Knight (25 page)

I surveyed the others. The men were exhausted, the women panicked. Most had food or a soft drink before them. Rose had tended to them with picnic lunches and snacks saved from Anathema’s stock-piled reserves. She did well, even if I’d hoped she’d never have to play queen during a war.

A half-hour passed while I cleaned with Annie, letting Rose sleep at the bar. We needed more bottled water, and Annie worried she hadn’t packed enough of Silver’s diapers. That was a good job for me. I didn’t trust sending Rose to the store. I could get in and out without harassment from The Coup.

At least, that’s how it worked in the past.

Things had changed.

I hated war. I hated these moments. The waiting. The irritation. How everybody’s lives were ruined because the men took up arms over the tiniest of offenses.

Murders were worse than insults.

Scotch was dead. Bounty was dead. And the retribution would be fierce.

Keep shouted before the rest of the men appeared. Rose tumbled out of her chair as Keep pitched his cut over the bar. The leather crashed into the bottles and stacked glasses before the mirror. Most shattered.

“This is
bullshit
!”

Thorne silenced him, pushing them into his seat before he hurt himself or someone else.

“What’s going on?” Rose leapt away as Keep overturned a bar stool. The women gasped. Gold’s baby cried. Rose steadied Keep with a cautious hand to his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

“Ask your goddamned president.” Keep held his arms out. “I’m not fit to be around you. Probably can’t talk to you either. I’m a
danger
.”

He was. Even Rose couldn’t argue that. Thorne stared with waning patience.

“Sit your ass down,” he said. “Before you hurt someone.
Again
.”

Keep didn’t take his advice. “I didn’t flip the fucking truck on purpose. You think I’d intentionally hurt my little sister? You think I wasn’t trying to get her to safety? Like
you
fucking told me to do?”

“Christ, you did nothing
but
endanger her. First you fucked up, told The Coup Blade isn’t her father. Then you drive that truck while you were high as a mother-fucking kite, flipped it, and nearly killed her.” Thorne didn’t let him look away. “If it wasn’t for Rose stealing another goddamned bike, neither of you would have made it out of the desert.”

Keep grunted. “So stripping me of my patch is gonna teach me a lesson? How else you gonna fuck me over? Ain’t got the balls to do what you did to Brew.”

Pixie silenced.

Rose knew when the fuse lit. She tugged Keep far from Thorne. It didn’t help.

I never knew Thorne to take an officer’s position. I didn’t blame him, but Keep was so far beyond rational nothing would fix his addiction but a hole in the head instead of his veins.

He forced his way to the door. He wasn’t sober enough to ride his bike.

No one would convince him otherwise.

Rose faced Thorne with a bravery very few people possessed who weren’t dressed in leather. “The club is all Keep has. What did you do?”

“We voted. He still in, but we can’t trust him. Not if he’s that strung-out.”

“But this is his
life
.”

“Sweetheart, it almost ended yours. It’s done.”

I intervened before another Darnell lost their temper. Thorne wasn’t as happy to see me as Rose.

“Quite the theatrical moment,” I said. “I leave you guys alone for one day—”

Thorne broke first, running a hand through his hair. “Jesus
Christ
, Lyn. I had two guys out searching the damn city for you. We thought something happened.”

“I’m in one piece, but I have to talk to you.”

“I’ve got a lot of shit to deal with right now. Later.”

“No.” My head hurt too much to deal with him. I wasn’t getting delicate with a man who had yet to wash all the blood from his hands. “
Now
, Thorne. It’s important.”

He led me away with a profanity, but at least he listened. We locked the door to Pixie’s office and Thorne sat at the desk. He held his head for a moment, suffering a headache we both shared.

“Scotch?” I asked.

“Dead.”

“What the hell happened?”

“You were there.”

I shouldn’t have been. I couldn’t keep having the same argument with him. I sighed.

“ATF picked me up.”

He swore. He rubbed the exhaustion from his eyes but saw the same future I did. “Did you talk?”

“I know better than that,” I said. “But they’re looking into me. Threatening me. They held me for thirty-six hours to get me to talk. Who the hell knows what kind of bullshit charges they’ll trump up to make a deal.”

“You ain’t taking a deal.”

“I trusted you. I thought you would show some restraint. I have two dead men in my club, and they’re shutting Sorceress down for a
federal
investigation.”

“They won’t pin anything on you.”

“But the damage is done. My club is
closed
. They’ll tie me up in so much red tape I’ll end up dancing for the City Council members just to get my licenses restored.”

“Price of doing business, Lyn. I can’t help you.”

“What about my girls?”

“Screw your girls. The smart ones will get out. The ones left behind can get high with Keep.”

“You’re such a bastard.” I slammed my hands on the desk. “Do you know what I’ve sacrificed for this club? What I’ve dealt with?”

“Men died last night, Lyn.”

“Lucky them. What do we do about those of us still living?”

Thorne snorted. “I’m doing my best to keep everyone alive—my men and my old lady.”

“It’s not enough. We have a major problem with The Coup and Temple.”

“Christ, I thought you liked to play with fire.”

“Yeah, but I stay on the edge of hell. I don’t fall in,” I said. “We can’t go to war with The Coup and hope to stand a chance against Temple.”

Thorne smirked. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think Knight grew some tits and came here to nag me.”

“And that’s why you should listen to me. Luke wanted to
unite
the clubs, so we could protect everyone from Temple.”

“Was he going to suggest it before or after his men opened fire?”

I defended Luke to the one man who hated him the most. That scared me as much as suddenly seeing his perspective a little too clearly. “Why did you let Keep shoot his mouth off?”

“Because the drugs have a better hold on him than I do. Without Brew around to control him, Keep doesn’t have a chance. He fucked up because he is fucked up.”

“All the more reason to control your men.”

“They are under control.”

“Like hell,” I said. “You let Brew kill Blade, but no one stopped to think about the consequences.”

“Did you want Blade to live? Did you want him going after Rose?”

“Of course not. But we weren’t prepared for what would happen.” The secret of the traitor twisted in my stomach. “Listen to me. You need to take a good, hard look at your men and figure out what’s happening in their heads. They’re hearing a lot of rumors. A lot of reasons why Blade is dead that nobody knows. All you need is one man to get the wrong idea.”

“Thanks, Lyn. And the next time my guys need advice on their thongs, I’ll send them to you.”

He wasn’t listening. I knew he wouldn’t. Christ, I hated to expose Luke’s secret messenger, but I didn’t have a choice. How the hell were any of us supposed to survive with a traitor running wild? It wasn’t a man doing what he thought was right by his family and his club.

This was someone far more dangerous.

“There’s a rat in Anathema.”

That got his attention. Thorne leaned closer, the chair creaking as his body tensed.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

I braced for the anger. His eyes darkened. Hard. I never thought I’d miss the charming blue of Luke’s gaze, but faced with the cold brutality of a man more warlord than hero, I could have done with a little storybook.

“There’s a traitor in Anathema,” I said. “And this time it isn’t Brew.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Luke had messages delivered to him. Locations. Routes. Numbers of men. He knew everything about every job you guys did in the past month.”

“Who told you that?”

“Luke.”

“Before or after his cock popped out of your mouth?”

There were few times in my life when I was knocked speechless. Fortunately, my eyebrow expressed enough of my displeasure.

“Lyn, are you part of Anathema?” Thorne posed the question with a scowl. “Sit with us at church? Head out on jobs?”

“Don’t you patronize me.”

“You don’t wear a cut. Hell, you hardly wear anything. You are
not
a member of this club.”

“So that means I’m blind to all the shit happening?”

“It means you don’t get a say in it.”

“God forbid I open my mouth and try to help you, Thorne. We have a deal, you and me.”

“Sorceress is separate from Anathema. You wanted it that way, you got it.”

“Listen to me. I know I’m not crushing my balls on a bike in the middle of the night, but I’m telling you there’s a problem. There is a traitor in direct contact with Luke. And if you don’t find that rat—”

“You think I’d endanger my club?”

“I don’t know what you’re doing right now, but it’s not protecting Anathema. You need help. And I’m offering it. I can keep ATF off our asses, but you have to do something about The Coup—”

“Lyn, you don’t got a clue what’s happening here. This ain’t Sorceress.”

“Of course not. Sorceress is closed. Because of you.”

“Then you better find a new bar to dance on real quick, Your Highness. Don’t tell me how to run my club. If you want to help, get your ass out there with Rose and take care of our people. Keep them happy and safe. They respect you, and Rose needs to learn how to do this from someone.”

“It won’t matter. If you don’t find the traitor, they’re all going to die.”

Thorne stood. I didn’t let him intimidate me, though my stomach pitted all the same.

“Enough,” he said. “I let you speak to me like that because you and I go way back. But that ends now. We’re about to go to war. I can’t have you mouthing off while I’m leading these men—men who just lost their secretary, vice president, and Scotch.” He stared me down. “You want to help? Do a dance to keep my men happy. Get your girls to do your dirty work if you don’t feel like sucking a cock.”

“What gives you the right to talk to me like that—?”

“I’ve always had the right. The times have changed, Lyn. A corset and hooker boots can’t protect you, and neither can I if you don’t get in line. Don’t like it? Get out. And don’t let the door hit that beautiful ass on the way out.”

I had experienced a lot of misery this past year. I’d killed men who might have killed me. I’d held my girls after they had been mistreated by bikers in cuts. I’d cradled Rose as she sobbed in my arms, revealing more horrible abuses by her Blade than Brew or Keep or even Thorne knew happened.

But I never once regretted my life with the Anathema MC.

Until now.

Until I realized how much I sacrificed pushing Luke from my life, and how little I got in return for protecting Anathema from ATF. It wasn’t a hard decision. I should have made it long ago.

“I wondered why a nice girl like Rose would fall for a man like you.” I let the implication hang. “It’s because you’re all dick.”

I didn’t bother to say goodbye as I left Pixie for the last time.

Someone broke into my apartment, and they weren’t very subtle.

My door’s handle was busted. It didn’t take a strong boot, only a dedicated kick. Oh well. I wasn’t getting my deposit back without flashing my cut anyway.

My apartment wasn’t the greatest digs, but it did the job. Gave me a new address, a safe place across the River where I could hide from Anathema. I rarely stayed there, and most people in the neighborhood knew better than to give my place any trouble.

Most people.

I drew my gun to enter my own home. If that wasn’t a realization that a man’s life wasn’t worth the bullet in the gun, nothing would teach me.

The living room light clicked on. A pair of legs stretched over my couch. Her black leather boots inched all the way up her thighs. The skirt just barely touched where they ended.

Lyn arched an eyebrow. Her hair fell in thick, blonde waves over pale skin. The corset was crimson, blood red. Dangerous enough to tempt a man into fantasy. She brushed one perfectly manicured nail over her troublemaker red lips and appraised me like it was the first time she ever laid those radioactive eyes on my sorry ass.

“Welcome home, dear.” She didn’t mean it. “Dinner’s in the oven.”

Great. So she meant to fight. I wasn’t in the mood.

“Where the fuck have you been?” I ripped my jacket off. “I thought something happened to you. No one’s seen you for
two
days.”

“I had a little business to take care of.” She rose from the couch with the grace of an assassin. Probably the motivation too. “You know how it is. Another day, another dollar, another encounter with ATF. But enough about me. Tell me about your day, darling.”