“For fucks sake, Lincoln,” Tate seethes, pounding her fists against his back. “Put me the fuck down so I don’t kick your poor sister in the face.”
He sets her back on her feet before pulling us both back into a group hug and she huffs in annoyance, fighting against it for a second before giving in. Lincoln looks up, making sure everyone else is here before he sighs.
“Everyone okay?”
The rest of the group nods but they all look anything but okay after what just happened. Although, I’m sure I don’t look much better. One thing I do know, for sure, is that after tonight, it’s clear that things are getting infinitely more dangerous and I’m terrified of what Warren has planned for us.
Chapter Fourteen
Travis
I scrub my hand down my face as the footage from the club last night plays on the screen in front of me but there is nothing to see. Literally, it’s just pitch black staring back at me as soon as the lights go out and it doesn’t matter that I’ve watched the damn thing five times, trying to see anything through the darkness or before the lights go out or after they come back on. As always, Warren had this stunt planned out perfectly. My thoughts drift back to when the lights went out last night and I shake my head as my heart starts to beat a little faster. I’ve never been so fucking scared in my life and I held onto Rowan like she was a life raft because nothing else was more important to me than getting her out of there safely. She was my one and only priority, which probably sounds awful as hell considering all of my brothers and their wives were also in the club but I knew they were all packing, just like me, and they would do whatever it took to get out of there. I didn’t need to worry about them. For as long as I live though, I’ll never forget the way Rowan’s body shook in my arms and the terror in her eyes. I’ll also never fucking forget the way Warren stared at us when he popped up the second and third time.
The look fucking chilled me to the bone.
Once we got back to the clubhouse, we all sat down with Blaze, who stayed back to babysit the kids while we went out, and told him what happened. He was furious, of course, and we all are desperate to take action but there is nothing we can do. Until we find concrete evidence on who Warren is or who he is working with, if he’s working with someone, we can’t exactly start firing shots. Maybe that is the worst part of all of this - we just have to sit here and take his attack without being able to fight back because he is always in control of the game. He has planned this thing down to the very last detail and, so far, everything has gone his way. It’s infuriating. Each day, it feels like my rage grows more and more and the longer it takes me to find him, the more I can’t stop thinking about what I’ll do to him when I do finally track him down.
Fuck…
I can’t let my thoughts go there. I’ve worked so fucking hard to not be that person, that monster, and I can’t let this situation pull me into the darkness I’ve been running from my whole life.
Shaking my head, I cross my arms over my chest and sigh as the video starts playing again. I watch as Rowan and I walk out of the back hallway and smile, remembering our stolen moments in the club before everything went to shit. After we got back last night and we had our little talk with Blaze, I hauled her up to my room because there was no way in hell I was going to let her go. We spent hours lost in each other, fucking all over this room like it was our last night on earth because it honestly felt like it almost was, before we passed out and even then, I didn’t let her go until we spent some more time tangled together this morning. It will be interesting to see what happens now that the whole club knows about us, apart from Kodiak. Maybe someone will tell him the truth… Hell, maybe someone already has but I suspect that’s not true since I’m still in one piece.
“Streak,” someone calls from the other side of the door as they knock and I turn away from my computer as Storm walks in, stress lining his face. He and Ali were close to the door when the final light came on last night but not as close as Rowan and me. They ended up fighting through the crowd as it surged out of the club and Storm said he was pretty sure he broke a couple noses in his mission to get his wife to safety. I nod in greeting as he shuts the door behind him.
“What’s up?”
He sighs and throws himself into the other chair in my room. “Just got off the phone with Rodriguez. He looked into the report from the club last night and the owner said that he was approached by someone who wanted to put on a little show in the club.”
“So he just let him?” I ask, arching a brow, as I wonder how fucking stupid this guy is. Last I checked, no one has died but there were some serious injuries caused when people fell by the door and everyone else just ran over them. At least three people are in the ICU this morning after that circus last night. He shakes his head.
“No, he told him to get fucked. At first…”
“What changed then?”
Storm grimaces. “He said the man offered him a thousand dollars to allow the performance.”
“So, of course he took it,” I scoff, shaking my head. Can’t say that I really blame the guy but it begs the question, where the hell did Warren get a thousand dollars? When I checked his account yesterday, he didn’t have that kind of money and there were never any transactions that large made in the last two years. My idea about him working with a partner springs to mind and I blow out a breath, shaking my head.
“He might be working with someone else.”
Storm sighs. “I’ve been having the same thought lately but it doesn’t help us much.”
“I know,” I agree, turning back to the video playing on a loop on my monitor. “It just makes him even harder to find. I’m almost afraid to ask but did the owner give a good description of the guy?”
“Uh, no,” he scoffs and I turn back to him.
“Why?”
“Because he never actually saw his face. Apparently, he communicated through email only and when he showed up at the club to do his performance, he was wearing the mask. He claimed it was part of his “process”.”
Gritting my teeth, I grab the pen holder off of my desk and chuck it at the wall. “I’m so fucking sick of this douchebag!”
“We should make a club,” he quips, nodding in agreement and I scoff, some of my anger melting away as I shake my head at his shitty joke.
“Thanks, asshole.”
He shrugs as he stands up. “Got you to stop throwing shit, didn’t it? I got to go check in on my wife and kid.”
“How is Ali after last night?”
“Fucking traumatized,” he answers with a sigh, pain on his face, and I shake my head, thinking about the effect last night is going to have on all of us. “Speaking of which, though… you and Rowan?”
I shrug. “Yeah. It’s just…”
“Casual,” he cuts in, nodding as he arches his brow. “Yeah, I heard but you know that’s dumb as hell, right? The way y’all were with each other last night was anything but casual.”
“Okay, cupid. Why don’t you mind your own damn business? Just ‘cause all of you think marriage and babies are the best things ever doesn’t mean everyone else does. Rowan and I are just having fun.”