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“I’d be delighted to buy you a beer,” she breathed.
“Great,” Mr. James said, “lead the way.” Bernadette started for the bar, not bothering to look back to see if he was following her. All she could do now was hope that he’d cooperate with her and answer some of her questions, otherwise, Anthony would be lost to her.
Bernadette sat in the middle of some very pissed-off-looking bikers and Lilianna James, who everyone called Banshee. She seemed to be the leader of the women who each sat next to their men. It didn’t escape her notice that Declan James had no woman by his side.
“So, do you want to tell me why you dragged my brother out of here at gunpoint?” Lil asked.
“I’ll admit that wasn’t my finest decision, but you have to understand that I’m desperate to gain any information thatmight help me find my brother. He’s all that I have left in the world,” Bernadette whispered.
“As we’ve explained, none of us are a part of the Dead Rabbits,” Cillian James reminded.
“Yes, you’ve said, but you have each had run-ins with them and I was hoping that you might have some intel as to where they might be based here in Huntsville. I’ve heard that they might be holding him here in town,” she said. Before taking a leave of absence from MI6, she found out that Anthony might have been transported to Alabama and she knew that she had to try to find him. She even tried to persuade her boss to let her take a team to the States to search for Anthony, but he refused. He told her that finding her brother wasn’t MI6 business, and she knew that arguing with him would get her nowhere. Her boss wasn’t one to break or even bend the rules.
“I can ask around if it helps,” Lil offered. “My husband, Cian, worked for them for a while. That’s how I got mixed up with them. When he walked away from the Dead Rabbits, they threatened me, just like they did Declan. We need to stop them from coming for our family. Would you be willing to help us with that, Danger?” Lil asked.
“What makes you think that I’d be able to help you with the Dead Rabbits?” Bernadette asked. “If I could do that, don’t you think that I’d find my brother on my own?”
Lil shrugged, “Maybe, but I have a feeling that you’re more self-reliant than you’ve been letting on. I mean, you’ve got a gun in your purse to prove my point.” Shit, the last thing she needed was to have to admit that she was MI6. This wasn’t even official business.
“If I had to guess,” Cillian said, “I’d bet that you were MI6, but that begs the question as to why you’d need our help,” he said. “I mean, can’t MI6 handle something as simple as a missing person?”
“I’m sure that MI6 is quite capable of handling a missing person case, but finding Anthony is something that I’m doing on my own,” she admitted.
“So then, you admit that you’re MI6,” Declan almost shouted.
“Keep your voice down,” Bernadette spat, “I’m not here on official business.” She stood and threw down a wad of cash to cover their bar tab. “This was a mistake,” she said, “I’m sorry to have taken up so much of your time.” She turned to leave, and Declan grabbed her arm.
“We’ll help you,” he said. She wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or worried that his help was going to come with strings.
“At what cost?” she whispered.
“At the cost of total honesty. You need to be one hundred percent truthful with us, and we’ll do the same with you. That’s the only way that we’ll get close enough to the Dead Rabbits to find out if they have your brother. Do we have a deal?” he asked, holding out his hand to her. She looked it over as though it offended her in some way and sighed.
“We have a deal,” she agreed, shaking his hand. Bernadette was sure that she was going to come to regret agreeing to his terms, but Declan James and his family were all the help she had, and God help her, she needed them.
What’s coming next from K.L. Ramsey? You won’t want to miss the second book in the new Dirty Riders MC Series-Riding Shotgun, is coming in January 2024!
Melody
Melody Newton didn’t really know her self-worth. She was never taught to stand up for herself and she had the bruises to prove it. But now, she was going to get a crash course in what it meant to stand her ground and give a damn about herself. Now, she was going to finally tell her good-for-nothing husband to hit the road. She had caught him sneaking around on her again, and this time, she had no forgiveness left to give him.
Adam walked into the kitchen and kissed her cheek, just as he always did before dinner. That was when she’d make a fuss about asking him how his day was and tell him about what she and their two-year-old daughter, June, did together while he was supposedly at work. But that wasn’t going to happen tonight because she knew where he had been all day. Adam had spent all afternoon at the sleazy motel on the outskirts of town with some whore he probably had picked up a disease from. Melody knew this bit of information because her loving husband had used his credit card to pay for both as if he just didn’t give a fuck about her finding out what he was doing—or in this case, who.
“How was your day?” he asked.
“My day?” she questioned. “Well, my day was very exciting. You see, I took June to the grocery store to pick up some groceries,” she started.
“Yeah, I was going to ask what was happening with dinner. You haven’t even started it yet? And where is our daughter?” June was usually sitting in her highchair, anxiously waiting for dinner, but Melody had gotten her sister, Tilly, to babysit June for the evening, so that she could face down her soon-to-be ex-husband. That’s how Melody was getting through any of this right now. She just kept thinking that Adam would be her ex-husband, and she’d be able to start her life all over again. This time, she’d go it alone because there was no way that she’d allow another man to lay one finger on her ever again.
“Tilly took June for me,” she said. “And dinner isn’t ready, and it’s not going to be ready, because my credit card was declined at the store. We’re over our limit.”
“Well, shit,” he grumbled, pulling a beer from the fridge and popping off the top. “I’ll put some money in the bank in the morning.” She watched as Adam took a long swig of his beer and slammed the bottle down to the kitchen table, causing her to jump. “Since your sister has June, what do you say you and I have a little bit of fun, and then I’ll take you out for a burger.” The thought of Adam laying one finger on her repulsed her. He still smelled like the cheap hooker that he had spent the whole afternoon fucking.
“No thank you,” she breathed.
“What do you mean by, ‘No thank you?’” he asked.
“I mean that I don’t want to have any fun with you, ever again, Adam. It means that I know why my credit card was over the limit and I couldn’t buy food for our daughter. You used my card to pay for a whore and a motel room, didn’t you?” she spat.
