Tank's Redemption: Red Devils M.C. (Red Devils MC Book 4) (16 page)

Annie gulped, “Yes.” She whispered.

“How can you be sure that she’s not selling to the Jackal’s, Annie?” He asked, his hands gripping her hips, his fingers digging into her skin, his body stiff beneath her. Damn, it was what she had feared. Tank was going
to hate her. She wanted to cry, but she didn’t want to do it here, she needed to get up and move away from him. That thought in her head she tried to get off him, only he held her to him.

Tank
snarled with displeasure when Annie tried to move away from him. He didn’t like that at all. Not one damned bit, and she wasn’t going anywhere. Not now, not ever. She belonged to him, and that was just the way it was going to be, hadn’t she figured that out yet.

“How can you be sure, Annie?” He asked again.

Realizing from his tightening grip and the way he spoke through gritted teeth that he wasn’t going to let her move away from him, she sighed. She just hoped when she saw the hatred fill his eyes she was able to bear it without bursting into tears. Why did her mother and her stupid passion for gun running have to ruin everything in her life?

“She doesn’t work with them since they kidnapped me, okay.” Annie spit out
, trying her damndest not to cry, her heart breaking at the thought of him hating her.

“Since they did what!” Tank roared, his head filled with a buzzing noise as he gripped her tightly. Those assholes
had kidnapped her. Fuck, he was going to kill them. Every fucking one who’d touched her. Mother fucker, it was a wonder she was alive. Oh lord, had they raped her? It was bad enough thinking of them hitting her, but the idea that they’d rape his Annie made him a whole lot of crazy. Almost rabid. He was going hunting when this conversation was over, and those mother fuckers better hope that they were already dead. He squeezed her against him, his mind racing. She didn’t act like a woman traumatized in that way, but who knew how long she’d had to deal with it.

“You’re hurting me, Tank.” Annie whispered. Tank realized he’d been digging his fingers into her hips too hard, and he released her.

“Sorry.” Tank muttered, his vision still covered in a red haze of anger. “Now, describe in detail every man you saw while you were with them.”

“What? Why?” She looked at him surprised to see that the anger she’d thought was directed at her was actually directed at the Jackal’s. Tank was beyond mad that they’d kidnapped her, and then it dawned on her what he must think, knowing the Jackal’s the way he did. “No, no Tank they didn’t rape me.” She whispered, then after a pause. “They just smacked me around a bit.”

“That’s good. Now, describe them.” Tank said again.

“Didn’t you hear me? They didn’t rape me, Tank. My mother put a stop to that
by saying that she wouldn’t give them what they wanted unless I was in one piece and not hurt. Well, any more than I already was. She needed the codes.” Annie was holding his face trying to get him to look at her.

“Do you fucking think that matters? Now, what did they look like?” He
demanded, glaring at her.

“It was two years ago, Tank. The only two I remember is the tall guy with the tattoo of a snake on his arm and the little one with the spider on his face. The only reason I remember either one of those two is because they were the ones promising to rape my corpse. Which was really fucking creepy.” Annie bellowed, struggling to get out of the bed. Tank refused again to let her move away from him.

“If you saw them would you remember what they looked like?” He demanded.

“No most likely not, just those two made an impression, but I don’t want you going all crazy and try to hunt them down. That’s asking for trouble.” She lay her head back on his chest, wanting to hear his heart beating, needing the comfort hearing it brought her.

“What codes,” He suddenly asked. “You said she needed the codes like that was the only reason she demanded you be left in one piece.” His eyes had narrowed again.

“Oh, that.” She said lifting her head, her eyes sad. Making Tank want to take that question back,
hell he hadn’t meant to upset her. “Well, my mother is a little paranoid. She has a single person she trusts hold the codes to the vault every two months. It’s a safety issue. There was a time when everyone knew the codes, but then the robberies started and that was it, she became nuts about changing the codes and only me and the original boys could hold the codes. The person who held the duty that month was the only one who knew that month’s code. That month happened to be my month. That was a good thing…because…well because she’s not really all that motherly, okay.” Annie finished lamely.

“That can’t be the only reason she protected you
, Annie.” Tank told her, and he would know. She could have made them let her talk to her daughter, and forced Annie to give her the codes. She didn’t have to make an ultimatum. If she hadn’t cared she would just have told the Jackal’s to get the codes and she could have changed them afterwards. He held no illusions on how they’d have gotten those codes that thought made his fists ball in the sheets.

He could tell by Annie’s expression that she was stubbornly clinging to the idea that her mother didn’t care for her, but Tank had a feeling that she did. No one, even an arms dealer with product on the line, ever made someone they didn’t care about call them every four hours to be assured they were okay.
It was unnecessary. But seeing her expression, he held his tongue.

“It is believe me.” Annie assured him.

“Okay, so, your mothers an arms dealer, huh.” Tank said, a slight smile on his face, then he started laughing.

“What’s so damned funny about that?”

“Oh, come on. You’ve seen the basement. Who could be more perfect for a man like me? I was scared shitless that I was going to find someone like Molly, who hates guns.” Tank laughed so hard there were tears in his eyes as they met hers.

Annie picked up the pillow hitting the idiot in the head. “Idiot!” Tank’s arms came up trying to prevent her from hitting him. He tackled her, rolling her beneath him. His thick erection laying against her wet core. Ha, the man was always randy. Of course, she was
the one moaning and her hips rose to meet his, but that was only because the man was so good at giving her orgasms.

His lips l
owered until they were inches from her making her moan again. Then he whispered as he hovered over her, “I better get the best Christmas gifts ever. I want an AK-47 in case you were wondering.” Then he pulled back, and settled her next to him. How dare he? She was not going to get the man an AK-47 for goodness sakes.

“We should get a nap in before you call your mother.” He murmured
, kissing her temple.

“But…” She felt him smile against her cheek.

“Later baby, I’m tired. I’ve had a stressful day, some crazy woman gave me a whole bunch of grey hairs today. Wonder who that was?” He ran a hand down her back again, chuckling when she whispered bastard to him before settling down to sleep.

Annie stared at the phone like it was going to bite her. Her mother was screaming in her ear about the race that she’d been in
yesterday. How her mother knew about that race wasn’t as big of a surprise as her reaction. She was yelling at the top of her impressive lungs because Annie was the only one who could open that security vault in the van, and her mother was pissed that if she’d died in a fiery crash they would have been unable to retrieve the merchandise. I mean really, that was her concern if her only daughter had died? The freaking merchandise that was what worried her. Annie sighed, she shouldn’t be surprised. After all she’d lived with the woman for almost thirty years.

“Mother, please. I called you to get you to set up the meet.” Annie said, holding a hand to her aching head. Tank had left a little while ago to head over to help Bone with some issue, that he refused to te
ll her about, which made her patience with her mother even shorter than usual.

“Ha, fine, but the next time you do this I will not be as willing to let it slide.
I’ll call you back in a half hour with the meet time.” Her mother finally answered.

“This is the last time remember, so there won’t be a next time
, mother.” Annie gripped the phone hard. Her mother had the crazy idea that her not wanting to work for her anymore was a rebellious phase that would pass. She was twenty five years old for fuck’s sake, and she damned sure wasn’t going through any phases at least not anymore, maybe when she’d been a teenager.

“Sure, sure whatever.” Her mother hung up before she could say another word, and Annie scream
ed, jumping up and down. Her mother was maddening, and it was little wonder they called her looney.

“You can’t tell him
, and I have to go alone, Tank.” Annie told him.

“Are you out of your fucking mind
, Annie? I’m not about to let you go into that meet alone. It’s dangerous, and if you’re in any danger at all I am going to be there. Or your happy little ass will be sitting on this couch while I go and take care of this.” Tank bellowed, his face red and his eyes were filled with disbelief, as he glared at her.

“This is not a dangerous run, Tank. I make the drop and then you pick me up, they get their weapons. It’s all pretty straight forward.”

“No, Annie. You are not going alone. Fine, you don’t want me to involve the club, we won’t. But I will be damned if I let you go anywhere dangerous alone. Or have you forgotten that the Jackal’s were planning on raiding the shipment before you broke down?” Tank was still glaring at her, a dark scowl on his face.

“Fine, you can follow me, but you can’t be in the van with me or you’ll
spook her client and then she’ll find a way to make it my fault. At which point, she will insist on another job before she lets me out of this dumb business of hers again, and I am not doing another job, Tank.” Annie wanted to beat the man upside that hard head of his. They’d been arguing about the meet in ten days for over an hour.

Her mother had called her about thirty minutes after they’d talked and told her when the meet was set for.
Annie had told Tank who’d insisted that the club would handle it, and the arguing had begun. Round and round they went for the past hour, until they were finally almost in agreement about the meet. It was difficult to convince him and the only reason he’d allowed it was because she’d told him she was the only one who could open the locked vault in the back of the van. He’d been really pissed about that one.

He’d
snarled, and threw his hands in the air, bellowing about her safety and he needed to take care of this for her. Yeah right, first of all if her mother’s network of spies found out she hadn’t handled this job her mother would find a way to make her do another one, and that was so not happening. And second she’d already told the man she wasn’t made of glass, and he wasn’t going to be able to protect her from everything.

Tank glared at Annie. She was such a stubborn little thing, and she was making him nuts. He didn’t want her anywhere near this weapon
’s drop. If he had his way she’d be here and not involved at all in this crazy mess. It was bad enough that she knew about it, much less that she would have to be the one to take them where they needed to go.

It was dangerous. It made him want to murder her mother. How dare the woman allow Annie to be in danger? Annie had told him several times that she wasn’t a traditional mother, and he could agree with that, but he also didn’t think that the woman cared little for Annie. She cared, and he was sure of that fact. He had a feeling that Annie would discover this for herself soon. He’d bet that she wouldn’t stop trying to con
tact her daughter just because Annie had left the business. Then another disturbing thought occurred to Tank. The woman would most likely would attempt to pull Annie back into her dangerous life, but Tank wasn’t going to allow that to happen.  No way in hell was her mother pulling
his
Annie back into her crazy schemes.

She was r
ight about one thing. She was definitely not going to be doing any more jobs for her mother. That was not happening. If her mother needed someone to help her then she’d have to settle for the Red Devil’s helping, not Annie. Not that he was sure how he was going to sell that to Bone. He wasn’t sure what the hell they were going to do about Annie’s mother. After this meet was handled, he was going to have to talk to him though. He was only putting it off now because Annie had freaked when he’d told her he was going to talk to Bone.

He didn’t think that the blow up over this
was going to be as bad as Annie seemed to believe, but he’d have to tell him after the meet. There was no way around it, not with Annie freaking like she had. He couldn’t allow them to continue to search for information he already knew, it would be wrong. But he could delay it. Although, Tank did have Tiny searching for a very different type of information, he thought grinding his teeth. Two Jackal’s needed to die, and soon for what they did to Annie.

“We will see. Annie I don’t like it, but I will allow you to do it. I’ll have a couple of prospects follow us.”

“No, Tank-“

“No
, enough, woman! I’ve already agreed not to tell the club what’s in the van till we get back, and I also agreed to allow you to be in that van alone. Even though just the thought makes me want to pull all my hair out, but this I will not give on. The Jackal’s were planning a heist on these weapons.” Tank growled.