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Lemon, the brat, rolled her eyes. “You forgot to add ‘young lady’ at the end.”
Danica looked ready to spank Lemon. Wylde looked like he was seconds away from a full-on belly laugh. Until Danica tilted her head up at him. Then he looked just as horrified as Danica had.
“I swear to God, Lemon,” Danica bit out through gritted teeth. Then she pleaded with her sister. “Can you, for once in your life, please just do what I tell you?”
“If it were your best friend, Dani. If you were in the same position I’m in right now. Would you not see this through when your friend couldn’t?” I’d bet my left testicle Lemon knew the answer to that question. She was too smart. She’d never have asked it otherwise.
“Sting can do that for her. He’ll see this through.” Danica stuck up her chin in a remarkable resemblance to Lemon. She didn’t answer the question.
“But he’s not her best friend. I am.” Lemon looked like she was proud to call herself Scarlet’s best friend. Loyalty, to this girl, meant everything. When she put herself solidly in someone’s corner, she didn’t leave.
Then I did the strangest thing. “Let her stay. I’ll see to it she gets back to the clubhouse safely.”
“Like hell,” Wylde growled. “You couldn’t keep one of your own women safe. You expect me to trust you with one of ours?” The fucking guy grated on my nerves something fierce. He seemed like a fun-loving geek, but Wylde was as deadly an enemy as ever I’d faced. And not just with his computer skills either. While I respected Wylde, I didn’t appreciate his attitude. I couldn’t allow him to disrespect me, but how could I reprimand him when I’d been thinking the exact same fucking thing?
“I’d never have permitted Scarlet to leave the safety of our territory if I’d known she'd be in danger. I know I have a lot to make up for because of Claw, but despite what it looks like, I take the safety of everyone in my club seriously. Especially our women and children.” I should have followed up with her. It hung in the air unspoken between us like a specter.
“I’ll keep an eye on them both, Wylde.” Sting spoke softly, gripping Wylde’s shoulder. “I’ll bring her back. If she wants to stay, let her. Trust her to know where her limit is.” I raised an eyebrow. Sting was a young man but apparently wiser than I was. I was with Danica on this, even if I’d said otherwise. I glanced once at Lemon. Her expression took my breath. It didn’t matter what anyone said. Lemon wasn’t leaving until she was Goddamned good and ready.
“Sting, I don’t want her to do this. This is going to be brutal.”
“I got this, Dani. Go on.” Lemon actually reached out to her sister and squeezed her hand. She squared her shoulders and gave her sister a small grin. It was the first show of nerves she’d shown since immediately after Claw had shot himself.
Wylde whispered softly to Danica. I didn’t hear what he said, but Danica didn’t try to insist Lemon leave with her. Wylde guided her gently out of the barn. Lemon moved next to Hammer where he lay on the table. The men from Iron Tzars had started IVs on the guy and he now had one in the bend of his elbow and in the side of his neck. Both had fluids dripping slowly, but steadily through them.
“Looks like we’re gonna be here a while, Hammer.” Lemon grinned down at him. “I’m new to this whole death by torture bit, but I’m confident I can outlast you.”
Just like that, I fell in love. I knew beyond any shadow of a doubt Lemon would be mine. Not today. Not until she was legal and I could be sure she was ready. But this woman would be my old lady. And I would rule her. The fun would be in the taming. It would possibly take a lifetime. But by fucking God, we’d have a blissful time of it.
Chapter One
Rocket
The heavy air in the compound’s meeting room hung like a shroud, thick with exhaust and the sharp tang of spilled beer. I stood at the head of the long table, my gaze sweeping over the assembled brothers of Grim Road.
“All right, listen up,” I called out, my voice rough as gravel. The room fell silent, every pair of eyes locked on me, waiting. “For those of you who don’t know, Claw and Hammer are gone.” More than one of the brothers raised an eyebrow, glancing at the man next to him. I’d taken eight of my most trusted men but hadn’t called on the entirety of Grim Road. Mainly because I knew in my heart Scarlet wasn’t being held against her will by Iron Tzars. As a rule, the men in Grim were a pretty Goddamned secretive lot, so when I’d called on my officers to ride with me, they’d simply done as I’d asked and hadn’t said a fucking word to anyone else in the club.
“The fuck?” Spike had been leaning casually against a table, his arms crossed over his chest. He stood up straight, looking around at the others. Spike was also a close friend of Hammer. They’d served together both in and out of the Marines. “What do you mean gone?”
“Dead.” I didn’t mince words. They all needed to know because that left the VP position open and I needed to really think about who I put there.
There had always been cliques in the club. Men who trusted some more than others. We were all so used to operating by ourselves or in groups of two or three that thinking and operating as a group had never been something we’d adapted to. Grim Road had been around for a long time and hadn’t always worked like this, but as the political environment changed over the decades and the old guard ushered in the new, we’d… changed. It wasn’t that we didn’t trust each other, but we… didn’t really trust each other. Exactly.
“What happened?” Bear finally broke the silence weighing down the room. I knew he would be the one to speak for the group. His voice was a soft growl. The man could be demanding without being overly aggressive. His demeanor had always been a direct contrast to my own. Sometimes, he could balance me with the rest of the club without even trying. I was pretty sure he’d be the best choice for a VP. But not just yet. I needed to straighten out this fucking mess before I made any permanent changes in the club.
“There’s a lot several of you guys don’t know and I ain’t tellin’. Not my story. But Claw put Scarlet in the hands of a sadistic bastard, and she was hurt because of it.”
“Wait.” Mace held up a hand. He was a man I should have taken with us. Of all the men in Grim Road, Mace was the steadiest. But he hadn’t been in the compound when we’d left, having stayed behind to clean up from our last mission. “Didn’t Scarlet leave with Hammer?” He glanced at Crush. “From what I heard she was supposed to be Hammer’s old lady when she came of age. What happened?”
“Again, it’s a long story, but Hammer and Claw had… history. I thought the same as you did. That Scarlet wanted to leave with Hammer. But that wasn’t the case. Once he got her out of the compound, he abused her physically and mentally. Getting even with Claw for a past incident. One I should have dealt with years ago. So part of this whole fuckin’ mess is on me.”
“So, they’re dead.” Bear gave me a hard look. “How’d they die?”
I shrugged. “Claw blew his own brains out. Hammer… well. There were quite a few pieces of the man when we finished with him.”
“We?” Dom raised an eyebrow and glared at me. Hard.
“Yeah. Me, the men I took to Evansville, Indiana, and a few members of Iron Tzars.”
