Page 24

CHAPTER 24

Toxic

H aving my family out at the farm had gone a long way toward improving my perpetual bad mood, but then we’d gone right back to the way it’d been before they’d come out. Billie was back in her room, working away on her computer, digging through receipts and spreadsheets. And I went back to fixing things on her farm.

My phone rang, breaking through my grim thoughts. “Yeah?”

“Hey, Bro,” Riptide said. “You got a minute?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

I set the screwdriver aside and leaned against the generator I’d been fixing. “You find something?”

“Just what we expected. Fission Solutions is definitely behind this. All with the approval of Jonathan Brently.”

I swore, wiping my grease stained hands on a rag. “Can you get me an address?” Butcher had taught me the easiest way to stop a war was to cut the head off the snake. Taking out Brently would put a stop to this. And if it ended the threat to Billie, that’s all I needed to know, it had to be done.

“Got a Chicago address for him,” Rip told me.

“Good. Send it over.”

“Will do, Brother.”

We broke the connection and I stalked off to find Butcher. He was on the porch, sharpening a knife, the dog asleep at his feet. He looked up as I approached. “Finally.”

“What?” I asked, confused.

“You’ve got fucking murder in your eyes,” he said with a shrug. “I assume that means we’re getting into some action.”

I chuckled. “Rip connected Brently to all this shit.”

“Where’s he at?”

“Chicago.”

“When do we leave?”

As though sensing the violence in the air, Eris woke up, yawing and watching us with an eager expression.

“I’m doing this one alone.”

Butcher frowned. “What the fuck does that mean?”

I glanced over at the front door, then met his pissed off gaze. “I need you to stay here and watch over her.”

“Fuck that,” he growled. “One of the others can watch her.”

I shook my head. “If this asshole figures out we know he’s linked to this shit, he’s going to come after her. It’s not that I don’t trust the others, but I want you watching over her. You and Isla. Hell, all of you. I’d rather have every one of you sitting here on the ranch than coming with me to Chicago.”

“That doesn’t make any fucking sense,” he snapped. “There’s no reason for you to do this alone. You’ve never let me go off on my own.”

I raked a hand through my hair. “I know, dammit.”

“I’m going with you,” he said. “I’ll have Isla watch over Billie. Shit you know all our brothers will offer to do the same. But there’s no way Lock is letting you go alone. And neither am I.”

“Fine,” I muttered. It didn’t even make sense as to why it felt as though I needed to do this one by myself. “But I get to kill Brently.”

The more I’d gotten to know Billie, the more I thought about what happened the day I met her. It could have been her in the hospital. If they’d found her alone on this ranch instead of Robert, they wouldn’t have hesitated to beat her. Who knew what else they might’ve done. That knowledge had a black pit of violence welling up inside me. It’s been dormant, but now that I knew where to point it, I wasn’t going to hold back.

Once I took care of Brently, I’d have Rip help me track down the fuckers he hired to come out here that day. They’d be next. Even once this was officially over, it wouldn’t be for them. This only ended with their death. No way I’d leave them to keep breathing when they posed a threat to my woman.

I didn’t even have to ask because Butcher was already on his phone. “Yeah, bring anyone who’s available. Thanks, Terror.” He paused as he listened. “Couple days, at the most.”

My phone rang again. Glancing at the screen, I walked away from Butcher as I answered. “Lock.”

“Cypher’s sending the jet.”

I blinked, looking down at the phone in my hand before putting it back to my ear again. “How-”

“You really want me to waste time reminding you that nothing fucking happens in my club without me knowing?”

My lips twitch. “Not really.”

“Good. Cypher wanted to know if you want Warrant to come down? I know you don’t need him to fly that fancy ass jet of theirs, but figured I’d offer.”

Cypher was the Berserker’s Rage MC president. The fact that Lock had called him and gotten me my own flight to Chicago meant more to me than I could articulate. I’d figure out a way later to thank Lock and Cypher.

“Unless you’d rather have Warrant help watch over Billie, that way more of the guys are there at the clubhouse?” Lock asked.

“Sure. He’ll do better watching over the animals at the ranch than our guys.”

“I’ll let Cypher know.”

“Thanks Lock.”

“Stop here before you go. Priest will load you up with everything you need.”

“Will do.”

I hung up and found Butcher leaning against the porch railing.

“Isla’s on her way.”

“That was fast.”

“Any reason to wait?” he asked.

“No. I’m going to get that generator running before we go.” I walked away from him.

He was smart enough not to follow me. I needed to be alone. I was already going into battle mode. It was going to take everything inside me to keep from moving too quickly. All I wanted to do was take care of this threat immediately. I didn’t want to fucking wait for everything to get set up just so we could leave. But I also wasn’t willing to leave Billie vulnerable. So I had to wait.

Butcher was the resident psychopath of our club, but each of us had our own dark half. Mine was usually tucked away, under control. I only let it free when those I cared about were in danger. I didn’t need to let it see the light of day often, the way Butcher did. Didn’t revel in the carnage I could create.

Death and mayhem were a natural consequence of being a protector. That was the way I looked at it anyway. I’d yet to run across anything I wouldn’t do in order to keep my family safe. Was pretty sure there wasn’t anything.

Still, even as I committed acts that most people considered atrocities, I was usually pretty jovial about it. The others still often sang the song I’d made up while Butcher and I had finished off the mafia goons after they’d kidnapped Hellfire.

It was rare that I was in such a shitty mood. I was sure that was why Butcher was giving me my space. He instinctively knew this wasn’t the time to poke and prod at me. Maybe once I let all this aggression out and unleashed it on Brently I’d be willing to talk about the fact that, for once in my life, I wasn’t sure how to make a woman fall in love with me. It was the fact that this was the only woman who mattered, and I was fucking it up, that was eating at me.

“You’ll figure it out,” I muttered, picking the screwdriver back up and getting back to work. The endless challenges the machinery on this ranch were providing were helping to keep me sane. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do once I’d completed all the projects. That was a problem for another day.

“What’s that for?” I asked, arching a brow at the bag Lock had slung over his shoulder.

“Turns out Cypher doesn’t trust you with his multi-million dollar jet,” Lock said with a smirk. “Go figure.”

“That asshole knows I’m one of the best fucking pilots out there,” I muttered.

“He knows. He also knows the two of you attract trouble more than most,” Lock said, heading toward the door.

“So?” Butcher said. “We’re going looking for trouble this time. Cuts down on the time.”

“Exactly, you two looking for trouble will find twice as much, which means I’m going with you.”

We paused, looking at our president’s back as he kept walking.

“No shit?” Butcher asked, a grin stretching across his face.

I looked over at him and shrugged. “He’s so fucking pent up he’ll probably end up losing his shit and offing everyone before we even get the chance.”

The smile dropped off Butcher’s face. “Oh hell no. Prez! I’m calling dibs on killing the shitheads,” Butcher called out as he followed Lockout.

I looked over at Riptide, who was shaking his head. “Who’s idea was this?”

“He needs a break, Toxic,” Rip said with a shrug. “He might even need this more than you do.”

“Probably. If this is what he’s been dealing with for the last six months or more, no wonder he’s so tense all the time.” I didn’t bother to hide it. My brothers knew me well enough to know I was struggling with this. I wasn’t used to women giving me a challenge. At first it’d been kind of fun, but I’d never expected to get the cold shoulder. That hurt. And it was driving me nuts that I was failing to catch Billie’s attention.

Last night Billie had come out, dished up her plate of food, then apologized as she’d disappeared inside her room again. I scowled at the clubhouse door as I remembered it. Day by day it was getting worse. She was pulling further away from me. How was I supposed to make the woman fall in love with me if I couldn’t get her to come out of her room?

Short of planting myself in her bed, there was nothing I could do. I didn’t like it when shit didn’t go my way. So, I’d take a couple days to be a grumpy dick, take my frustrations out on some CEO asshole, then come home and figure out a way to charm my old lady.

Grinning at that plan, I clapped a hand on Rip’s shoulder. “We shouldn’t be gone too long.”

Rip sighed. “Just make sure you stay under the radar. Last thing we need is for the three of you to end up in prison.”

I snorted in derision at that thought. “We’ve got it under control, Rip.”

One thing we knew how to do is get in, get the mission done, and get out without being detected. This was actually going to be fun. Having Lock along was just going to be a bonus. I followed my brothers out of the clubhouse. Rip would take care of everything while we were gone, and I knew Isla and whoever Rip assigned to Cholla Summit Ranch would make sure Billie was safe.

“You ready?” Lock asked, looking in the rearview mirror as I got in the back of the cage.

“Yeah. Let’s get going.”

“He didn’t let his woman know where he was going,” Butcher said after Lock pulled out onto the road.

I scowled at him. “When did you become a little narc?”

He chuckled. “Since you taught me how much fun it could be to spill other people’s secrets for them.”

“Fucker,” I muttered. He wasn’t supposed to be learning shit from me. I was the shit starter. He was the chaos maker. Those were our roles. Suddenly we were switching them. I was about to fuck up Brently’s entire world, Butcher was fucking with me, and Lock was along for the ride. Everything was out of whack. I wasn’t sure what that meant for the mission we were on.

“Why wouldn’t you let her know you’re going?” Lock asked, arching a brow and studying me in the mirror.

“She’s putting him on ice,” Butcher said, sounding amused.

“Keep it up,” I warned him. “I know a lot of shit about you that you don’t want other people knowing.”

Butcher turned in his seat, glaring at me, but when I held his gaze he grunted and turned back around.

“What does that mean?” Lock asked.

Butcher didn’t say anything else.

“She’s just playing hard to get,” I told Lock.

He chuckled. “I’d say I’m surprised your ego can handle that, but really you’re so damn easy going most of the time it's not that unusual.”

“Been a pissy fucker the last week,” Butcher muttered. He turned in his seat. “That’s not a secret, asshole. We’ve all noticed. He’s not used to going this long without getting his dick wet.”

“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that,” I told him. He wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t just about not getting laid though. It was more that Billie wasn’t interacting with me much at all. I wasn’t getting her smiles. Her laughs. Nothing. Not that I would turn down sex with her. But it wasn’t just that.

“This the first time you haven’t been laid in more than a couple days straight?” Lock teased.

I shook my head. “I don’t sleep around that much.”

They both stared at me, Lock in the mirror while Butcher turned around again.

“I’ve gone more than days without fucking,” I explained. “Hell, I’ve even gone months.”

“Bullshit,” Lock said with a laugh.

It was true. I liked the company of women, but there were times when a guy needed a fucking break. It wasn’t that I didn’t have self-control. I just didn’t see the point of denying myself when I couldn’t find my old lady anyway. Now that I had, I wasn’t even thinking about other women.

But flirting with that secretary the other day at EcoAlign had cost me. Billie had kept her distance since. She didn’t trust me. She hardly knew me. I just had to figure out how to show her she could trust me when she refused to be around me.

First, I needed to take care of the assholes threatening her. Then I could figure out how to make her fall for me. Easy enough.