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ATOM

M y grandfather’s words are on my mind four hours later, after we’ve slept like the dead and the scent of bacon fills the kitchen.

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

It’s a mantra that keeps playing on repeat, and I know remembering it will be part of the solution. I just don’t see how, yet.

“We’re missing something obvious,” I say.

“You’re going to wear a groove into the flooring if you keep pacing like that,” Ember says as she cracks eggs onto the skillet. She’s wearing an old club T-shirt of mine and nothing else. But not even the glance of her butt cheeks as she reaches up to grab mugs from the cupboard can distract me.

Before she started cooking, she laid out a large piece of paper on the kitchen island, and we’ve been documenting everything we know.

I stop moving and look at the brain dump on the table.

“When did it start going wrong?” she asks.

I look back and think about the timing. “That’s the wild thing. It was when you and I got together. Makes no sense. But maybe I was distracted. Maybe I missed a specific detail.”

My phone vibrates, and I glance down at it. It’s a video call from Vex.

“Brother,” I say in greeting. Next to him is King. His presence alone makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “Prez.”

It feels weird calling both him and Butcher that. But in terms of respect and honor, it’s the right thing to do.

And I’m not sure after today that I want to call Butcher Prez anyway.

“You got a problem,” King says.

“Tell me about it,” I reply, but then realize there is no reason for King to be up to date on what’s happening inside our club.

King shakes his head. “No. A problem you don’t even know about yet.”

“What is it?”

Vex leans forward. “I found the organization that rented the truck at the airport for that Rocco guy. I’ll send you the screenshots.”

Ember looks up sharply and narrows her eyes. Fuck me. She doesn’t know I had Rocco looked into.

“Sorry,” I mouth, haplessly.

She shakes her head and rolls her eyes, as if she’s utterly unsurprised that I did such a thing.

King leans closer to the camera. “The company has an innocuous name. Utilities, Services, and Storage Resources.”

“Is it meant to mean something?” I ask.

“First, you got to look at the first four letters,” Vex says. “USSR. The old Soviet Union.”

“Don’t like where this is going,” I say.

Ember looks at me from across the island, her eyes wide.

“Second thing you have to know, is that the USSR was a proxy replacement, of sorts, for the Russian Empire,” Vex continues. “At one point, it covered about a sixth of the world’s landmass. It’s like the third-largest empire in history.”

I take a breath. “I don’t think you’re telling me this because you think I need a history lesson.”

King shakes his head. “Rurik Zakharov is descended from the Tsar of the Russian Empire, like a king or some shit. He’s also the head of the Bratva. Not a local affiliate, but the head.”

“Fuck,” I curse. “I know who Zakharov is. Wraith’s old lady’s ex got into some shit with them. How does this tie into the truck?”

“It’s a holding company, traced back through the Bahamas. But the parent company is Rurik Zakharov’s legitimate business empire. Real estate.”

Ember suddenly stiffens.

“What?” I ask.

“Rocco said he worked for his father’s real estate company in property development,” she says, wrapping her arms around her.

“Who’s that?” King asks.

“Butcher’s daughter, Ember. She’s been targeted by the Russians too. They’ve been extorting business owners in our town and set fire to Ember’s bar. Rocco was a guy she went on a date with.” Ember moves the skillet and turns down the bacon before stepping around to my side of the island. I wrap my arm around her waist and tug her to me, grateful King and Vex can only see her upper body and not her luscious thighs.

King raises an eyebrow. “You used Vex’s resources to check up on a guy because he went on a date with your…”

“Old lady,” I say. “She wasn’t when I asked.”

Vex chuckles. “And I thought King moved fast.”

I shake my head. “We’ve known each other a real long time. Butcher isn’t happy about it.”

King folds his arms across his chest. “If you want words of wisdom, he’ll get over it. We all do, somehow. Clutch is married to my twin. I’ve just about recovered.”

The side-eye from Vex is amusing. “Says the guy who kidnapped Saint’s sister.”

King leans back in his chair. “Fuck me. I’m never gonna live that down. Congratulations to both of you, but we need to get back to business. Rocco. The town. The Russians.”

“It makes no sense,” Ember says. “Rocco didn’t speak with a European accent, which I know isn’t a given depending on where he was raised, but he also got beaten up by those two guys. I don’t understand it.”

Vex taps something, then the screen changes. “This Rocco?”

A driver’s license appears on the screen. A handsome man in a sharp suit. With his hair slicked back off his face, his eyebrows look sharper, his eyes meaner.

“Yeah, that’s the fucker,” I say. And it grinds my fucking gears he was in our sight the whole time.

Vex nodded. “Thought you might say that. It’s Lev Zakharov, Rurik’s third son.”

Ember puts her hand over her mouth. “Oh my God. He was using me.”

“Fuck,” I say. “Trust me, we’re on this. I don’t know what his end game was meant to be. But I’ll figure it out.”

King shakes his head. “You might have a problem with that. Rurik Zakharov is a ruthless billionaire. He can out-man and out-weapon you and is clearly setting up a permanent structure in Denver. The key will be to understand why he wants Colorado for his own. All this could be a smoke screen to divert you from the real issue.”

A question hits me. How would he benefit if he shows the town how ineffective we are, if he turns them against us under the guise of us bringing trouble to the town ?

“I’ll keep looking,” Vex says. “I’ll do a full screen of commercial planning licenses and anything like that. He’s a feared oligarch who has fingers in lots of pies. As do his sons. His commercial interests are like a spider’s web of interconnection. But there is a trend for foreign investors buying up swaths of ranch land across the US. Lots of different reasons as to why. Some think it’s to eventually starve us out, others think it’s to force the government into allowing building development, some think it’s for foreign entities to get close localized access to military bases. Who the hell knows.”

“Thank you, brothers,” I say. “Let me go talk to my club about this.”

“Keep us posted,” King says. “Listen, it’s like noon there. I’m gonna ask the chapters in Wyoming and Nebraska to send back up. Will take ‘em six hours, maybe, to get there so they’ll be there before nightfall. And there are two nomads, originally out of Nashville, who’ve just finished up something for me in Kansas. I’m sending them your way, just for a couple of weeks too. Use ‘em. They’re expert-level trackers. Jackal and Shade. Watch for them this afternoon. If you need something more subtle, let me know. I’ll fly out Catalina, which means you also get Niro too.”

“Why would you do that?”

King grins. “Because Cat has a very special set of skills. Her father’s club used her as a honey trap. She can get into places we bikers can’t. And Niro loves taking care of the person once she has them.”

I didn’t really get the chance to speak with Cat at Sturgis beyond pleasantries, but it was clear the New Jersey Outlaws held her in high regard. She isn’t a brother, but they treat her like she is. I’m starting to understand why.

There’s a piece of me that wonders if that doesn’t make us appear weak to other clubs, needing their support. But then, I remember it’s the crux of a motorcycle club brotherhood. “Thanks for the offer of support. I’ll let Butcher know and accept it on his behalf.”

King nods. “Understood. Nobody gains if the Russians get their claws into more of America. Whether it’s our government, our land, or our businesses. Whatever you need, we’ve got your back.”

“Appreciated,” I say. “Vex, would you be up for finding us a person just like you with your set of skills? Feel like we might need it.”

Vex grins. “Might be mentoring a couple of people like that. Let me see how committed they are to staying in New York. Later.”

The screen goes dark.

“Shit,” Ember says. “I brought him to you. You tried to step in that first night. You saw it, didn’t you? How did you know?”

The terror on her face is enough for me to tug her into my arms. “I didn’t know for sure. It was a feeling. His clothes. They were too much like he’d walked into a store and asked for cowboy cosplay. But we can’t do this. What’s done is done. Now it’s about what we do next.”

Her eyes go even wider. “Oh my God, Atom. He came into church. He sat in your seat. He must have planted the bug.” Tears spill over her lashes. “This really is my fault. It’s how they knew where you’d be, how they were able to hurt Grudge and set fire to my bar and kill Haynes and Charmer. They knew you’d all be somewhere else.”

“He was in church?” I ask.

Ember nods. “Taco brought Rocco into the clubhouse, and I was in Dad’s office. We were working on a proposal to show your grandpa, to request the club take ownership of the land. So, when Rocco arrived, he saw me there and sat opposite me. In your chair.”

It shouldn’t bother me more that he sat in my fucking seat, one I earned, than it does he planted a bug. “At least we know how the bug got there. No one is looking at Rocco as a bad guy because he was there for you. Bet it was a set up.”

I grab my laptop and open the video footage of the night the men first approached Ember.

“What are you doing?” Em asks.

“Just checking something.” I cue the video from the night the men first approached Ember and skip ahead to the part where Rocco goes down, playing it one individual frame at a time.

“Oh my God,” Ember says as she sees what I see. “They didn’t even really hurt him. It was all for show so that I’d trust Rocco.”

At such a slow speed, we can see what the regular-speed playback failed to reveal. It was a staged fight. There wasn’t real contact. Every action was pulled at the last second.

Apart from when Ember was hit.

That was real.

“Fuckers,” I say. “Now, it also makes sense how they didn’t know we switched from hitting their warehouse to hitting a safe house. Shit. That was why Dice reported they were clearing it out. They knew that was where we planned to hit. But we changed our mind outside of church based on the intel, so they didn’t know.”

I tighten my arms around her and can feel the way her whole body shakes. “Take a breath, Em. I need to get ahold of your father.”

“But he hates you right now.”

Again, I think about my grandfather.

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

“Just because he was an asshole to me, doesn’t mean I need to be an asshole back. I can still act with integrity for what is in the best interests of the club.”

She tilts her chin and looks up at me. “You’re a bigger man than me, because I can’t even think about being good to Dad right now.”

“Steps, sweetheart. Get everyone safe, then decide if we forgive them. We can be the bigger people. We can do this on our own terms.”

“Are you going back to the clubhouse?”

He nods. “I should. I’m gonna call Wraith on the way.”

“Why not Dad?”

“Because Wraith should have called me this morning when your dad was setting me up for a fall. And I should call him now, because as sergeant at arms, it’s his job to lead the plan.”

“What should I do?”

“Lev Zakharov or whatever the fuck Rocco is really called, isn’t expecting us. I don’t know if the club have already moved the bug, but if they haven’t, maybe we can feed them some misinformation of our own. I don’t know.”

“How can I help? What should I do?”

I glance around. “The safest thing you can do is stay here, out of the way.”

“But I want to be useful.”

I stroke her cheek, then cup it to kiss her. “I know. But Zakharov has caught us out at every turn. He’s been to the clubhouse, he’s been to the bar, but he hasn’t been here to my home. He doesn’t know what the deal is between the club and the ranch or how closely connected they are, beyond sitting on the land. And he certainly doesn’t know you’re with me on this property. You’re safest here.”

“Then go end this for us, Hudson. And know I won’t accept anything less than you coming back to me in one piece.”

I grin at that. “I don’t know, I kind of like playing with Nurse Deeks.”

“Just go and do what you have to do.” She slips out of my hold and messily serves up a plate of food before placing it in front of me. “Here. Eat this first. You’ll function better if you aren’t hungry. And don’t forget to let me know if you’ll be home for dinner.”

I slap her ass, then shovel some food into my mouth. “I like this domestic situation we have going on.” The words are mumbled through a mouthful of eggs.

“For the record, I will not be cooking every evening. You are more than capable of cooking us dinner. But I will make it tonight, seeing I’m cooped up in here. Might even think about tossing my pill away while I’m cooking it.”

I glance up at her, shellshocked for a moment. “For real?”

She nods. “I just want to start the rest of our life.”

“Now, there’s something to look forward to. We’ll get tested tomorrow.”

Ember tries hard to bite back her grin. “You know it’s usually about three months before you get pregnant, often it takes a year, and that’s assuming we can conceive because?—”

I shut her up by tugging her to me and kissing her. “I don’t care about the details. And just the idea of it is giving me another boner, so stop.”

Taking her hand, I lead her back into the bedroom.

“Do we have time for this?” she asks.

“As much as I’d love to do whatever the this is you’re thinking about, I need to do this.”

The rug next to the bed is old. My grandmother weaved it herself on a loom she used to keep in the barn. It’s mostly the color of wheat just before the harvest but has flecks of blues and greens. I lift it and reveal the trapdoor built into the floorboards.

“Oh, what’s in there?” Ember asks.

I let her peer over my shoulder and see the emergency supplies. A set of panniers left permanently packed with everything I would need to disappear for two weeks. What she can’t see is that, inside them, is three thousand dollars in cash and weapons and ammunition.

Next to them are a variety of weapons. Some are necessity. I’m not fucking with a bear if one comes near the house. I’ll send a warning shot, but if it makes an aggressive move, then it’s about to become a pelt rug.

But the rest, all unregistered, are purely a precaution. Nobody has ever ventured this far onto our land to cause trouble, but I wasn’t gonna take the risk that someone, someday, might have reason to come looking.

I take a Glock out of its case and hand it to Ember. “This work for you?”

She takes it from me and handles it like a pro. “Dad’s had me firing handguns since I was seven years old. Of course, this works.”

I’ve never been more relieved that she’s handy with a weapon. “Hope you never need to fire it, but there is more ammo in there if you do. I might come back late, so don’t shoot me if I wake you up.”

“I’ll do my best.” The smile she gives me melts my heart all over again.

“Can’t believe I wasted all this time without you, Em. I’m sorry.”

She places the weapon on the side table and then grips both my biceps. Her hands are small but warm against my skin. “If it’s what it took to end up here, then it was meant to be. All that matters is we made it. Well, apart from the band of Bratva who seemingly have it in for this town, and my father, who seems to have it in for you.”

“But apart from that…”

She laughs. “There’s no problem we can’t tackle, Atom. Now go, do what you have to do.”

“What are you going to do?”

Ember touches my cheek gently. “I’m going to contact my father.”

“Don’t tell him about what we’ve learned. I need to figure out the right sequence to reveal what I know and who I tell, after I’ve spoken to Wraith.”

She shakes her head. “I won’t. He and I need to come to terms, because if we don’t, I might need to adjust to the fact I just lost my dad.”