Page 35

Montana

December 13, 2024, somewhere in Nebraska,

“Reaper, come look at this.”

Walking over, Reaper stood beside me and stared at the photograph in my hands.

“So, it’s true then?” he said moments later, scanning the wall and all the photos. “The clubs are connected.”

“I think it’s more than that,” I added as my eyes took in what my brain had yet to assimilate. I whispered, “Reaper, I think this is the original chapter.”

He said nothing as he moved closer to the wall, his eyes focused on a singular photo. Stepping beside him, I saw what had captured his attention when my eyes landed on the unthinkable. There in the photo was the man who raised Reaper, James Doherty, standing next to a man I knew very fucking well, Popeye. Both men were smiling, sitting astride their bikes, happy.

“We need to find Sypher and Pippen, fast,” I whispered.

“For once, I agree with you,” Reaper admitted, frowning as he reached into his cut, pulling out his phone and answering it, just as my phone started to ring. The second I saw the caller ID, I groaned.

Connecting the call, I said, “What?”

“Playtime is over. Get your ass back to the city, fast!” Mercy shouted as I heard arguing in the background.

“What happened?”

“You mean what the fuck didn’t happen,” Mercy snarked. “While you and your new BFF were out Driving Miss Daisy , the fucking world imploded. Carly was kidnapped and raped. She’s in the hospital in a medically induced coma. Fury lost his motherfucking shit and went all Jean-Claude Van Damme on Steele. Killed the fucker with his bare hands!”

Grinning, I said, “Brother did us a favor. Don’t see the fucking problem.”

“HE DID WHAT?” Reaper roared, storming toward the front door of the old clubhouse when I vaguely heard Mercy say something about the table, but I soon paid attention when he said, “And Sypher is missing!”

“He’s in federal custody. He’s not missing,” I said absentmindedly, watching Reaper rant and rave as he kicked rocks and cursed up a storm. Whoever was on the other end of that line was getting a fucking ear full.

“Are you even listening to me?” Mercy yelled. “Sypher, Phantom, and our intern got out the night of the Tree Lighting Ceremony. They’d been out for weeks when Sypher showed the fuck up back in the city three days ago. He was seen leaving Sinclair’s place. Now no one knows where he’s at!”

“Kid’s probably just laying low.”

“I’LL KILL HIM!” Reaper roared, turning toward me. Moving fast, Reaper grabbed my phone and sneered, “We are heading back now, Mercy. Get ready.”

Ending the call, the moody fucker shoved my phone against my chest and said, “Sypher changed the plan. Gave himself over to Pandora. The same motherfucking bitch your sick, sadistic brother works for. But before that, little shit decided to become a fucking martyr. He forced our hands. We have no choice anymore.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I scoffed, walking toward the SUV. “I always have a fucking choice.”

“No, you don’t,” Reaper clipped, marching after me. “That little fucking know-it-all told the heads of the Biker Federation that we have a blood link!”

I threw my head back and laughed as I opened the driver’s side door. “The hell we do. I may have Golden blood in my club, but that’s it.”

Reaper stood firm, unmoving as he stared at me with his cold dead eyes. Something in the way he looked at me sent a shiver of unease down my spine. He fucking knew something I didn’t, and my gut was telling me I wasn’t going to like it one motherfucking bit.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you since we left New York, but you aren’t the easiest person to talk to.”

Slamming the door shut, I crossed my arms over my chest and asked, “Tell me what?”

“Isabella Green.”

I stiffened and narrowed my eyes.

I didn’t like the fucking look in his eyes.

It was pissing me off.

“Who the fuck is that?”

“You already know. Don’t make me spell it out.”

“Fine,” I grumbled. “So she was the piece I lost my virginity to. We were kids. Just fucking around and things got out of hand. One thing led to another and we fucked. Big fucking deal.”

“What happened afterward, asshole?”

“What the fuck do you want me to say? We fucked. I admit it. Kids generally lose their virginity around that age.”

“Answer my fucking question.”

“Fine.” I rolled my eyes and added, “A few months later, Bella and her family moved away. No one knew where they went. One day Bella was in school, the next day she wasn’t. Haven’t seen her since. Why are you asking me about her?”

“Think, Montana,” Reaper growled, taking a menacing step toward me. “Open that tiny motherfucking peabrain of yours and think. You know my history. What my dad forced me to do. Think about it. You’ve just recently learned your dad wasn’t the nice stand-up guy you always believed. Now add in the club connection and all the secrets, all the lies.”

“Gonna need more,” I stubbornly said as my brain slowly started putting the puzzles together, and I didn’t like where my brain was going. I fucking flat out refused to believe my dad was as fucked in the head as William Doherty. What that son of a bitch did to his own motherfucking son was as sick and twisted as they came.

There was no way in hell my dad would ever do that shit to me.

“Why would a prominent family just up and disappear, Montana?”

“I don’t fucking know!”

“Yes, you do,” he continued. “You just don’t want to admit it. Think about what your dad has already done. What he did to Amy Lansing.”

“No.” I shook my head, refusing to believe this shit. “She would have told me!”

“How? She was fifteen and scared. You said it yourself. You were a popular kid. You came from a well-off privileged family. Your mother was working her way up the legal ladder. Your dad was the president of a major motorcycle club. Everything is all about appearances in the Soulless Sinners. The president couldn’t have his heir, the next head of the Soulless Sinners, shackled to some little bitch he fucked because he couldn’t control his urges.”

“Bella wasn’t a fucking bitch. She was innocent. We both were.”

“So was I,” Reaper yelled, pushing me away. “But that didn’t stop my father. Don’t you get it? It was part of their sick twisted plan. To ensure the clubs stayed connected even after they died. They played God and then pitted us against each other to see who the strongest was. It was nothing more than a game to them, and we were their pawns.”

Grabbing Reaper by his cut, I hauled him close and sneered, “What the fuck are you saying, asshole?”

“My daughter Emma is your granddaughter. Our clubs are blood linked!”

“What happened to Bella?” I asked, looking out the window of the plane at the tarmac as people still boarded. I wanted to know, but a big part of me didn’t. I knew what my dad did to Amy. I would fucking lose my shit if he hurt Bella.

“After she gave birth, she signed away her rights. From what Sypher could find out, she eventually finished high school and went abroad for college. She never returned to the States. She’s currently living in Paris and works at the Louvre as an art restorer.”

“Married?”

“No. She never married and has no more children.”

“And my daughter?”

Rubbing the back of his neck Reaper groaned. “Yeah. This is the part you’re gonna fucking hate. Sarah is alive and being taken care of by Joshua Stone.”

Growling, I sneered, “My fucking cousin? That fucknugget?”

“The one and only.”

“Explain something to me,” I asked a short time later as the plane took off. “How does Emma fit into all this mess?”

“She doesn’t really.” Reaper sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “She’s more like a pawn for the table to use to bring us to heel. They can use her connection to both clubs and force us to do what they want.”

“Well, that’s never going to fucking happen.”

“I agree.” Reaper nodded. “But when you add in both club’s pasts, the growing tension and hostility in the underworld, and the fact that both our fathers were members of the Society , and well it doesn’t look good for us.”

“You think the table will order a kill order.”

“They would be stupid if they didn’t.”

“And Sypher?”

Reaper sighed. “He’s the wildcard. Kid knows everything about everyone. Has from the start. He’s kept quiet under my direct orders, watching it all play out, but when he hooked up with Dante and learned the truth about him—well, even Sypher has his limits.”

“You think he will really release everything?”

“No. Kid is smart, not fucking stupid. My gut’s telling me he’s going to dangle the information in front of the bitch and see if she will take the bait. If she does, then Sypher wins. I may not know what rolls around in that kid’s head, but I fucking know that family means everything to Danny. He will not willingly give up anything that will hurt his family.”

“I hope you’re right, because the way I see it, the second the table learns that he willingly handed himself over to that cunt, they are going to order his death. Nothing you or I do will stop that. Said it yourself. Kid knows everything. That fact alone makes him the most dangerous person on the fucking planet. His head gets in the wrong hands and it will create a war not even you and I can come up with. Which means there is only one option.”

Reaper nodded. “We find Sypher and muzzle him.”

Smiling, I looked at the asshole next to me and remarked, “Would you look at that. We’re finally getting along.”

“Still fucking hate you.”