Knight (34 page)

Her touch shouldn’t have felt so warm while she suffered so much. “You’re the one who got hurt.”

“I’m still the sexiest fucking invalid in this hospital.”

That she was, but she wasn’t getting out of my confession that easily. I leaned close, kissing the back of her good hand. I was supposed to return a token of her favor and drop to a knee, but this fairy tale hadn’t been very conventional until now.

“Lyn, I’ve had so many regrets in my life that I’ve started mistaking shame for pride. Hell, I’m sleeping with a gun at night instead of a beautiful woman.”

“And here I thought I was a grenade to you?”

“You’re just as volatile. That’s my fault too. You never should have been on your own. Never should have had to deal with the MCs alone and tried to prove yourself.”

“How chivalrous,” she said. “Come to save the girl again?”

“You’re goddamned right. I lost you once, Lyn. I’m not doing it again. You’re mine. My woman. My life. Probably the reason I’ll die young, but you’re worth it.”

She bit her lip, but it wasn’t playing coy. She knew exactly what she did to me. “You saying you love me too, Luke?”

“It’s gotta be more than love if you’re the only good decision I ever made.”

“Love isn’t about good decisions. It’s surviving the bad ones.”

“Even if I’ve made too many?”

“That doesn’t make it hard to love you. Just makes it dangerous.” She smirked. “I’m not looking for love-at-first-sight. If I’m not easy, I don’t expect a relationship to be.”

“You had me from the instant I met you,” I said.

“I’m trying not to think about the past, Luke. It doesn’t matter what happened then, I only care about what happens from here on out.” Her words trembled. “I need you to stay alive. Get me a happily-ever-after and make sure we have time to enjoy it.”

God, this woman. I leaned close, offering a gentle kiss. Those lips gave me reason to live. So did her touch. Her heart.

It wasn’t worth dying. She’d chase me to the afterlife to punish me herself.

I could think of a worse eternity.

A fist pounded on the door. I pulled away, but only Lyn saw me reach for the gun. My hand stilled as Keep grinned in the doorway, rubbing his shaved head. He must have missed with the razor or aimed the blade somewhere else, because the blonde was growing in. It wasn’t a color Brew or Rose shared.

“Do they got you on the good pain-killers?” Keep dropped a vase of flowers on the windowsill. I doubted he paid for it, but at least the thought was there. “I know a guy who can hook you up after you’re discharged.”

Lyn frowned. “You need new friends, Keep.”

He agreed, lowering his gaze. His weight shifted foot to foot. “I never apologized for flipping that truck.”

The whip cracked. Lyn’s eyebrow arched as she glanced to her leg. “I kinda got myself in a worse situation right now. Not too worried about that particular accident.”

“You okay?”

Her smile was forced, but Keep bought it. “Baby, I’m so good, I’ll dance circles around my other girls, even with a cast.”

“I’ll toss a couple hundreds at that.”

“Damn right, you will,” she said. “What the hell are you two doing together?”

Keep grinned. He lost his charm when he sacrificed his mind and soul to the drugs, but I recognized a familiar spark. “Luke and I got to reminiscing.”

“Over what?”

“Couple empty clips. Little blood in the street. Hell of a good time.” He rubbed his face. “Got some bad news though. I had to make a few calls and let people know what happened.”

“Who’d you tell?”

“Your new nursemaid.”

The steps echoed in the hall. I recognized Rose’s voice and the boot steps that followed.

This wouldn’t be a happy reunion.

Rose burst into the room. She lunged at Lyn, a barrage of questions, concerns, and voiced promises to help her however she could. I prevented her from leaning too far over the bed and pinning Lyn’s busted leg.

I readied to face Thorne.

I hadn’t expected he’d bring Gold and Reaper for the ride too.

“Son of a
bitch
!” Gold sneered.

I didn’t have time to pull my gun. Lyn grabbed me before I could move, but the motion wracked her in agony. Her warning eclipsed with pain.

And the aching tremor in her voice slayed through every one of my bones. If they hadn’t crushed under the weight of my guilt, they’d all snap at her bidding.

I damned myself long ago. If they wanted to kill me, they would. Lyn laid in the crossfire, but I edged clear, giving them a shot at me and not where my heart rested, strapped to the bed and sick with pain.

“Stop!” Rose leapt between us. She pointed at finger at Anathema and stilled me with a glance. “Everyone will
stop
. From this moment on, you
will
consider this hospital as part of Sorceress.”

That didn’t make much sense, but Lyn was half-naked, just like at her club. I could pretend, but I doubted Anathema wanted a play along.

Rose’s voice strained. She scolded Keep and warned Gold as he reached into his jacket.

“This room is neutral,” she said. “No guns. No fighting. For Christ’s sake, Lyn is hurt. Everybody calm down before something worse happens.”

It wasn’t the men Rose had to worry about. Lyn fumed, enraged by the interruption and probably more upset that so many of her friends invaded her room while she was most vulnerable. Fortunately, the drugs juiced her with enough medication to dull the pain and her tongue.

Lyn’s voice challenged anyone stroking a gun like their cock. “What the hell are you all doing here?”

Thorne’s stare was a warning—one that’d go unheeded. If he thought I’d let Lyn suffer in a hospital alone, we had bigger problems than the messages and ATF.

“Came to check on you,” he said. “Heard there was trouble.”

Lyn hadn’t rattled, but that viper would strike just the same. “Bullshit. I’m half-crippled because of this idiocy. I deserve the truth.”

Gold and Reaper made a move. Thorne snapped, but Rose acted first.

Her slap to Gold’s face echoed across the hospital room, practically the entire floor.

“Don’t you dare start a war here, James.” Rose stared him down, her voice just as sharp as when she chastised Keep. “I haven’t healed from the last one yet.”

The kitten still didn’t have a good hiss, but her teeth dug in this time. She’d only draw a little blood, but at least those tiny claws would make a man irritable. Thorne had enough. He gripped her around the midsection and tossed her behind him. Still, his hand pledged a quick peace.

“We’re getting info on Temple,” he said. “Trying to figure out what went wrong.”

“Yeah, me too,” Lyn said. She struggled to sit higher, folding her fingers into mine for support.

Anathema shifted.

A touch was all it took. A jacket over her shoulders or brand on her ass wouldn’t have spelled it out any better. Lyn was mine.

But I was still a dead man to the men I wronged.

And fate pissed on us again.

Shouts echoed from the hall, threatening the police. Grim winked at a nurse and twisted her away from the room. He and Vega burst inside, slamming the door behind them.

Now we were fucked.

Neither of my men realized they walked into an Anathema chapel. I doubted Thorne cared they were only my trusted officers left.

Guns pulled. Clips slammed. Rose shrieked as Thorne tossed her into the corner.

The silence was worse than a gunshot, and the tension would crack more skulls than fists.

“You’re all assholes,” Lyn said. “Go ahead. Kill each other. I’ll take out Temple myself.”

The guns lowered. She struggled to cover her bare foot from the cold. I couldn’t move with Thorne’s gun aimed at the center of my forehead, but Keep gave her an apologetic smile, edged around Grim, and tucked the blanket over her pink toenails.

Thorne didn’t get to talk. Grim put his gun down first, tossing it onto the bed next to Lyn’s broken leg. That was as good a truce as we’d get.

“Priest’s on the move.” Grim nodded to me. “It’s not gonna be pretty.”

Fuck. “What the hell is he doing now?”

“He’s about to steal about twenty kilos of cocaine from Temple.” Grim winked at Lyn. “Need me to pick any up for you?”

Lyn held up the IV. “No thanks, I’m good.”

Goddamn Priest. I put my gun away. No sense worrying about Anathema if Temple would set fire to every corner of the city to burn us alive. Thorne understood it too. He nodded to his men. The weapons eased.

Keep sat on the sink, crossing his arms. “Where the fuck is he getting twenty kilos of coke?”

“He’s planning on harassing one of Temple’s distribution centers?” Reaper asked.

Grim gave his old friend a nod. “You know it.”

It was a nightmare wrapped in a shit show that turned into a clusterfuck. My head ached even without the inevitable bullets that’d lodge in my skull as a consequence to this disaster.

I exhaled. “He’s going to blow the fuse on this war. Temple’s already caused enough pain tonight.”

“Did Heathen do this to her?” Vega’s bulk hardly fit in the room, but at least he blocked the idiot doctors trying to get inside. “You okay, Lyn?”

Lyn always seemed to like Vega, probably for taking care of one of her dancers. She gave him a smile she rarely offered anyone in The Coup. “I’m fine. Heathen came looking for me, but I got away. If he had found me…” Her words broke. Every man reached for his gun, the only comfort we could give. Rose offered her water and squeezed her hand. Lyn recovered with a harsh breath. “They’re looking for blood.”

“If Priest fucks with them again, it’s anarchy,” I said. “He’s rogue. Split from my crew.”

Thorne eyed Grim and Vega. “You guys have any outstanding loyalty to Priest?”

“Absolutely not,” Grim said.

Vega crossed his arms, his vest creaking. “Nah. Fucker’s nuts. Gonna get us all killed.”

An understatement. Thorne nodded, and a momentary peace was granted.

A strange truce.

His men and mine dropped the attitudes, and, for the first time in a year, it felt like it had before the split. Men were dead and blood had spilled. Too many insults passed and problems started. But we stood together without violence. Without guns. Without killing each other.

And it wasn’t just a silent agreement to extend the neutral territory to the hospital.

Lyn was hurt. She wasn’t a brother, and she didn’t wear a cut, but she was someone who deserved every respect that came from the leather. Her pain reminded us of the true enemy—the bastards who dared to hurt one of our own.

“Do we know where Priest is heading?” I asked.

Grim hedged the question. He had a decent head on his shoulders. Knew not to start shit.

“Got an idea,” he said.

No sense hiding the only thing that would prevent Temple from slaughtering us. I glanced at Thorne. “We have a listing of all of Temple’s safe houses and addresses. Truck shipments. Warehouses. Last known addresses. It’s kept us one step ahead of them for the past month.”

“Fuck.” Gold flexed his good arm, the one not scarred to hell from the IED he took overseas. “We could do a lot with that information.”

No doubt. Gold ran surveillance just as good as he ran cigs. I nodded to Thorne.

“It’s yours. Not doing any good except tempting Priest. Where’d he head, Grim?”

“North. Outside the Valley. Little warehouse they use to cut the product before shipments.” He raised his eyebrows. “We could be there in twenty from here. He’s hitting it after dark.”

That didn’t give us a lot of time, especially if something happened to Lyn. The doctors had mentioned surgery. I wasn’t letting her face that reality alone.

But the thought of Priest pissing with Temple?

It didn’t just upset my stomach. That was a fear that recoiled my balls and left me chilled. If Temple was already in the city looking to kill us, nothing would stop them from bleeding us all out.

We had no choice. I had to trap Priest in his own fucking greed. His punishment would be harsher than a slap on the wrists and a time-out mopping floors in the garage.

Rogue was worse than traitor.

He had to die.

But I couldn’t do it alone. Grim had three loyal men, Vega five. Enough to stop Priest. Not enough to deal with Temple if they pissed on the hornet’s nest.

Thorne thought the same. He met my gaze.

I had to be the one to propose it.

“We can set up an ambush,” I said. “But I’m gonna need some help. I need a couple more men to help put the cocksucker down and watch our backs. Especially if Temple realizes we’re rifling through their stash.”

“Who gets the coke?” Thorne asked.

“Whoever fucking survives.”

Thorne shrugged, glancing to his men. His grin wasn’t kind. Seldom was when he wasn’t looking at Rose. “Who wants to rescue prince charming here? Save his rat ass and get ourselves owed a couple favors?”

Keep didn’t hesitate. “Fuck yeah, but we’re gonna need some reinforcements.”

“Can I trust you to contact him?”

“I’ll do it on the road.”

Thorne’s jaw tensed. “You’re not going.”

Keep scowled. “Son of a bitch, man, I didn’t take a hit today!”

Thorne pointed at Rose and Lyn. “Then you get a second-fucking-chance. Someone’s gotta stay with the girls. Gold? Reap?”

They hesitated, but Reaper patted Grim’s shoulder. “I’m in.”

Gold shrugged. “Me too.”

We got our men. Lost our minds, but at least we brought an army.

“We’ll meet at Pixie,” Thorne said. “Gear up.”

Rose followed him, though he waited with her just in the hall, her voice muffled. Frantic.

Lyn didn’t bother with the theatrics. She tried to brush her hair from her face but used the wrong hand. The men cleared as she nearly wept in pain.

“Luke, I swear to God, if you head into Temple territory—”

I sat by her side. “I don’t have a choice. Priest will kill us all.”

“And you think you’re the one to stop him?”

“Someone’s gotta.”

“Does it have to be you?”

Who better? I’d summoned enough devils and tempted more men.

It was about time I did something right.