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CHAPTER FOUR

HENDRIX

M y cell phone rang the next morning as I was leaving my suite. Balancing my laptop under my arm, I pulled it from my pocket and checked the caller ID before clicking on the answer icon and shoving it between my chin and my shoulder.

“Yo,” I answered, pushing my key into the hole to lock the door. “To what do I owe the honor of listening to your sweet, dulcet tones so early in the mornin’?”

Cash’s chuckle filled my ear. “Need a favor.”

I reached for my cell before I dropped the fucking thing and was forced to pay out another two thousand green for a new one, seeing as Colt would pitch a bitch fit if he ever had to deal with any device that wasn’t top of the line and expensive as all fuck. “Course you do.”

“Hate to ask this,” Cash declared. “But Fender needs a fresh change of scenery.”

Without hesitation, I gave him a one-word answer. “Done.”

“Doncha wanna know the score?”

“Don’t care,” I replied, heading for the top of the stairs. “Made a promise when all that shit went down with Ashley that he’d have a home with me if he ever needed it. I meant it.”

Cash paused briefly before muttering, “Feel like I’ve failed him. Thought when he and his kids came back into the fold I could work with him and get him to a place where he was at least content here with us. Needless to say, I couldn’t.”

“Not your fault,” I murmured back as I descended the staircase. “I guarantee that every time our brother walks into that bar, all he sees is her. There’s nothin’ you can do or say to take away that pain, Cash. I know you feel a certain responsibility; I do, too, but we never murdered Fender’s wife. We can help him here. If there’s one thing my club’s good at dealing with, it’s past trauma. Fender will be too busy to think by the time I’ve finished with him. Got an auto shop that needs setting up from scratch, and he’s just the man for the job.”

“Our brother will need help with his kids,” Cash reminded me.

“So, he’ll get it. We’ve got club kids here; plus, Carina and Giselle live on-site. She’ll happily add to the brood, and Gigi will love more kids around to run riot with.”

“Sounds like just what they need.” Cash sighed audibly. “Fender’s stuck in the past, but the kids aren’t. They need to move on, but their dad’s holding them back with his own grief. A change of scene will help, and Fender needs to be thrown in at the deep end and be forced to become a dad again. He changed and turned dark. The way he is now ain’t good for ‘em.”

“Ashley’s death changed him,” I explained wistfully. “Look at how it went down. When the woman you love dies violently, it fucks with your head, especially when all you’ve ever wanted is to protect her.”

Cash went quiet for a moment. “Sorry, dude. Didn’t mean to rake up bad memories.”

“It’s okay,” I assured him. “I’ve come to terms with what happened to my wife. I know it took a while, but I finally saw how much it was holding me back. It was a long time coming, but I had no choice but to deal. I was drowning in it, especially after Anna ended things...” My voice trailed off, and I cleared my throat of the emotion building in it, then forced out, “...especially after Anna.”

There was another pause, then Cash announced, “That’s the other thing I need to speak to you about. Word on the street is that he’s not the great guy everybody thought he was.”

My eyebrows drew together. “Who? Fender?”

“Anna’s ol’ man,” he corrected. “He’s a dick by all accounts. Tristan went to visit her a few months ago and wasn’t happy with what he saw. Apparently, it’s gotten worse for her recently.”

I reached the bottom of the stairs, and my feet faltered as I felt my gut pang. “Is she okay?”

“Who knows? She went dark after she sold the salon to Tris and moved away. He insists on keeping the lines of communication open, but even Tristan’s been struggling to stay in contact. It turns out that when she married that dude, he took over every aspect of her life. He doesn’t like her to work, he won’t let her visit, the fucker even controls who she’s friends with.”

My body locked. “What the fuck? Why didn’t anyone tell me this sooner?”

“Didn’t know until a couple of days ago,” he stated. “Gotta say, I felt uncomfortable with it as soon as Cara came to me. I never liked the dude she married. He was too slick.”

I didn’t like the dude she’d married, either. I’d met him one time, and I could honestly say I’d never wanted to throat punch anybody more. I assumed it was because he was the dude who came after me, the one who got my girl, but now Cash was telling me this bullshit, and I wished I’d listened to my instincts. The urge had gone from wanting to throat punch the asshole to grabbing a few guns, jumping on my bike, and riding up to Pennsylvania and shooting him in the balls.

“If that motherfucker’s laid a finger on her I’ll put him in the ground,” I snarled. “I let her go without a fight ‘cause, after the shit I’d done to her, she deserved a better man. I wasn’t ready for her then, brother. I had my own shit to work through; plus, the whole Ace thing had recently happened, and I was off my game. But if I let her walk away from me only to enter a lion’s den, I’ll lose my shit.” My tone lowered. “I told him, Cash. I warned him what would happen if he pulled her into that mess.”

“Yeah, I’m not happy with the setup, either, but keep it together, brother,” Cash ordered. “I don’t know for sure if anythin’ bad’s even happened. Tristan called a half hour ago. He spoke to Anna last night, and he’s asked to come in and see me. I’ll clue you in as soon as our meet’s finished.”

I scraped a hand across my chin. “Don’t gotta good feelin’ about this. I’ll admit to ya, I’ve been doin’ some digging of my own. Been tryin’ to keep an eye on Anna from afar. Don’t like what I’ve found.”

Cash heaved out a resigned breath. “It pains me to admit it, Drix, but I don’t either, but I’m ordering you as your National Prez to stand down until we know more. If Anna’s in trouble, there’s no question we’ll extract her from it, but we do it smart, without it comin’ back to bite us in the ass.” The next pause was so loaded I could almost feel it through the phone line. “Breaker’s on his way to Rock Springs airport. He’s flyin’ out to you.”

That one took me by complete surprise, and my head reared back in shock. “Why?”

I heard Cash’s breath expel from his lungs. “We did some digging into Anna’s husband. Seems he’s tied to the Polish Mafia.”

Bile rose through my throat, and I closed my eyes in an effort to swallow it down. “I know.”

Cash’s silence was almost deafening. “You did?”

“There’s nothin’ I don’t know about Antoni Lis,” I muttered. “I had Colt check him out when he first came on the scene. The Lis brothers have been on the FBI’s radar for a while. Anna’s husband’s their money man, but she seemed happy, so I let sleeping dogs lie.”

“If we need to get Anna outta there, it’ll take some planning,” he pointed out. “We also need to keep our involvement on the down-low, and my brother’s the best man we’ve got at covering our tracks.”

“You forget, my VP trained him,” I argued.

“He did,” Cash agreed. “But even he admits Breaker has more field experience under his belt. Blade knows his stuff like no other, but Breaker’s instincts border on animalistic when he shuts down and goes into soldier mode.” He let out a quiet snort. “Never seen anythin’ like it, brother. This isn’t a debate, Drix. The Wyoming chapter is invested in Anna. Our women are up in arms with worry, and you know we go to the ends of the earth to make our ol’ ladies happy.”

I almost rolled my eyes because I remembered a time when every one of those boys used to be the biggest dog dicks in Wyoming. Even when they finally met their women, they all fucked up in one way or another, especially Cash; though to be fair, that seemed to be my MO these days, too.

If we had to mount a rescue, having Breaker on board wouldn’t be a hardship. He was an elite soldier and had more focus than any man I’d seen. He also wouldn’t hesitate to slit a throat or two if the need arose.

“When’s his plane landing?” I asked.

“He’ll be with you later today. I’ll get the flight details sent to Colt. Fender will be there on Friday. He’s leaving today and driving over with the kids. They’re gonna take in some country on the way. You got somewhere he can stay until he gets a place sorted?”

“Got a cottage in the grounds that would be perfect for him and his kids. There’s no time limit on how long he can stay. They can move in permanently if it works for them. Needs clearing and a lick of paint but I can get Gopher on it, and Carina will love being let loose to furnish the place.”

“Cool,” Cash murmured. “I’ll get everythin’ pinged over to Colt, but please wait for Breaker. We’ll form a plan when we know more about where Anna is and what it’ll take to break her outta there. Until then, hang tight and don’t go off half-cocked. If her husband’s a part of what I think he is, we’ll need to play it smart ‘cause we won’t be dealing with a two-bit criminal. They call it organized crime ‘cause they’re goddamned fuckin’ organized, which means we’ve gotta be, too.”

Every instinct screamed at me to indeed go off half-cocked and tug my woman out of the sitch she was in, but the rational part of my brain knew Cash was right.

If Anna was in trouble, we’d need to formulate the plan of a lifetime because the mission to make her safe would be the most important one I’d ever undertaken.”

“Got it, Prez,” I muttered.

“I’ll be in touch,” Cash vowed, then the line clicked and went dead.

I tipped my head back.

What the fuck?

The day I’d stood on a hillside with my heart bleeding out from my chest and watched Anna marry another man, I did it with the intention of giving her the greatest gift I could.

A happy life.

Back then, I was going through some gnarly emotional turmoil and wasn’t in the right shape to make promises to anyone, especially not a woman I’d already wounded so badly. The day she stood in a church and committed her life to another man, I was self-destructing. Things with the club were dangerous at worst and sketchy at best, and I wasn’t in a place where I’d worked through my emotional turmoil. I’d believed down to my bones that the best and most unselfish thing I could do for her was to let her go.

I was wrong.

At that moment, I swore to myself that if the rumors were true and Anna was in trouble, I’d get her out of there and never let her leave my side again, and if her fuckhead of a husband had laid so much as a finger on her, I’d see his throat slit.

Sensing movement from behind, I twisted my neck to see Blade coming down the stairs.

Not for the first time, I marveled at how a man who’d lost his leg just below the knee could move so goddamned smoothly and stealthily, though I also knew the amount of blood, sweat, and tears he put into his rehabilitation, so Blade’s graceful movements maybe shouldn’t have been so unexpected.

“Morning,” he called on his approach. “Just heard about last night’s fuckery. What the hell was Fletcher thinking?”

“Good news travels fast,” I replied.

“Carina caught a few of the men turning in as she was getting up to get breakfast going. They were full of it.”

My mouth thinned. “These assholes are the biggest gossips in existence. We gotta start coming down on them harder. I went into the bar last night and was confronted by Ciara who knew all about the whole Larry plan. Club business is becoming club gossip, and I, for one, am gettin’ sick of these fucknuts getting chatty about shit they shouldn’t be repeating in public places. One day somebody will repeat somethin’, and the wrong person will hear, then we’ll be fucked.”

“Agreed,” he declared, reaching the last step and drawing level with me. “We’ll start dishing out fines; hit ‘em where it hurts. Maybe do a three-strike rule and make it clear if they repeat offend, they’re out.”

“We don’t got a choice,” I agreed. “We’re fully recovered from Ace’s betrayal as a club, and things are goin’ well, but I know he’s still got his little spies dotted around all over town. It takes one drunk Speed Demon to shoot his mouth off in a bar, and we could be in trouble.”

“I’ve had the same concerns for a while,” he admitted, turning for the bar. “I’ll brief Diablo, and then we’ll call Church.”

I fell into step beside him and we walked through the deserted room toward the kitchen. “We need to call Church anyway. Breaker’s on his way here.”

Blades’s face swiveled toward mine. “He’s already filled me in. Break was trying to contact Colt, but he wasn’t answering. You were talking to Cash, so he called me.” He paused, his stare boring into mine. “You okay?”

My chest squeezed.

The answer was no; I felt sick, but I had no choice but to try and keep my shit together. “I will be when I know more. You know I don’t do well bein’ kept in the dark. I’d rather have bad news than none at all ‘cause at least I’d know what I’m dealin’ with.”

His face took on a determined look. “We’ll get Anna out.”

“Yeah,” I muttered under my breath. “Or die trying.”

We walked into the kitchen and were greeted with little girl laughter. My lips tipped up automatically because who in the world wasn’t affected by the sound of kid giggles?

When I first started the club, Breaker called and asked me to take Carina on as a housekeeper. Agreeing was the best decision I ever made.

She was engaged to Breaker’s military brother, Benny, who was killed in an IED explosion just outside Kabul. Years later, Break went looking for her and discovered she was struggling as a single mom while working as a waitress with no support and hardly any money.

Within a week, Carina and her daughter, Gigi, were ensconced in my hotel along with Nate Hollister, now known as Blade, who was Benny and Breaker’s lieutenant. Blade was with Breaker when half of their military team—including Benny—got wiped out.

Since coming here, Blade had taken responsibility for Carina and Gigi. He insisted he felt an obligation to look after them, seeing as he was Benny’s superior. Personally, I knew he felt a lot more than just responsibility. He looked at Carina as if she were a mythical goddess who hung the goddamned moon, and if he didn’t protect her at all costs, that big ol’ shining rock might fall out of the sky and leave the world in perpetual darkness without her magical moon goddess powers.

“Morning, pretty ladies,” Blade greeted, walking past the table where he bent to give Gigi a fleeting kiss on her hair before sauntering over to the coffee pot.

“Morning,” Gigi sang, sketching in her art book with all the concentration of a world-renowned watercolor artist.

Carina handed him his oversized personalized mug. It was big and grey and probably held enough coffee to fill three normal-sized cups. It had ‘Best VP in the World’ emblazoned across it, and Nate never drank from anything else. Gigi had given it to him for Christmas on their first year here, and he treated it like it was his most prized possession, though going by how much he loved that kid, it probably was.

“You okay, Peanut,” he asked her, taking the mug from Carina with an appreciative nod.

“Yeah,” she replied, her big, brown eyes finally sweeping up to look at him. “Mommy said we can go to the stores today so I can spend the gift card you gave me for Miss-tique .”

Blade grinned indulgently. “You gonna give me a fashion show later?”

Gigi nodded eagerly, her eyes lighting up.

Carina let out a harrumph . “She could give you ten fashion shows with the amount of money you put on that card. You spoil her.”

He took a swig of coffee. “Got nothin’ else to spend my cake on except Roscoe, and there are only so many dog chews and toys I can fit in my room.”

“We could keep some at our house,” Gigi offered. “Roscoe spends loads of time there anyway. He loves having sleepovers with me.”

Blade’s face softened. “He does. Roscoe loves your sleepovers ‘cause he feels like he’s protecting you and your mom.”

“That’s nice,” the little girl replied matter-of-factly. “But he doesn’t need to worry. We’ve got you for that.”

My breath caught, and I watched as my tall, proud, tough ex-military lieutenant VP visibly melted at the innocent words of a young girl.

Not for the first time, I wondered why he hadn’t made his move on Carina. It had been years, and more than a couple of my men had definitely noticed her. Problem was, every time one of them tried to get close, Blade warned them off in a way where he left them in no doubt that sniffing around her would be very bad for their health. There was no way he wasn’t saving her for himself, except if he didn’t get his head out of his ass, somebody would snap her up. She was beautiful and sweet, caring, and kind, and my men weren’t stupid... well, except for Fletcher. It went without saying that he was a fucking idiot.

Carina turned back from the coffee pot and handed me a mug. “Do you need me today apart from the usual cooking and organizing?”

I glanced at Gigi, who was looking up at me with a hopeful look in her eyes and shot her an understanding wink. “Nah. You two have a girls’ day out.”

Giselle let out a “yesss” under her breath and brought her fist down in victory.

Grinning, my eyes slid to her mom. “I will need you tomorrow. Gotta job for ya.”

Her eyebrow raised questioningly.

“Gotta man from Wyoming joinin’ us. His name’s Fender, and he’s got three kids. Gonna get Gopher to clear out the old cottage down by the copse.”

“Oh,” she exclaimed. “It’ll be good to have another woman around the place. I love Ciara, but she’s too busy with the bar to help me keep the club girls in line.”

The air in the room thickened as Blade made a low growling noise. “Come again?”

Carina’s cheeks turned pink. “What?”

Blade’s cup clattered against the countertop, and he stalked toward her. “What the fuck’s been goin’ on with the girls?”

She sighed and placed a hand on his arm placatingly. “Everything’s fine. It’s just that over the last couple of weeks, that new girl, Sara, has been a bitch to me. Whenever I ask her to do something, she either ignores me or straight up refuses. It’s not a big deal, and I felt like a crybaby going to Drix about it?—”

“ Me! ” he barked, thumping his chest. “You come to me , Carrie. I told ya time and again. Any shit from anyone you come see me .”

“You’re not meant to say shit in front of me,” Gigi declared from the table.

I covered my laugh with my hand.

Carina gave Gigi a stern stare before sighing defeatedly. “I didn’t want to speak to you about it. I felt awkward.” Her eyes cast downward.

His forehead drew together. “What d’you mean, awkward? What’s awkward?”

“Well,” she began, her cheeks going from pink to red. “She’s your... I mean, you and her regularly umm....” Her voice trailed off, but her meaning was crystal clear.

I choked back a laugh at the look of horror on Blade’s face.

My VP had been fucking Sara on the reg since she arrived a few weeks before. She’d turned up looking for work, and I gave her a trial run bartending and waitressing, but when she saw the club girl setup, she came to me and asked if she could start whoring instead.

Blade got into her pants the first night she started work and had continued getting in ‘em ever since, though once she started fucking around, he pulled back, probably ‘cause he wasn’t into sharing body fluids with his MC brothers. Sara had no doubt seen the way Blade looked at Carina, so it didn’t take a genius to work out that she was jealous and blamed the other woman for Blade’s sudden lack of interest.

Knowing Carina was in the loop about what he’d been up to with Sara was gonna piss Blade off. He was in love with her ass but couldn’t bring himself to admit it for some fucked-up reason.

Sucks to be him.

I looked up to see Blade glaring at me, looking fit to be tied. “Sara’s out,” he snapped.

Carina let out a squeak.

“You do you,” I drawled. “No skin off my nose.”

“You can’t just throw her out. She’s done nothing wrong,” Carina protested, her gaze darting between us both.

“I’m VP. I can do what I damned well want,” he growled, leaning down and getting into Carina’s face. “And the next time one of those girls throws their bullshit your way, you come to me.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Why are you being such a grumpy bear? It’s not my fault you were so blinded by Sara’s obvious charms that you couldn’t see what a bitch she is.”

I almost laughed out loud at the pure shock that crossed my brother’s face. Just for a second, I thought he was about to lose his shit.

His chest compressed with the huge breath he released. He scraped a hand across his face and muttered, “Sorry.”

Carina waved a hand between her and Giselle. “I know you feel responsible for us because of Benny, but I already have one controlling father. I don’t need another.”

The air in the room crackled with tension, and for a split second, my VP looked as if he were about to explode.

I turned my lips inward to stop myself from busting out a laugh at the expression on his face. He was pissed that Carina saw him in that way, but that was exactly how he’d made it. The stupid fuck should’ve made his move years ago, so it was his own fault that Carina saw him as a friend and protector rather than a potential ol’ man.

Jesus, even the smartest of my men could be dumb fucks sometimes, and I could say that with my full chest, seeing as I’d made people suffer with my own dumb-fuckery over the years, especially Anna.

My heart dropped as it all came rushing back to me.

Anna.

“As entertaining as this is, I have to go make some calls,” I announced. “Carina, can you go to the cottage tomorrow after Gopher’s cleared it and make a list of any refurbishment it needs? Take a measuring tape and your laptop and price up some decent flooring and blinds. Use your company credit card and buy everything you’ll need to make the place comfortable. Fender lost his wife a few years ago, so make it homely for them.”

A dark expression fell over her face, and she whispered, “Poor guy.” Her understanding tone hit me somewhere deep. She knew what Fender was going through because she’d gone through the same thing herself.

“They’ll need cable and internet too,” she pointed out. “I’ll also call the local schools and start the ball rolling with the kids’ enrolment. How old are they?”

I winced. “Can’t remember exactly. The youngest is about five, the oldest is about thirteen, and there’s one in between. I’ll call Wyoming and get the details over to you.”

She smiled. “We’ll get them settled in, make them feel welcome. They’re coming to the best place to heal. I mean, look at everything you guys did for me and Gigi.”

I ducked my chin. “Works both ways, Carrie. Me and the boys would’ve starved or drank ourselves to death without you lookin’ after us. Imagine how fat we’d be from all the DoorDash we’d have had to order.”

Carina laughed softly. “Well, it worked out well for everyone then.” She leaned up, grabbed my nape, and pulled me in for a fleeting hug before turning back toward the table and taking the seat next to Gigi.

An uneasy feeling pinged through me at the unexpected show of emotion, and I headed for the door, suddenly lost for words.

I wouldn’t say I was embarrassed, but I definitely felt uncomfortable. Talking about my emotions and showing my vulnerabilities wasn’t the norm for me, which was weird, seeing as my dad had no issues with broadcasting exactly where he was at, not only in his head but also in his feels.

As I let myself into my office, my beeping cell pulled me away from my thoughts.

I moved to my desk, dumped my laptop, and lowered myself into my chair, feeling like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. Then, I fished my phone from my pocket and read the group message.

VP: Church. One hour.

The corner of my mouth quirked up.

It was eight A.M., and I had no doubt that most of my officers hadn’t gotten to bed until the early hours of the morning. Blade really was a sadistic bastard, but on this occasion, I had no problem with it because we needed to formulate a plan to get Anna safe and do it stat.

In the meantime, I only had an hour to get what I needed.

I picked up my phone and clicked on my contacts before tapping on one of the names. The line rang, and I put the phone onto speaker, waiting for the call to connect.

Within seconds, it clicked in, and a humor-filled voice drawled, “Well, look at what the cat dragged in.”

Staring up at the heavens, I shook my head at his words. “Tell me everythin’.”

He went silent for a moment, then murmured, “Cash called you.”

“Yeah.”

“He shouldn’t have done that. He promised me he’d send B-Boy in to rescue her. My bestie needs you sniffing around right now like she needs a hole in the head?—”

“She’s mine,” I announced, effectively cutting him off.

“She’s not,” he argued. “She’s mine . She’s Meredith’s, Farrah’s, Doe’s, and Wildcat’s. She stopped being yours the minute you moved across the country without bothering to let her know.” Tristan’s voice rose. “I claimed her when I had to stay at her apartment for a week because she was so heartbroken that she forgot to eat, sleep, and shower. Then again, when I held her at night because she was sobbing so fucking hard that I thought she’d burst apart at the seams. She was even mine a year later when I had to watch while she married a man who I knew wasn’t right, but I had no choice because my girl was so determined to move on from your sorry ass that she grasped at what she thought was the first half-decent prospect that came along. That was when she became mine, and she’ll always be mine because you’ll never have that part of her. It belongs to me and I’m not letting you have it back only to abuse it again.”

I closed my eyes, biting back my retort.

There was no hiding from it; Tristan was right. I did do that shit, and he did pick up the pieces after I left Wyoming.

I should have talked to Anna and explained where my head was at, but I was spooked. Shit with Acgavele was kicking off, and there was only so much I could give my energy to.

But I had learned something while we’d been apart. If I wanted a chance with Anna, I needed to open up and be more vulnerable, even if the thought of talking about my feelings made me want to slit my own wrists.

I’d always been a man’s man, probably because I hadn’t been around a lot of women. My relationship with Pop was tight, along with his close circle of buddies. My childhood was all about male bonding and navigating brotherly friendships, so it felt natural for me to join the military and continue to do the same. Even my wife was one of the boys. She could drink, fight, and shoot the shit with the best of them. It was the reason I felt so comfortable with her. Then, when I left the Army, I joined a biker club, where I suddenly gained more brothers and developed more male bonds that lasted to this day.

“I’m bringing her here,” I insisted.

“Her husband will follow her to Virginia,” Tristan warned me. “You think he doesn’t know your history?”

“He’ll look for her in Hambleton, too. At least here I can keep her safe,” I assured him, omitting the fact that Anna’s husband would be dead by morning. “She’ll have a wall of commandos surrounding her with FBI connections and government backing. Plus—and I mean this with respect, Tristan—you don’t have a goddamned choice.”

The line went quiet.

“I’ll take care of her,” I told him, my tone filled with the enormity of what I was promising. “He won’t get to her if he’s gotta go through me.”

“There’s something you don’t know.” He let out an audible sigh. “Things have gotten complicated for her. There’s a reason behind her determination to leave him—things have changed—she’s?—”

“I don’t care,” I stated, effectively cutting him off. “Complicated won’t scare me away this time. You think I haven’t learned my lesson? I’ve had three years to come to terms with everything I lost.”

“You mean everything you threw away,” he corrected angrily.

I kept my mouth shut because what could I say? He wasn’t wrong.

“I’ll be on the first flight out,” he announced. “Go get my girl. Hopefully, by the time you get her to safety, I’ll already be there.”

“Right,” I muttered, thinking how, in a perfect world, I would find a deserted island and keep Anna Bouchard’s sweet ass all to myself while I made her fall in love with me again.

“If there’s a scratch on her, I’ll hold you personally responsible.” His voice was filled with bravado before he gave himself away with his parting shot. “And you boys need to be careful, too. Her husband’s gone loony tunes.”

“Thanks, Tris,” I replied gently.

He hit me with a loud harrumph , and then, with a soft click, the line went dead.

Without any hesitation, I went onto my recent call log and clicked on a name. It rang once before Colt’s voice greeted, “Got Blade’s message. I’ll be there soon.”

“You speak to Cash?” I asked.

“Nah,” he replied. “Breaker.”

“So you know it’s time?”

Colt paused briefly, then said, “Got the Lis file loaded and ready to go. There’s nothin’ we don’t know about him or his operation.”

My chest went tight at the thought of what was to come. “I don’t want it touching Anna.”

“It won’t,” he replied. “Anna has no clue about what her husband is or what he does.”

I scraped a hand across my beard. “I’m goin’ in for her ASAP. I’ve got a very bad feelin’.”

“It’s nothing we haven’t planned a hundred times over, Prez,” he muttered. “We’ve got eyes on Antoni Lis, remember? I’m a man with a plan.”

“Right.” I sat back in my chair, my heart suddenly pounding, not only at the thought of seeing Anna for the first time in years but also at the prospect of what my club was about to undertake.

“She’ll be okay,” Colt told me reassuringly.

“Yeah,” I replied absentmindedly, my thoughts already turning to hair like burnt copper and kaleidoscope eyes that changed from tawny to green depending on her mood and whether I’d just made her come or pissed her off.

“See you in Church,” I mumbled, ending the call. I dropped my cell phone on my desk and raised my hand to rub at my thudding heart.

God. I’d missed her, but I wouldn’t have to for much longer. Soon, Anna would be here, and I’d finally get the opportunity to make up for everything that happened back when I didn’t appreciate the beauty I had in my hands.

I’d taken a risk letting her go, but deep down in my soul, I knew this day would come.

Finally, it was time to get my woman.