White Heat (Lost Kings MC #5) (35 page)

Wrath’s in the corner of the couch by himself, watching the scene in front of him. “You okay?” I ask.

His mouth turns up into a genuine smile. Not his usual cocky or devilish one. He pats the cushion and I drop down next to him. “Happy he’s back, sugar. He’s not half as fucked up as I thought he’d be.” He glances at me. “I think that’s because of you.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

He stares at me until I squirm. “Yeah, you did, Hope.”

“Are you nervous?” I ask to change the subject.

His gaze sweeps the room, finally landing on Trinity over by the bar. “She makes me crazy,” he says with a lot of affection.

“You love it.”

“She knows I don’t want her doing this shit anymore.”

I have to chuckle. “You want her to focus all that attention on
you
.”

He grins back. “Yeah. I take a lot of care and feeding.”

I snort, then turn serious. “I think it makes her happy to do that stuff. Take care of things. Be needed.” I tilt my head up, noticing for the first time Mariella hasn’t joined us. “I don’t think she’s comfortable turning things over to Mariella yet either.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

“Besides, you know her every waking thought is of you.”

He raises an eyebrow.

“Wyatt this. Wyatt that.” I roll my eyes. “Ask Wyatt’s permission for a road trip.” I lower my voice. “Hey, in case you’re horny while your man’s locked up, you can borrow one of the brothers. Just not Wrath. He’s all mine.”

He stares at me with a surprised expression before bursting with laughter. “You didn’t tell
him
that, did you?” he asks.

“No. I just told him to make sure he spent a little time with her before we leave.”

He smiles briefly. “You going with him?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

“Any idea where he’ll want to go?”

He shakes his head. “He probably doesn’t even know.”

I’m okay with that. In fact, I relish the idea of the two of us alone together on the open road with no particular destination in mind.

“You’ll like the ride Murphy set up.”

“We’re not taking Rock’s bike?”

As soon as Wrath starts shaking his head, I realize what a stupid question that was. “Colors. Territory. Got it.”

“Good girl. You’re learning.”

Laughing, I bump my shoulder into him. “Ass.”

“Ready?” Rock asks, tapping Wrath’s leg with his boot.

“Church first?”

“Yeah.” Rock turns his attention on me. “You okay to wait out here for a few minutes? We won’t be long.”

“Of course. Do what you need to do, Rock. I’m good.”

“You’re the best.” He turns and whistles for everyone’s attention and points to the war room. “Church. Now. Want prospects at the end too, so go get ‘em and have them wait out here.”

Every brother stops for a hug, fist bump or back slap as they file into the war room.

It’s inadequate, but all I can think is how good it feels to be home. Surrounded by family.

I’ve always disliked my chair at the head of the table. But I keep it as a reminder of what the club endured before I took the throne. Now, I’m happy to see it too.

“Who sat here while I was gone?”

Wrath snorts. “Hope.”

I have to raise an eyebrow at that. No way would they have let her sit at the table.

“Not for church,” Z explains. “Couple times when we needed to talk to her and then this morning when we explained she couldn’t come with us to collect you.”

“Yeah, how’d she take that?”

“Fine. Didn’t even blink. Told us to hurry up and get our sorry asses down there.”

I duck my head and laugh as I picture that scenario.

Once more, I glance around the table. “So she really didn’t give any of you a hard time?”

Z snorts and I turn my attention to him, finding him shaking with laughter. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. I think she secretly enjoyed torturing us. Murphy had to take her to her dress fitting thing.”

“Jesus Christ,” Murphy grumbles, shaking his head.

“Please. He loved every second. Heidi was there too,” Wrath says.

I’m grinning like a fool as I slam the gavel down, signaling chat time’s over.

“Let’s get down to business. Thank you all for keeping the club going. For your loyalty. It meant a lot to me knowing you guys had things covered. Thanks for stepping up, protecting each other and protecting club assets.”

Sparky pipes up from the back. “Missed you, boss.”

“I know. Missed you guys too. And I hope you’ll forgive me for taking off for a few days after this meeting.”

Everyone murmurs their approval. Dex mentions “reconnecting” with my woman, which gets a dirty chuckle out of all these fuckers.

“This was some fucking bullshit. We’ve got a number of things to address when I get back. I’ll share my list with you, get your feedback and we’ll start making plans.”

Everyone nods.

“First, we’ve got Ulfric. Sloppy-ass motherfucker.” I turn to Wrath. “Wrath’s got the tie to their crew through Whisper and I got info from one of their guys while I was inside. It seems they’re trying to convince Ulfric it’s time to retire. I suggest we support that in whatever way we can.”

Everyone agrees.

“Vipers.” Any levity we were feeling flies right out the window. Shit’s about to get real. “They need to go. We’ve put up with enough bullshit from them. This most recent shit goes back to their belief that targeting women associated with the club is acceptable behavior.” I wait for any of them to question me. This is, after all, my fault. It was my involvement with Hope and my plan to pre-emptively take out the two fuckers who planned to hurt her that put all this other shit in motion. If I hadn’t done that, then Cabo never would have come up here in search of his brother’s killer, Ulfric never would have killed him and sloppily tossed his body in the river.

Of course, if I hadn’t taken care of those fucks, they would have brutally attacked Hope. For a second rage tightens my throat and I have to pause.

“Not your fault, prez. They started it by bringing women into it. We were protecting innocent people from getting hurt,” Bricks says.

Yet, because I’m a selfish fucker, I drew Hope into my world anyway and that weighs on me.

“From what Wrath tells me, we’ve got Sway’s and the all of downstate’s support on this. Whatever we need. He’s got his eye on their Jersey charter. But Ransom, and the rest of them—”

Z taps my hand to get my attention. “Rock, after what we learned from Mariella, there’s no doubt. These guys have got to go. Ain’t a decent human being in that crew.”

“We’ll discuss it more when I get back. I want everyone to stay on alert. Even though I’m out, and the charges were dropped, it doesn’t mean they’re not up to something else. This was some sneaky, fucked up shit, that took thought and planning. Things we’re not used to seeing from Vipers.”

“They gotta be hunting Mariella down,” Dex says.

His words bring me to my next item. “Mariella. What are we doing with her?”

Surprisingly, Teller’s the one to speak up. “She wants to stay. After the shit they forced her into, she’s more than happy taking over our household stuff. Plus, she’s sort of bonded to Trinity.”

Wrath throws a look at Teller, then turns to me. “Trin’s not one-hundred percent on board with turning her stuff over, but she likes Mariella. Thinks she’ll be okay.”

“We can trust her?”

Z nods. “I think so. She’s a sweet girl. Real shy.”

“Great cook,” Murphy adds. “When Trinity lets the girl touch her kitchen.”

The guys chuckle over that. Trinity’s run that kitchen with an iron fist for years. I imagine turning it over to someone else isn’t making her too happy.

“I can trust every one of you to leave her alone? She’s under our protection and that’s it.”

It doesn’t escape my notice that everyone
but
Teller agrees. I point down the table at him. “Are we going to have a problem?”

“No,” he answers.

I turn to Wrath. “Trin’s made it clear we don’t expect anything else out of her?” I’d rather not repeat past mistakes.

“Yeah. Hope did too.” He lowers his voice. “It made more of an impression coming from Trinity.”

“I’m sure it did.” My focus returns to the rest of the guys. “Where we at with GSC?”

“All good,” Z reports. “They were surprisingly supportive. You know, as long as we kept the weed coming.”

Wrath picks up Z’s thread. “Yeah, he offered us some valuable intel when we needed it. Made extracting Mariella a fuck lot easier.”

I can’t help wondering what Loco will ask for in return one day.

The guys give me a report on the last few drops with GSC and I take my seat. Sparky gives me an update on his current plan and two future projects he wants to work on.

When he finishes, I’m still considering whether I want to bring up the last item on my list.

“Prez?” Z prompts.

“Izzard. What went down?”

Wrath and Z exchange looks. “Why don’t you tell us,” Wrath finally says. Bold move, fucker.

“Don’t know. He took a dislike to me from the morning I processed in. Took some shit from him. Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

Wrath’s getting more and more pissed and I catch him shaking his head.

“Now, since you guys didn’t know that, what made you decide to take action on him? And what happened? He ran his mouth about Hope, but I figured he was bluffing.” Was praying like fuck he was bluffing.

“He disrespected, Hope,” Wrath says. His mouth flattens into a grim line. “We couldn’t let that stand. Then the day of the bail hearing, Hope said you had a black eye. Figured it had to be him.”

“Broke his motherfuckin’ fingers,” Murphy spits out. “Cried like a little bitch.”

I take a second to absorb that. My gaze drills into Wrath again. “
How
specifically did he disrespect Hope?”

“He gave her a pat-down that morning. Used it as an opportunity to grope her.” He drops his head, staring at his hands. “I couldn’t see what was going on from where I was, but I should’ve gotten her the fuck out of there the minute he started hassling us.”

I lean back, wait for my rage fog to clear, and don’t say anything for a few minutes. “Did he know where the payback was coming from?”

“No,” Teller answers. “We didn’t know if he had buddies on the inside who’d get to you. We went in masked, didn’t say anything. Broke his fuckin’ hands, knocked him out and took off.”

Turning to Wrath, I ask, “You a part of it?”

His face’s all sort of pissed-off when he answers. “No. Couldn’t risk him recognizing my big ass.”

This surprises me. It was a good call even though I know it must have killed him not to be a part of it. “Smart thinking. Who else went?”

Z, Ravage and Dex raise their hands, but Dex’s the one who speaks. “Swan helped us lure him to a motel. He’s one sick, twisted fucker.”

That does
not
surprise me.

“All right. We can talk about what to do with him when I get back. Anything else?”

“Prospects been staying here,” Wrath says. “We make them stay in the basement with Sparky and Stash, though.”

Sparky raises his hand. “Yeah, about that—”

All of us laugh.

“What do we think? How’d Hoot and Birch do? They’re both coming up on two years of prospecting. Time to vote?”

Murmurs of approval go around the table. Z speaks up. “They both stepped up big time. Axel too, but I know he’s not ready yet.”

“All right, we’ll talk about that when I get back.” I point to the door. “Someone go tell them to join us.”

Dex lets the prospects in and they automatically move to the back of the room.

“Good to see you back, prez,” Birch says. Hoot and Axel make similar comments.

“Good to be back. So, I hear you prospects have been staying up here. What the fuck’s that about?” I joke to lighten everyone up. In the back of the room, Hoot, Birch and Axel stand a little straighter but keep their mouths shut.

Z lifts his hand to speak. “They were a big help. When Butch and Iron Jim had to take off, prospects took over door duty at CB—”

“Big hardship hanging out with the strippers,” Murphy comments.

My mouth twists into a smirk and I nod at Axel. “How’d Heidi take that?”

“Not too well, prez.”

Everyone in the room bursts out laughing. Even Teller.

I glance at Murphy, pretty sure I know how Axel got assigned to CB. “We won’t have you back there, kid. Lord knows there’s plenty of shit to keep you busy here.”

Wrath grins like a devil. “I got some trees that need clearing.”

“Thanks,” Axel says.

“Don’t thank him yet, there’re a
lot
of trees out there,” Z jokes.

I don’t think Axel minds one bit.

“Any other business I should know about?”

I get a bunch of negative responses, but no one stands yet, waiting to see what else I want to say. “Love every one of you. Thanks for everything. I heard the clubhouse was pretty dismal in my absence, so celebrate tonight. Wrath’s got something he wants to do, so hang in the living room for a few before going off to get fucked up.”

Guys chuckle and stream out into the living room. Z and Wrath stay behind.