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Shoving his fingers roughly through his hair, Ryder looked from one brother to the other. “Hell, I don’t know. He’s probably afraid his little one will wake up, and he won’t be able to calm her. Darkness doesnottrust that bitch. I can tell you that much, with a hundred percent certainty.”
Tiffany squeezed his hand, giving him a gentle reminder that they were on their way to bed. “Lock down the security system,” he instructed. “Monitor his phone, and if she tries to make a call, let her. I want to know who she called and have a recording of what they’re talking about in real time. Call me, and then push it to my tablet. If she’s stupid enough to try to get a call out, do not allow them to compromise our system.”
Peb shoved a handful of long hair out of his face and peered up at his Sargent at Arms. “I am not going to let the club down. You can sleep well knowing me and Cork are standing watch.”
Nodding, Ryder almost felt embarrassed for worrying. “Don’t forget the outside monitors. Make sure the prospects are walking the perimeter.”
Cork jerked his chin again. We’re on lock-down, brother. The prospects know their jobs. I’ll check behind them every step of the way.”
“Sorry, guys. This whole situation has me jumpy as hell.”
“You ain’t the only one, brother. Don’t worry, we got this.”
Ryder stepped back and shut the door. It took him a few seconds to move away because his feet just would not move. Everything inside of him urged him to stick around and make sure that things didn’t go south, but he knew his brothers were more than capable of handling the job.
Turning, he forced himself to put one foot in front of the other.
~ Ryder ~
Something was eating away at his gut, and it wasn’t that he had no idea what it could be. The cold, hard fact of the matter was that there were so many things going on at once, it was nearly impossible to pin it down to just one.
He didn’t bother to stop for brothers or whores but snagged a couple of cold beers along the way. Tiffany seemed embarrassingly eager to get away from everyone. When they made it to their room, Ryder couldn’t calm down. Flipping on his tablet, he signed onto the security feed and cracked open his beer, but he was too wired to sit long enough to watch the screen and began to pace.
“You’re not going to sleep tonight, are you?”
Tiffany’s quiet voice stopped him in his tracks. Turning, he walked over to her and sat on the edge of the bed. “I’ve got a dozen questions all buzzing in my head at the same time. How is it that the one person in the entire world gunning for Darkness is his batshit crazy ex? Why do the Seven Devils suddenly want him dead?” he asked, pouring his thoughts out. “I think it’s to do with some property we’re buying, but something feels off. Of all the people they could get to snipe Darkness, why pick Abigail Fucking Andrews? Maybe they thought she could get close to him if she missed her first shot and he’d let his guard down with her?”
Tiffany’s brows knitted together. “Does he still have a soft spot for her?”
Ryder shook his head emphatically. “No, and that’s why Abby had to know we’d never let her within a hundred yards of Darkness after she tried to kill him. The smart little bitch brought the kid into it and wormed her way right in. It almost feels like she was saving the kid as her ace in the hole.”
His woman tended to try to find the best in everyone, but she was a smart cookie, and Ryder knew she’d reach the same conclusion he had if she gave it enough thought.
“Any man would accept a little risk for the sake of his only child, so I tend to agree with you,” she said, proving him right.
“Especially Darkness. The only family he has is his younger sister.” When it came to family, a man’s judgment could develop a blind spot, and Ryder witnessed firsthand tonight that Darkness was no exception. That baby had placed a huge fucking shadow over his vision, which was why it was so important that Ryder keeps his eyes wide open. That woman was trouble, and he wasn’t about to let her hurt his president or any of his men. Not on his watch.
“Abby seemed really worried about her child, but the couple running the boarding school seemed like they weren’t expecting her. That struck me as strange at the time,” Tiffany observed. It wasn’t something he’d even stopped to consider, but now that she mentioned it, it seemed blatantly obvious.
Glancing at his very perceptive woman, Ryder nodded his agreement. “She’s told us a few lies. First one was that her mother recently died. I clearly remember my dad telling me that he thought Darkness was dating a real nasty piece of work when I was only a teen. He said she really went wild after her mother died, ‘cause she apparently couldn’t handle the grief.”
“That does sound like a lie. Mothers don’t die twice.”
“She also said Devil didn’t know about the kid,” he continued. “That’s unlikely if she has her vehicle parked at his place with a freaking car seat strapped to the back. How many single drug mules run around with child safety seats in their vehicles?”
“Maybe people with a child in their extended family?” Tiffany threw out.
Shifting on the bed, he grumbled at her reasonable suggestion. “It’s still suspicious, if you ask me.”
Smiling indulgently at him, Tiffany rubbed his shoulder gently. “Maybe you’re just suspicious by nature.”
“Damn straight I am, woman.” Staring at the blank walls, he added, “Another thing doesn’t sit right with me about this situation. Why did the Seven Devils elect to shoot her instead of just gun Darkness and me down and take her? Why did they walk away then turn around and shoot her? It’s either because she knows more about their operation than she’s letting on and they didn’t want us to sweat it out of her, or Devil has some attachment to her and would rather see her dead than fuckin’ Darkness again.”
Nodding, Tiffany said, “Men are weirdly possessive of the women they’re abusing, so I can see that going either way.”
Now, the polite thing to do would be to ask her about how she would know something like that, but Ryder already knew about everything there was to know about his nurse. He’d had Peb pull her credit history, marriage license, divorce decree, all five restraining orders from three different states, as well as the rundown on her ex. Now was not the time to open yet another can of worms. They had enough to worry about sorting out this situation with the Seven Devils. Besides, maybe her knowledge came from her time working in the ER. Lord only knew the kind of shit she’d encountered there.
Tiffany’s soft voice reached out to him. “Tell me about the Devils.”
