Property Of Drex #2 (Death Chasers MC #2) (3 page)

Chapter 4

DREX

Pop keeps talking, but I’m barely listening. Eve is upstairs waiting for me, yet we’re still going over the same shit. My skin is crawling, and I’m not sure if it’s impatience or adrenaline.

“Drex?” Pop prompts, drawing me out of my own head.

I look up to see all eyes are on me, and I have no clue what answer they’re waiting on. Pop frowns and bristles, acting irritated with me.

“Your head injury messing with your attention span?” he asks.

Rush, for once, doesn’t give me a smug look of superiority. His scowl is focused on Pop. Then again, most of the club is pissed at him for holding out on us.

“Nah, Pop. Just sick of repeating the same shit.”

He looks taken aback by my fuck-you attitude. It’s sure as hell a new form of disrespect from me. But he shouldn’t have pissed me off.

Truth? I suddenly don’t give a damn about any of this. No one here is concerned with the fact that any one of us could have been killed. I just happened to be the target. The only thing anyone is worried about is how or
if
to retaliate and if they’ll strike again.

Talks of war aren’t exactly easy. No one wants it. War means casualties and a lot of heat from the feds. Wars get noticed and get people like us killed or tossed in prison. Wars are stupid for business. That’s what everyone is focused on.

More truth? I would be doing the same thing.

I wouldn’t even think to give a damn if someone nearly died. I’d be worried more about the club. It’s how we operate. Yet I was worried about Eve. Just like she was worried about me, even though she has every right to want me dead.

“I want Eve to get out more. Obviously Benny has plans for her, but if he tried killing Drake for what he knows or might have told you, that means Eve
probably
doesn’t know a damn thing. But if she gets out, Benny might approach her. It’s becoming more apparent that we’re not using her to her full potential, and according to the others, she’s grown attached to you. So I doubt she’ll turn on us. Use her.”

My teeth grind, but I rein in my temper.

“Why? We know Benny is out for blood. What’s the point in putting Eve out there as bait?”

If they see her as my weakness, then Benny and his guys might find out. Someone in the club or someone close to the club had to have told him where I live. There’s no other way he could have known.

“Drake said they want info about our cars. They know what we’re selling. Apparently Benny wants a slice of the pie. If he approaches Eve, we can find out exactly what he wants to know. We might even find out who our traitor is.”

The circle of our most trusted guys all look at me again, as though they’re waiting on the usual. Typically, I don’t argue. I agree completely with Pop. It’s not like I can tell everyone I don’t want to put Eve at risk, so I decide to strike a nerve instead.

“We might have avoided me nearly getting killed too, if you had bothered to enlighten us with the tip you had. But you chose to stay quiet. You’ll forgive me if I’m having problems listening to your logic right now. I say we take Benny and his guys out. Or we ice them from their normal funds. Either way, be ready to fight.”

Pop glares at me, his eyes narrowing to slits. This is the worst tension this room has ever had.

“You’ll let her go out. Starting tomorrow. It’s not a request. And you won’t tell her what we’re doing. If you do, I might just decide I want to find out what’s so damn special about her that has you willing to piss me off.”

My jaw clenches, and anger vibrates through my body.

“If she’s not working with Benny, what’s the point?” Rush asks, surprising me.

His eyes are solely on Pop as he awaits the answer.

“If she’s not working for Benny, then we’ll see it firsthand. If she is working with him, we’ll get all the info out of her we can. She won’t know she’s being watched, and Benny won’t know we’re watching her. No more taking chances,”
our president
answers, regaining his cool.

He’s contradicting himself now and talking in circles. This is just a pathetic man’s desperate ploy to draw heat off him and look like he’s taking action.

“Does that go for you too?” I dare, leaning forward.

I catch sight of Rush’s lips twitching, as though he’s enjoying the confrontation between me and the man I once respected more than anyone. Pop glowers at me.

“I hope you get your head out of your ass and start seeing the big picture soon. This isn’t just about you.”

He turns and pushes through the door. All of his loyalists follow, even though a few of them are pissed off about the current management as well. Rush and Sledge stay behind.

“I don’t like where his head is at,” Snake says quietly. Rarely ever does he insert his opinion.

“Neither do I,” Rush says on a groan. “But that’s typical, since I haven’t liked where his head was at for a really long time. Never thought I’d be agreeing with Drex, but I’m not cool with using a woman for bait when we know Benny is out for blood. Especially since she’s proven she’s not his puppet.”

Un-fucking-believable. The universe has flipped upside down and inside out.

“You believe her, then?” Sledge asks him, looking as surprised as I feel.

Rush rolls his eyes. “Any girl that will cover her man’s body when gunshots are blasting around everywhere has my respect. She’s also family now, since Drex has claimed her as his old lady. So I don’t like any of this. It’s like Herrin is only looking out for himself right now. Not that
that
surprises me, but he’s usually more discreet with his selfishness.”

I swallow the bile in my throat. It feels like a betrayal to talk behind Pop’s back like this, but at the same time, it’s pointless to speak aloud in front of him. He doesn’t seem to give a damn what anyone else thinks right now.

He’s scared. He’s scared for his own life.

“What are you going to do?” Snake directs that question to me, and I tighten my lips.

“I’ll let her go out. But I’ll be watching her. I’ll give Pop this win—”

“Shocker,” Rush interrupts with a snort.

“Because I plan on using this against him later on when this blows up in his face,” I add, watching as Rush swallows down whatever retort he was planning to say as surprise washes over his face.

“It will,” I go on. “Blow up in his face. Something will go down, and I’ll finally get to put Benny down for good. He has people focusing on Eve, when he’s the one doing shady shit. I’ll bring it up when it matters. Eve could use the vote of confidence as well, since everyone is apparently still leery of her. If I play his game now, no one will question me later on when I let the dominos fall. And he won’t be able to stop me when I put Benny down. Pop’s scared. You all saw it. I’m not scared. The club needs that right now.”

At least I’m not scared for me. But Eve…

“Drake is still outside,” Axle points out.

I brought in Axle for this meeting. Pop knew better than to try and stop me when I told him.

“He’ll stay here for now… until we set up a security routine for his place and the shop. He stuck his neck out by telling us everything they’ve been asking. It could ruin his reputation by labeling him a snitch, but he really didn’t have a choice, considering the Hell Breathers are panicking. Someone is feeding them intel. We need to find out who. For them to know so much about us, they’re in contact with clients or someone inside the club. Nothing directly links their questions to Benny, but it has to be him.”

Rush cracks his fingers. “I suggest you let me have first stab at that interrogation when we narrow down the suspect pool.”

I snort derisively, but the look in his eyes tells me he’s serious. He’d probably be the one to send them to.

“They’re all yours.” I wave my hand for emphasis, and a cold smile curves the corners of his lips.

“How do we keep this all below Herrin’s nose without letting him sniff it?” Sledge asks, clearly shifting his loyalties from Pop to me.

Doing this divides the club. Doing this is borderline treason amongst our crew. Doing this
will
change everything.

“You know Herrin won’t let us handle this the right way. He’s only concerned with self-preservation right now,” Rush quickly points out, as though he’s adding a little extra incentive to keep everyone in this lane. “He might even make a deal with the Hell Breathers behind our backs to ensure peace, since your girl was obviously not the peace token she was presented as. Benny has gotten ballsy, and he’s got someone smarter calling the shots now.”

I take a steadying breath, preparing to do something I never thought I would—turn on my father.

“We handle this quietly. Pop isn’t here much. It shouldn’t be hard. We’ll send all his loyalists to live with him if they feel like leaving their lives in his hands. But I have a feeling he lost more than he realizes tonight.”

Rush glances at Sledge, but Axle speaks before he can.

“That’s what happens when you leave your son blind to a slaughter. They all know it could have been any one of them, but for Herrin to risk sacrificing you, his own son… It tells them he’s not looking out for anyone but himself. There was no good reason for us not to know.”

Dash speaks for the first time since I saw him at the hospital. “And he caused conflict amongst our group. Even went so far as to put Drex’s girl under suspicion. He’s still doing it just to throw heat off him for what he did. Herrin has gotten shady.”

“He’s been shady,” Rush mutters, not looking at me. “You’re all just finally fucking seeing the truth.”

The feds are closing in, Hell Breathers are finally seeking revenge, and Pop just pissed off the only people he had at his back.

Chapter 5

EVE

I’ve been pacing Drex’s room for hours. They’ve been downstairs, talking about the attack for a while. It makes me nervous.

I haven’t forgotten they were threatening to kill me not too long ago. I also didn’t miss the fact they didn’t let me hang out with Drake, who is my one and only friend in this place.

Yes. Friend. You form a bond quickly with someone when you get shot at and then he helps you run for your life from
two
motorcycle clubs. Fucking eh.

The door opens, and my breath halts until I see Drex walking in. His eyes rake down my body, and a slow, wicked grin forms when he sees I’m only wearing his shirt.

All of my clothes were burned—at his house. Since they had all been delivered there for me before we even arrived.

All I have left are the clothes I was wearing. And they’re disgusting.

He walks over, still wearing that devilish smile, which forces my stupid heart to flutter like a fool, and he fingers a lock of my still-damp hair from the second shower I took after getting here.

“You trying to look like a wet dream?” he muses.

“I was getting worried. That took a while. And I have no clothes.”

His eyebrows wag, and I roll my eyes. This is the worst time in the world for him to suddenly feel playful.

“We’ll buy you some more clothes. Soon. I kind of like the idea of you walking around in my shirts until then. I’m guessing you don’t have any underwear either?”

His eyes dance with that same playfulness, and I bite back the smile he’s trying to force out of me for some reason. I never put my bra on when Drake showed up, and obviously I didn’t grab it after they shot the house up.

“Only one pair of panties,” I admit, and he grins bigger when he reaches his hand under the shirt I’m wearing and discovers they’re not on.

His hands roam over my bare ass, groping and possessing. I lean into him, feeling safe again as I wrap my arms around his waist.

This feels different. It’s not the same as it was a few days ago. It feels like he’s actually mine now, and this feels so much more… real.

“I could get used to this. No underwear, no clothes… It’s like you’re my own personal little dirty secret and you can’t go anywhere,” he jokes, which prompts me to actually laugh.

“That meeting must have been really productive if you’re in such a good mood.”

He tenses under my touch, and that immediately sours the playful air for me.

“What happened?” I ask, peering up at him. “Never mind,” I add quickly. “I don’t want to know. It’ll just make it look like I’m spying.”

He shrugs as though it’s no big deal. “Pop might think you are, but I don’t. Neither do my boys. We’re handling things. In the meantime, I’m keeping you out of Pop’s path.”

I don’t know if that’s supposed to comfort me or scare me. The president of the killers thinks I’m a spy that deserves to die.

There’s no happy place to go to right now that will make that go away.

“Don’t worry, baby. I’ve got you. Trust me.”

Trust.
That word is the crux of our relationship. At least it’s finally a relationship.

He bends, brushing his lips against mine, showing me that tenderness that I never thought he was capable of.

And the crazy thing is that I do trust him. With my life.

He catches my wrist, bringing it around so that he can see it, and anger flashes across his face when his eyes narrow on the fingerprint bruises Dash left behind.

“I should have hit him harder,” he says under his breath.

I start to question it, when a knock sounds at the door. It’s late… or early… depending on how you look at it. After the chaos the last twenty-four hours has divvied out, I jump.

Drex sighs. “I told you to trust me. It’s just Axle.”

He kisses the marks on my arm, before moving to answer the door. Sure enough, Axle walks in, completely avoiding glancing in my direction while he focuses on Drex.

“The feds are hanging back around Herrin and his men. They’re not posting up outside anymore. Apparently their focus has returned to only him and the north warehouse. And some of the guys who’ve been sleeping are taking the first shift.”

Drex nods, not seeming to care that I’m overhearing this. I move to the bed, wrapping up in the soft covers and hiding my bare legs.

“Eve needs to go shopping tomorrow for some new clothes. I’m giving her my card. Make sure she has a ride.”

That surprises me.

“Do you want someone to drive her, or do you want me just to score her some keys.”

Drex looks at me, winks, then returns his attention to Axle. “Just get her some keys.”

He’s letting me leave? With keys? No chaperone?

Something so small shouldn’t thrill me, but it does. It’s trust. He trusts me. Then, panic sets in.

“What if they attack me like they did you?”

Drex and Axle both look at me this time. Drex frowns, but Axle is the one to speak.

“They won’t,” Axle tells me. “Drex was the target. This hasn’t got anything to do with you, but some of the guys will be in town. We’ve already gotten you a new phone. Benny isn’t stupid enough to strike in public. Our guys will follow you into town, then you go shop while they go work. You can call us when you’re ready to head back if you don’t want to drive out here on your own.”

That’s a lot more freedom than I’ve been having. Maybe Drex finally does believe me. Most importantly, he
trusts
me.

I actually smile—much too big—and Axle hands Drex a phone that I assume must be my new one.

“You can’t come with me?” I ask Drex, already willing to cede my freedom if it means I get some alone time with him outside of this damn warehouse and his friends. I loved our time alone in his home.

His eyes… I really love those blue eyes when they’re soft instead of hard. And I really love the way he’s looking at me right now.

“I would, but I have a lot to do this week. All week. I won’t be getting out much. And it’d be dangerous for me to be out with you right now. I don’t want you put at risk because I have a bounty on my head.”

That definitely kills my smile.

“I can just stay here. It’s not like I want to venture below, so not having any clothes isn’t a big deal.”

Drex’s smile is quick, but just as brief when he banishes it. Axle rolls his eyes as though he doesn’t want to be in here anymore. Just knowing he trusts me to go out on my own is enough.

“As nice as that sounds, I’m going to be downstairs a lot, and I want you to be able to come down with me. If you wear your prissy shit, the guys won’t take you seriously. Besides, I need to be showing off your new ink so that word spreads throughout the club how
mine
you are now.”

Sighing, I shrug. “Okay then. I’ll get clothes tomorrow.”

He nods once, then turns back to Axle, explaining the schedule. Axle leaves without looking my way again, and Drex shuts the door behind him.

“You’re sure I don’t have to worry about Benny?”

He slowly shakes his head. “Benny won’t attack in public. Besides, he invested a lot of bank for you. If anything, he’d approach you instead of attack you.”

My brow furrows.

“Why would he approach me? I hate him and he knows it.”

He smirks as he walks toward me. “Spoken like a true Death Dealer.”

That has me resisting the urge to roll my eyes.

He settles onto the bed next to me, tugging his shirt over his head before slipping out of his jeans. Once he’s down to his boxers, he pulls me to him. The fingers on my right hand absently toy with one of the barbells in his nipple, while he stares up at the ceiling.

“Benny wants to know about details of our business—how we do what we do. I don’t know how long he’s been asking questions, but Drake told us a lot tonight. He knows we fix cars to conceal things that can’t be detected. Dogs can’t sniff anything out, x-ray devices are tricked, and compartments are hidden too well for the casual search to reveal. Not just SUVs, but bigger rides too. It helps smuggle bulk quantities of things across the border without the risk. You can’t exactly drive a container full of weapons or drugs around and hope to not get caught. So you split up the loads between ten or more vehicles that are equipped to carry large amounts. Apparently Benny wants his bite of the business, because it’s a lucrative business.”

I still against him. “I don’t want to know this stuff.”

He laughs bitterly, a soft sound that is actually a little depressing.

“It’s not technically illegal,” he goes on, acting as though I didn’t just say anything. “We play in a gray area, but they’d find a way to prosecute us for aiding and abetting. Dash designed a system to fool the x-ray machine. I concocted the device that fools the canine units. And Axle is the genius behind the hidden compartments. Before this, Pop was pushing drugs, transporting them, and assuming a lot of risks.”

I flick his nipple bar a little harder, almost pinching it to silence him.

“I said I don’t want to know this. It’s better if I don’t. That way they can’t assume I’ve told someone if anyone finds out.”

The smile that blooms across his face is confusing. “I know you don’t want to know, but I’m trying to trust you. This isn’t something just anyone learns. It’s not like I’m telling you the formula for success; only the guys and I know it.”

My twisted heart swells with a touch of excitement and pride. He wants to trust me. He already trusts me enough to tell me something as major as this.

He continues while sliding his hand up my leg, dragging it across his waist.

“Considering my mom was a junkie, I wanted Pop away from actual drugs and all temptation. He uses on occasion, but he’s never grown an addiction to it. Before you say that’s impossible, that’s not true. It’s rare, but some are immune to forming addictions. In fact, they get high off the power they have over denying the drug. Pop is more addicted to power than anything someone can manufacture.”

I kiss his chest, wishing I could empathize, but this isn’t how I was raised. Even though my father was apparently a little more jaded than I realized.

“Axle, Dash, and I worked on this for a couple of years when we were teenagers. Snake helps us with the installs. I met Dash and Snake in detention… school detention.”

He laughs as though it’s a pleasant memory. “We became instant friends. Then I met Axle in an actual detention center during the short period I was there after I got busted for beating the shit out of a kid my age. I was fifteen at the time. So was Axle. He came to live with us after he got out at sixteen.”

At fifteen I was drawing in my sketchbook to let off steam and blushing if someone cursed in front of me. I don’t mention that though. It makes me sound ridiculously out of place.

“Dash is a tech genius. He could have gone somewhere, been something. He taught me a lot, which gave me the knowledge to create a few of my own inventions, such as with the vehicles. Axle is brilliant, and he’s excellent at mapping out the perfect way to put hiding spots in places where hiding spots shouldn’t be. It’s what we do now. No more transporting drugs. No more transporting weapons. We just tweak the vehicles they have for different runs across the border. The ones most concerned with staying out of prison and keeping their stash, are the ones spending bank to keep making it happen.”

It’s a lot to take in. In fact, it’s an entirely different language. Transporting drugs and weapons? It definitely sickens me.

And he’s telling me all about it. Despite the wrongness of it all, I’m still curled up in danger’s arms.

“So Axle, Dash, and Snake are your best friends?” I ask, moving the topic away from all the illegal stuff.

He shifts, pushing me so that I’m on my back, and he slowly starts working my shirt up. It’s all I have on, so my lower half is bare to him.

“Yes. But my version of
friends
is different from yours. You grew up sharing secrets. We grew up killing to keep secrets.”

My eyes widen, and he studies me intensely. I’m not sure if it’s a threat or just a candid statement.

Shakily, I exhale, still trying not to freak out. Drex is the kind of guy I should run from, yet I keep running to him. I’d like to blame some psychological breakdown, but I know my mind has nothing to do with the feelings I have for him.

“Axle scares me,” I tell him randomly. At this, he freaking laughs. Loudly.

I’m not laughing.

“I’m sure he does,” he says through his chuckles. “The scars on his face freak people out. You should see the ones he sports under his shirt. But most people think I’m the scariest one. I have power. And according to most of the guys in the club, I shoot first and think later.”

I really don’t like having this conversation as though it’s a casual chat about the weather. Drex shed the shackles of morality a long time ago. I still firmly live in a world of right and wrong.

“Is that true?” I whisper.

His expression sobers, and he blows out a breath before running his hand up my leg.