Knight (77 page)

A man deserved the death he earned.

I didn’t believe in last requests. But Rose did. Especially when she asked it on behalf of her brother.

She wanted to talk with him.

Brew wanted the bullet.

I had no fucking idea what to do, so I took him to Sorceress. Figured a strip club was as good a last request as any. He rolled out of Rose’s car as soon as she parked. Rose silently wept. Brew didn’t try to comfort her. Couldn’t, not with the jumper cables I improvised as bindings for his wrist. He grunted as I shoved him from the car.

“She called Keep,” he said.

Son of a bitch.

Rose didn’t apologize for it, but before the end of the night I’d break her goddamned cell phone. And take the keys to her car.

Probably just tie her up and leave her in the corner of Pixie where she wouldn’t make my life a fucking nightmare.

I pushed Brew into the club’s door instead of knocking. Rose gasped.

And I actually fucking apologized.

Lyn waited for us, but she didn’t know why. Her questions answered as soon as she opened the door, but that wouldn’t stop her from asking a shit-ton more.

She coiled to strike. I had enough to worry about without getting bit with her venom too.

“Jesus Christ. What the hell did you do, Brew?” She swung the door wide for us. “
Rose is here
?”

Rose didn’t answer. Probably the smartest thing she did all day.

“Need a room, Lyn.” I couldn’t handle the stares of both the bunny and the blonde. “Now.”

“Then why the hell are you here?”

“Neutral ground.”

“You bastard. My club is anything but
neutral
thanks to you.”

“Hasn’t burned down yet, has it?”

Lyn swore as I pushed past her. She edged Rose out of her way and took one step too close to me.

“Get the hell out of my club.”

“Get me a room,” I said.

“Take your vengeance somewhere else.”

“You wanted protection from Ex.” I didn’t wait for her to show me to the basement. “Consider this insurance.”

“I asked for a guard, not to be a material witness.”

“You keep talking, and you’ll be the second body they find.”

Rose took Lyn’s arm. At least Lyn didn’t whip her into the wall.

“I wasn’t here,” Rose whispered. “No matter
who
asks, I wasn’t here.”

Lyn had been dancing. Her blonde hair swept into a pony-tail, and she tugged a thick sweat shirt over the black mini-skirt molded to her ass. She peeled Rose from her arm and glanced down the corridor toward the bar.

“Anyone see you come in?” She asked. Rose shook her head. “Go downstairs. Give me your keys. I’ll store your car. Need anything else?”

“I’m thirsty,” Rose said.

Fucking hell. She wasn’t thirsty. She was stalling. Lyn nodded.

“I’ll get the whiskey.”

Why didn’t we order some Chinese and have a picnic too? 

I grunted for Brew to move and forced him down the stairs to Lyn’s storage room. The place looked like Keep organized it during a high. Boxes alphabetized by contents. Files tucked into cabinets. Costumes arranged and labeled. Meticulous. Not a place for a murder.

I shoved Brew into a chair and left his hands bound.

Rose sat on the stairs. She didn’t look at either of us.

I never lost control, but every second she curled on the stairs was another jolt to the heart. Shit was getting out of hand, but the solution wasn’t any clearer.

Brew wasn’t a stranger. Christ, I was more family to him than Rose. I nominated him to be my Sergeant at Arms. My muscle. A weapon I counted on, and a man who’d do anything for the club.

Anything.

I wasn’t a forgiving man. But even if I could forget his betrayal with Exorcist, Rose huddled against the wall. The backpack set at her feet. I couldn’t forgive anyone that placed her in danger.

Not even her big brother. The one who promised to protect her.

The one who needed to protect her from me.

Lyn returned after a minute. She guarded her steps on the stairs. Afraid of what she might find or afraid of what she’d witness. I left Brew bound in the chair. She tensed.

“Luke called already.” Lyn took a swig from the bottle before handing it to Rose. “I never saw you. What the hell have you done?”

“Nothing I can’t fix,” I said.

“There’s not enough whiskey in the world to fix this.” Lyn waved a hand toward the chaos that was my next ten minutes. “You want me to take the kid out of here?”

“Don’t you dare.” Rose was in no position to make demands. I let her pretend anyway. She knelt before Brew, offering the bottle. “Do you want a drink?”

Brew stared only at me. “Not sure it’ll do a lot of good, Bud.”

“Please?”

“I’m fine.”

The bottle shook in her hand. “Let me help. I…I can pour it for you.”

“Jesus Christ. Let me die with some dignity.”

She flinched. I debated taking a drink too, if only to down the bottle, shatter it, then slice my wrists on the glass. Lyn called to her.

“Let’s go,” she said. “You don’t want to be here for this.”

“I’m not leaving.”

“If you
ever
want out.” Lyn’s words cracked like a whip. “Then you’ll come with me right now. Leave this behind. Forget it.”

Rose’s eyes met mine. The gentle chestnut wasn’t the lethal bite of Lyn’s gaze. It didn’t poison with threat or lash with a strike. It just revealed the venom already there. The darkness. The desecrated shade of violence that might have reduced me to my knees and begged her for forgiveness if there was one shot in hell she’d offer it.

“There is no out for me,” she said. “Only dying, and I’d rather not do that today.”

The basement door flew open. The final Darnell stomped down the stairs, raging and ready to make his own equally bad decision.

I was starting to think their family didn’t survive on blood. Liquid mistakes surged through their veins.

I snapped the safety off my gun.

Only one way to find out.

I grabbed Rose, pinned her against my chest, and pointed the gun at her head. Her little fingers dug into my arm, but she stayed quiet. Lyn didn’t.

“Don’t be an idiot,” she groaned.

Keep slowed his steps. His pupils dilated, but it wasn’t a drug confusing him into choppy laughter.

“Yeah, right,” he said. “Maybe if you weren’t fucking her.”

Brew swore. Rose tugged harder at my arm. I snorted her apple sweet confusion from my head and let her go. My gun found a new target. Keep’s gaze followed it to his bound brother.

“That I’ll believe,” he said. He held his hands up and sat as I directed him. “What snapped in your fucking head?”

“Go upstairs, Lyn,” I said. “Consider next month’s payment received in full.”

“What a goddamned relief.” Lyn’s heels might have punctured holes in her stairs. “By all means then, carry the fuck on.”

The door slammed. Keep pulled Rose close. I lowered the gun, but I didn’t put it away.

“Show Keep what’s in the bag,” I said. “Then you can tell him what you’ve been up to.”

Rose didn’t answer. She pushed the bag into her brother’s lap and looked away. Keep whistled as he peeled the zipper.

“I’m a fucking junkie, and this is too much meth for anyone, let alone my goddamned
sister
.” Keep tossed the bag aside and stared at the gun in my hand. “What the hell is going on here?”

“Recognize it?” I asked.

“Recognize
what
?”

“I found the same drugs in your sock drawer,” Rose whispered.

Keep rubbed his face. His hand wove over his shaved head. “I had porn on my laptop. You go through that too?”

I didn’t like the way he talked to his sister. She didn’t like how I threatened her brothers. We were even.

“Where’d you get Temple’s meth?” I asked.

“Must have found it.”

“Found it.”

Keep shrugged. “All the junk is messing with my memory. I don’t remember.”

“Jesus Christ.” Brew tested the bindings on his wrists. He might have broken out of the wires with a bit of effort and blood, but neither of us wanted the mess or the panicked kid. “I gave him the drugs.”

“You did
what
?” Rose squealed. “I
knew
you were enabling him! How could you?”

Brew ground his jaw. “Bigger fucking picture, Bud.”

“He was able to score it for me,” Keep said. “Christ, if this is your idea of an intervention, I’ll take rehab instead.”

Brew lost his temper and swore again. “I’m running the drugs, you idiot. Temple and Exorcist made a deal. Temple is fighting with the Haitians. Lots of bad blood there. They were willing to distribute in the valley again, and I bought from them as a show of good-faith.” He stared his brother down. “They didn’t trust anyone but a Darnell.”

Keep slammed a hand on the stair. The threat of the gun parked him next to his sister.

“You betrayed Anathema,” I said. “And you got Rose involved.”

Brew frowned. “Rose wasn’t supposed to be there. Temple wanted me, but Ex wanted her. Ex got it in his head that someone neutral should be at the meet. He was just using her.”

I wanted nothing more than to fire the gun. “And now he’ll kill her.”

“Looks like it.”

Keep sobered up quick. He stared at Rose. “You got in this mess?”

Her voice lost the sweet tone and dropped to a terrified, breathy whisper. “Ex made me do it. I…told them I’d only give the bag to my brother. I didn’t…I thought…”

Keep stood. He looked from her then to me. His expression broke. Perfectly sober, like we ripped the drugs from his veins just to stuff it with glass instead.

“Holy fuck. You
knew
there was a rat.” His voice lowered. “You thought it was
me
.”

Rose sniffled. Like nails on a chalkboard. I didn’t want to add offending her brother to her list of horrors. The bill for a decent shrink when all this was done would bankrupt the club.

“I don’t believe this.” Keep’s hands started shaking. He didn’t hide it. “Why the fuck are you working for Exorcist?”

Brew swore. “You think I’m doing favors for that
cocksucker
?”

He stood. I slammed him down into the chair. “Get your goddamned facts straight, Thorne. I got nothing to do with Exorcist.”

“Don’t lie in front of your little sister,” I said. “Sets a bad example.”

“I was making a deal with
Temple
. For Anathema!”

I didn’t like having a rat in my club. I didn’t like second-guessing my brothers and covering my steps like a damned pussy. But someone lying to me?

That was worth wasting a good bullet in a bad brain.

“Temple dealt with Dad back in the day,” Brew said. “But they don’t trust anyone else. They wanted into the valley, and Luke worked with me.”

Rose edged against the wall. “Luke?”

“He made the arrangement. We needed Temple to trust me enough to do the deal and get them the money. We planned a way to end this fucking war.”

“How?” My voice layered with all the violence my straining hands hadn’t delivered.

“Temple needed the money to get my father out of jail.”

“Oh, my God.” Rose paled. Keep grabbed her before she stumbled. “The fifty grand was for
Dad
?”

“They have a judge. Believe me, Temple wants Dad out of jail more than us.”

I doubted that.

Rose fought against Keep until he released her. She held herself. Rocked against the wall like she did on the picnic table. She didn’t get sick, but her face paled. Sickly. White.

I could practically imagine the bruises on her cheeks that once haunted her perfect skin.

“He can’t get out of jail,” she said. “He can’t.”

“Temple needs a little time and a lot of money.” Brew held my gaze. “Luke doesn’t like how you’re running things, but he knows Exorcist isn’t the right leader of The Coup or Anathema.”

“Great, he’s a fucking traitor to everyone.” My headache cast halos around Rose. Or maybe she just earned her own. Christ only knew, but I doubted he’d tell me while I aimed a gun at her brother. “So you wanted to give Luke and The Coup the drugs they’ll need to resell. Make a profit. Buy guns. Slaughter us all in our sleep.”

“Temple wants to deal with Blade Darnell. They don’t care what colors he wears, so long as it isn’t an orange jumpsuit.”

“And you went to Exorcist with this information?”

Brew narrowed his eyes. The gray in his hair fooled everyone. He was thirty-eight, had a couple years on me, but he wasn’t old yet. Just dangerous.

“If my father tells Temple MC that Exorcist is a liability, they won’t hesitate to take him out.” Brew spoke like he held the gun, but he hadn’t pulled the trigger. “You can’t take out Ex, Thorne. Not without starting a major fucking war. But
Temple
can. Get me the fuck out of this chair, give me the drugs, and I’ll fix this. Rose didn’t make any friends, but we can keep her safe.”

“Jesus Christ.” Keep started laughing. “I always knew you had the brains, Brew, but holy shit. Killing Ex and getting Dad out of prison. That’s goddamned brilliant.”

The gun weighed heavy in my hand. I swore and shoved it under my vest.

“This can’t work,” I said. “What if Luke turns on you?”

“Luke doesn’t want another war. He hates blood.”

“He’s weak.”

“He’s smart.” Brew tugged the bindings on his wrist. “You want Ex dead?  Let me finish the deal, and I can get my father out of jail by the end of the month.”

Rose’s choked sob stole the air out of my lungs. She clutched her chest and gasped. I didn’t know if she wanted to scream or cry or reach for the knife tucked in Keep’s shoe and end it right there. She blinked through tears at Brew.

“He can’t get out of jail. Don’t you
dare
let him out of jail!”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Brew asked.

“How could you!”

Brew looked at Keep. He shrugged. I wished I had the answers, but it wasn’t like anyone felt like sharing their secrets with me.

“I’m not a traitor, Rose,” Brew said. “I’m doing right by our family.”

“If that were true Dad would stay rotting in a cell.”