“What the fuck happened?” he barked at Dwayne as the rest of the club approached.
Dwayne’s jaw got tight. “Heard Gwen scream, went in and she was covered in fucking tarantulas.”
I heard some of the men curse behind me and felt the air turn electric.
“Was just looking for bites when you arrived,” Dwayne continued, and I heard a sharp indrawn breath from Cade. He roughly pulled me to arm’s length, running his hands up my arms as Dwayne had been doing before.
“You feel a sting anywhere, baby?” His eyes didn’t leave my body and his voice was laced with barely restrained fury.
I shook myself out of my mental fog and took stock of my body. I felt like I was about to throw up and I could still feel them in my hair, but no pain.
“No, no sting,” I answered quietly, shivering. “Are you sure you got them all, Dwayne?” I ran my hands through my hair quickly, hoping not to encounter any creepy crawlies.
“You’re good, babe,” he grunted.
Luke appeared in front of me, eyeing the bikers with distaste. I noticed that a couple more cops had joined the party, standing slightly back, hands on their weapons.
“Gwen, do you want to come down to the station? Make a statement?” Luke asked firmly, eyes on me. I opened my mouth to answer, but Cade beat me to it.
“That’s not happening, she’s on the back of my bike. I’ll take her somewhere to keep her safe.” Cade’s arms settled around me, and I felt safe already.
“She will be safer at a police station than anywhere else in this town,” Luke bit out, not looking at Cade. “Gwen?” he questioned expectantly.
I suddenly felt a lot of eyes on me. The men were waiting for me to answer and reality hit me, what I said would determine if my loyalty lay with the club, if I trusted them to deal with the problem.
I cleared my throat uncertainly. “Thank you for your concern, Luke, but I’m okay. I just need to get away from here,” I said quietly, feeling Cade’s body relax a fraction.
Luke’s gaze turned thunderous. “Gwen, you can’t be serious. Do you realize a dangerous gang just made a serious threat against you? You are in danger, we can protect you,” his voice raised and I could tell he was finding it hard to keep control.
“We are more than capable of protecting Gwen,” Cade answered for me in a low voice.
Luke raised a furious eyebrow “Just like you protected Laurie?” His voice was filled with venom.
I gasped at the cruelty in his voice and his callousness for bringing up Laurie. I felt the anger of every member humming in the air, and everything happened at once.
Bull, who had been standing back, rushed forward, gaze murderous, reaching for Luke. Cade pushed me out of the way before grabbing onto Bull, along with Brock and Dwayne. They were barely able to keep him restrained, his eyes lost every inch of humanity the second Luke had uttered Laurie’s name.
Steg stepped forward calmly, standing toe to toe with Luke, who had his weapon out, as did the other officers who had approached. “No need for the weapon, Deputy,” his voice was soft, but dangerous.
Luke glared at Steg. “Your boy was about to assault an officer,” he stated coldly.
“No assault here, but if you mention that girl one more time there will be, and your little boys playing dress-up will be able to do fuck all to help you.” Steg’s stare was filled with promise, and I was unable to take my eyes away.
Holy shit, this was intense. Lucky appeared beside me and he loosely draped his arm around my shoulders. His usually carefree face was distorted in anger.
“Did you just threaten an officer, Steg?” Luke spat out his name like it tasted bad.
Steg regarded him like he was shit on his shoe. “Nope, I just made a promise to a jumped up asshole. Now, there’s no crime here. Gwen has refused to make a statement so I suggest you fuck off, Deputy, before I have a word to the sheriff about your conduct.”
Luke glowered at Steg with a look of pure hate before holstering his weapon and gesturing for the others to do the same. He then directed a hard look at me.
“I hope you know what you’ve gotten yourself into, Gwen,” he told me softly, looking disappointed, before he turned and strode away.
Steg let a moment pass before barking out orders. “Lucky, take Gwen back to the club, get the prospects to gather up the women and the kids and anyone else they could use against us. We’re on lockdown.”
Lucky nodded and began to walk me towards his bike.
Wait, lockdown? What about my store?
This was all happening very quickly, and I didn’t like how I was being passed around like a sack of potatoes. I needed to talk to Cade. He needed to tell me what the fuck was going on.
“I’ve got Gwen.” Cade moved away from Bull, who was breathing raggedly and still being held by Brock and Dwayne.
Lucky stopped walking and turned us around just in time to see Cade and Steg in a heated stare off. I barely restrained a snort, why did so many alpha stare downs happen when I was around?
“Not having Gwen on the back of someone else’s bike,” Cade declared firmly, eyes locked on me.
Steg regarded him calmly, like he had Luke. “Need you here, need to canvas the store, see if we missed anything and get rid of our eight-legged friends. Then we got to find these fuckers and end them. Need your head on straight, so rein it in.”
Cade was as stiff as a rock when Brock clapped him on the shoulder.
“Come on, brother, let’s get these bastards, then they won’t be able to get near Gwen again.” He gave me a wink.
Cade looked as if he was having an internal battle before his face turned suddenly blank. “Fine,” he clipped out, glaring at Steg.
“Rosco.” He gestured to a prospect who I didn’t really know.
“Yeah, Cade.” He addressed him respectfully.
“You follow Lucky and Gwen, don’t let them out of your sight. You make sure no one follows and that we have enough boys at the club. You clear?” he ordered, authority in his tone, which kind of turned me on, despite the situation. And despite the fact I was a little pissed, he clearly hadn’t disclosed how serious things had gotten.
Rosco nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Cade strode over to me, eyes narrowing at Lucky’s arms on my shoulders. I ducked out of them and into Cade’s, he squeezed me so tight I lost my breath.
“Don’t worry, Cade, I’m fine. You go and do whatever you need to do.” I was surprised at how strong my voice sounded. I wasn’t going to betray my true feelings, or interrogate him on the street. It could wait until it was just the two of us.
He stared at me with his face still blank. “Fuck, Gwen, I’m so sorry you got caught up in this shit. Nothing else is going to touch you, I promise. I’m going to kill every last one of those motherfuckers,” he declared roughly.
I gulped, hoping this wasn’t the promise it sounded like. He kissed me hard before nodding to Lucky, who gently directed me towards his bike. He handed me a helmet silently without the usual joke I had come to expect.
I got on his bike, putting my arms lightly around his waist before stealing a glance at Cade, who was talking with Steg, arms crossed. He gave me a glimpse before disappearing into my store.
“This is bullshit!” Amy exclaimed for about the third time, pacing around the room. “I mean, I get that the guys need to do something about the sick fuck that sent the spiders.” She visibly shivered. “I still don’t know how you could’ve dealt with that, G, I fucking hate spiders, those little fuckers have no reason to be on this earth.” She shook her head, trying to find her way back to her point. “But why am I here? I’m not an ‘Old Lady,’ thank fuck.” She glanced at me. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”