“Seven forty,” he answered without looking at me. When he pulled on the handle and I saw the hallway, I asked him another question before he left.
“Where did you sleep last night?”
Lincoln pointed toward the other side of the bed. “Over there, on the ground.” He didn’t say anything else before he walked out, closing the door behind him. I meant to ask him how his head was but never got the opportunity.
I crawled over to the other side of the bed and looked down, and sure enough, there was a pillow and crumpled blanket on the floor.
Any reservation I held toward Lincoln disappeared with the knowledge that we’d slept in the same room, and he never touched me.
He’d kept his word.
Maybe I was safe, after all.
15
The energy in the room crackled as soon as I entered, but the only thing I could focus on was watching my ol’ man hop out of his chair and rush toward me. I had no time to brace for impact before he shoved me against the wall, briefly glancing at the small bandage on the side of my head.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he shouted, pulling me forward only to slam me back into the wall. “How many times do we have to tell you not to get involved? How many? Huh? Then I come to find out you almost got killed? Jesus Christ, Lincoln!” If I wasn’t mistaken, I thought I heard a level of fearfulness and panic beneath his fury.
I didn’t dare play stupid. “It all happened so fast, and before I knew it, she was shoved at me. So I took her with us.” The words flew out of my mouth, eager for him to release me so we could talk about this issue with the rest of the club.
“What bullshit is that? They didn’t simply hand her over.” He lessened his grip but continued to pin me against the wall.
“They did. Well, one of ’em did. Their prospect.”
“He just gave her to you?” His brows pinched together while the corner of his mouth curved upward.
“Yeah. But… I don’t think the rest of ’em knew he did it.”
“You took her. That’s what you’re saying. You went against what you were told, and you took what didn’t belong to you.”
“She’s a person, ya know,” I said, lowering my eyes from his when he grunted at me. The rare occasion happened when I feared my dad, and right now was one of them.
“She’s nobody to us, which means she’s nobody to you.” He finally let me go and stepped back. “You figure this out and do it fast.”
His demand was as clear as mud. How the hell was I gonna figure anything out when I didn’t know what to do going forward.
I retrieved some of my courage, although not much since he was still too close.
“I can’t take her back to them. They raped her. Repeatedly. They might even kill her if they get their hands on her again.”
My ol’ man glared at me before he returned to his seat. “Not our problem,” he answered, pounding his fist on the table before leaning over to whisper something to Marek.
Prez’s eyes were on me the entire time, and when our VP leaned back, Marek opened his mouth.
“Where is she?”
“Back in one of the bedrooms.”
“Here?” Trigger asked, his voice rising a notch in disbelief.
“I didn’t have anywhere else to take her that was safe. I couldn’t very well bring her home.” I walked to my seat, looking from one guy to the next. I knew where Marek and my dad stood on my interfering and trying to save Maddie. There was no doubt what Hawke and Jagger thought either. Looking to Ryder, then Tripp, all they did was shake their head in disappointment. Cutter was silent and expressionless, as usual, but I could put him in the same category with the rest of them as being pissed I’d gone against what Marek had told me.
While I thought there was a possibility Ace, Brick, and Kaden were like-minded with me, I wasn’t about to ask them in front of everyone else.
It seemed I had to go this alone.
“Have we found anything else out about the fire?” Marek asked, looking around the room, obviously done with the issue with Maddie. For now, it seemed.
“Not yet,” Ryder answered.
“I haven’t heard anything either,” Tripp added. “We’ll keep at it, though, Prez.” He jerked his chin toward our leader before looking down the table at me. “Heard you had a little scuffle with my brother last night. Even managed to draw blood.”
“Lucky punch,” Hawke muttered, gliding his finger over the affected area, which looked a bit puffy in the light of day.
A snarky comment rested in my throat, but I thought better of voicing it since I was in enough shit as it was. I didn’t need to push the envelope.
Brick, however, did it for me. “You’re lucky I wasn’t the one who decked ya.”
Normally, such a statement could be taken somewhat offensively, indicating my hit wasn’t strong enough, even though I managed to cut his lip with my knuckles. But it was Brick. The guy was enormous and had knocked out people with a single punch. I’d seen it with my own eyes a few times when he had to break up fights at Indulge, where he worked as a bouncer before becoming a member of our club. Most people got out of his way when they saw him coming. It was the exact reason Marek had made him the club’s enforcer. Normally, the person who held that title made sure the club laws and rules were followed by everyone, but Ryder, our sergeant-at-arms, mostly took care of that stuff. Brick upheld the part of the position that required his brute strength, which was coming into play more often recently.
“Yeah, I’m kinda thankful you didn’t.”
“I would’ve paid to see that.” Tripp laughed.
“Fuck you,” Hawke said, smiling right along with his brother.
I couldn’t say if the nomad’s demeanor was surprising since I didn’t know him all that well. I’d heard tales from Tripp about antics his younger brother had gotten up to over the years, though, and while he’d mentioned that Hawke was typically a laid-back kind of guy, joking around and even putting his foot in his mouth more times than not, I hadn’t seen any of those sides to him… until right now. Here was a hint of the guy I’d heard about. I’d try not to judge him too harshly going forward, but if he said more derogatory shit about Maddie, I couldn’t promise I wouldn’t have a go at him again.
I didn’t want to bring up a topic that was sure to divide a few of us, but I had to know what was happening with Tag. I opened my mouth to ask the question but didn’t have a chance to give my words life before Kaden made the inquiry.
“Any news about Tag?” His stare was on his ol’ man. For a moment, I thought Marek was gonna brush over or ignore the question, but instead, he appeared annoyed Kaden brought it up.
“Yeah.”
A wash of silence descended over the room, an uneasy tension vibrating around each of us. Marek had given one-word answers to questions before, but this subject warranted more. But I sure as hell wasn’t gonna be the one to ask him to elaborate.
“So, are we good, then?” Cutter asked, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back, the creak of his leather cut against the chair chilling.
“Yeah,” Marek repeated, flicking his eyes downward before they found his son, his expression flat while he waited to see what Kaden would say. I was in the same boat as my friend. I wanted to know as much as he did what was gonna happen with Tag. Was he really a Reaper? Or was he the guy we thought he was, and just the product of a sick and twisted man, having no other ties to our enemy otherwise?