“Well, she can’t go up there alone,” Sabbath said, letting out a frustrated sigh. “And I can’t leave…”
“Which means someone else will have to protect her,” Wasp added.
“But who?” Priest asked. He was normally pretty quiet during Church, but I think everyone was invested in Shasta’s well-being.
Every member in the club looked around, each of us wondering who he’d appoint as protector of his woman.
“It’s gotta be Snyder,” Sabbath said coolly, looking over at me. “He’s wounded. It makes the most sense. Some time up at the cabin will give him a chance to heal up.”
Every eye in the room looked over at me at the same time, making my stomach roll with uncertainty.
“I don’t know. I need to be with the club.”
Sabbath clapped a hand on my back and looked me dead in the eye. “You’re the only one I can trust with this, Snyder. She means everything to me, and if I lost her, my whole world would be meaningless.”
Now every eye in the room was rolling around, avoiding getting a whiff of this bullshit he was trying to feed us all.
“I’m the VP. I should stay with the club.”
“What if we took turns?” Clash interjected. “Snyder could stay up there for a week or so until he’s better, then I can take over for him when the week is up.”
“Might work,” Sabbath agreed. “But only officers. I don’t want any of these prospects anywhere near my woman. I trust all of you… them… not so much. Especially after what happened tonight when we took out the rat.”
We all snickered.
“So, it’s settled then. Tonight, Snyder is gonna take a cage up to the cabin. Once there, him and Shasta are going to settle down until shit gets taken care of here. If it stretches out past a week, Clash will go up there to relieve him.”
“Sounds good,” I mumbled, even though I knew being in a cabin alone with Shasta wasn’t a good idea.
“Well, I don’t got time to talk about anything else, so, Snyder, pack your shit, the rest of you, help dispose of Rose’s body, wear fucking gloves, wipe her clean of prints, then drop her in a fucking alley. They’ll mistake her for a stripper and be done with her. I call this meeting adjourned.” He turned to me. “We’ll relay shit to you when we can, Snyder.”
“Okay.”
Everyone exited the room in a hurry. Some were in a haste because of the body out back. Some, like Priest, just wanted to go to his room and read his Bible.
Immediately after we left the room, Sabbath was at Shasta’s side, gripping her cheeks as he informed her that she was leaving. When I heard him say my name, those bedroom brown eyes quickly glanced my way, the same look of uncertainty I felt in my heart swirled around in her irises.
“Sabbath, I can’t just run.”
“But you have to, baby. Snyder’s going to protect you. He won’t let anything happen to you.”
I stopped just next to them, waiting for instruction.
“Go pack yourself a bag, Shasta, we got to move you out quickly before someone sees you.”
He gave her a slow, seductive kiss. One that had my head aching with jealousy.
“I love you,” he lied.
“I—I love you too.”
Even her I love you was broken. Couldn’t he see how much he’d stripped her down? How she was failing to keep her head up anymore. A loud smack cracked across her ass as she walked away, and I wanted to throttle him for touching her that way.
The second she was out of view, he spun, eyes narrowing in on me as he grabbed me by the scruff of my shirt and lifted me off the ground.
“Touch her and I’ll break every damn bone in your body, starting with your dick,” he growled, eyes sparking with damnation and possession.
The wild look in his eyes was enough to turn any strong man into a puddle of piss and chicken feathers.