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Ace

“What have you found out?” Shadow was the best IT guy in the business. If there were something to be found, he’d find it. Right now, he didn’t look so happy.

“They knew she was at your place, so the hit was on her, but they were willing to take out the Prez of the Riptides to get to her. That shows a disrespect for our club that you can’t ignore.”

“You know that for sure?”

He pulled up a file on one of the monitors in front of him. “This is a text convo between their president and the guy Thor clocked in your yard. The guy who threw the bomb.”

I scanned the conversation.

Yeah. They knew who and what I was, and they assumed Emma was my old lady. Not that she was yet, but they’d believed it and tried to take us both out. That amounted to a declaration of war on Riptide.

I nodded soberly. “What else you got?”

His fingers flew across the keyboard as he brought up the club’s name, its membership, location, police records, strengths and weaknesses.

If there was anything to be found online or on the dark web, he’d found it.

Not a pretty picture. These guys were into drugs, arms deals and human trafficking. The worst of the worst.

“Thanks. Church in half hour. Be prepared to fill the club in on all this shit.”

Shadow nodded. “Yes, sir.”

* * *

Emma

I watched the guys troop out to the little cabin out back. An air of solemnity surrounded them. There was no smiling. None of the usual laughing or banter. The prospects held back, watching as the patched members entered in single file. They entered last and closed the doors behind them.

Jasmine had told me that’s where they held their club meetings. She also told me they all got to vote on anything important, and going to war with another club had to be considered important.

Who would have thought a motorcycle club would run on democratic rules?

“I feel like this is my fault.” I stared at the closed door of the cabin. “If I hadn’t gone to Ace that night, Riptide wouldn’t be involved in this. Someone could get hurt badly, maybe even killed. Hell, it’s amazing no one has gotten hurt to this point what with bombs going off and all.”

Jasmine shook her head. “Wouldn’t have made any difference.

You just gave them a heads up. Those guys are trying to move into Riptide territory, and my men wouldn’t stand back and let that happen.

This just sped up the agenda.” She slanted a look at her sister.

“Especially if there’s human trafficking going on.

No way they’d stand for that kind of shit going down in their town. ”

“Aren’t you worried your dad could get hurt? Or worse. If they go after these guys, it’s not going to end well for someone.”

Jewel shrugged. “Life’s a crap shoot. Sure, Dad could get hurt, but he could also get cancer. Or have a heart attack. Or live to be a hundred and five. We don’t know what the future holds, we just have to live our lives as best we can so when our time comes, we have no regrets.”

Jasmine nodded her agreement. “It’s true.

No regrets is the best way to live. These guys have a saying.

Death before dishonor. And they live by that.

If they die defending something they believe in, they consider it a good way to go.

They don’t care if what they need to do to preserve their honor is considered illegal by society.

Dad always says justice and the law are two entirely different things. ”

I shook my head. “That is one of the deepest, most profound things I’ve ever heard. How did you two get to be so wise so young?”

Jewel giggled, and suddenly looked her age again. “You could credit our awesome dad, but I prefer to think it’s from watching all those television shows. You know, the ones with the hunky young heroes in skintight pants and no shirts, who always save the day.”

“Definitely. Ever watch Captain America? Or the Avengers?” Jasmine pretended to fan herself with her hand. “Hot!”

I smiled despite the tension in my gut. “You two are crazy.”

Jasmine grinned cheekily. “We try.”

“Ace is good at what he does. You don’t have to worry about him. He’ll slay the dragon and be back in time for supper.” Jewel wagged her eyebrows knowingly. “Or you, if that’s what he’s hungry for.”

I felt my face heat up. The walls around here weren’t soundproof, and Ace and I hadn’t been all that quiet. I hadn’t considered who might be within earshot when we made love.

“That was quick.”

I followed Jasmine’s gaze and saw the bikers all trooping out of the church building, heading back to the clubhouse. I wanted to get up and run to Ace, find out what was going on, but I resisted the urge. If I was going to try and fit in here, I had to do things their way.

Huh. When had I decided to try and fit in?

Ace came through the doorway and paced over to me. He held out his hand. “We can talk upstairs.”

I looked at the twins, who nodded silent encouragement. Placing my hand in his, I followed him up the stairs and into his room. He closed the door quietly behind us, still holding my hand. Crossing to the bed, he sat and pulled me down onto his lap.

“You’re going to war with them.” I made it a statement.

“Best defense is a good offense.” He stroked my hair.

“They’re going to keep coming at you and at us unless we do something.

You witnessed a murder, and they want you out of the way.

To them, that means dead. They know you’re with me.

They know you’re mine. They knew I was the Prez of Riptide when they bombed my house.

Can’t let that fucking shit go. We have to respond. ”

“They’ll expect you to do something. They’ll know you’re coming at them.” I pointed out the obvious.

“Maybe. Probably.” Ace shrugged. “But they won’t know when or how we plan to attack.”

Attack . I didn’t like that word. “When are you going?”

“Waiting for a couple of the guys to get back here.” He ran his hand down my thigh, and I shivered.

“Deuce and Preacher went up to Atlanta for some downtime, but that’s over now.

I messaged them to get their asses home.

Should be back tomorrow. Soon as they are here, we go at dawn.

Hopefully we’ll catch them when they’re just getting up. Not awake and or organized yet.”

Made sense. I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face in his shoulder. His scent surrounded me. Warm. Male. Comforting.

“I just found you. I don’t want to lose you.” The words were muffled against his shirt.

“Don’t plan on getting killed.” He gently pulled me away from him.

Cupping my chin in his hand he stared into my eyes.

“This is me. This is the life. I know you got thrown in the deep end, but if we’re going to make this work you have to understand club culture.

There are some things I’ve just got to do, the club just has to do. ”

I nodded soberly. “I get it. I really do. Death before dishonor. Duty and all that crap. I just don’t want you to die.”

“I’m not that easy to kill.” He ran his hand down my back. “You’re going to stay here with Mom, Jake and the twins while this goes down.”

“I am?”

“Yeah. This whole place is on lockdown until this is over. No runs to town. The outside help can keep the bar going for now. The manager isn’t part of Riptide, and he doesn’t ask questions.

He just takes orders. It’s too risky for anyone attached to us to show their face in town until this is over.

We don’t know who all’s with the other club and we can’t risk having anyone taken and tortured for information. ”

“They would torture someone? Like really torture?” My head was spinning. You would think witnessing a murder would have clued me in, but this was so far outside of my tidy little world. I’d somehow thought murder was the exception, not the rule.

“Without hesitating. That means you’re here for the duration as well. No running into town, and no contacting anyone. You down with that?”

It didn’t sound like I had much choice, but since I’d been shot, I didn’t have a lot of places to be either.

Work was out, and my home was definitely compromised.

I’d been too busy trying to get a degree the past few years to have any close friends.

Lockdown or no lockdown, I basically had nowhere to go.

A little depressing when you thought about it.

“A couple of the prospects will stay behind and man the gates. You know how to shoot, and I want you to keep a gun with you at all times. Just in case.”

I nodded slowly. I’d never considered whether I could pull the trigger to kill another human. Not even sure I could kill an animal if it came to that, but Ace had enough to worry about without me getting into that with him. Chances were, it would never come up.

“Thanks, babe.” He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me in for a quick hard kiss. “Knowing you’re safe means a lot to me. Makes things easier.”

He leaned back on the bed, taking me with him.

I lay on top of him, resting my chin on a propped-up hand. I took in those gorgeous eyes of his, that unruly mop of hair that never quite stayed in place, that mouth that could make me melt into a puddle of pure need.

When had he become so important to me? “This is insane, you know.”

“Us, or the situation?”

“Us. You’re a biker.”

“You knew that when you came to me for help.”

“True.”

His mouth twisted into a wry smile. “Rethinking your choices?”

“Maybe.”

“Don’t. I may be a biker, but I’m dynamite in the sack.”

I burst out laughing. “You don’t have an ego problem.”

“Not an ego. Just the truth.”

He pulled my head down to sear a kiss across my lips, and suddenly I didn’t feel like talking anymore.

If he might die tomorrow, then I didn’t want to waste today.

* * *

Ace

What I hadn’t told Emma was that I needed that extra day to run this war vote past my contacts at the FBI.

While the club was no longer controlled by that organization, we had an informal agreement to keep them apprised of any projects we undertook that might involve their interests.

Going to war with a club that sold drugs, ran guns and trafficked in women and children?

That absolutely qualified as being of interest to them.

While we didn’t have to abide by any orders they threw our way, we acknowledged that it wouldn’t be in anyone’s best interests if we inadvertently fucked up a mission they might have spent months or even years setting up.

If they had undercover agents in place, we could get them killed.

I left Emma sleeping soundly in my bed and headed to the communications room.

Shadow looked up when I entered, not bothering to remove his feet from his desk.

A glance at the monitor in front of him showed a fantasy landscape with monsters and dragons wandering through a forest littered with purple and blue trees.

He nodded at the vacant chair on the far side of the room. “Your woman sleeping?”

“Yeah. Should be down for a while. All this shit is new to her.”

“Saw her talking to the twins yesterday. Seemed like she’s a good one. She going to stay?”

“Fuck, yeah. Just not sure if she’s aware of it yet.” I crossed the room and sat down. “Encoding and protocols set up?”

Shadow nodded. “Affirmative. Line connected faster than most times. Got the impression the boys in Washington were expecting you to contact them.”

“They are not dumb. If they knew who was moving into our territory, and I’ve no doubt they did, they’d expect us to respond.”

“Not to mention your house getting blown up. Can’t possibly have thought it was an accident.

” Shadow sat up straight and killed the video game feed.

His hands moved over the array of blinking lights and buttons in front of him.

“Closing all the incoming and outgoing lines except the one you’re using.

Don’t want to chance a security breach.”

“Yeah. Wouldn’t want that.” I leaned forward and waited while the computer completed a retinal scan. A few moments later my contact’s avatar appeared.

“What’s up?” His conversational skills did not include social niceties such as hello and how’s it going.

“The club we discussed a few days ago is moving into our territory.” Might as well get right to the point. “My old lady witnessed a murder, and they’ve got a hit out on her. Blew up my house. Just lucky no one got hurt. We plan to take them out for good. ETA twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”

“The top brass is aware of your housing situation. They send condolences. Haven’t finished the background check on your old lady yet.

That murder she witnessed is not on our radar either.

” There was a brief pause. “Mission anticipated, and conditionally approved. Sooner the better. Intel has it they have an arms shipment coming in the next day or two. We would prefer that didn’t happen.

Our wish list also includes termination of their President, Vice President and Enforcer.

All three are extremely dangerous and we do not, with emphasis on DO NOT, want to give them the grandstand of a public trial.

This is not a sanctioned hit, but there will be bonuses if things go well. ”

What he didn’t say was that they were willing to pay us to take these guys out. Diplomacy required the situation be handled with finesse.

“Wish list noted. Will pass on to my guys.”

“Appreciate that. You need any hardware or boots on the ground?”

“Nah. This is just a heads up. When they bombed my home, it became personal. Club tempers are running a little hot at the moment.”

“Totally understand. Let us know if you need our help. Pre-Op or mop-up.”

“Will do. Ace out.”

I shut down the connection and set the headset on the desk.

“Good to go?” Shadow glanced over at me.

I nodded. “Yup. When Deuce and Preacher get back, we move out. Bit of a rush on it now. Arms deal going down, and our friends would prefer that doesn’t happen.”

“Sounds good. Enough of that shit on the street already.” Shadow resumed his pose with feet on the desk and turned the video game back on. Picking up the discarded video controller, he turned his attention to the screen in front of him. “Need to kill a few more Orcs before dinner time.”

I nodded. “I’ll let the others know.”

Shadow smirked. “About the Orcs?”

“Asshole.” I threw him a side eye.