Knight (36 page)

Rose paled in memory. The girl was already in therapy twice a week, and Thorne had her enrolled in as many classes as she could handle. Nothing ever stopped her from remembering, but those of us who knew the secret did everything we could to shield her from those thoughts.

Keep gritted his teeth. “You cut him a deal.”

“He stayed out of jail provided he reported on Temple MC,” she said. “He made the trades and got the details to us. He was good too. Convinced them he was legit. Temple’s only deals outside of their club were made with Blade and Blade alone.”

It shouldn’t have been possible. No one knew. No one had a
clue
.

Blade a double-agent.

“And Temple found out,” I said.

“Not until recently.” Agent Greene exhaled. “Hell, Blade was so deep into ATF I didn’t even know we had another agent inside Temple until I was infiltrated for a few months. But…by then…I was with Toviel. I wanted to help the club instead.”

“Wait.” Rose’s hands trembled. Keep took the gun before she rushed at Agent Greene. “ATF
knew
what Blade was doing to me? For all those years? And they
used
it against him instead of…instead of…” The tears came, furious and terrified. “Instead of stopping him from
hurting
me?”

“You had a chance to come forward.” Kitty wasn’t swayed by her tears. “I tried to keep Blade in jail, where it’d be easier for one of Temple’s men on the inside to kill him. If you had told the world where Daddy touched you, then Temple could have got their revenge while he was behind bars and none of this—” She waved a hand. “Would have happened.”

Rose turned, her hands digging through her curls. “Oh, my God. That’s sick. All this time. All those things he did. The
pictures
and
poses
and places he…I was
five
when it started! Do you have any idea what he did to me when I got older?”

Agent Greene had a shred of decency. She looked appropriately remorseful, but I didn’t trust the bitch. Or Keep’s guns trained on her.

“Sorry, Rose. ATF figured you’d stay silent about the abuse. The only talk on the street was that Thorne chased a traitor. Brew died, and we thought it’d be the end of it. But then Blade wound up missing…” She shrugged. “ATF had to know what happened to our contact and if their investigation was compromised in any way. I had hoped you’d help with the investigation, maybe even give a bit of information on Blade so I could get the heat off me. You’re too damn loyal, Lyn.”

I wished I could have paced. “And Temple? Why the hell was Temple chasing us? They thought we killed Blade. They should have thrown us a goddamned party.”

“Temple didn’t know or cared who actually killed Blade. Knight was too close to him, working side-by-side. They had no idea if Blade told anyone about his involvement with ATF or any of the secrets he learned about Temple. Knight, Brew, and you were the only people close enough to get any details. They decided to kill you rather than take a risk that a secret got out.”

“And you?”

“I helped both sides because I needed to figure out the truth.”

“Playing a little risky, aren’t you?” I asked. “ATF has no idea where your loyalty lies.”

“No, but the Feds won’t string me up by my guts if I cross them. Temple asked me to handle the Blade problem. Heathen ordered me to find out who else might have had contact with ATF. Since Knight did everything for Blade, and you…” her eyebrows rose, “you do everything for Knight, I thought you two helped Blade. Learned his secrets about both sides.”

She thought wrong.

But it wasn’t like my head was any clearer.

I blinked, but now I saw four of her. My vision surged and crested with the drugs. I gripped the blanket, nodding at Keep to poise the gun.

Agent Greene exhaled. At least she met her fate with the same pride I expected.

“I think we can help each other out,” I said. “Are you willing to make a deal?”

“Heathen told me to kill you.”

“Well…” I said as Keep bumped the gun against her. “That’s unlikely to happen. But I’ll let you walk. I’ll give you another day, another blow job, another opportunity to win over Toviel if he ever pops back from a vegetative state.”

“Don’t you fucking talk about him like that—”

“I offered ATF Temple, and now it fell through. What will they do?”

“They’ll put more pressure on Anathema to figure out what happened to Blade. I don’t think I can stop them before they move on Temple with the evidence Blade collected. They’ll try to take them down from the inside.”

“Will it work?” I asked.

“No. They can grab a couple low-level guys. No one is going to rat on Toviel or Heathen.”

“I want the pressure off me and Anathema,” I said. “Can you do that?”

Agent Greene frowned. “I never thought Jocelyn Hart would owe me a favor.”

“Wrong,” I said. “You’re doing this for me. You go to ATF and tell them we have no information, and you’ll get to live.”

“They’re gonna want something. Anything. I can’t come back empty-handed.”

The idea sliced through the drugs. I gnawed on my lip, gesturing to Keep. “I can get you members of The Coup.”

“Giving up your boyfriend?”

“No. Protecting him.” I met her gaze. “We’re both women loyal to our clubs. Probably to a fault, enough to get us in trouble and…” I gestured to my leg. “Hurt. Or worse.”

“This is true,” she said.

“Anathema and Knight are heading to one of Temple’s properties to the north. Pinning down a couple rogue members. You get your team up there, and you’ll make a couple arrests. Enough to look good.”

She stayed silent.

“You tell ATF to take The Coup and leave Anathema alone, and you won’t get shot.”

She stilled. “That’s fine. But I can’t do anything about Temple.”

I didn’t ask her to distract Temple. There was no point. They’d never listen to her.

“That’s the difference between you and me, Kitty,” I said. “You’re just a fucking gash to them. You suck cock nice, but they don’t respect you. They won’t defend you. They want your pussy and your ties to ATF.” I grinned. “You just do as I say, and I’ll take care of my boys, got it?”

Kitty
didn’t like it, but she didn’t have a hell of a lot of choices with a gun to her head. She nodded.

“Good. Then get out of my room.”

Rose spared her no sympathy and slammed the door shut behind her. Keep’s profanity was creative and insulting.

“You just sent ATF
and
Temple to that goddamned warehouse,” he said. “You’ll get them killed.”

“Not if you get there first,” I said. My pulse raced, and I doubted that was good in combination with the injury and medications. “Call them. Get them out before the Feds show up.”

“And when Temple shows instead?” Rose asked.

“Then Priest has a worse day.”

Keep nodded. “You gonna be safe?”

“Should be.”

Rose wavered, though she pulled her gun from Keep’s belt. “I’ll stay with Lyn.”

Keep hated to see her with a weapon. “Can you shoot that thing?”

“I’m not just some gash either. I’m Anathema’s damned queen.” She tucked it at her side. “And Lyn is one of our girls.”

Sure as hell looked like it, but first Luke had to survive long enough to sit down and state his grievances to Anathema. One step at a time, and I couldn’t even walk.

Didn’t have a choice now. Keep bolted, and Rose grabbed her cell and called Thorne. He didn’t answer, but I hadn’t expected him too.

The plan was already in motion.

If we were lucky, blood hadn’t spilt.

We dumped the bikes off the highway, a quarter mile from the warehouse.

Mine immediately tipped into the dust.

Hoped that wasn’t a sign. Even if it was, I could think of worse places to end up than in the dirt. I’d already survived one execution.

Maybe that was because I had been lucky. Maybe I was skilled.

Or maybe I had a reason to live.

I wasn’t a superstitious man. I believed in the bullets in my gun, answering for my past, and accepting my mistakes. Was only recently that I learned there might’ve been some forgiveness in there. But it wasn’t mine to give or ask for.

But my men, Grim and Vega, rolled alongside Anathema, like we had a year ago. We aimed our guns at the same target. That kind of hatred united men.

It felt like the best way to make amends.

The warehouse Priest hit wasn’t some small, off-the-highway job. It was a big goddamned location. Security cameras. Barbed wire fences. A guard. Priest’s men had left his corpse on the gravel.

Big fucking mistake.

Priest didn’t expect trouble, but Temple wasn’t hauling their drugs across the border without protection. The warehouse wasn’t just another cool, dry place to cut the cocaine. It worked as a makeshift morgue.

We didn’t have blueprints of the building so we took our best guesses. Thorne crouched in the dirt and drew an outline of the property with only our dimmed cellphones offering light. Gold scouted ahead, crawling through the brush, counting as many doors and windows as he could see. He also kept an ear to the police scanner. So far we were alone. Priest made it to the warehouse without any incidents.

That would change.

I sent Gold and Vega to the west. Grim and Reaper to the east. It worked out good. Before the split, before whatever bullshit excuse separated us, Anathema wasn’t just a small cluster of fuck-ups. We worked well together. Had each other’s backs. Counted each other’s rounds.

I planned to break in through the rear entrance, a secondary door behind the dumpsters probably used for smoke breaks and blow jobs.

Thorne climbed the fire exit above and said he’d get in through a window. Offer some suppression fire over our heads. Unless he had a rocket launcher, the warehouse was too damn big to cover everyone. But that bastard was ruthless. Efficient.

Just hoped he wasn’t aiming for me.

Gold synced our watches, and Reaper confirmed Priest, Lash, and five of their men sniffed around the inside, sampling the product before they even stole it. The greedy fucks. Their van was parked outside, but I ordered Grim to only slash their bikes tires before creeping into position.

I counted.

One minute till mayhem, and Christ that felt good after a year of slicing our patience on the edge of disaster. I poised on the balls of my feet. Ready. Tensed.

It took a couple hours for the rage to finally choke against my chest.

Lyn was hurt. Might have been killed.

Priest split and was determined to gut the city with violence.

And Temple? Those motherfuckers still had a bullet reserved for me. I was tired of waiting for pain.

Times were changing. Thirty seconds until anarchy. For as long as I had avoided violence, I longed to shed some bad blood.

I leaned to the door, gun cocked. The time counted in my head.

Three.

Two.

One—

Hands grabbed me from behind and tossed me to the ground. I aimed.

Keep was fucking lucky that I had the sense not to pull the trigger.

Yet.

“We got a problem.” Keep twitched. He had more than one problem, but he rubbed the sweat from his eyes and hauled me from up with trembling hands. “Change of plans. Gotta leave.”

“The hell are you talking about?”

“Temple’s coming. ATF’s on the way.” Keep kept his weapon low, but angled his head, listening. “I got everyone waiting at the bikes, but Thorne won’t answer the text. We gotta roll. Can’t get caught here. Lyn’s making a deal.”

“With who?”

“With Crazy Bitch. The one sucking Heathen’s cock and working for ATF.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? Why aren’t you watching Lyn?”

Keep searched the side of the building for any movement. “You want to go, or you want me to stand here and jerk you off? I already got the other guys positioned around the perimeter. Come on.”

Around the building but not up it. “You find Thorne?”

“No. I thought he’d be with you.”

Shit
.

“Get everyone out of here. I’ll get Thorne. He’s inside.”

Not where we needed to lose the fucking president.

Keep ran, low and steady, across the hard-packed dirt. I holstered the gun. Thorne was inside, but I doubted that bastard would retreat if he didn’t hear gunfire. He’d resolve it his own damn way.

I sprinted to the corner of the building. None of Priest’s men even patrolled.

Christ, were they ever part of my crew? Fucking amateurs.

The fire escape didn’t pull all the way to the ground. I jumped and caught the bottom rail, hauling myself up the ladder and around the creaking metal frame. The security light cracked, popped off the wall from a solid kick. Thorne knew his shit, only now I couldn’t find my footholds to scale the rusted ladder.

I slipped once and nearly crashed to the dirt.

Lyn had fallen too. Broke her leg and nearly her neck. Not the woman or outcome I needed to think about now. Not when just imagining Lyn’s pain coursed pure razors through my veins. I’d either bleed out or find another son of a bitch to share that agony.