Iron Heart (Lords of Carnage Ironwood MC)

by Daphne Loveling

  D-A-N-T-E

  The home screen lights up.

  Jesus. Dom did mean for me to find this thing. Christ, I wonder how long it’s been sitting here? Did he put it here just in case? Or did he do it knowing that eventually, he’d need my help with whatever the fuck is going on?

  There’s not much on the phone. Just a couple of apps on the first screen, and a contact list that’s empty except for one phone number. I try to call it, but the number goes to a line that’s been disconnected.

  Dom must have thought it was possible someone else would get to this phone before I did. Whatever my brother wanted me to see, it’s well hidden.

  Fuck, Dom, you gotta give me something to go on, here.

  Frustrated, I look through every corner of the phone I can think of. I’m almost ready to give up when one last app that I haven’t looked at catches my eye. It just looks like a map app, but I click on it anyway.

  It’s a GPS app. One of those “find your phone” things, looks like. A cursor is blinking, so it’s hooked up to another phone out there somewhere.

  I zoom out so I can get a better idea of the location. If the cursor is hooked up to Dom’s phone, he’s not in Ironwood. Or at least, his phone isn’t.

  Shit. I gotta go talk to the club about this.

  In minutes, I’m flying into the Lords of Carnage compound on my bike. I barely get the kickstand down before I’m running inside and yellin’ Axel’s name. He, Rourke, Ranger, and Bama come into the main room at the sound of my voice. Yoda emerges from his computer command center a few seconds later.

  I fill them all in on everything I’ve learned in the last half hour.

  “I don’t know who’s lookin’ for Dom,” I conclude, “but I’ll call my brother Antony back and ask him to tell me everything he knows. He’s bound to have more info than he told me.”

  Axel nods. “You do that. We don’t wanna go in there cold. We gotta know as much as we can about who this is. How many men they got. What we’re likely to find when we get there.”

  I nod, knowing Axel’s right. I turn to Yoda and pull the burner phone from my pocket. “Here. I dunno if there’s anything else you can get off this thing, but give it your best shot.”

  “Will do.” He takes it from me and goes back into his Yoda hole.

  Just then, Ranger speaks up with a frown. “Hey, I know this ain’t really related, but that chick you’ve been bangin’? Tori?”

  I push down the rush of anger that wells up inside me at the way he talks about her. Now ain’t the time. “Yeah?” I grit out.

  “She was here a couple of days ago.”

  “Whaddya mean, here?”

  “Here.” He lifts his chin toward the door. “She was at the garage gettin’ her car worked on. But I caught her sniffin’ around outside. She tried to act all casual about it, but she was definitely tryin’ to check the place out.” He quirks a brow. “Come to think about it, she was here when Dom came back here to drop his truck off and get his SUV. She left just a couple minutes after he did.”

  “That’s fuckin’ weird.” I’ve never brought Tori here to the clubhouse. I didn’t think Tori even knew the club had a garage. Pretty sure I never mentioned it. I can’t see any reason why she would have come here to get her car repaired, except if she was snooping around for some reason, like Ranger said.

  “What was wrong with her car?” I ask.

  Ranger shrugs. “Go ask Rogue. I think he was the one that worked on it.”

  I find Rogue in the back office of the garage, taking care of some paperwork. He tells me Tori came in because her A/C wasn’t working. “Compressor belt was gone. But it was fucked up. I couldn’t figure out how the belt was in that bad a shape that it would have just fallen off, when the rest of the car was in pretty good condition.”

  Fuck. I don’t like this. Tori sure as hell doesn’t seem like some crazy stalker. I’d be inclined to just let this go, except for what Ranger said about her being her when Dom was.

  “Thanks, brother.” I leave the garage and go out into the courtyard. I try to call Tori but get no answer. A text to her goes unread.

  I’m on my bike again before I can second-guess myself. In minutes, I’m at Tori’s place, pounding on the door. Moments later, her roommate Savannah opens the door.

  “Do you know where Tori is?” she asks me breathlessly before I can say anything. “I’ve been trying to get hold of her, but she doesn’t answer her phone! I don’t think she slept here last night, either! This isn’t like her!”

  Fuck. There’s something wrong. Really wrong. I don’t know what the fuck it is.

  But something tells me that wherever Dom is, Tori’s involved in it, too.

  28

  Tori

  “Tori!” a voice whispers at me urgently. “Tori! Wake up!”

  My head is pounding so hard it takes a few seconds for me to realize there’s not actually someone hitting it with a hammer. I shut my eyes tight against the pain, trying to breathe through it and not cry out.

  “Tori!” the man rasps again. “Talk to me. Come on!”

  I don’t recognize the voice at first, though it sounds somehow familiar. I can’t remember where I am, or why my head hurts so much. I suck in a shaky breath and try to open my eyes, but even that sends a slice of agony through my brain.

  I fight through the haze and try not to lose consciousness again. Dimly, I wonder whether my skull is broken.

  “That’s it. Open your eyes,” the voice urges. “Show me you’re awake. Come on, Tori! You gotta do this!”

  With more effort than I thought possible, I force open my lids just enough to see through the slits. My eyes struggle to focus on a man’s face. He’s tilted sideways, and he’s staring at me from under heavy, dark brows.

  “Thank fuck,” he exhales when he sees my eyes are open. “Okay. Talk to me, babe. Tell me you can understand what I’m saying.”

  I open parched lips, trying to force a word past my closed-up throat.

  “Dominic?” I choke out.

  He nods, his head bobbing back and forth sideways. “Good deal, you’re less out of it than I thought,” he whispers.

  “Why are you…” I start to ask, and then realize he’s not sideways. I am. As my mind struggles to work around the pain, my body suddenly beings to reorient itself, and I understand I’m lying on my right side, on something hard and scratchy. My right arm is pinned underneath me, asleep from the fingers up to the elbow.

  Once I notice it, the lack of sensation starts to draw my attention away from my head. I move just enough that my arm begins to become painful. Groaning, I reach across myself with my left arm and put my hand on the scratchy surface, in an attempt to push myself up to a sitting position. But as soon as I start to put force on that hand, a new explosion of pain ricochets off my skull.

  “What is wrong with me?” I moan, closing my eyes against the pain again.

  “Sshhh, not so loud,” Dominic hushes me. “You got hit hard on the head. You probably have a concussion.”

  “My arm’s asleep,” I pant. “The one under me. Help me get off of it, it hurts.”

  Dominic leans forward and takes hold of my right shoulder, lifting me slowly, gently into something like a sitting position. It makes my head pound even harder. Blinking, I struggle to make sense of my surroundings. It seems like I’m in a bedroom or something, in an old, musty house. I’m sitting on a stained, knobby-upholstered couch that’s sort of a faded teal color. It’s the only piece of furniture in the room. As my senses adjust, I catch an acrid whiff of stale urine.

  My ankles are bound together with duct tape. For some reason, my hands aren’t tied.

  “Where am I? Why are you here?” I grimace, peering at Dominic, who’s kneeling on the floor in front of the couch.

  He purses his lips and glances away. “Things have gotten kind of out of control,” he murmurs, refusing to look at me. “I’m gonna keep you safe, though. I promise.”

  “Safe from what?”
/>   From somewhere in the house, a door slams. It sounds like it’s below us. We must be on the second floor.

  “Look,” Dominic mutters, standing. “I’ll tell you later. For right now, just try to stay awake and alert. I’ll be back in a little while.”

  He strides hurriedly out of the room, leaving me alone in the silence. A telltale click lets me know I’ve been locked in.

  Now that I’m alone without Dominic to focus on, the aches in my head and body seem to get worse. With them comes a mounting terror that I’m in a situation I might not make it out of alive. I can’t figure out where we are, or why Dominic is here. Why he’s holding me captive — and who else he’s working with.

  It can’t be Dante. I can’t imagine that for a second. Dante would never hurt me like this, or put me in danger. He’d have no reason to, anyway.

  I struggle to make sense of everything that’s happened. With difficulty, I sort of remember being grabbed, and hit on the head. I can’t think I was when it happened, though. The whole thing has the fuzzy quality of a nightmare. I’m not sure whether I’m remembering things, or whether my mind is inventing it all.

  But then one distinct memory flashes clear and distinct in my mind.

  The metallic sedan outside my house.

  The men who took me are the ones I saw Dominic with that day when I was lost.

  Dominic is one of them.

  My whole body aches. My throat is like sandpaper. I’ve never been as thirsty as I am right now. But I have to make myself focus on something else. I have to keep myself calm, and try to get ready for any possible chance I might have to get out of here. Slowly, agonizingly, I bend down and feel for the duct tape around my ankles. It hurts to bend over like this, makes the throb in my head more insistent, but I try like hell to ignore it. I’m not strong enough yet to try to rip off the tape, so instead I try to feel the slight ridge that will indicate the end of the tape, hoping I can pry that up with a nail and unwind it instead. But try as I might, I can’t find it. I try for what feels like at least five minutes, then fall back against the back of the couch, exhausted by my efforts.

  I close my eyes and try to concentrate on my breathing to calm myself. I inhale deeply, then exhale. Then repeat. Once, twice, three times. It seems to help calm my heartbeat, and even my head starts to hurt a little less. Okay, good. Maybe…

  Footsteps out in the hallway startle me. I tense, trying to prepare myself mentally for whatever’s next.

  A key turns in the lock and the door opens. It’s Dominic again. I let out the breath I was holding, even though I’m only slightly relieved. Dominic is the enemy, after all. I can’t let myself trust him. Can’t let my guard down.

  “You doing better?” he asks.

  I shrug. “You mean, other than the fact that I’m being held against my will and I probably have a concussion? I’ve seen better days.”

  “Tori. There’s no time for joking around.” He frowns at me in frustration. “I need to know how strong you are. Whether you’re capable of fighting back if you have to.”

  “Why?” I challenge. “So you can tell them they need to tie my hands, too? Maybe strap me down and gag me?”

  “No! What?” He looks startled. “I’m trying to figure out how to get you out of here!”

  “You expect me to believe that? I saw you with them,” I accuse. “You forget that. And now, here you are, holding me hostage.” I shake my head. “You’re not on my side, Dominic.”

  “Yes, I am! And yes, I admit I was with them, but I’m trying to help you! Tori, you are in a dangerous spot right now. You’ve got to listen to me, or you’ll never get out of here alive. They’re going to use you to get to the Lords of Carnage.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because they know you’re with Dante.”

  “But I’m not with Dante!” I cry, then wince because I’m being too loud and because my own voice hurts my head. “We’re not together, Dominic!” I hiss. “He basically dumped me. I haven’t seen him in weeks. I don’t know why these men think they can use me to get to him, but they’re wrong.”

  But if I thought that information would do anything to help my cause, I quickly find out I’m dead wrong.

  “You better hope they don’t figure that out,” Dominic mutters, fixing me with a hard stare. “Because if they do, they won’t have any more use for you.”

  His words send ice through my veins.

  “Who are they?” I whisper, working hard to shove down the mounting fear inside me. “Dominic, tell me what this is.”

  He swallows. “I don’t know who they are, exactly. What I do know is who they work for. And what they’re after. In short, they want to bring down the Lords of Carnage.” Dominic pauses. “And they’ve been using me to get to the club.”

  “What?” I let out a strangled cry. Dominic puts a finger to his lips.

  “Sshhh! Look, it’s not what I set out to do, okay? And I’m not doing it anymore. Like I said, I’m gonna do what I can to get you out of here and help Dante and the club.”

  “I don’t believe you,” I say flatly.

  “You don’t have a choice, Tori!” He insists. Frustrated, he blows out a puff of air, then starts speaking quickly, eyes locked on mine.

  “Look. Listen to me. The reason I showed up in Ironwood is I was on the run from some guys I owed money to in Cleveland. Think a branch of the mob. It wasn’t a huge amount of money — not for them, anyway — so I was hoping they’d let me disappear without working too hard to track me down. I was planning to pay them back the money with the interest I owed them as soon as I could, and then back the hell out of that life for good.

  “Well, they came after me.” Dominic shakes his head ruefully. “I figured they would probably just rough me up a little. After all, if they offed me, they weren’t gonna get their money, right? But in the meantime, in the process of tracking me down, they figured out I had a connection to the Lords of Carnage MC. It turns out, that connection was even more valuable to them than the money I owed them.”

  “Why?”

  Dominic looks like there’s a death sentence over his head.

  “These guys have connections to some of the major cartels down south. And I guess one of those cartels is in a turf war with another, smaller cartel the Lords do business with.”

  Shit. This is heavy, dangerous stuff. I knew Dante’s club was probably involved with things I would rather not know about… and now here I am, in the middle of it all.

  My head is still pounding, but the thud feels like it’s coursing through my whole body. I realize I’m starting to feel panicky. In my chest, my heart does a jittery little dance, and I send up a silent prayer that I won’t have an attack. Not now, please, heart. I need you to beat strong. I have to get out of this!

  “So… why do they want me?” I ask in a small, petrified voice.

  “They figured out you were with one of the officers, so they’re planning to use you for leverage.”

  “But I don’t mean anything to the club!”

  “They don’t believe that. You showed up at the meet-up I had with them that day. They’ve seen you with Dante, and at his house. And then they saw you at the Lords’ clubhouse, too.”

  “They’ve been following me?” I gasp.

  “Yeah. And they’re convinced you’ve been spying for the club.”

  “But I haven’t been!” I protest, even as I know it’s useless. “What do they think I can give them?”

  “They think they can use you to lure the club out into the open. I don’t know what their plans are after that. They didn’t tell me.”

  “But… I don’t understand. Are they using you for that, too? After all, you’re Dante’s brother.”

  Dominic shakes his head. There’s a slight tremor in his voice when he speaks. “Maybe. But they’re wrong. Once Dante realizes how badly I’ve betrayed him, he’ll never defend me.”

  “You can’t know that,” I counter.

  “Yes. I can. And what’s mor
e, these men know that, too. I’m useless to them.”

  “So, what are they going to do with me when they realize I can’t get them what they want?” I hiss.

  He hesitates.

  “The same thing they’d do with you if you did get them what they want. I’m pretty sure they’re planning to kill you, either way,” he says. “And then, they’ll kill me, too.”

  29

  Dante

  As soon as I’m back inside the clubhouse door, I yell for Axel and Rourke. The prospect in the bar motions toward Yoda’s command room, where I find all three of them, grouped around one of his monitors.

  “You get anything more off that phone?” I ask Yoda, half out of breath.

  “Nothing much,” he says. “It’s barely been used. Looks to me like Dom bought it just for this one purpose.”

  I nod. “That squares with what I was thinking. So, Dom’s still missing. And — I just figured out, so is this chick I’ve been seeing. Tori,” I tell them. “I just talked to her roommate, who says she hasn’t seen her in a while. Tori didn’t sleep at her place last night, and she’s not answering her phone.”

  “You think that’s got something to do with this?” Yoda frowns.

  “I know it sounds crazy, but… I think the same people might have taken them. I sure as hell don’t know why, though.”

  But Axel doesn’t look as surprised as I expect him to. Neither does Rourke.

  “I think you’re right,” Axel mutters.

  I gape at him. “What?”

  “Head into the chapel. I’m calling an emergency meeting.”

  Baffled and alarmed, I do as he says. Three minutes later, all the Lords in the clubhouse are seated around the large table in our chapel. Axel remains standing, looking preoccupied. He bangs the gavel, and as soon as everyone has settled down, he starts to speak.

  “I’ve been contacted by the leader of Los Caballeros,” he begins.

  “Holy shit,” Mal mutters.

  “He somehow got through to me on my private number. He called to give me an ultimatum. He warned me there will be an all-out war if the Lords of Carnage don’t immediately cut ties with Indio and the Dos Santos cartel, and recognize Los Caballeros having the legitimate claim of their turf.”