Blood & Rust (Lock & Key #4) (33 page)

Kicker pounded on Jump’s chest, giving him CPR. Dawes and Dready worked fire extinguishers, discharging foam over the smoldering vehicle.

The sirens wailed louder and louder, matching the harshness of my pulse pounding in my ears. I struggled to ease my breaths that came fast and hard. My hand flattened over Nina’s back. Blonde strands of hair were matted in blood, oozing red. The shoulders of her pink shirt were soaked. I blinked back the sweat clouding my eyes

“Jump’s gone. He’s gone!” hollered Kicker. Yells. Shouts.

My heart twisted in my chest.

One man dead.

One outlaw president making a shadowy play. Was Finger taking his revenge for ancient crimes, or was this in favor of future maneuvers?

Our president dead.

My old lady down.

Again.

I’d promised Nina she’d be safe with me. I’d promised her, and she’d believed me. She’d believed I was the one who could help her.

“This will work,” she’d said back in Ohio.

Caitlyn trembled in my arms on the side of the road in the Black Hills once more.
“Don’t let me go. I’m so cold, baby, so cold. It hurts…make it stop…Hold me…don’t let me go…”

My vision blurred. That burning pain tore through my chest.

Alicia screamed from somewhere behind me. “Jump! Jump!”

Another family destroyed.

My jaw clenched against the bile rising in my throat. A heavy, dark swell hovered over me, ready to plunge inside my gullet and wrench every organ up from me, spewing my blood, my poisonous blood.

I knew this darkness; its smell dank, its touch familiar. How could I forget it?

It was damnation.

“
YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS A VERY LUCKY WOMAN
, Mr. Matthiessen.”

Ah, Butler has a last name.

It was a ridiculous thought as I stood here, in the surgical waiting room at Rapid City Regional, with Finger, listening to Nina’s doctor tell us how she was doing.

Grace and I had both rushed over to the hospital with Mary Lynn where we found the Jacks along with Finger waiting. Jill and Suzi stayed with the kids and my mom at the house, and they kept the birthday party going.

I still couldn’t wrap my head around Jump being dead, but thank God Nina would be okay.

I glanced over at Butler. He was pale, his blue eyes washed with gray under the fluorescent lights. He hadn’t spoken a word the entire three hours we’d been waiting with him.

“Ms. Scott sustained internal injuries, but we did manage to stem the bleeding. Her arm was dislocated, and her hip was seriously bruised. She also has a concussion. There were metal fragments, but we went over her and removed them. And the baby is doing fine.”

We all froze.

I froze.

My brain froze.

“Baby?” screeched Mary Lynn.

Nina and Butler’s baby.

My heart bolted straight out of my chest and
thwapped
me in the face.

Finger let out a heavy breath, his lips twisting. I leaned against him, and his hand wrapped around my arm, steadying me.

“Thank you, Doctor,” Butler said, his voice low. He returned to his seat, his head in his hands.

He was in shock, probably feeling like he was losing everything all over again—first, his wife, and now, Nina and their baby. This was why he hadn’t kicked Nina to the curb. He was trying to be the bigger man, trying to do the right thing. I choked down the horse pill stuck in my dry throat; it left bruises and a bitter residue behind. I willed my feet to move.

“Hey.” I placed a hand on Butler’s shoulder. “The doctor seemed confident, right? She’s going to be fine. You’ll see.”

His weary, dazed eyes slid to mine. “Shouldn’t have happened in the first place.” His voice was flat. He swallowed. “They planted it in her car, Tania.”

I wanted to bombard him with questions, but it certainly wasn’t the time. Anyway, I doubted he’d share details with me.
For Pete’s sake, do I really want to know?

“Did you call Nina’s family in Ohio?”

He only furrowed his brow and gnawed on his lower lip, his head shaking.

“I’ll do it, if you want. Really.”

“Her bag got thrown clear from the car.” He gestured at the Coach bag on the table next to him. “Phone should be in there.”

I opened the handbag and found a rose-gold iPhone. “Whose name should I look for?”

“Her sister. Name’s Deanna.’ rubbing a hand over his face. “I should do it, Tania.”

“Let me make the call, get the first words out, and then you can get on the line and do the talking. How’s that?”

Butler let out a breath. “There’s a passcode.” He held out his hand, and I gave him the phone. He tapped out the code and gave me back the phone.

“Deanna. Okay.” I fiddled with Nina’s cell, tracing over her recent calls. I recognized a number, and the name attached was ‘Iron Man’.
I clicked on it, turning away from Butler.

Ah, shit.

I tapped on their text messages.

A selfie of Nina clutching her tits. Another of her legs wide open, her fingers getting down to business. Another with those fingers in her mouth, her lips puckered around them.

My breath stalled as I skimmed the texts between Nina and my brother.

Finger stared at me, slanting his head just a few degrees. I took in a tiny breath and went back to Nina’s phone.

I tapped on the other text threads I found. More sex texts with porno selfies, but these were to Led, her Ohio Flames of Hell bodyguard, who’d accompanied her to South Dakota when she’d first arrived.

Motherfudgemycake.

Judging from the dates on the texts, Nina had kept him entertained and cozy on his long ride back to Ohio months ago. Shit, the girl was insatiable.

I couldn’t stomach any more, so I went back to looking for Deanna’s name and number. Finding it, I tapped on her name, and it rang.

“Hey, Neens!”

“Hi, is this Deanna?”

“Who’s this?” Deanna’s tone sharpened.

“This is Tania. I’m a friend of Nina’s here in South Dakota. I’m sorry to tell you, but there’s been an accident, and Nina is in the hospital. We’re all here with her. Butler was just speaking with the doctor. I’ll hand him the phone.”

I placed the phone in Butler’s cold hand. His eyes softened at me for just a moment as he brought Nina’s phone to his ear.

He cleared his throat. “Hey, Deanna.”

I went back to Finger.

His brows jammed together. “What’s wrong?”

“I just saw Catch and Nina’s hot little love texts all over her phone—in full high resolution color. The phone Butler is using right now. You think he’s going to like what he sees when he sees them? Because he will see them. They’re a little hard to miss.”

“Your brother’s got it bad for her.”

“Yeah, he told me, but newsflash, she’s also been sexting with that Flame who brought her to Meager. Led?”

“Good for Goldilocks.”

“Where does she find the time?”

He leaned into me. “Keep your voice down.”

“Oh please.”

Finger’s stern face tilted toward mine, his lips at my ear. “Her relationship with Butler is as solid as the wind, Tania.”

“What?” I asked, my scalp prickling.

“Butler and Nina—it’s fake.”

“No.”

“Yes. Pure business between clubs.”

“What is this?” I sputtered. “The fucking eighteenth century?”

Finger’s body went rigid, his eyes flared. A large hand clamped around my upper arm, and he dragged me down the hallway.

Oops
.

This might be the twenty-first century, but this was the Land of the Outlaw with its own set of rules, its own way of functioning.

“We’d better stop here—not complicate things.”

Butler’s tender voice from our night at the motel passed through me, and a chill razored down the back of my neck.

Butler and Nina had never seemed like they were in honeymoon mode. They had never been very affectionate with each other or very demonstrative. So what though? Neither had Kyle and I.

I had tried to put them out of my mind. What was the point of dwelling on it? They were an official couple in Bikerland, and my thoughts on the subject were meaningless and a waste of time.

I took in a breath as Finger pulled me in close to him against the wall. “Keep your voice down.”

“Did you hear what the doctor just said? Butler’s going to be a daddy.”

“What makes you think that kid is Butler’s? Could be Catch’s.”

My mouth fell open. “Oh, shit.”

That hadn’t occurred to me.

Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.

I glanced over at Butler still talking on the phone.

My hand tugged on the edge of Finger’s jacket. “We can’t tell Catch about this baby until we’re sure. Nina’s family is going to be pissed about her getting hurt, aren’t they? You think they’ll come here and make trouble for the Jacks and for Butler? They’ll blame him? Come after him?”

“Sounds right.”

“Is there any way you can help him? Do you know who did this? Jump is dead. The president of a club has been murdered. All hell is going to break loose now, right?”

Finger’s eyes narrowed. “You’re worried?”

“Of course I’m worried. They’re my friends. This is my hometown we’re talking about.”

“I meant, you’re worried about Butler?” Finger asked.

I leveled my gaze at him. “Yes, I am. He’s a good guy.”

The edges of Finger’s lips tipped up. “Good, bad—it’s all relative at the end of the day.”

“It can’t be. Some things simply cannot be relative. For you, they probably are. But I don’t live that way.”

He wrapped a hand around my neck, pulling me in closer. A steely whisper filled my ear. “Shit’s either real, or it isn’t.” His hand squeezed the back of my neck, and he planted a kiss on my forehead. “Relax. I’m going to see what I can do. You make sure the pics on Nina’s phone don’t get erased. ”

His hand stroked the side of my jaw for a moment. “You go support your guy over there. He could use it.”

“He’s not my guy.”

“Baby, you haven’t been able to tear your eyes away from him. You went to him in his hour of need, then jumped up and down in the man’s defense like you just did? He’s your guy.”

“
SHE SAID SHE’D BE SAFE
with you!” Nina’s sister, Deanna, yelled at me over the phone. “She trusted you! Oh my God! My old man is going to have your ass for this!”