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I had known that I had to make that trip. There was no other choice. I couldn’t know the horrible shit that was happening and ignore it, and there was only one way to permanently take care of the problem.
So I’d taken care of it.
But as I neared my house, there was a brand-new call tugging at my spirit. An anticipation that ignited in all the sacred places that I’d never believed would come alive again.
But there it was, burning bright behind my eyes as the old house came into view. But it wasn’t the walls and roof that made the impact. It was what was waiting inside.
Of course, I was going to have to go through Theo to get to them.
Theo who casually leaned against his bike with an ankle crossed over the other, hands stuffed in his jeans pockets as he warily watched me coming up the drive.
Speculation carved in every ferocious line of his face.
My bike rumbled and chugged as I came to a stop beside him,and I stretched out my boots to balance myself as I killed the engine then kicked the stand.
“Brother,” I said as I swung off the bike. “How’d it go?”
“Pretty sure I should be asking you the same thing.” Suggestion lined his statement. Fact that he didn’t buy that I’d had a work trip for a second.
But this wasn’t something I involved them in. Not that they wouldn’t tackle it. It was just a burden I’d taken. A debt I had to pay after what I’d unknowingly done.
I shrugged a shoulder. “Went off without a hitch.”
I hated deceiving him. For years, I’d slinked under the radar undetected. Gone and back before any of my crew had any idea I was gone.
No guilt in what I did because I made a promise to make a change whenever I could, no matter the cost. But there’d been no chance I’d leave Maci and Emery unprotected, so I’d had to involve Theo.
“And exactlywhatwas that?” he pressed.
“Met with a new brewer down in San Diego. Did some taste testing and negotiations. Going to feature them in all four bars.”
That wasn’t a lie.
The cover I’d used, which had turned out to be a two birds one stone sort of situation. It was always good to bring in new brands to my bars. The travel and expenses legitimate.
I just happened to make a very important pit stop after.
“That so?”
“Yup.”
Worry that presented as disbelief pulled tight on his sharp brow. “Don’t know why you think you need to front with me, man. You think I don’t know you’ve got something going on? You think I don’t know you always have? Have known it since you jumped ship from the MC.”
Unease churned in my guts.
My entire crew and I had ridden for the Iron Owls MC back in LA. Had lived a life of wickedness and corruption.
Guessed I was the first one for things to go sour, but it happened to be right around the time when things were also going south forTrent, our vice prez, and his father, Cutter, the crazy motherfucker who stood at the helm of our club.
I probably would have wound up dead if the club hadn’t splintered, my disloyalty and betrayal lost in the cracks of the club imploding.
I’d been the first to tell River and the rest of the guys that I was finished, and right after, River had found his own purpose that had become all of ours.
Sovereign Sanctum born.
I’d just always wielded an extra arm of it that the rest of my crew didn’t know about.
Except I wasn’t so sure about that right then with the way Theo was looking at me.