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I’m standing in the cool foyer of The Sanctuary, the MC’s huge mansion HQ. The place used to be some sort of R&R hospital back in the 1900s, but the last owner turned it into a clubhouse when he founded Devil’s Nightmare MC after the Second World War. Cross made it his home when his daughter came to live with him and moved the clubhouse elsewhere, but the old-timers still talk of the parties they used to throw up here. They talk about it with such rapture I wish I’d get to attend at least one of them. But then again, being alone in the woods with Ariel is party enough for me now.
I hear voices coming from Cross’ office. Raised voices. I recognize his and Ice’s. I hope nothing went wrong on the run they just returned from.
The door suddenly opens and I stand a little taller. Chance and Hunter come out. They look like they need sleep.
“Everything go smoothly?” I ask as they stop next to me.
Hunter nods, but Chance shrugs. They’re the president’s and VP’s sons respectively, and used to be my closest friends before I went down the path of darkness right into its heart. It’s still not all the way like it was between us.
“Depends on who you ask,” Hunter concedes. “I think we made the right choice.”
The door to Cross’ office is once again closed and I can’t hear anything through the massive oak doors anymore.
“What choice was that?” I ask.
They went down there to avenge the kidnapping and near-murder of Ice’s daughter Summer. The guys who took her were already dead and they rode to dispatch the rest.
“We settled for breaking up their trafficking operation, but left them alive,” Chance explains. “Ice isn’t very happy with that outcome.”
“But he’s starting to see the sense in it,” Hunter says. “We kill all of them now and we got another war on our hands twenty years from now. Or tomorrow. The cycle’s gotta break eventually and it’s better it happens now.”
He’s gonna lead the MC one day, after Cross steps down, there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that he’s the best choice. Also because he can see so clearly way out ahead and because he’s not all about blood and killing.
“I don’t know, man,” Chance says. “Ice is pissed off as all hell over it.”
Hunter scoffs. “Ice knows better than anyone how far this MC will go to protect him and his. He’ll come around. He’s not as bloodthirsty as he used to be, no matter what he’s saying now.”
Ice was held captive and made to fight in the cage by Satan’s Spawn MC after they murdered his family. He’s Cross’ old lady’s brother and the MC freed him, then hunted down every last member of the Spawns and killed them all in revenge for what they did to him. Ice butchered quite a few of them with his own hands. Sometimes right in front of their families. It was all way before my time, and I used to be sorry I missed that action, seeing as I owe Ice my life.
“Do you know what they want with me?” I ask.
The door to Cross’ office opens and Tank, Ace, Blaze, and Colt file out. Tank tells me to go in.
“Guess you’re about to find out,” Chance says.
And he’s about to find out I spent the night with his old lady’s sister. I wonder if he’s still gonna call me his friend after that. But I’m not gonna back down, whatever comes. Ariel is mine now, and whoever doesn’t like it can shut the fuck up.
I walk into Cross’ office and find Ice, Rook, and Hawk in there with him. Ice is over by window, leaning against the wall, his eyes shooting daggers at everything they touch. Hawk and Rook are on the black leather sofa that dominates one side of the room and Cross is leaning against the edge of his massive desk.
“Close the door,” he tells me and I do it.
“Rook tells me you’re wondering if the job I sent you is just bullshit,” he says.
I didn’t expect him to just cut to the chase so sharply, but then again, when does he ever not? His dark eyes are cutting into me as much as his words.
“The thing is, Bane, Archer, and Fossil can barely find their asses each morning, let alone someone to spill our secrets to,” I say, choosing to be equally blunt. “As for Joker, I didn’t see anything like what Rook and Hawk described… nothing to suggest he’s getting ready to lead the war against us, anyway… “
I’m still standing by the door, since no one invited me to sit and they’re all staring at me hard. It’s making me sweat a little, not gonna lie.
“Until last night,” I finish my disjointed report.
“What happened last night?” Cross asks.
The words to answer his question are all lined up in my head, but I can’t seem to make my mouth say them.
“All right, so, I’d started to work my way into whatever he has going on with Bane and them, because it started to seem like maybe there was something there… and I thought I was making some headway… plus, he asked to join our MC… “
“We know this already,” Rook cuts in. “Get on with it.”
