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“So far. He’s in surgery.”
“Jesus Christ,” Wrath breathes out. “We know who did it?”
“Probably Tawny,” Ravage says and, for once, he’s not cracking a joke.
“Was he shot in the dick?” Teller asks.
Rock doesn’t even laugh. “The head.”
“Whoa.” Murphy whistles low. “Musta pissed someone off.”
“Pick a number,” Wrath says.
“What can we do, Prez?” Birch asks.
Rock seems to finally shake off the news. “We need to have a presence down there. Priest will be showing up, no doubt.” He stops to give me a meaningful look and my stomach rolls.
Club comes first and I’ll do whatever Rock asks me to do, but I’m sure as fuck not gonna be happy about being away from Chance and Lilly for too long.
Dex and Bricks storm into the war room. “What’s going on, Prez?” Dex asks.
“Have a seat.”
“Someone tried to smoke Sway,” Stash says.
“Holy shit. Seriously?” Bricks whistles. “He all right?”
“It’s bad. I didn’t get a lot of details,” Rock says.
“What are we doing, Rock?” I ask.
His face settles into a grim expression, which usually signals he’s about to hand out some assignments we’re not going to like and the first one to bitch about it will get a fist to the throat.
He looks around the table. “Dex and Bricks, I need you here watching Crystal Ball. Ravage, I need you to help them out.”
“You got it, Prez,” Ravage answers without any of his usual snark.
Across the table, Wrath’s already gritting his teeth.
“Don’t,” Rock warns him. “I need you, Z, and Teller with me.”
Murphy raises his hand, “Prez—”
“I need you here,” Rock says.
Murphy works his jaw from side to side and sits back, clearly pissed he’s being left behind.
Rock flicks his gaze down the table to Birch and back to Murphy. “On second thought, Murphy, I want you with us when we go down at first. Birch, I want you watching the girls.”
“You got it, Prez,” Birch answers.
Now, normally we’d all razz Birch for being an ass-kisser and getting stuck babysitting our women, but not in this situation.
No matter how we feel about Sway personally, someone tried to murder a brother.
Wrath glances over at Rock. “I might ask Trinity to stay at your place if we’re all going to be gone.”
“I’d actually appreciate that,” Rock says. “If she doesn’t mind.”
“I don’t think it’s an issue.” Wrath lifts his chin at Teller. “You should have Charlotte and Carter come stay up here.”
Teller opens his mouth—probably to argue—but Rock cuts him off. “We don’t know what this is. If it’s specific to Sway or someone’s gunning for Lost Kings.”
“Come on, Rock. We all know Sway’s pissed people off up and down the East Coast. Christ, the first person we all thought of was his own damn wife.”
Rock glares at Teller until he shuts his mouth, then looks my way. “How’s Lilly going to feel about spending a day or two up here?”
“Jesus Christ, Prez, seriously? Who the fuck’s gonna know she’s even connected to me?”
Rock shrugs. “Up to you.” Meaning, Lilly’s not an official old lady or patched, so it’s not mandatory she stay here, but she’s welcomed to because she’s mine.
“I guess it’s a good idea to have Carter up here.” Teller says. “He’s good with Alexa, he can help Heidi out.”
“Prez, most likely this is a personal beef for Sway,” I say.
Rock nods. “I know. But take precautions until we’re sure what we’re dealing with.” He stops and looks around the table. “No fucking up. We need a strong showing downstate and no balls dropped up here. The last thing I want is Priest being reminded how ‘small’ our charter is and offering to send us some ‘help’. We all know that won’t be in our best interest.”
Everyone answers with a grim, “Yes, sir” or “Yes, Prez,” instead of the usual snark we’d toss out.
Rock slaps his palm on the table and dismisses everyone.
Everyone except me. “Stay,” he says, pointing to my chair.
“Prez, I gotta go talk to Lilly.”
He stares me dead in the eyes. “And what are you planning to tell her?”
“That something’s come up and I’d like her to stay here so she’s safe.”
“And how’s she gonna take that?”
“Don’t know yet.”
He blows out a breath. “Sorry, brother.”
“Not your fault someone tried to blow Sway’s brains out.”
He shakes his head. “Christ, what a mess.”
“You plannin’ to call Loco and see if he knows anything?”
“Yeah, was gonna do that before I talk to Hope.”
“You think she should come with us?”
He seems to think that over. “If Tawny was there, yeah, I’d probably ask her to come, but no one seems to know where she is.”
“Shit, you’re serious? That doesn’t look good.”
“I’ll be honest.” He lowers his voice. “I don’t know if anyone’s seen her since she took off that night outside Stump’s club. I’m hoping to talk to one of their kids and find out if they’ve seen her.”
“Prez, that was months ago. Think Sway offed her?”
He shakes his head and the enormity of what Rock’s suggesting sinks in. Tawny and Sway have had a volatile relationship for as long as I can remember. Neither of them has ever been faithful, but maybe Tawny finally had enough and decided to turn rat.
A woman who’s been as close to the president of a club for as long as she has could do a lot of damage.
There’s no way to tell how bad this might get.
Twenty-Eight
Z
My talk with Lilly went easier than I expected. Hope and Birch would go up to her house and help her pack and make sure she and Chance got set up at the clubhouse.
Before we leave, Lilly pulls me aside and presses a burning kiss to my lips. “Be careful, please.”
“Always.”
Knowing they were safe at our clubhouse made it easier to leave.
It’s in the club’s bylaws that we ride a minimum number of hours each year. A lot of outlaw clubs have similar requirements. What’s the point of being in an MC if you’re always in your safe little cage?
Except for stretches during upstate New York winters when the roads are full of ice and snow, I’ll ride year-round. Even on crisp, cold, dry winter days like today. Most of us do.
Living at Lilly’s, spending time with Chance has been life-changing. But I haven’t been on my bike in weeks and I realize as soon as we hit the Thruway how much I’ve missed it. It’s a freeing feeling I’ve never been able to replicate.
Unfortunately, we’re riding downstate to Union County Hospital to visit Sway. Today, Rock’s to my left, Teller and Murphy behind us and Wrath at the rear.
Not knowing who put Sway in the hospital made us consider driving down in one of the SUV’s but, ultimately, we decided against it. There’s a time to be cautious and then there’s just acting like a bunch of pussies for no reason.
We skip stopping at the clubhouse and ride straight to the hospital.
There, we’re met with most of Sway’s crew in the waiting room. I’m sure the hospital staff loves hosting a rowdy crew of bikers. Bet they even had to rush to put together a workshop on ‘how to handle outlaw bikers in your ER’ or something equally stupid. Couple years ago, I hooked up with a nurse who told me that was part of their training. Obviously, it was full of bullshit or she wouldn’t have been so eager to jump on the back of my bike.
Wrath takes up a position by the entryway while Rock and I stop to talk to Shadow, Sway’s VP first.
“Is he awake?” Rock asks.
“Nah, he’s out of surgery but still i
n critical condition. Docs won’t tell us more than that. Cops were here earlier, asking lots of questions.”
“No surprise,” I say. “I’m sure they’ll be back.”
“Count on it.” Shadow shoves his hands in his pockets. “They don’t give a fuck someone tried to kill a brother. Too worried about trying to pin it on one of us.”
“You think it was—”
Shadow shakes his head, cutting off Rock’s question. “No, that’s just where their tiny brains automatically go.”
“Were you there?”
I thought I asked in a neutral enough tone, but Shadow cuts me a look like I asked if he pulled the trigger himself. “Yeah. Inside. I didn’t see shit.”
“What about your cameras?” Sway’s clubhouse has just as many cameras if not more than ours, strategically placed around the property.
“Got Rooster going through the footage now.”
Well, at least that’s promising. Rooster’s sharp and won’t miss anything.
Shadow shifts and glances down the hallway. “We’re waiting for Janice to come give us an update.”
