Page 55 of Diary of a Biker Queen

I didn’t want to be a violent thug. It was why I’d gotten out of fighting in the first place. I’d never liked how it made me feel. Not until it had distracted me from the bigger pain of losing Nyah.

Nobody responded to my comment on Lynx stealing a car. It had all just started sounding far-fetched when pitted against Luca’s argument that his father was a more likely suspect, so I let it go.

Hawk glanced over at me. “I know you’re hurting, bro. But we can’t lock him up. At some point soon, the cops are going to get a warrant to search this place. You gotta know they’ve placed all their suspicions squarely on our shoulders. They might not have enough right now to do anything, but at some point, they’ll get a warrant, and they’ll tear the clubhouse apart searching for anything they can stick on us. We can’t have them walking in and finding us with a captive bound and gagged in the basement. Probably wouldn’t go down real well.”

War nodded. “The evidence is circumstantial. But, Lynx, we’re fucking watching you. You put so much as a toe out of line, I’ll put you in the ground myself. I don’t care if there’s a cop standing at the gate to watch me do it. I’ll do a life sentence to protect my family.”

Lynx looked him square in the eye. “I wouldn’t respect you if you didn’t. But you won’t have to pull your gun for me. I promise you that. The people here mean something to me.” His words clearly came from his heart when he added, “They’re my family too. If you’ll let them be.”

18

LUCA

Dear Diary,

Nothing humbles you faster than a woman who remembers exactly who you used to be.

Ineeded some fucking air. The clubhouse was more drama than my father’s place, and my nerves were on edge after stepping in between Lynx and Dax.

The last thing I’d wanted to do was put a bullet in Dax’s head, but the way he’d gone after Lynx…

Just fucking no. There was no part of me that could have stood by and watched that happen.

Which was wholly unsettling. I wasn’t exactly used to caring about anyone except my sister.

And the way I felt about Lynx, and Nyah too, if I was being honest with myself, was not even remotely brotherly.

But taking Hawk’s gun and firing it inside the Slayers’ walls likely would have meant one of them returning the favor. I knew I’d walked away from it all only because, at heart, the Slayers were good people.

I wouldn’t have been as lucky if we’d been around my family. Pretty sure any one of them would have happily stabbed me in the back, the side, or the front if given half the opportunity.

I found myself walking down the dirt path through the woods to the house my sister had been staying in, ever since she’d been brought back here.

It had all the charm of a cozy log cabin, but calling it a cabin would insult how big the place was. Which I guessed it needed to be when there were four adults, two teenagers, and two kids all living here.

I took the wooden steps two at a time and knocked politely on the front door.

“It’s open,” someone called from inside.

I stuck my head in, finding Kara in the kitchen, elbow-deep in sudsy water at the sink.

She glanced up with a smile, which quickly fell. “Oh. It’s you.”

Kara wasn’t exactly my biggest fan, and I couldn’t blame her. She’d been caught up in the trafficking rings I’d once run for my father, and though I hadn’t been directly involved in the things that had happened to her, the buck had stopped with me.

I gave her a nod, keeping a wide, respectful berth. “It’s me.”

Kara no longer looked like the scared, timid woman she’d once been. She didn’t flinch away or drop her gaze to the floor like she once had. Now she stared at me like she knew her worth, like she knew this house was her kingdom, and the people living in it were hers to protect.

I hoped that included my sister. Isabella needed people like Kara in her life.

Chaos, one of the men who had actually kept Kara captive, thundered down the stairs from the second floor and jogged into the kitchen. He instantly went over to her, wrapping his arms around her middle from behind and nuzzling his face into the side of her neck.

“Luca’s here,” she said flatly, without looking away from me.

Chaos took half a step back and leaned his ass against the counter edge. “So he is.” He nodded at me.

I returned the gesture.