Charlotte waves her hand in the air, dismissing the question. “Some stuff the guys needed to take care of.”
Carter rolls his eyes but doesn’t comment or ask any more questions.
I guess my brother’s trained him well.
When it’s club business, you don’t ask questions.
Murphy
“I vote to switch Heidi’s road name from ‘little sister’ to ‘little hammer’,” Z says.
“Second,” Remy echoes.
“You don’t get a vote,” Wrath growls. Finally, someone less enthusiastic about the support club than me right now.
Teller’s more amused and less pissed-off than I expected.
We’re down in the basement of the bar. Apparently, Remy’s grandparents had a bit of a paranoid streak. It’s built more like a bunker.
The shooter’s tied up in the corner while we wait for him to either wake up or die. I don’t have a preference at this point.
Eraser clomps down the stairs to join our party. He nods when Remy shows him the guy’s face. “I recognize him. He’s one of the guys I suspected of tampering with some cars.”
After dragging the shooter down here, we checked him out. Despite the red stripes on his jacket and the flames on his bike, he’s not sporting any S.O.S. ink. So, he’s either a prospect, affiliated with them in another way, or an entirely different threat.
I walk upstairs to say goodbye to Whisper.
“This is why I’m out.” He shakes my hand. “Had enough of this bullshit, son. Gonna wind up dead or in prison one of these days.”
Thanks for the advice, grandpa.
“You sure you’re all right to ride?” I ask Hudson. We cleaned up the bullet hole and wrapped his arm, but he still lost a lot of blood.
“I’ll be fine.”
“Thank you for trying to—”
“Didn’t do much good, did I?” Hudson shakes his head. “I’ll give you two a minute.”
Whisper clutches my shoulder and pulls me around the side of the building. “Some neutral meeting spot.”
“Sorry—”
“Nah.” He waves off my apology. “This is what we do, right?”
“Reconsidering retirement?”
“Fuck no. Definitely not.” More seriously, he adds. “You’ll pass on what we talked about to Rock, right?”
“Yup. How long until you think you’ll be out?”
“Don’t know. Got some things to wrap up. Lost Kings are always welcome in Slater. That hasn’t changed.”
That may be so, but it’s not like we’re going to move in and start doing business in his territory right away.
“Thanks.” I hold out my hand and he shakes it.
“You’re handling more business now.” He glances at the bar. “Z’s sporting a president patch? When’d that happen?”
Normally, outlaws don’t make a habit of sticking their noses in other clubs’ business, but since I got the old man shot at tonight, I’m feeling generous. “Recently. He’s running downstate.”
“Good for him.” He narrows his eyes. “You taking his place?”
I snort. “No one can take Z’s place.”
He accepts my non-answer, shakes my hand again and shuffles across the parking lot to his bike.
I watch him and Hudson roll out before heading back inside to deal with this mess.
Twenty-Nine
Murphy
“Did you contain the threat?” Rock asks.
I knew I wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight. After Remy’s, we came straight to the clubhouse and sat down for church.
“It’s handled.”
“You trust Remy?”
“He’s got more to lose on this one than we do.”
“Is it tied to S.O.S. or to the racing?” Dex asks.
“Probably both.”
“No ink saying he was S.O.S.” Teller rolls up his sleeves displaying his own heavily inked arms with plenty of Lost Kings insignias.
“Ain’t saying anything anymore.” Z smirks.
“Such a bloodthirsty bastard.” Wrath grins and punches his fist at Z who taps it back.
“Focus.” Rock slaps the table. “What the fuck happened?”
Worn out from the evening’s events, I let Teller answer.
This was only supposed to be a simple night out with my girl. Meet a fellow biker for a chat, have dinner, and come home. Not get shot at.
“I’ll let Murphy fill you in on what Whisper wanted.” Teller slaps my shoulder, tagging me into the conversation.
I’m too tired to paint Rock a picture. It’ll just irritate him anyway, so I get right to the point. “Wolf Knights are closing their Slater, NY charter.”
Wrath whistles low and sits back. “Didn’t see that coming.” For once, he’s not being sarcastic.
“Holy fuck. They’re an old club,” Z says.
“Damn.” Rock runs his hand over the back of his neck. “Never thought I’d see them out of the game.”
“Not like it used to be,” Sparky says.
“How would you know what anything used to be?” Ravage says. “You live in the basement three-hundred days a year.”
“Fuck off.” Sparky shakes off Ravage’s comment. “They never had business sense. Just wanted to ride and party.”
“Don’t we all?” Stash asks.
“I’m not interested in a debate.” Rock cuts off their discussion. “What else did he want?”
Of course, Rock knows there was more to the meeting. “Their national board doesn’t want it to look like Lost Kings pushed them out of their territory.”
“How the fuck are we supposed to do that?” Rock asks.
Dex snaps his fingers to get our attention. “There’s that one old-timer who runs that biker news podcast. Maybe he was thinking of something like that?”
“Biker what, what?” Wrath asks.
Rock stares Dex down. “What would you like to do, call in and give a fucking interview?”
“I’m just saying.” Dex shrugs.
“Let the Wolf Knights handle it.” Rock shrugs it off. “I’m not saying anything to anyone about their business.”
“That was my take on it, too,” I agree.
Since we’re all at the table anyway, we go over some other club business. Sparky about comes in his damn pants when Teller gives him some numbers for his “edibles kitchen.”
“This is gonna be great. Totally legit. And safe for the kiddies.” Sparky rubs his hands together.
“Still planning to go to the Castle for security?” Wrath asks.
“Yup.”
“Can you leave my sister out of it this time?” Teller asks.
“Nope. Already promised her she could come.” I reconsider. “If she still wants to go anywhere after tonight.”
“Why? She was a little badass.” Dex snickers. “Sounds like she saved all your balls.”
I laugh, not insulted. “She scared the shit out of me for sure.”
“Sorry I ever questioned you for buying that hammer,” Teller says.
“Holy shit, did Teller just apologize for being a dick?” Wrath leans over the table, pretending to press his hand to Teller’s forehead. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Knock it off.” Teller slaps his hand away.
“As fun as this is, I’d like to get some sleep.” I don’t stand, though. Rock hasn’t dismissed us.
Rock slaps the table. “Go on. We’ll discuss this later.”
Can’t wait.
Thirty
Heidi
“It’s not the quality of work I expect from you, Heidi,” Professor Emory says. “But given the circumstances, I’m going to pass you both.”
“Thank you,” Dawn gushes.
I’m a little more reserved in my thanks. Even though I didn’t do anything wrong, the professor seems bent on making us feel culpable somehow.
Did I go to her and plead Bryce’s case after he tried to blackmail me?
Nope.
In fact, I haven’t even seen th
e jerk since that day. I’ve had my mind on too many other things to waste time worrying about him or his silly threats.