47Luke“Here you go, Chief Garner,” the cop says that leads me into the police chief’s office.
A very crowded office.
I look first to see, who I assume is Chief Garner, wave the cop away. Then, as I continue looking around, there are so many people that I don’t know how they are fitting in the room. I rub my wrists where the handcuffs had been and before I can do much more than that, Jasmine is in my arms.
“Luke,” she murmurs, her arms going around me.
“Red? Where’s Daisy?”
“My mom has her,” she says, as I wrap my arms around her.
“Baby, I told you to get to safety,” I complain, and I should be mad, but it feels damn good to have her in my arms.
“Uh, Luke, I’m about as safe as a woman can get. Do you see all of my family here?” she asks, standing back to look up at me. That’s when I focus on the people around us. My gaze takes in Jasmine’s father, watching us closely. Then, her brother, and Dragon. I see the guy that was with Gabby too…Dragon’s son, Dom.
“Decide to go to Kentucky and cause a shitload of trouble, my man?” I turn to look at Ford, instantly aware. He walks to me, his hand slapping against mine in greeting, pulling me in and then slapping me on the back.
“You know me,” I mutter, my gaze going to Gabby automatically.
“How long have you been here?” I ask, clearing my throat.
“Just got here, but from listening to the talk, it seems the muscle of my club has been adopted by another club,” he says, and it’s clear he’s not happy with that. I’m pretty damn shocked myself. After the situation at the party, I was left wondering, but having them all here was not what I expected—at all.
“Just because we accept him, doesn’t mean we will welcome your club into the fold. You stay in your territory and we’ll be in ours,” Dragon warns.
I see that muscle ticking in Ford’s jaw. I don’t have to be a mind reader to know that this isn’t going to end well.
“That’s big words coming from a man who had to pay me to even show his face in my territory,” Ford taunts, reminding Dragon of the one time our clubs had dealings together. Dragon wanted to bring some nomad to our territory to show him why club borders were important. I thought it was stupid. We would have just killed the nomad for breaking protocol, but we got money and guns for it, so our club was the definite winner in that transaction. “As far as I’m concerned, you can take your fucking club and stuff it up your ass,” Ford growls, spitting in Dragon’s direction.
“You motherfucker,” Dragon yells, going after Ford to tear him apart.
Ford, for his part, doesn’t even move, he’s waiting for Dragon to take the first punch—which, I don’t think is entirely wise. Dragon might be older, but he’s stacked like a damn brick house, and him mad should make any-fucking-body think twice. Ford isn’t exactly a slouch either, my money would probably be on him, but it would be a coin toss on if I’d win or lose.
Dom and the other guy, who I assume is Dragon’s son too, because he looks a fuck of a lot like his father, hold Dragon back—which is no small feat.
“Jesus Christ, if I’m going to get in the middle of a fucking club war, it’s not going to be in my gaw’damned office!” Garner yells, pushing members of the Blaze and Savage clubs aside to get between two men that look ready to tear each other apart. “Do we have a problem here?”
“You better fucking believe we have problems. I will not be disrespected on my fucking territory,” Dragon growls.
“And I won’t have your dumbass son breaking my daughter’s spirit and leaving her in pieces!” Ford barks out in response.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Dom snarls, letting go of his father and going after Ford himself—or rather tries to.
“Christ, I’m too old for this shit. I picked the wrong month to give up drinking coffee,” Garner mutters, rubbing the top of his head and mussing up his hair.
“I’m talking about you, you motherfucker. Waltz in and steal my daughter’s innocence, knock her up, then drop her like she’s got the plague when you can go back to the woman you’re using her for.”
“Jesus H. Christ,” I groan. I didn’t want the club to go to war over this shit. It all felt too much like fucking high school bullshit and here we are—and it sounds just like teenage crap.
“Hold up. Luke? Do you want to explain this to me?” Jasmine says, and shit, she’s as pissed as the rest of her father’s club. In fact, right now, with fire shooting out of her eyes, she looks more deadly than Dragon.