“Once you turn twenty-five, Jenna, you’re no good to anyone. You’re too old to bear enough children, too embedded in the ways of your parents and difficult for a husband to train. I had no other destiny, so I did what I could, and I provided my family with the money they needed.”
“Kathy,” I state slowly. “Are you hearing what you’re telling me?”
“I am.” She laughs. “But I don’t think you believe the words I say, do you?”
I widen my eyes.
“I told you my family is different,” she says, humor sliding from her mouth. “I truly meant it.”
No shit.
THIRTY-TWO
FANG
“Where’s your ward?”Chaos asks as I approach.
“Jezabel moved the TV out of her room to the parlor. They’re picking a movie to watch together.”
He frowns, taking a step back from his bike before clarity softens his expression. “I meant the other one.”
“Oh.”Of course he did.“Not sure.”
His hard stare conveys all he needs to without words: it’s my job to know where she is, why don’t I, and how am I going to fix that? I note the pannier bag bolted to his rear guard. “You going somewhere?” He doesn’t generally have storage on the bike unless he plans an overnighter.
“Just being prepared.” Chaos rounds to the other side of the machine and sighs. “Jenna has the phone. I need you to find out how she got on and flick me an update.”
“Sure.”
He squats down, one hand on the bar to pull the bike upright, and checks the oil. “I’ve got a lot going on between her, the other girls, Marty, Vanessa’s old man, and fucking Selena. Jinx is handling Marty for now, and Darko’s keeping an eye on Selena, but I need you in control of Jenna and getting her old man here.”He leans the bike back on the stand, seemingly satisfied. “The best way to get shit done is to share the load. With Crow facing an extended stay indoors, the pressure is on the rest of us.”
“We never discussed him at church,” I point out. “What are we going to do if he gets sentenced?”
“Cross that bridge when we come to it, but I have a few ideas.” Chaos lifts his dual-tone gaze to mine. “It never rains, but it pours, right?”
I nod. We had a rough first year after we took over from our fathers, smoothing relations with the residents of Temperance and cleaning up the messes our predecessors had made. But it was good for a while there. Everyone kept to their own, and inter-club disputes were few and far between, usually over minor infractions and miscommunications.
But now… It’s like the fucking Universe realized it’d lost track of us and feels the need to even the scales. We’re threatened from every side; between the Devil’s Breed, Marty breathing down our backs, and the fucking Wings of Faith sniffing around these parts.
It all points to one hell of a fucking ticking time bomb. And one hell of a mess to clean up afterward.
Chaos’s gaze drifts past my shoulder, and I turn to see what has his interest. A dark vehicle tears up the road, the reflective markers visible the closer it gets to our property before the SUV disappears behind our half-built fence.
“Thought you said Jinx was taking care of him.”
“He is.” Chaos starts toward where the sheriff now uses our driveway for a fucking drag strip.
I follow behind, curious what brings the man here today.
Marty pulls the cruiser to a stop in the yard and swiftly exits. “Boys.”
Fucker.“Old man,” Chaos drawls.
The two stare at each other a beat before Marty resumes his role as Temperance’s guiding light of protection—the joke that his role is. “Did some checks with the name you gave me,” he tells Chaos. “And I think we have a match. A match, and a problem.”
The Kid.He must be talking about Anna.
“Why’s that?” Chaos widens his stance and folds his arms, watching Marty with keen interest.
