Page 6

I scrub my face. Hard. It doesn’t help. I’m still here in this fucked-up version of reality. Since when did the club start getting it all wrong? I’ve been at the helm for a day, or so it feels, and I’ve let the enemy inside.

Wendi—I mean Billy—was right. They came around at someone’s request, usually mine. Am I that hard up that I overlooked the safety of my brothers and family?

Fuck! Might be the shortest club presidency in history. Boys are going to insist on a revote.

“Prez?” Bass looks my way, and I see he has the fucking mafia at his back. How the fuck did I forget they were here?

I’m losing it. Fucking losing it.

I look back at Billy and sneer. I hate her. I hate what she brought to my door. And I really hate that my dick doesn’t give a rat’s ass what she said. He’s still interested. The sass that got him interested is showing more and more now, the longer she lets out who she really is rather than some pretend version of what she wants the world to see.

“You wanted us on lockdown. Why?” I ask.

She takes a deep breath, and her dress rises just enough to make me think that parts of her might not be as fake as the words coming out of her mouth. But then again, Jack had an entire wardrobe change transformation. Who knows what Billy really looks like under the choir-girl look she’s been portraying.

“It’s complicated. You have a member who’s being targeted. When I said we needed to go on lockdown, it was for two reasons. One, because I didn’t know the threat level at the time, and being inside is better than out in the open.”

“They still targeted?” Bass asks.

“Yeah, but from what Jack told me, we’ve still got time.”

Told her? They never spoke!

“You telepathic now too?” I keep the disbelief out of my tone and hope I come across as bored. But I’ve got half a mind to wonder if she’s a witch of some sort.

She rolls her beautiful jade eyes. “It’s what she didn’t tell me. She came back. If the threat was close or she had a lead, she would be out hunting. It’s what she does. If she came back, then she gathered what she could at the scene and came back to regroup. Nothing else to learn from there. And if it’s who we think it is, their MO has them going to ground after targeting someone to gather intel. We’ve got time, so I guess you can call off the lockdown. But hey, I’m not the boss, right?”

She adds a smirk and a head tilt at the end that has me glaring. I wasn’t looking for a suggestion, just needed facts. Not sure if any of that is true, but like she said before, no one else has come in claiming to be Crazy Eights.

“Bulldog, lift the lockdown, but keep the boys close. Pair them up if they go back home.” I look to my VP, and he nods before I exit stage left. Need some fucking air.

I don’t worry about Billy. She said she isn’t going anywhere, and despite what she might think, being part of her little group doesn’t mean shit in the end. The boys will make sure she doesn’t get too far without someone following her movements around the compound. Two or three tails if I know my brothers.

I go out the back, hoping it’s clear of people to give me just a few minutes to think alone, but I’m wrong. Once again.

While Jack and Rue went out the front, they eventually made it to the back, along with the brothers who followed them. I take in the scene before me as the brothers sit at the picnic tables watching the show.

Which is Jack beating the shit out of Rue.

I’ll give it to the girl—she ain’t going down. She’s the punching bag at the gym, taking the hit but then coming right back. She even gets a few jabs in herself before taking another punch that sends her head spinning. It’s captivating, and I shout at Rue to keep her hands up when I notice Jack’s tell before she throws a cross jab that seems to be her favorite for a power strike.

When Rue does as I say, she counters with her own punch. Jack stumbles back, then turns to glare at me. I hold her stare and don’t give a fuck if I piss her off. Good. She might feel one-tenth of how pissed I’m feeling.

“Don’t get mad at him. I told you that you always show your hand before you strike.”

I look down at Billy, who’s smiling at her sister. I felt someone come up, but I didn’t pay them any mind. Maybe my brain knew it was her, and I refuse to confront that shit. Call it self-preservation or some crap. All I know is I don’t want to deal with this right now.

I look back at the fight in time to see that Jack still has her back to Rue and misses the attack from behind. Or so I think. At the last second, she turns, grabs Rue’s arm, and flips her. She lands hard on the ground, grunts, and then rolls back to her feet and bounces up like a fucking pro.

I huff at that. Pro, my ass. Girl couldn’t go one round in a genuine ring, or she couldn’t before. Now? Watching her bounce on her toes, dodge and weave through the punches? This is more of a training match than Jack blowing off steam about some guy named Charles coming down.

I walk over to one of the unoccupied picnic tables and sit my ass down on the top of it. Six hours ago, this place was ready for a family event with food and drinks and a good time. Now half the damn club is watching two chicks beat the shit out of each other, and another is saddling up to me. I give her a brief glance, half surprised she keeps following me around like a lost puppy. Girl can’t take a hint.

But then again, maybe I ain’t done with her yet.

“What was the other reason?” She looks over at me, but I keep staring forward and refuse to give her all my attention. “When you said we needed to go into lockdown.”

“Gave my boss a heads-up on what was going on.”

I turn at her words and really look at her. She isn’t just the vet with an up-and-coming security protection dog unit. She’s a soldier. Her loyalties are to herself and her club. I need to think with my head and not my wounded dick that knows we’re never going to tap that ass like we might have thought about a few times before.

“Your club tracks you. If they see you and Rue here, Jack on the run, they could think many things. But if they’re watching us—which I’m sure they are, even if you say otherwise—a lockdown with us bringing you in means you’re safe and we aren’t the threat, even if a threat is present.”

She nods. “Yeah, pretty much. I guess you really are more than a pretty face.” She gives me a side smile. It could mean many things, but I see it as a weak-ass attempt to put us on some kind of even ground.

Which we aren’t. And never will be.

I can handle a lot. But lying? It’s a hard topic for me. Had a brother lie to me once. He’s dead now. Not that the two went hand in hand, but I like to think that if he’d been honest, maybe I wouldn’t have said and done things that might have gotten in his head. Then he went off half-cocked looking for trouble and found it before backup could arrive.

“You the one who helped my sister?”

We both turn and see Vinny Leone, the capo and head of the mafia on the East Coast. And he isn’t alone. I mean, why would he be? Guy came here to protect his sister and bring her back home only to have a brother claim her. He might not have brought his entire mafia group with him, but he brought the important ones, who also happen to be his brothers.

My lips twitch at the wide eyes Billy gives him. Call me a jerk, but I find it grand as hell that I’m not the only group pissed at her. She has the Hounds of the Reaper mad and now the mafia. Most people go into hiding when they’re only on one of those shit lists, not both.

“Um, not directly.” She clears her throat and licks her lips as if she’s parched.

But I know it’s because of the way the head of the family is looking at her, and the three other brothers who stand at his back. Their sister, Milly—or I guess Brooklyn is her club name now, if I heard right through the rumor mill—is standing in the arms of her man, Bass, at the back of the group. She’s smiling wide as the day she was born, as if this is just the best moment ever. Girl is on another level, but then again, half of what makes an old lady compatible for a brother is to be a bit crazy herself. Not sure I’ve ever met a sane person willing to be connected to us in any form.

Vinny says nothing, just keeps looking at Billy, his eyes burning into her while the others glare. She looks to me, but I just stare at her. I ain’t about to step in on something that’s got nothing to do with me. I’ve got enough of my own problems.

“I was aware of it, but I wasn’t in the New York area when she or her friend put in the call for help.” She offers it up as if that’s it, but Vinny isn’t an idiot.

“And after?”

Gotcha. I see the flash of panic in her eyes for a second before it’s gone. I’m sure Vinny and the others saw it, too, but I don’t know if they saw it as panic or just her blinking. I only recognized it because I’ve seen that look down the long end of my scope many times when a person realizes they fucked up.

She moistens her lips again, and I hate that my eyes track her tongue flick more than anything else going on around us.

“When she got close to my sector, I got her a secure location to stay. I was part of a few of her trips when she needed it.”

“Got a list of spots I would not recommend for use again when you’re willing to take my call. Some of the places you stuck me and my kid should have gotten a negative rating,” Brooklyn chirps before walking away, Bass following in her wake.

Billy looks at Vinny before speaking again. “We don’t work in comfort but survival.”

It takes a few seconds, but eventually Vinny nods in agreement. “Rather her safe than dead. But make it clear that C8 is done with my sister. If they have an issue, they come to me.” He takes a step closer till only a few inches separate them. “And if they don’t, I’m coming for you and your friends. Don’t think you can outrun me. I know who you are now, and there isn’t a place on this earth that you will be safe from me.” He smirks, casting a nod my way. “That is, if the Hounds don’t take you out before I do.”

I grin. Can’t help it. I think I finally found a common ground with the mafia king, and having a friend in the organization is always a good thing. Not saying we’re going to be besties and get matching tattoos, but having a common enemy goes a long way in the circles we travel in.

“President.” He bends his head to me in respect, and I do the same before he walks away. He goes around to the front and not to the clubhouse, followed by his brothers. Got a feeling he’s leaving, but who knows for how long. As he said, he knows who we are now. I’ve got zero doubts that if he wanted, he could make a dent in taking out the Hounds. Not wipe us out, but enough that it would impact us.

“Man, that guy is intense,” she quips, but I don’t reply. I don’t want her to think we’re friends or some shit. I want to lock her up in one of our holding cells and throw away the key. I wish I’d never met her. Never went to her vet clinic to patch up Domino after Mad Max’s old lady got caught in a shootout and we had to play hero of the day.

I also want to kiss her. I want to taste her lips again and see if I push my dick far enough in her, that’s what will get her out of my mind.

Since that night at the clinic, she’s been like a damn gnat buzzing around in my head. She didn’t always get me hot for her, but she was a constant thought. Her sass made me hard, and yeah, the body too. She wore more loose-fitting things when we met before all this, and even now, her flowing dress doesn’t give away much. But every now and again, I get peeks of skin, just enough to make me intrigued.

But that was before this.

Not now. Not ever.

Fucking hell.

I’ve got a feeling this is going to be a lot harder than I want it to be. And as I discreetly adjust myself, hard is definitely the optimum word choice. But despite what my dick thinks, Billy is the enemy. And I need to keep that at the front of my mind.

“Who is it who’s being targeted, and is it why this Charles guy is coming?” I ask.

“General’s niece. And yeah, before you ask, it’s a big problem. But that isn’t why Charles is coming.”

“Then why?”

“Because the club owes the Crazy Eights, and we want to collect.”

Of fucking course. This day just keeps getting better and better.