Chaos Bound (32 page)

“He’s a biker, Ally.” Naiya rolled over the bed and picked up Holt’s shirt. “I like him—more than like him, but I can’t go where he’s going. He had a falling out with his biker brothers, but I don’t think it’s a forever thing. They let him walk out of there unharmed because they care about him. I’m sure he’ll be back with them at some point, and there is no way I’m ever getting involved with a club again. I’m a science geek, and I’m planning to spend the rest of my life in a crime lab. I need a secure future and a stable guy. I’ve already got three job interviews lined up, and I’ve just been offered—”

“Science geeks don’t shoot guns,” Ally said, cutting her off. “They don’t go on the run with outlaw bikers, jab them with needles, steal weapons, and pull the wool over the eyes of an ATF agent. They don’t fuck a man they barely know who is the total opposite of Maurice.”

“That’s pretty specific for an over-generalization.” She pushed away from the desk and walked over to the window.

“When I saw you at the motel, you looked different. You looked alive … like you’d just woken up. Your eyes sparkled, and, although it was a scary situation, you looked like you were excited and having fun.”

“Being chased by Viper isn’t fun.” She stared at all the normal people living their normal lives—shopping, walking, eating, and laughing. One day, that would be her. One day she would be free. “It’s the last thing I ever wanted.”

Ally’s voice rose to the wheedling the tone she used when she was trying to convince Naiya to do something she knew Naiya wouldn’t want to do. “But it was fun when you were with Holt ’cause he wasn’t scared of Viper. And he made you not scared either. You took risks and survived. You hung with a biker and didn’t turn into a crack whore, if you’ll pardon my disrespect, but I’ll never forgive your mom for abandoning you like she did. Holt would never do that to you. He wanted to protect you. If he’s gone, it’s ’cause you pushed him away.”

“I didn’t push him away.” She lowered her voice when a man in a business suit walked into the room. “He said he was going to do what he had to do, and I wasn’t going with him because it was too dangerous and I didn’t belong. That’s when I suddenly realized I’d gone off the rails. I mean, what the hell was I thinking?” Naiya frowned when a black sedan with blacked-out windows pulled up in front of the hotel. Something twigged at the back of her mind. She’d seen that vehicle before.

“Isn’t that his choice?”

A man stepped out of the sedan. Tall and lean, with dark hair, a black suit and a blue tie. Her heart skipped a beat.

Michael.

“Ally, I have to go.” She raced over to her computer, logged off, and grabbed her stuff. Sweat beaded her forehead as she made a last visual sweep of her workspace.

“I’ll call you later.”

TWENTY-TWO

TANK

A woman shrieked, and Tank missed his shot.

“Fuck.” He looked up at Gunner chalking his cue on the other side of the pool table. “That doesn’t count.” He glared at the group of women sitting beneath the flashing neon sign that read “Rider’s Bar.” What the hell was so funny? Didn’t they know this was a place for serious drinking and not a place to party?

“Every stroke counts.” Gunner snorted a laugh and made a lewd gesture with his hips. “That’s what I tell the ladies.” He looked over at Shaggy who was their fourth for the game. “Take notes, old man. Now that Zane’s outta the game, I’m the new Sinner chick magnet.”

Leaning over the pool table, to take his shot, Zane cracked a smile. He’d been doing that a lot since Evie had walked back into his life with the son he never knew he had. Tank didn’t think he’d ever seen Zane smile before Evie, and he still couldn’t get used to it. But it seemed to happen to the brothers who hooked up with an old lady. Even Jagger had been caught smiling once.

“You talking smack ’cause you forgot how to shoot, Gun?” With T-Rex’s return to the club still uncertain, Tank felt obliged to try and fill T-Rex’s role as peacekeeper, but it didn’t come easy.

“Fuck you.” Gun grabbed his cue and sent the cue ball careering wildly into the far bumper.

“Looks like you need some help holding your stick.” Tank made a pumping gesture with his hand and everyone laughed. “You need some pointers, I’ll be happy to show you how it’s done.”

“Yeah ’cause you’re that hard up,” Gun snapped, never one to enjoy being the butt of Sinner jokes. “Can’t get a woman, so you spend your time with your hand down your pants.”

Damn. They were always talking him down, never taking him seriously. Ever since T-Rex disappeared, they hardly noticed Tank anymore. He’d never realized how he’d stood in T-Rex’s shadow until the light was gone. And now that T-Rex was back, he would disappear again.

“I got a girl,” Tank said bristling. “A civilian. And she’s famous. Classy. Smart as fuck. Not the kind of girl that would ever look twice at you.” He regretted the lie as soon as it was out of his mouth. His brothers weren’t going to let that one go, but if he let slip he’d been with a reporter, he’d be kicked out of the club.

“Yeah?” Shaggy lifted his thick brows. “Like movie or TV famous? Who is she? When are you bringing her to the club?”

“Jesus H Christ,” Gunner muttered. “He’s shitting you. What would a chick like that want with Tank? Movie and TV stars, society girls … they go for the big money or the big players. Maybe if he was president, he’d have a shot. But a fucking junior patch who lives in the fucking clubhouse and drives a piece of shit Fat Boy? Come the fuck on.”

Tank opened his mouth for a snappy retort, when he heard someone call his name. Frowning, he looked through the crowd in the direction of the voice and caught sight of Naiya, a bag over her shoulder, her chest heaving, and her hair in disarray. She looked around, caught Tank’s gaze, and relief spread across her face as she came toward him.

“Do you know where Holt is?”

Tank shook his head. “I thought he was with you.”

She glanced over at the brothers and lowered her voice. “We kinda had a fight. He dropped me at the hotel and took off. But there was an ATF agent who was asking us questions in Trenton, and I just saw him outside the hotel.” She leaned right up and whispered in his ear. “Holt shot Leo, Viper’s VP, and then we took his bike. The attendant at the gas station where you saw us told the ATF he saw two people in Bolton Beaver sweatshirts on a fancy bike, and when the agent saw me in the sweatshirt he got suspicious. But without the CCTV tape, he couldn’t link us directly.”

“I took the tape,” Tank said. “I told Holt when he told me about Leo. You’re safe ’cause I won’t let anyone get it.”

“But the agent is at the hotel.” Naiya’s voice rose in pitch. “It can’t be a coincidence. I need to warn Holt. We have to get out of town.”

“This is a Sinner town,” Tank assured her. “And you’re a Sinner’s girl in a Sinner bar. Nothing’s gonna happen to you here.”

She bit her lip, looked away. “I’m not a Sinner’s girl. Holt and I … we kinda parted ways.”

Tank laughed. He’d only spent a few hours with T-Rex since his return, but he knew his best friend inside and out, and he’d never seen him the way he was with Naiya. Intense. Protective. Head over fucking heels. She was his girl. He’d all but claimed her. Tank knew deep inside that T-Rex would do anything to protect her. And that meant when Holt wasn’t around, Tank would look after her as if she were his own.

“He may have gone for a ride to cool off, but he’ll never leave you.” Tank put his arm around her and gave her a reassuring squeeze. “I know him like I know myself. He may have lost a part of himself in that dungeon, and he may need some time to come back to the Sinners, but there is nothing that will keep him away from you.”

“He won’t know where I am.” She leaned against him with a worried sigh. “And what if he goes back to the hotel? He’ll walk right into their arms.”

“I’ll call the clubhouse, get some brothers to keep watch around the hotel for when he comes back. They’ll let him know where you are.”

Shaggy gestured to her bag. “I’ll take that and put it in the back. You can wait at the bar. Banks will take care of you while we get things sorted.”

Naiya handed Shaggy the duffle bag, and he frowned. “Where did you get that ring? Looks like a man’s ring. You got a man? You messing around with our T-Rex? He’s been through enough.”

“Leave her the fuck alone.” Tank said before Naiya could answer. “She’s Holt’s girl. If there is another dude in the picture, he’s as good as dead. And right now finding Holt is our number one priority. Last thing he needs is to wind up in another kind of jail.”

Shaggy stared at Naiya’s ring a second longer and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m gonna check out Sandy Lake. That’s where I’d go if I was hunting Viper ‘cause that’s where Viper will be when the rally is on, and that’s where he’ll be the most vulnerable.”

“Sounds good. I’ll ride local.” Tank gave Naiya a comforting squeeze. “That way I can be nearby to keep an eye on Naiya.”

Shaggy grabbed Naiya’s bag and hustled out the back door. Naiya looked up at Tank who had turned his attention to the local news on the television above the bar. “Why are you doing this when Holt hasn’t really come back to the club? He’s not even wearing his cut.”

“Until he hands that cut to Jagger, he’ll always be a Sinner.” Tank had been carrying T-Rex’s cut with him since last night. It might be a long and rocky road, but T-Rex would find his way back, and when he did, Tank would be the one to put that cut on his shoulders.

“We have to find him,” Naiya begged. “I don’t know what I would do if Holt wound up in jail. I don’t know what he would do. He still has nightmares about being in the dungeon. And he killed Leo to protect me. I couldn’t live with myself.”

Warmth spread through Tank’s chest, as Naiya’s words made her feelings clear. She cared about T-Rex as much as he cared about her, and after what T-Rex had been through, he deserved a little happiness.

“You stay here,” Tank said. “I can’t go looking for him if you’re on the streets unprotected. I’ll check in every half hour, but you’re safe at Rider’s. Don’t worry. I’ll find T-Rex. I’ll bring him home.”

TWENTY-THREE

“What the fuck am I doing?”

Holt lay on the roof of the five-story office building across the street from the Bestway Hotel in Sandy Lake and angled his rifle. Preparations for the weekend rally had already begun. Banners hung from windows, streets had been cordoned off, and the local shops were stuffed with rally souvenirs. In less than forty-eight hours, bikers would descend on the small town and the nearby campground, turning the place into one big party.

Without his cut to identify him as a biker, and falling back on the charm he’d once used to inveigle women into his bed, it hadn’t taken Holt long to find out where Viper was going to be staying during the rally. Although the hotel desk clerk, a former house mama in a Sinner support club, had been willing to give him more than information, he’d felt guilty even kissing her cheek. There was only one girl he wanted. And he couldn’t have her.

“Fuck.” His loud curse echoed over the rooftop, fading into the evening sky. He flattened himself on the warm asphalt, and peered across the street, as he tried not to choke on the thick scent of tar.

From this position, he had a clear line of sight into both Viper’s room and the front door to the hotel. He had two sniper rifles set up beside him—an M24 weapons system chambered for a NATO short-action cartridge, and an SR-25 with a rotating bolt and direct impingement gas system—thanks to the raid on the Devil’s Brethren cache.

His groin tightened when he remembered holding Naiya that afternoon, how badly he wanted her—so much that fear had driven him away. He’d almost lost her then, but the feeling of despair was nothing compared to what he felt now.

How did they reconcile two different lives? Holt had always been part of a brotherhood—first with the street gang and then with the Sinners—and the time he’d spent between, alone with his thoughts day after day, had been nothing less than hell. He liked being around people. He liked being part of a tribe. The Sinner’s Tribe.

“At least, I did,” he muttered.

Now, he wasn’t so sure. He’d felt uneasy around his brothers, uncomfortable in his skin. From the moment he stepped into the clubhouse, he wanted to be alone. No, not alone. With Naiya. She was the only person who knew the new Holt, the man who had survived, transformed into a harder, stronger, ruthless, more determined version of himself. A man who needed a strong woman by his side. A man worthy of a beautiful, intelligent, confident woman who had suffered and survived, too.

Because of Viper.

He leaned up, practiced tracking a man on the street with the rifle. Back on track. Focus on the goal. The one thing that had kept him alive in the dungeon—his reason for being now that he’d left Naiya behind. What the fuck had he been thinking?

His breath caught when he heard the scrape of a door. Rolling to his back, he pulled his Smith & Wesson Model 500 revolver from its holster. The large caliber handgun packed a punch, although it was damn loud and would draw the wrong kind of attention. No time to dissemble the weapons. Whoever had intruded on his surveillance was about to get an unpleasant surprise.

But the surprise was on him when Shaggy stepped out onto the roof.

“Christ. I almost shot you.” Holt lowered his weapon, took a deep breath to slow his racing heart. “How did you find me?”

“Wasn’t hard.” Shaggy closed the door behind him, leaned against wall. “Lookin’ the way you look, wasn’t hard to find a coupla girls who noticed you wandering around. Viper’s an arrogant ass. He’s not gonna be slumming it, so we put our people in the big hotels. We got the intel last week that he’s staying across the way. Figured it wouldn’t take you long to figure that out.”

Holt huffed and flipped over, checking out the hotel through his binoculars. “You here to convince me to give up going after him on my own? Come back to the club? Be part of the team?”

“No.”

Frowning, Holt looked back over his shoulder. “So did Jagger send you to teach me a lesson? Do I get a beat down or a bullet to the head?”