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“This is my shit to clean up,” I told him. “For Cheese. For Shelly. But most of all, for me. Dev will keep taking people from me unless I stop him. It’s more than that, though. I need to see it. With my own two eyes. I need to know he’s been put down and he can’t hurt me anymore. I can’t—I haven’t been able to grieve Shelly the way I need to. It’s like,”—I looked away from him to stare once again at the night sky—“there’s a wall and she’s behind it. There’s no door, no handle. She’s blocked off, and I can’t get to her to grieve until I do this.”
“You think being part of Dev’s death is the dynamite that will blast that wall down?”
I nodded. “I can do this. Ihaveto do this. Or I’ll never find a way to be at peace with her death. Does that make me crazy? Does that sound insane?”
“No. It doesn’t sound insane,” he said softly. “But I’ve got news for you. You never really get over the pain of losing someone—you just figure out a way to live around it.”
I paused a moment. “Are you talking about my mother?”
“Maybe. But Scarlett didn’t die. I let her go. It’s different than what you’re going through.”
I nodded, getting lost in thought again.
“Do you want to be left alone?” he asked.
“Yeah. I do.”
“I’ll leave you to it, then.” He stood and walked toward the back door.
His hand was on the knob when I called out, “Dad …”
Knight turned slowly. “Yeah?”
“You’re never too old to need a father.” I lifted the bottle to my lips and drank deeply. Knight waited another moment and then with a creak of the screen door, disappeared.
Chapter 29
The next eveningI walked into an Iron Horsemen club wearing a little black dress. And because I was a biker’s woman, my little black dress was made of leather. It was a halter, and it clearly showed off the ink on my shoulder.
I’d paired the dress with leather ankle boots with silver metal studs and spikes and a matching black studded clutch. Unfortunately, the purple cast on my wrist detracted just a bit from the bad-assery. But Ramsey assured me it would absolutely make Dev think I was weak and incapable of taking him down. The cast, he said, was an asset.
There was no room for any sort of weapon on me anywhere, and though I didn’t like going into a wolf’s den unarmed, I knew I’d have to in order to set my plan in motion.
I passed the bar and ignored the writhing bodies on the dance floor. I glanced up at the second story of the club and saw two Iron Horsemen lording over their holdings.
I quickly found the stairs and slowly approached both men wearing leather cuts. Every square inch of skin that I could see, aside from their faces, was inked.
There was a door at the other end of the balcony, which I knew— thanks to a hacker friend of Flynn’s who got us the floor plans—was Dev’s private green room. An office and a place to play cards where he could kick back and relax.
The two men slid around me, halting my progress.
“Where do you think you’re going?” the one standing behind me purred.
“I’ve got a meeting with your president.”
The oaf looming in front of me clucked his tongue. “They’ve already got entertainment for the evening.”
“But we don’t.” The one behind me reached out to grasp my hip and pulled me back into his hard body. I felt the evidence of his enjoyment, but I didn’t react.
“He’ll want to see me. Tell him it’s Mia.” I looked at the peon in front, watching his eyes widen in understanding. The goon behind me released me like he’d grabbed a hot poker straight from a fire.
The thug turned to stride down the hall. He knocked once on the door and then entered, shutting the door behind him. A few moments later, the door opened again, this time all the way and he gestured for me to come forward.
Adrenaline pumped through my veins as I walked into the wolf den.
I stepped through the doorway, careful to keep my face blank.
“She’s alone,” the criminal behind me said.
