Jagger waved a dismissive hand in the air. “She hates them. She hates Viper. Her whole life has been about getting out of Conundrum. I’ve spent more time with her than any of you. If she were a spy, I’d know.”
“I like her.” Zane pushed himself out of his chair and paced the room. “The way she took down Leo, what she did at the ice house, and the work she does with Sparky … Hell, I almost wish there were two of her. But what if this was all a setup? She knows our men, our security systems, and our operating procedures. She’s got her hands on everyone’s bike and her pussy wrapped around your cock so tight, you can’t even think straight. Could be you’re not seeing clearly and there’s nothing she won’t do for the Jacks.”
Jagger’s gut clenched. He knew Zane was trying to protect him. “Club first” to Zane had always meant Jagger first. He had already expressed his concerns that Jagger had let Arianne get too close, and if she were betraying him, his leadership would be compromised. With the official elections still two years away, taking down a president meant taking him out—something Zane would never allow to happen.
Still, he couldn’t ignore a potential threat to his club. “Club first” meant he had to put the club before anything else. Never had Jagger regretted the code more than he did now.
“She wants to meet her brother tomorrow to get her fake passport…” His voice trailed off as regret slid through his heart. Arianne hadn’t told him what she was planning to do after she got the passport, which saved him from making a difficult decision. Did he keep her because he’d claimed her even if she didn’t want to be with him, or did he let her go and risk never seeing her again? But if she was a suspect, and they took her brother, the decision would be made for him.
“Where’s she going?”
“She wants to start a new life in Canada.” Jagger steeled himself to hide the emotion balled up in his chest. “Since we know where Jeff will be, we could bring him in for a little fireside chat. If he’s the one who torched the clubhouse and killed Cole, then we’ll have him right where we want him, and we’ll find out how Arianne is involved.”
“I don’t envy you, brother.” Zane snapped his laptop closed. “Never understood why Axle wanted your position so bad. If I had to choose between our friendship and the club, I’d choose you and suffer the consequences. But you don’t get that choice. You got the safety of all the brothers riding on your decisions. You always have to be a president. You never get to just be a man.”
Jagger’s throat tightened and it took several long seconds before he could speak. He’d tried to have a personal life with Christel, and look how that had turned out. Arianne had made him forget that painful lesson and now it was coming back to bite him in the ass.
But he hadn’t become president by letting desire conflict with duty. “We’ll let her go to draw out her brother. Wheels and T-Rex can guard the exits and bring a cage to escort Jeff to the clubhouse. The meet is at that East Side strip joint, Peelers. Cade knows it so well. He’s got his own VIP table which he says is very private, so he’ll be with me. We’ll keep a low profile until Jeff arrives.”
A pained expression crossed Zane’s face. “So you’re gonna let her go to the meet, thinking she’s finally getting her ticket out of Conundrum, and then—”
“We’ll bring them back here.” Jagger rubbed his temples as his head throbbed in protest. “She knows she’s been claimed. She understands what that means. If she leaves, she leaves only because I will it. I haven’t talked to her about what she thinks will happen when she meets her brother, but if she’s involved in the attack, then she’s not going anywhere, and neither is Jeff.”
“Fuck.” Zane stood, tucking his laptop under his arm. “It’s the right thing to do for the club, but if she’s innocent, she’ll never forgive you.”
“I don’t need her forgiveness.” He needed her acceptance and her trust. He needed her to stay.
Zane took a few steps toward the door and then turned back. “If it comes to that … I know what it’s like. I had a girl.… She was—” His voice cracked, broke. “I had to leave her. Give her up. She said she’d wait forever, but as soon as I left, she betrayed me. Fucking ripped out my heart. Never found it again.”
Jagger thudded his fist on the desk after the door closed behind Zane. He didn’t want to hear his thoughts on Zane’s lips. He didn’t want to think about how much he would hurt Arianne and how he would just reinforce in her mind that all bikers were like the Black Jacks, all presidents like the man she hated most in the world. He didn’t want to think that tomorrow he was going to lose the best thing that had ever happened to him, the woman who had made him feel again, given him hope that he wouldn’t always be alone.
With a frustrated roar, he swept all the papers off his desk. In the end, he would rather have her here and pissed at him than gone forever. As long as she was in Conundrum, he would have a chance to win her back.
So long as she hadn’t betrayed him.
* * *
“Where’s your gun?”
“I have a .22 in my purse.” Arianne slid off Jagger’s seat and stepped into the shadows of the parking lot behind Peelers strip club. Trust Jeff to set up a meet in a place like this. Not for the first time, she wondered if the boy she’d known while they were growing up was truly gone.
“Make sure it’s always within reach.” Jagger flipped his kickstand and gestured for Cade to join them after he parked his bike.
Although Arianne had tried to dissuade Jagger from coming to the meet, he had flat-out refused. Not just because Peelers wasn’t safe, he’d said, but also because he didn’t trust Jeff after what had happened at the vacant lot. As far as Jagger was concerned, Jeff was a Black Jack, and he insisted on taking the same precautions he would take for any meet with the enemy.
“You don’t have to tell me. I always have a weapon within reach.”
His concern warmed her, as did his tacit acceptance of her skill with her weapon, especially after he’d been so cold and dismissive over the last two days. She couldn’t believe how quickly things had disintegrated after their heated night together and the intimacy they’d shared at her apartment.
After returning to the clubhouse the next morning, Jagger had gone into a meeting, and when he came out, he was a changed man. He hadn’t stopped her from returning to Banks Bar to take on a couple of shifts, nor had he complained when she’d told him she was meeting up with Dawn for a drink. Although she had found his protective streak stifling at times, now she wished he would show up and boss her around, just so she knew he cared.
“Get changed.”
Arianne startled at his harsh tone. What the hell was going on with him? Did he think she was going to meet Jeff, do the exchange, and take off right away? Despite his change in demeanor, her heart still ached at the thought of leaving him. But she needed to see Jeff one last time. She needed to assure herself she had done everything she could to help him and that he was committed to staying with Viper. Only then would she truly be free to decide what to do.
“Maybe she shouldn’t go in with a gun,” Cade said. “She might get stopped and draw attention to herself. Plus, I’d feel safer being in an enclosed space if Arianne was armed with something less dangerous, like a blade.”
“If I threw a blade at you, Cade, I guarantee I wouldn’t miss,” she said in exasperation.
“No blades,” Jagger snapped, without even a glimmer of humor in his tone. “Especially if you’re planning to throw them at Cade.” He motioned for T-Rex and Wheels, who had been waiting patiently near the bikes, to check the perimeter.
“I wouldn’t be throwing it at Cade.” Arianne pressed her lips together and glared, but Jagger was distracted, checking out their secluded corner for a possible ambush.
Arianne unfastened her jacket, shivering as cool air blew through her fine silk shirt, and then tugged off her leather trousers, handing them to Jagger to put in his pack. True to form, Jagger had pawed through the duffel bag she’d packed at her ap
artment after giving her standard jeans and T-shirt attire a thumbs-down, given they were trying to attract as little attention as possible in the strip club.
“This.” He’d tossed a black skirt and a slinky gold top, cut low and draping down the back, on the bed, then walked out of the room.
So she’d worn them. Not simply to avoid another confrontation so near the end of their time together, but also because he had been uncharacteristically subdued, almost angry when he returned from his meeting with Zane.
She traded her biker boots for a pair of stilettos from Jagger’s bag and then watched as he paced around the parking lot, his muscular body fading in and out of the shadows. How could she let him go? How could she leave Conundrum when her heart was here? What if everything she had been looking for was standing in front of her, wearing a Sinner cut and an angry scowl? In her heart, she knew Jeff had made his choice. And she had made her choice, too. She just hadn’t been able to accept it. Maybe now was the time.
“Jagger. I need to talk to you before we go in. I need to tell you something.”
He held out his hand. “Give me your phone.”
Without thinking, Arianne handed over her phone, fully expecting him to add more numbers to her address book in case of an emergency. Instead, he tucked the phone in his pocket and gestured for Cade and T-Rex to precede them into the club.
“Hey, I need that.” She reached for his pocket, and Jagger slapped her hand away.
“So you can text your brother and tell him how many of us are here?”
Confused by his angry, accusatory tone, Arianne let her hand drop and gave him a puzzled frown. “What are you talking about? I came here to talk to him, and I agreed to you joining me solely on the condition that you stayed in the background so he wouldn’t get scared away. We aren’t a threat to you. I thought if he still wanted to go, we’d make a plan to leave, but not tonight, and—”
He drew her into the shadows beneath the west wall of the nightclub, his expression dark, almost primal with emotion. “It’s so damn easy for you to walk away, isn’t it? You got what you wanted from me—safety, protection, someone to watch your back. You know all about the club. All about me. You had your bit of fun, and now you’re just going to turn and leave. Back to the Jacks, Arianne? With information that could destroy the Sinners? Will Viper give you a blood patch for taking out Cole?”
Stunned, Arianne took a step back, hitting the cold brick wall with a soft thud. “What are you talking about? I haven’t betrayed you. I didn’t kill Cole. I’m not going back to Viper. And no, it’s not easy to walk away. I’ve been second-guessing my decision ever since … ever since…” Ever since I realized how much I care about you. But his fury tangled her tongue, and the words wouldn’t come out.
Jagger closed the distance between them and caged her against the wall, his body quivering with pent-up emotion, eyes ablaze. “Then make another choice.” His voice cracked, pain and desperation slivering through the anger.
Arianne’s chin shot up. “I need to see Jeff first. I promised myself I would get away the first time mom wasn’t there to protect us. Every day I woke up and made the same promise. Every job I took, everything I have done since I was nine years old has brought me here. Being with you made me look at things in a different way. It made me take off the blinders. Now part of me desperately wants to stay, but another part of me is afraid that if I don’t go, he’ll destroy me and Jeff, too.”
“You don’t think I can protect you.” A statement, not a question, and uttered with such venom, she flinched.
“I don’t want to be ‘protected.’” Her voice quivered with emotion. “I don’t want to live in a safe house and have a posse of Sinners following me everywhere I go. That isn’t freedom. Freedom is never having to worry about Viper. Freedom is walking down the street and not needing to carry a gun. Freedom is being able to live where I want, and go where I want, and do what I want without being afraid someone will take it away from me.”
She turned her head to the side and bit her lip as a chill seeped through her bones. No wonder he’d taken her phone. If she’d had it in her hands right now, she would be texting Jeff to run.
Jagger leaned so close, his breath scorched her cheek. “You are not going anywhere, Arianne. You’re mine until I release you. And when Jeff shows up, he isn’t going anywhere either.” He pulled his phone from his inside pocket, flicked to a picture, then thrust it in her face. “That’s him isn’t it? That’s Jeff at my old clubhouse.”
Nausea roiled in her belly as she stared at the blurry photograph of Jeff standing near the Sinner weapons shed, his blond hair gleaming against the dark background. Although the camera had caught him in profile, she would know her brother anywhere. But clearly Jagger wasn’t so sure about the identification.
“I can’t believe you would ask me that.” She gave the picture a disdainful sniff and pushed the phone away. “And I’m not even going to bother to answer.”
“Don’t play games with me, Arianne.” His eyes darkened, almost to black and his upper lip curled. “Did you make up the story about your birthday? Trying to play my sympathy as you tried to play me? Are you spying for the Jacks? Now that I see how easy it is for you to walk away, I think you just might be.”
Her hand flew up before she had even considered the consequences of her actions, and she slapped him across the cheek, the crack of her hand echoing in the alley. “Bastard. I can’t believe you think I would lie about something like that. I don’t know what’s going on with you, Jagger, or why you suddenly think I’ve betrayed you or why you’re so angry. I’ve been nothing but open with you. I’ve told you things about my life I haven’t even told Dawn.”
Jagger grabbed her hand and twisted her arm up behind her back, spinning her around and forcing her cheek painfully against the rough brick wall. For the first time since they’d met, she was truly afraid.
“You’re not planning to leave Conundrum at all, are you?” He pressed his lips to her ear, his voice a sinister snarl. “I don’t know why I didn’t see it. You haven’t packed anything. You haven’t given up your apartment or stored your stuff. Even your bike. Sparky said you fixed it good as new, but you never put it up for sale.”
“Viper would have found out.” She shuddered under his touch. What the hell had happened in Jagger’s meeting with Zane? “Everything I wanted to take, I put in my duffel bag. I never lied to you.”
Desperately, she tried to breathe through the tightening in her chest, the thunder of her pulse in her ears. Jagger won’t hurt me. He promised he would never hurt me. But already she could feel the cold sinking in her emotions giving way to the armor she had built to survive Viper’s wrath. Except this time it wasn’t Viper that threatened her, but the one man she had thought would keep her safe.
“I didn’t want it to be like this.” He shoved her harder against the wall, trapping her arm between them. She tried to turn her head, and the exposed mortar sliced across her cheek.
“I wanted you to want to stay.” Jagger’s voice rose to an agonized shout. “I wanted you to trust me, to believe in me. I wanted you to accept that I could protect you. I wanted you to—”
“Please … Jagger. You’re hurting me.” She fought back the panic flooding through her veins. He’d said he didn’t harm women. But already her cheek burned from the cut and her arm screamed in pain.
“I’m hurting you.” His bitter words were poison to her heart, and the last of her hope withered and died.
He released her abruptly, dropping her arm. Even though instinct screamed for her to run, she didn’t move, resting her forehead against the cool brick wall, indifferent to leaving her back exposed. She’d exposed so much already, and besides, nothing could hurt more than the pain slicing through her heart.
“Turn around.”
She turned slowly, no longer recognizing his handsome face, twisted now by pain and anger. His eyes dropped to the cut on her cheek, following the blood trickling down her cheek.
Jagger jerked back, eyes glazed, body trembling. He reached for her cheek, and Arianne flinched before slapping his hand away.
“Don’t touch me.”
“You don’t have to worry about that.” His voice was cool, devoid of emotion. “I can walk away just as easily as you.”
* * *
Christ.
He didn’t do emotions. And he most definitely didn’t do emotional wreck. He’d lost it out there. Totally lost control. When he saw her dressed to kill, all cool and calm and about to walk out of his life forever, his longing had given way to fear, anger, and a determination to exert the control he hadn’t had when his mother walked out the door so long ago. To stop the pain.
And he’d hurt her. Not just physically, but emotionally as well. He would never forget the look of devastation in her eyes.
He pounded the table with his fist as he cursed silently under his breath. He’d hurt her and he’d scared her away. Had she seen that potential in him? Was that why she’d decided to leave? Was that why his mother left? Because of some trait he shared with his father?
“You okay, Jag?” Cade leaned back in his chair, dragging his eyes off a pretty brunette onstage, working the pole. Their booth, a feast of red velvet cushions around a sparkling silver table, was set back in the corner, affording them a clear view of the club without exposing them to public scrutiny.
“Yeah, good.” He surveyed the cheap, tawdry strip club, making sure T-Rex and Wheels were in position near the exits. A raised circular stage dominated the space, with chairs scattered in front and a DJ pounding out the tunes in a small booth in one corner. Dark and dingy, lit only by garish neon signs on the walls and the floodlights on the stage, the place was pathetic and depressing and suited his mood to a T.
Rough Justice Page 24