Wild: Tiger's Blood MC (17 page)

Elliot stayed at the foot of the bed, glaring down at his feet. When he finally looked up at me, I could tell that he was still as angry as ever.

“So you formed your MC,” he said slowly. “And you found killers for members. Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

I nodded. “I had to do a lot of research,” I said. “Especially to find people like Vero.” Just saying her name put a bad taste in my mouth. Vero was dangerous, and I was starting to realize that just because I was her leader I wasn’t guaranteed protection from her heinous schemes. “I had to pay a lot of money to find names like that.”

Elliot laughed humorlessly. “You paid to find that big dyke?” He shook his head. “She’s fuckin’ trouble, Persephone.” The name sounded unreal from him now that he knew who I really was, but I didn’t really want to ask him to call me Grace. “Stay away from her.”

I shook my head. “She was necessary,” I argued. “And we used to be best friends.” I ran a hand through my hair. “I was actually grooming her to take over the Amazons, until recently.”

Elliot coughed. “Why? What happened?”

The air between us had settled a little bit, but that didn’t make me feel any better.

“It’s none of your business,” I said quietly.

Elliot frowned. “What was that?”

I spread my legs out on the bed and rested my elbows on my knees. I was hyperaware of being close to Elliot again—I could still catch the faint whiff of my musk on his face whenever he talked. “Nothing,” I mumbled. “Look, Elliot, about the past—”

Elliot held up his hand. His face was deadly serious, and the anxiety came crawling back down my spine. I realized that he was still angry with me, but that he’d somehow managed to turn it inside. This was a trick Elliot used to pull all the time back in the old days. He wasn’t ever comfortable being emotional so he always made himself bottle everything up and keep it inside. But it rarely worked, and I knew that once he’d started, he’d keep things in until he couldn’t bear to bottle it up any longer. And when Elliot exploded, I knew it would happen fast and hard. Elliot had a hell of a temper, and I could only imagine that leading an MC for years had made it sharper than ever before.

“I don’t wanna talk about that right now,” Elliot said slowly. He stared at me, as if beginning to realize something. Suddenly, I got a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“Elliot,” I said slowly. “You remember I told you about Lydia’s assault? How it happened the night of the party we threw to celebrate our independence?”

Elliot nodded. He frowned at me. “Yeah. So what?”

I bit my lip and swallowed. “So,” I said slowly. “Some of your guys came to the party. Nero and Tony and Calvin, they were all there.”

“Yeah,” Elliot said. He ran a hand through his hair and stared at me. “So what? You fucking told me this already, Persephone,” he added, his voice grating with irritation. “There’s nothing else to discuss. I said I was sorry, I don’t fucking own my guys. I can’t tell them where or where not to go.”

“No,” I said quickly. “It isn’t about that. This is different, I think it’s important.” My heart began to thud against my chest and I felt my torso tensing up with anxiety. Raking a shaky hand through my hair, I looked at the ceiling. “Well, Lydia didn’t
see
her attacker,” I said. “The room was dark, she only said that it was definitely a man.”

“Men rape women all the time,” Elliot said. He sneered. “It’s fucking disgusting, but it’s a fact of life.”

“No,” I said forcefully, holding up my hand. “It’s not that. It’s…it’s what Vero told me afterwards. She told me that she saw a guy sneaking out of the clubhouse, wearing a Tiger’s Blood jacket. She told me it was one of your guys.”

Elliot looked at me with a stunned expression on his chiseled face. He shook his head. “No,” he said. “That’s fucking impossible. One of my guys wouldn’t do that.”

I felt sick inside as Elliot’s face turned from red to white to almost green. I felt the same way, like I was going to puke everywhere. Something clicked in my brain and I realized that not for the first time, I’d gotten everything wrong. Still, I wasn’t ready to let Elliot off the hook.

“Can you prove it?” I asked finally. “Can you prove that your guys weren’t involved?”

Elliot thought for a second. He nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “I can prove it because they all came back to the clubhouse,” he added. He wrinkled his forehead. “Except for Calvin,” Elliot added. “He must have stayed out somewhere that night.”

My heart sank. If he didn’t have an alibi for every single one of his guys, I didn’t think we’d be able to prove anything.

“Wait,” I said slowly. “Do you think he stayed with Anya? I mean, is there a chance? Do you know if they were dating a few weeks ago?”

Elliot nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense,” he said. “Can you call her and ask her?”

With shaking fingers, I pulled out my phone and dialed Anya’s number. Working with Elliot felt better than I’d expected it to, almost like old times again. Even though my anxiety was rising by the minute, I didn’t want to waste any time. Not with Vero on the warpath and Calvin in the hands of the Russians.

“Hey,” Anya said. I frowned. There was something odd about her voice, something about panicked. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” I said, trying to sound casual. “Just wondering about something. The night of the party, did Calvin stay with you?”

“What?”

I groaned. “The night of the party, the party we had in the clubhouse a few weeks back, did Calvin stay with you? You were dating by then,” I added for emphasis. “Just tell me the truth, Anya.”

Anya stuttered. “I don’t know,” she replied. “I mean, can you ask him?”

“No,” I practically exploded. “I can’t ask him, as you know, because he’s being held by the fucking Russians! This is really important, Anya, some innocent lives are at stake here. I need to know where he stayed.”

“I really don’t remember,” Anya said. “You know, I had so much to drink that I can barely remember a thing about that night.” She paused. “You
do
mean the night that Lydia was attacked, right?”

Rage and irritation seared through my mind and I tried to take a deep breath and calm down as best I could.
Don’t yell at her, don’t yell at her, don’t yell at her
, I tried to tell myself. But then I started remembering some other things that made me even angrier. Anya hadn’t been too drunk the night of the party; she’d told me that she was getting over a cold and she was still taking antibiotics. And when the guys had arrived, Nero and Tony had hung out and harassed Vero. Calvin had disappeared. So had Anya. They’d likely gone to a room and spent the whole night fucking. Why wouldn’t she just admit it?

“Sephy,” Anya said, her voice sounding nervous. “Are you still there? Did you hang up?”

“I’m right here,” I snapped callously. “You have five fucking seconds to tell me the truth,” I said angrily. “You have five fucking seconds or I’m coming over there and beating it out of you myself. Don’t lie, Anya. I know Vero’s been manipulating you from the start and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

Anya let out a sound, something like a little shocked gasp. It was the kind of cry that someone would make when stepping into an icy pool, or when burning themselves on the stove. And in that cry, I suddenly knew everything. Anya was lying to me. Vero had been lying to me the whole fucking time, and she was playing Anya like a cheap fiddle. Vero hadn’t seen a member of the Tiger’s Blood sneaking out of the clubhouse because Calvin had never left. He hadn’t even been in Lydia’s room; he’d spent the whole night with Anya. And now, Vero wanted to blame the attack on him. I shook my head, feeling more bitter and upset than I had in a long time.

“I know Vero is getting you to lie,” I said slowly. “But you really need to think about what you’re doing, okay, Anya? If you lie to me like this again and I catch you, you’re out for good. And your name is fucking mud,” I added. “Vero isn’t doing this to be your friend. Vero’s doing this because she wants to lead the Amazons.”

“Vero wouldn’t hurt me,” Anya said. I was pleased to note that she sounded incredibly uncertain. “Vero cares about me. She cares a lot more than you do, Seph.”

I burst out laughing. It was a harsh, dry sound. From the bed, Elliot glanced up at me in alarm. “You’re fucking mental,” I told Anya. “Vero is trying to blame the attack on Calvin, don’t you get that? He was the
only
member of Tiger’s Blood who stayed the night, the only member who could have hurt Lydia. And she made you lie and say that you were drunk just to get you out of having to admit that he spent the night in your room! Don’t you fucking get it? Vero is using your boyfriend as a scapegoat,” I said confidently. “She doesn’t give a shit about you. She just cares because you’re dating someone in the MC she wants to smear.”

Anya was silent for a long time. “I don’t believe you,” she said finally. “Vero was the one who told me it was okay if Calvin stayed in the first place,” she argued vehemently. “And if she was trying to fuck me over, don’t you think she would have lied?”

“No,” I said sharply. Nausea came over me in such a strong wave that I had to lean over and retch. Nothing came up but I didn’t feel better when I straightened myself. “No, she wouldn’t really care about that, Anya.”

Anya was quiet again. “I have to go,” she said suddenly, her voice sounded hurried and panicked. “Bye.”

I rolled my eyes as the dial tone buzzed in my ear. “Fuck her,” I mumbled, throwing my phone across the room and taking a perverse pleasure in the sound of it cracking against the wall.

Elliot stared at me. “So Vero was behind this whole thing.”

I bit my lip and nodded. “I feel like such a fucking moron for listening to her.” I moaned, putting my head in my hands and resting my forehead on my knees. “I can’t believe she was lying the whole goddamn time!”

Elliot moved closer. For a second, I thought he was going to put his hand on my back as a gesture of comfort. Judging from the confused expression on his face, he was probably thinking the same thing. “It sucks,” Elliot said sharply. “What was the revenge plan?”

A sinking feeling came over me just as the nausea came roaring back. Before I could leap to the side, a rush of bile came up my throat. It was hot, sour, and thick and I choked on the taste as I struggled to swallow it. Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I flopped back down on the bed and stared at the grimy ceiling. “You’re going to hate me,” I mumbled, covering my eyes with my hands. There was still a glass of beer on the bedside table and I reached for it, drinking almost the whole thing in one gulp. It went down warm and carbonated but at least it washed the taste of vomit out of my mouth.

“I already kind of hate you,” Elliot said. There was no trace of mirth or laughter in his voice. “You lied to me for years,” he added slowly. “Just in case you forgot.”

“I feel sick,” I whined. Forcing myself to take a deep breath, I sat up and stared straight at Elliot. “Things are bad, Elliot. This is really bad.”

Elliot licked his full, sensual lips. “What happened?”

“After the attack, Vero was the one who roused up the whole club about getting revenge,” I said slowly. “I wanted to steal your arms dealer from you and take over the city, but she was convinced that wasn’t enough. She wants to drag the
cops
into this, Elliot. The fucking police!”

Elliot gaped at me. “That’s so wrong,” he said, twisting his face into a disgusted expression. “She’s a fucking monster if she wants to snitch on an MC like that.”

“I know,” I said quickly. “I remember what happened to Hell’s Kittens.” Elliot gave me a blank look. “They were wiped off the map because one of their girls was raped and they snitched on another MC running the same drugs they were,” I said. “They all went to jail and they were all killed in prison for being fucking snitches. Vero didn’t listen, though. She was fucking
hell-bent
on dragging the cops into this for some reason.”