Page 25 of Victorious, Part 2 (The LA Defiance MC #6)

Her hand slides out, gripping my knee. “Don’t sweet-talk me. Just talk.”

Scrubbing at my face, I let out a small groan, then look back up at her.

Fuck she’s beautiful.

Concentrate Loki!

“Doughnut was taken from his enclosure. My security feeds were cut without my sensors being triggered. It was a targeted attack.”

All three women gasp, just as I knew they would, but Bea reaches out, grabbing my hands in hers. “Hey, I already know where your head is right now. Don’t you go blaming yourself for this. The club is under attack. You already know we’re at war and they’re going to come at us from every angle—”

“Which is exactly why I should have been better prepared for a cyber-attack—”

“Stop it, Loki. You’re one man doing the tech work for an entire club. You’re trying to figure out everything you need to win this war, keep this club afloat, and be the vice president. Don’t you dare lay blame on yourself because you’re spread too thin.”

Ellie exhales, sliding her hand across the table, resting it on my arm comfortingly like the mother figure she is.

“Darling, Bea’s right. You can’t take this on.

And I can already see it in Bea’s eyes what she is thinking, but she doesn’t want to ask you for fear of what you will say, so I will ask for her. ”

I turn to look at Bea, wondering what Ellie is picking up on that I am not, as Ellie continues, “You need help, Loki, and we all know someone who is just as good at tech as you. You only need to ask him to come down from Silicon Valley to help us during this time. Am I right, Bea?” Ellie asks.

My heart sinks in my chest as Bea weakly smiles at me, nodding. “Baby, I know you hate asking my brother for help when it comes to tech, but please, right now, let him help you. Let him help us through this war. Anyway, I am sure he’d love to come, if only to flirt some more with Navy.”

I can’t fight the smirk that lights my face knowing that Theo does have a crush on our head club girl. I shift my gaze across the table to Ellie and Rhyan, and they both nod at me. I groan, rolling my eyes. “Okay, fine! Make the call. But I am doing this for you, Bea, not for me.”

Bea leans in, pressing a tender kiss to my lips. “Of course, babe. Whatever you say.”

“Loki!” Alpha roars through the clubroom.

I turn to see him charging through with Rip. “I’d better go deal with this. We’re gonna ride out, see you when I get back. Love you.”

“Love you, too, and when you get back, my brother will be here to help.”

I lean in, kissing her once more before I stand and make my way over to Alpha and Rip. The look on Alpha’s face tells me everything I need to know.

He’s pissed.

“You have the address?” he grunts.

I pull the printout from my pocket and hand it to him. He glances down at it with a simple nod. “We will deal with the security breach later. For now, we go talk to these twins and get the info we need, then you and me are having a very real talk .”

Craning my neck, I decide to tell him the truth. “Already handled, Pres. I have Bea bringing in Theo to help me bolster security and to stay on to accelerate any tech research we need. The more help we have right now, the better. We don’t need anyone being pushed too thin.”

My words seem to hit the button I was trying to press, and he instantly backs off.

He raises his brow as if he’s impressed.

“Work smarter. Good.” Then he turns to the middle of the clubroom.

“Montana, Maverick, mount up, we’re going for a ride,” he calls out.

The two of them, sitting at the bar drinking together, both place their beers down almost in unison, stand, and then start heading for the door. “Rip, you’re coming with us too.”

“Fuck yeah!” he wails as the five of us make our way out to the lot.

Twenty minutes later, the procession of bikes roars down the freeway.

Maverick is in the lead with Alpha following, then me, Montana, and Rip flanking us as we head toward the Martinez brothers’ last known address.

I know why Alpha asked Montana to come—his mother’s life is on the line, and once he realizes what we’re doing, there’s no way he’d want to sit this one out.

As we pull up, the apartment complex is exactly what I expected, run-down but not abandoned, the kind of place where people mind their own business and don’t ask questions.

We park our bikes, and Alpha gathers us around in a circle.

“Right, we’re here to gather intel from a set of twins, Luke and Logan Martinez.

They worked in the correctional facility until they were forced to quit.

They know shit we need. So, we’re here to get that information from them.

Montana, if shit gets dicey, you know that correctional facility better than anyone.

We need you to get through to them if they think we’re part of the Cartel. ”

Montana rolls his shoulders in understanding. “Got it.”

“Let’s go, approach with caution. We don’t know how volatile these guys can be. But we do know they are military trained. So be on your guard. Weapons hot.”

We all pull our guns and begin to approach the building. My eyes scan for security cameras, exit routes, anything that might tell us what we’re walking into.

“Third floor, apartment 3B,” I tell Alpha as we climb the stairs.

“You sure they’re here?” Montana asks, tension radiating from every muscle in his body.

“Only one way to find out,” I reply.

Alpha knocks on the door, not aggressively, but firm enough to mean business. The silence that follows stretches on too long, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“Luke and Logan Martinez?” Alpha calls out. “We need to talk to you about the prison system corruption you reported.”

More silence.

Then I hear it. The subtle sound of metal sliding against metal.

Someone’s loading a weapon.

“Step away from the door,” a gravelly voice echoes from inside, hard and commanding. “ Now !”

We all take a step back, and I catch Alpha’s eye.

This isn’t going according to plan.

“We’re not the bad guys here,” Alpha calls out. “We’re here because we have the same enemies you do.”

“Bullshit,” comes the second voice. “Nobody finds us unless they’re supposed to. And we sure as fuck didn’t give our address to any damn motorcycle club.”

Montana steps forward, raising his hands in the air, right in front of the window that’s next to the door.

The rest of us tense and urge him to get the fuck back, but he places his gun down on the ground beneath his feet.

“I’m putting my gun down as a show of faith.

My name’s Montana. My mother, Valerie Drake, is an inmate at the California Institute for Women.

The same corruption you tried to report?

It’s putting her life in danger right now. ”

There’s a long pause, then the sound of hushed conversation from inside the apartment.

“How do we know you’re not working for them?” the first voice asks.

“Because,” Montana says, his voice cracking slightly. “If I were working for them, my mother would already be dead.”

Another pause. Then the heavy clicking of metallic locks starts turning— a lot of them.

The door opens just wide enough to reveal the barrel of a shotgun and part of a face.

“All of you. Hands, where I can see them. Any sudden moves and this conversation ends real fucking quick.”