With one last smile and a wave, she left my office.
I heard the footsteps of her and her team through the house, then the close of the front door a few moments later.
I stepped back from the proposed plans I’d been looking over for the project I was meeting on any moment now.
It was all good. I’d done my due diligence and I was prepared.
I headed down my winding staircase, reaching the landing, just as the doorbell rang.
Hauling open the door, I found an impeccably put together woman smiling at me.
Caramel-brown hair cascaded down her shoulders in waves. A designer pantsuit fit her to perfection in the way that only a tailored or custom-made outfit could. I noted the leather folder she was clasping, notes for our meeting I figured. She was sporting a pair of Manolos and a layered gold necklace with a fallen angel pendant hung low along the length of her low-cut lace tank beneath her suit jacket.
“Miss Wright, I assume?” I said, reaching for her hand.
“Call me Sky.” She took the offer and we shook firmly. “Since I was told you’d be the one working this job with us, I looked into your work. You’ve got an impressive portfolio.”
She was beyond impressive herself. “And you’re one hell of a mogul.”
She beamed at my compliment. Then she pointed behind her and gave me a curious look. “You see them over there? Is there a security concern I should be aware of before I walk in here for a meeting?”
I peered past her, following her gestured path to see two guys parked off to the side, straddling Harley’s. They were wearing leather jackets, but there was no club crest or anything. There didn’t need to be for me to know they were with Iron Kings, though. I recognized them as regulars to Legacies. They were prospects.
“Not that I know of… I mean… not anymore,” I fumbled, more than a little caught off guard that Iron Kings was running protection on me.
“Spartan’s good at protecting his assets,” she said. “They do it with me every now and then too, if the smallest security issue occurs on either end.”
Hearing his name, even in road name form, uttered so suddenly was jarring, to say the least. That painful pit in my stomach that’d been lingering since he’d pulled away from me returned with a vengeance.
“Are you all right?”
I wasn’t doing well with hiding my reaction if someone I’d only just met could see the change in me.
Urgh. I’d been doing so well with it.
Although some people would argue it wasn’t healthy, shoving it down deep had been working well enough for most of the time. Burying it beneath work, basically.
I couldn’t stand the hurt that tore through me whenever I started to stray to thoughts of him and our break, to the idea of being without him.
Without hearing his voice.
Without feeling his touch.
It was more than losing a boyfriend, or someone I’d just started casually dating. I’d known him so long, it was like losing my closest friend and confidant. I’d opened up in every way with him. And now all of that had nowhere to go.
God, I still couldn’t believe it’d actually happened, that he’d actually broken things off and fucked-off into a majorly closed-off state to handle things all on his own. Didn’t he understand the meaning of a relationship? To share the burden with your significant other? It was soul-crushing after what it’d taken us to open up and bare ourselves to one another.
Argh! It was a complicated mess of a situation.
And now I’d spent the last intense week playing intense catchup, it was time to get down to the project. It was why Sky was here, for us to get started on laying down the framework.
Unfortunately, that project was the one Scott had hired me for.
The chain of burlesque clubs.
While it might be possible for Scott to maintain his distance and the communication blackout between us for a portion of the project, it couldn’t last. He was the lead on the thing. Besides, I was sure I’d be hearing his name, or at least Iron Kings MC throughout it. Either would evoke the pain of our paused state. There was no way for me to keep up with my approach of burying it deep down.
I’d just have to intensely focus on the project itself and separate business from personal.
I just highly doubted that would be as easy as it sounded.
Stop! I was doing it again, thinking about it all. Just the mere mention of his name had brought it on. I was weak with it.
I needed to get stronger.
I needed to focus on me.
I needed to get back to my life, to living life on my own terms.
With Don out of the picture, I was free to do all of that now.
I wouldn’t waste it.
“I’m fine,” I told Sky, forcing a smile that I hoped would become genuine once we immersed ourselves in the work ahead of us.
I stepped aside and gestured for her to come inside.
She walked on through and gazed around the house, awe sparking in her eyes. She wolf-whistled and commented, “This place is really something. You designed it yourself, right?”
I smiled to myself as I locked the door. She’d looked into me. Perfect. She’d come prepared. I liked that in the people I worked with. “Yeah,” I confirmed. “It’s my masterpiece. A bit self-indulgent, for sure.”
She chuckled. “Hush now. There’s nothing wrong with a little self-indulgence every now and then.”
I grinned. “I like you.”
“Right back at you.”
Her positive attitude, the toughness exuding from her pulled at the same qualities that I’d always exuded before my two-year-long exile. I’d lost a lot of myself over that period and despair had engulfed me.
I figured I was still in shock that all of that was behind me now.
I had my life back. My home. My business. My ambition and drive. My zest for life.
And I was done letting anything or anyone put a damper on that.
Not even the almighty Scott “Spartan” Tate.
I gestured up the winding staircase. “My office is this way. Let’s get started.”
Excitement shone in her eyes.
The surprising thing was, I felt it too, that sensation that I always got when I was looking forward to starting a great project.
I was going to hold tight to that feeling.
It was a new day.
23
~Spartan~
I WAS ON EDGE.
Nah, that didn’t even cover it.
I couldn’t fucking sit still.
I couldn’t rest, couldn’t relax.
And, right now, I couldn’t stop pacing up and down the empty living room of Finn and Ash’s new home.
I was hopped up on a shitload of adrenaline, anxiety, and goddamn desperation.
Hell, I’d dealt with shit like this in the past.
I’d had enemies I’d had to take down. The stakes had been high countless times.
Yet, I somehow couldn’t fucking handle it now?
Nah, it didn’t make no sense.
It was her.
That added element was pushing me too damned far, screwing with the balance I could always strike when I was dealing with this kinda thing.
I’d pushed Dani away.
For her own good.
For mine.
For the club.
For this mission.
She’d taken it well when I’d called her up and told her how it was, that I had to focus, that I’d gotten lost in her so much that I’d made a major error in judgment. The idea of putting the club and everybody I cared about in danger just to hold onto my own happiness weren’t acceptable to me and it never would be.
But ever since I’d stalled things between us, that decision had been nagging at me something fierce.
Maybe I coulda found another way.
Maybe I coulda figured a way to handle both, to be with her without losing focus.
“Scott!”
I jolted at the sound of Finn’s voice to see him striding across the living room toward me. “Yeah?”
“She’s fine. She’s been keeping busy with work. She has stepped up our training sessions though, so, maybe she’s having some issues being back home, the very place she was attacked before.”
“She bring that up to you?”
“No, but it’s an easy conclusion to draw.”
“Fuck,” I muttered. I couldn’t let that possibility go, that she was suffering, that trauma haunting her. I had to know and I had to help, do something.
Clearly getting where my mind was straying, Finn went on, shifting the focus and telling me, “Her and Sky are working on the burlesque club project.” He stopped a couple of feet from me and folded his arms across his chest, eyeing me warily. “You sure you don’t want me putting some of our best protection on her, rather than prospects?”
I shook my head. “Nah.”
Still, the bastard had to push it. “I don’t get it.”
He couldn’t. He didn’t know Knox like I did. “That fucker knows we protect our business assets. But any stronger security, something special like our best guys headed down there and being pulled off the clubhouse would send a message that there’s something or somebody that’s more important to me than the club. He knows either that’s gonna be Ash, or my Old Lady.”
He nodded, getting it. “It would out her as your woman and make her a major target. Seeing as though she’s outside our stronghold of Ridgefield and the clubhouse, it’d be a huge risk and much easier to get to her with her out in the world on her own.”
“Yeah.”
“What if you brought her into the club? Claimed her?”
I scoffed. “Come on, Finn.”
“What? I told you a couple of weeks back that you can’t fool me. I know you love her, know you want her to be yours. Pulling back and breaking it off for the time being doesn’t detract from that.”
Rage exploded outta me, “I ain’t gonna put a fucking bullseye on her back!” What weren’t clear about that? Jesus Christ!
With anybody else, me roaring like that woulda had them backing down and doing whatever they damn well could to get outta my space.
But Finn knew me like nobody else.
He could read between the lines.
Times like this, it was a real fucking bitch of a thing.
“Dani isn’t Andrea. The situation isn’t the same. Knox blindsided you last time. That’s impossible this time, because you know what he’s all about now. We know exactly what we’re up against. You’re much more seasoned.” He stepped up to me and laid his hand on my shoulder. “Besides, with the life we live, there’s always gonna be something. You’ve found a way to deal with that when it comes to your daughter, why can’t you do the same with Dani?”
“I don’t fucking know.”
He smiled. “Luckily for you, I do.”
Goddamn know-it-all. “Shoot.”
“You’ve always managed to keep Ashley safe. Old Lady territory is a different story and you’re haunted by it. You can’t get past the notion that history is doomed to repeat itself. That’s some intense self-preservationist crap.”
“Crap?”
“Yeah. Crap. Because, like I said, we’re talking about two different women here and a world away from the situation that existed all those years ago. You’ve just got to see it.” He stepped back. “Stop being a coward.”
“Coward?” I seethed.
He shrugged. “What else would you call it? It’s a shame, because that’s not the man I know.”
“That’s some heavy manipulation chocked full with some big time psychobabble.”
“Whatever it takes.”
Movement in my peripheral vision caught my attention.
In the next second, the front door opened and Deviant walked in. He looked curious as he took in me and Finn standing there, obviously picking up on the intensity of our talk.
The last thing I wanted was somebody else weighing in on my personal life and prolonging the damned conversation. So, I swallowed everything else down for the time being and focused on business, asking him, “Is it handled?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed. “Jesse’s been moved to one of the empty clubhouse rooms. Doctor Vieira is scheduled to come by and check on him once a day for the next two weeks, like you wanted.”
“Good.”
Over the last two weeks, Jesse had made it through the worst of it. He was moving into recovery now. Despite his stubborn-ass streak, I was a persuasive guy and I’d managed to convince him to stay with us up at the clubhouse. He lived alone in a remote area and because of what he did and who he was connected to, he didn’t have any close friends, outside of Finn and Iron Kings. He couldn’t afford to. He needed help and medical care while he was recuperating, so being alone didn’t cut it. Plus, with him confronting Knox and Hammer, he’d basically marked himself as a target, so he needed to stay where he could be protected. There was no way he could defend himself in his current state.
Besides, Finn had managed to shut down everything Jesse had been running and complete a full-on cleanup at his place, so there was no trace of him. He’d also retrieved all of Jesse’s equipment and we’d stored it in the same room we’d set aside for him.
His old place was a major risk to go back to, so he was technically homeless right now. Best he stay with us until all this shit was done with, and it was safe for him to get back to his life again.
Deviant folded his arms across his chest, then looked between Finn and me. “So, with the vote during the impromptu Church meeting a couple of days ago being unanimous, the whole club on board to go after Knox and his accomplices using lethal force, we’re just waiting on you, Prez.”
Yeah, I knew they were. They wanted my strategy ASAP.
When I’d first brought this whole situation to Church, mostly because I hadn’t had much of a fucking choice after recent… developments, none of them had reacted as pissed as Finn had. I’d expected some kinda negative reaction, them being disappointed that I hadn’t trusted this to my brothers, anger that things had escalated while I’d been doing it all on the down low.
But there’d been none of
that.
In fact, a bunch of them had figured I woulda lost it months ago and tracked down Knox and put him to ground in a way less careful and quiet way.
They were all surprised I’d now involved them at all. It was because they knew how personal taking down Knox was to me, knew how fucking long I’d waited and forced myself to hold off until the time was right. A lot of them had been real close to it when it’d happened.
Especially, Deviant. He’d been there, right up close. When Knox had betrayed me, attacked the club, and murdered my wife. He’d protected Ash.
Shit like that had bonded us.
The look on his face and his urgency said it all. He was determined to do anything he could to help me end this, end Knox. He wanted justice almost as much as I did.
Justice? Was that really what is was?
I didn’t fucking know no more.
It felt like justice, but it coulda just as well been vengeance.
Either way, though, Knox was a major threat to everybody we loved, to everything we’d built. It didn’t fucking matter what else was also driving me. Only the endgame mattered now.
“So, have you two master strategists figured out the plan of action yet?” Deviant pressed, his desperation to get this done backing up the decision I’d made over the strategy.
Me and Finn exchanged a look.
“What?” Deviant asked, picking up on it. It took him a beat, then realization flashed in his eyes and he blew outta breath and said, “I’m not gonna like this, am I?”
“I’ll be on the frontlines with Finn. The rest of the club will be hanging back and only called on if there’s no other choice.”
“Spartan, come on. You brought us in on this, we all want to have your back.”
“Yeah, I know. And you’re gonna.”
“How? You’re confining us to the sidelines, benching us, basically.”
I shifted my weight and got down to giving him the explanation he was clearly needing, “This ain’t only Knox we’re dealing with. Hammer and his guys are hella well-trained. They’ve been through the same training as Finn, but they’ve been going in that line of fucked-up work way longer than him now. They’re gonna see a full-blown attack coming from an army of bikers from miles away. And, yeah, they’re dangerous. They’re gonna shoot to kill, brother. They won’t think twice about it neither. These guys don’t know mercy.” I stepped up to him and laid my hand on his shoulder, needing him to really fucking hear me. “They’ll cut you all down and I ain’t gonna let that happen to my boys. But, if me and Finn fail, you guys are gonna be the last line of defense to protect our families and everything we love and care for in this world from being wiped out by these fucking monsters. That’s why I need you there, staying at a distance.”