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7

ATOM

I open my bleary eyes to the sound of Wraith in the tent next to me on the phone, grumbling about something.

My head throbs like someone is beating on it with a two-by-four plank of wood. Too much tequila will do that to a man. Or maybe it was the bottle of whiskey that followed.

Fuck if I know.

Smoke arrived about an hour after we did, and it was good to see my friend in one piece. He shared he’d never seen conditions so dry and was on constant call for a jump.

I check my watch and realize I crept into the tent eight hours ago, when everyone else was still gunning alcohol. I’d drunk so much, the world had started to spin. Thought I’d just do a quick power nap, but I must have passed out hard.

I need a piss. And some water. And a vat of coffee. Probably in that order.

My skin is damp to the touch, and the inside of my tent is so fucking hot that my mouth feels like it’s stuffed full of sand. I pat around for the large water bottle I filled last night and grab the painkillers I shoved into my kit before I left.

Once I’ve swallowed a couple and chugged some of the water, I change the boxer briefs I slept in and tug on the jeans I wore yesterday.

“They asked you for how much?” I hear Wraith say, his voice clearer now that I’ve sat up. “Five fucking grand.”

He sounds too angry to be talking to Raven. Even hungover, he thinks that woman hung the moon and stars. There’s no way he’d be shouting at her.

“Will you shut the fuck up?” I hear Catfish shout from the tent on the other side of Wraith.

“Who else?” Wraith says. “The Dobsons? Fuck me. Leave it with me, Margie. Just don’t fucking pay.”

I raise my eyebrows as my Spidey senses tingle. The air isn’t any cooler outside when I unzip the tent. It’s only eight in the morning, but the temperature must already be high. There’s little movement on the campsite, but I see Halo asleep in just his boxers, half inside his unzipped tent.

After all, the Outlaws’ party started when we arrived on Friday and finally stopped about five hours ago in the early hours of Sunday.

My liver doesn’t know which way is up right now.

I step outside just as Wraith stumbles from his tent.

“For fuck’s sake, zip those up.” I point to his jeans. “No one needs to see your pubes this early in the morning.”

He winces, shielding his eyes from the sun. “Seems like some Russian fucks thought they’d take advantage of us being out of town. Paid a visit to Margie, the Dobsons, and that clothing store on the corner of Main and Fourth. Don’t know who else. Want cash. Different amounts depending on the business. Monthly.”

My mind immediately goes to Ember. “We should get Butcher to check in with Ember. He’ll be pissed if they went for her too.”

Wraith glances over at Butcher’s tent. “He crawled in there with two women wearing booty shorts and body paint about two hours ago. Not sure I want to go knocking on his tent flap right now.”

Not sure I do either. “Fuck it. Do you have Ember’s number? I’ll call her before we go wake him.”

Wraith looks up at me. “You don’t have Ember’s number?”

I shake my head. “Why would I?”

Wraith opens his phone, and I pull out my own, dialing the number as he calls it out. “I’ll go get a shirt while you speak with her. I’m gonna have to tell Butcher regardless of whether Ember is involved, and I’m not gonna let him kick my ass while I’m shirtless and this fucking hungover.” He glances at his watch. “Only stopped drinking about three hours ago, I’m probably still drunk.”

The phone rings as he disappears back to his tent, and then a gruff, masculine voice says, “Hello.”

It catches me off guard. There are a million reasons a man could be answering her phone, but the most obvious is that a man stayed the night.

Fuck.

“I’m looking for Ember,” I say.

“Who the fuck are you?” the guy asks.

His question irks me, but if I saw a man calling Ember, I’d want to know who it was too. “Just put Ember on the phone.”

“Are you one of those guys from last night?” he asks.

That answers part of my question. “They ask her for money?”

“Look, who is this? I’ll ask her to call you back when she gets out of the shower.”

I swear to God, all the blood drains out of my body. Dizziness replaces it. I hate the fucking idea that there is a man in her place, with access to her phone. All while she fucking showers .

“Answer the fucking question. Did some Russians try to coerce her to give them cash for protection?”

“Not telling you shit, seeing as you won’t tell me who you are.”

It’s enough to know she’s been affected. I hang up without another word. Wraith climbs back out of his tent.

“I got an idea,” I say. “Don’t wake Butcher. None of you can safely drive yet. I’m gonna drive back to town and get some details.”

“It’s a five-hour ride, brother.” Wraith tugs his hair back into an elastic.

“Stopped drinking at least eight hours ago. Despite the hangover, I’m fine. You know Butcher is gonna hate being woken up and hates getting half a story. I’ll go back. I’ll ask around all the stores to get video footage. Compile it all and send it back to you. Then I’ll ride back or send for you all.”

Wraith sighs. “I should go, stay the night with Raven, and come back.”

I laugh at that. “If you go back home, you and I both know you aren’t coming back. Stay, brother. You need it. I’ll be back tonight, or tomorrow, latest. My liver will thank me for the break.”

What I don’t tell him is I need to find out who the fuck answered Ember’s phone this morning. I have a violent need to kill someone, and he’s higher up the list than the fucking Russians.

Wraith nods. “Fine. Ride safe, yeah?”

I tip my head towards my tent. “Keep an eye on my shit.”

It takes fifteen minutes to piss and dunk my head in a sink full of ice-cold water, keeping it submerged for as long as I can. By the time I’ve downed two cups of coffee and the breakfast burrito Wraith grabbed me from one of the food trucks outside the campground gates, I’m ready to make the ride.

“You’ve got some nerve coming here,” Ember says when she opens the door to the bar after I hammer on it.

It’s an odd combination in my brain. She looks pretty as a picture. Sundress and cowboy boots are my catnip at the best of times. But she fills out the dress to perfection, and the boots make her legs look like they were meant to be wrapped around my waist. The neckline reveals the curve of her ample tits. But her face is all mean scowl and narrowed eyes and a snippy tone that could cut glass.

“It’s too early in the day for you to be this mad at me without me knowing why,” I say, shoving my hands in my pockets in case I do something stupid like reach out and grab those hips of hers. Bet she smells as good as she looks too. Always does.

Unlike me, who probably stinks of the hangover seeping through my pores, a sweaty ride home in the sun, and three days without a shower.

She points to the sun, high in the sky. “It’s the middle of the afternoon.”

“Semantics,” is all I can muster.

“You’re meant to be in Sturgis.” She glances left and right down the street, biting down on her lip, and it takes all I have to not reach for her and tug her to me. I’m so fucking relieved she’s in one piece.

“Came to get details about who asked you for protection money.”

She puts her hands on her hips. “Don’t pretend like you don’t already know the details. I know you have spies in this place. A constant rotation of hangarounds and prospects. If one of them saw it happen but didn’t step in to help, I’ll shoot them myself. How else would Dad even know it happened?”

“Butcher called?”

She rolls her eyes. “I ignored him. He sent several very clear messages about two hours ago that I need to call him to give him details.”

“So, that’s what has you in a sour mood? You think I somehow found out about some shitheads coming here to threaten you and instructed the prospects to do absolutely nothing about it? And ran to your dad to tell him all about it?”

She sighs, but she doesn’t say a word.

“Unbelievable,” I say.

“What’s so unbelievable? You told Dad about the guy who was talking to me at the bar the other night. He spoke to me about that too. Hence why I was mad in the barn. As I already said, I don’t need you interfering in my business, Atom.”

“Was he the guy who answered your phone?”

She crosses her arms over her chest, and it’s all I can do to maintain eye contact instead of checking out her luscious tits. But it’s fucking impossible when she practically presents them on a platter to me. “So, you’re the one who called? I didn’t recognize the number.”

“Well, now you have it. You find yourself in trouble, you dial it. Where is the fucker now?”

“Rocco left.”

I huff. “That’s big of him, leaving you alone. I should beat the shit out of him for abandoning you.”

“He didn’t abandon me, Atom. He stayed the night because he got beaten up by those goons.”

I laugh at that. “Should have defended himself better.”

She shoves at my chest. “He pushed me behind him; he told them to leave. Even you wouldn’t have been able to fight them off when there were two of them, both armed, and you were caught unprepared.”

I glance down at the holster of my gun, the knife on my belt. “Really, you think I’d ever be caught unprepared? And for the record, I wasn’t interfering in your business. You made that clear in the barn.”

Her cheeks turn an adorable shade of pink. Her eyes might be spitting fire my way, but her lips are lush and soft as ever. “I don’t believe you.”

I step closer to her, and she backs up such that I’m able to kick the door closed behind me and lock it. “If I were interfering in your business, you’d know it, Ember.”

“That still doesn’t sound like a denial.”

I tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, and she bats my hand away. “You want a denial? I did not tell your dad.”

She rolls her eyes like she was expecting me to say that. “Right.” The way she says it is like there are thirteen ‘ i’ s in the word. “Then how on earth did he know? Why are you even here?”

It galls me that I even have to explain myself. “Wraith got a call from Margie, who told him a few others had also gotten the same visit as you. Wraith told me. I called you to see if you were affected. We decided to not tell your dad until he woke up, which he probably did in the last five hours while I was driving here. Wraith must have told your dad. Your dad was worried about you, so he called. Was nothing to do with me or any spies you’ve convinced yourself I have.”

Ember crosses her arms in front of her chest. “So, why are you here, not Dad?”

“As I explained, he was still in the fucking tank when I left. Plus, your dad’s got shit to deal with in Sturgis. Business. You got camera footage?”

She rolls her eyes. Again.

“Defiant little girls don’t last long around me.”

“From what I hear, no one lasts long around you. Perhaps you are the problem.”

Her baiting does something to my cock. Fucking love brat taming. I place my hand around the back of her neck and squeeze firmly. Her pupils go wide at the action. “Don’t test me, Ember. Not today.”

I release her, though what I really want to do is tug her to me and kiss that mouth of hers. Perhaps even test how far she’d let me go.