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“Has Bliss told you who hurt Rebel?”
He shook his head. “No. You’d be the first person I’d tell if I knew, brother. Vincent, Nash, and I are all itching to know too. The minute we do, we’re on our way to the asshole’s house to take care of business.”
I cracked my knuckles. It wasn’t enough to calm the restless ache inside me that stemmed from knowing someone had hurt my woman and gotten away with it. “I need to know,” I said hoarsely. “It’s fucking killing me.”
War slapped a beefy hand on my shoulder. “I know, brother. I know. But until she tells us their names, there’s nothing we can do.”
“I need a job,” I practically begged. “I can’t hang around here, just sitting on my damn hands. I want to start a fight with every person who even looks my way. I can’t take it. I’m scared I’m gonna hurt someone I care about. Or that my head is going to fucking explode.”
War’s sympathy was palpable. “I know how you feel. I was the same when it was Bliss in that situation. But we have nothing on right now. Just gotta sit tight ’til something comes up.”
I couldn’t do that. “What about your old man’s murder?”
Someone had hired a hitman to take out War’s parents. His mom had made it, but his father hadn’t been so lucky. We’d found out who the hitman was, but that wasn’t who we cared about. The person who’d ordered the hit was who needed to go down.
War patted my arm. “That time is coming. Trust me, when it does, you’ll be the first man by my side. But until then, fuck, bro. You need to find somewhere else to channel that aggression. Don’t go starting shit here, you know I ain’t got no patience for brothers fighting brothers. Take it somewhere else.”
He was right. I nodded obediently.
War gave me a half-smile. “Go get laid or something. Rebel ain’t the only one around here willing to ride your horse-sized cock. Any of the girls would be happy for a round.”
But that wasn’t true. The girls who hung around the clubhouse generally were up for it, and were often seen draped over the laps of the other guys, or bouncing on their cocks for the rest of us to watch.
But I saw the way they stared at me when I entered a room. Like everywhere else, they feared me too. Some flinched away. Others averted their eyes, hoping I wouldn’t notice them. I got it. I was huge, with a face only a mother could love, and mine hadn’t even done that.
I didn’t want a woman who was scared of me.
I just wanted the pixie who had never looked at me in any way other than with pure desire.
Being the center of Rebel’s attention was addictive. Once you’d had a taste, there was no going back. No other woman’s gaze felt the same.
There was no going to get laid unless it was Rebel’s sweet body writhing beneath me.
Since that wasn’t in the cards, the only other thing was violence.
I stalked outside to my bike, shoved on my helmet, and gunned the engine. It roared to life beneath me, vibrating through my bones in a way that normally settled my nerves but today only made them worse.
The tires kicked up rocks as I slammed my hand on the accelerator and shot out of the compound. Woods surrounded me on both sides, until I came out on the road that led up to the bluff. I steered away from it, though, taking the turnoff into Saint View.
I didn’t need pretty views tonight. I needed the rough, underbelly of the ghetto and the people who called it home. I passed Psychos, searching the parking lot for Rebel’s junk bucket of a car. But it wasn’t there. Which lined up with War saying she wouldn’t be back at work until next week.
The last time I’d seen her there, I’d left, jealous over her talking with another man. The memory played over in my head while I drove, getting clearer and clearer with every mile that passed beneath my tires.
The realization jolted, and I took my hand off the accelerator, letting the bike slow. Had it been him? The pretty boy sitting at the end of the bar while she worked, looking completely out of place in a Saint View dive?
Bile rolled around in my stomach.
No.
It couldn’t be. Because if it was, her attack was my fault.
I should have stayed. Should have watched over her.
Instead, I’d left in a jealous funk, like I had any right.
That urge to use my fists flooded me once more. If there’d been a wall to punch, I probably would have, just so the feeling had somewhere to go. “Fuck!” I bellowed into the night; the word whipped away by the rushing wind. I pushed the bike as hard as I dared, only one destination in mind now.
On the edge of town, the Dark Demon Boxing Gym sat surrounded by industrial buildings. By day, the place bustled with a mixture of businesses, but come closing time, the entire place emptied out.