“What the fuck?” I’d told Stones I needed some time, that I wanted to hang here for a while. I never gave up my position. I’d been the club’s enforcer for years. We already had a sergeant at arms in Black Stone, but Caesar was one of our older members, and his wife was sick, so I did the heavy lifting.
And yeah, Lila was one of the reasons I wanted to stay home for a while, but I’d been gone for months. I’d been building something with her and hadn’t been in a hurry to leave again. Stones had agreed because I’d never asked for one damn thing, followed orders, had put the club first for as long as I’d been in it.
Stones’s words echoed through my head again. “Hang on, how would he know I’m not with Lila anymore?”
Manic shrugged. “Considering I’m just finding out now, I doubt it came from any of us.”
Stones frowned. “I found out from him.”
“Was he at the fight?”
“Yeah,” Spanner said. “Saw him later on, after you left with your girl.”
“Did anyone see him with her that night? Because the next morning was when it all went to hell.”
“Nah, she was with me until I took her to you after your fight,” Spanner said.
I froze. “She didn’t come to me after my fight.”
Spanner frowned. “Walked her there myself.”
“Where?”
“Took her to the locker room…” His brows dropped.
“What?”
Spanner cursed.
“What?” I growled out.
“Doc called out to me, acting like whatever he had to tell me was urgent. I pointed out where you were to Lila, then went to see what the fuss was about. He just started shooting the shit.”
I sat back in my seat hard. Doc was a brother from Albert, from Trip and my old man’s chapter. They were tight.
“He got to her.” My heart started racing. I looked at Stones. “He’s got some fucked-up idea about me climbing the ranks, that I’ll take him with me. Trip failed, so now he’s focusing on me.” I curled my fingers around my bottle. “He thought I gave up enforcer for Lila, that I was done with it for good…so he made her go away.”
Manic cursed.
“He can’t be trusted,” I said to Stones. “This is the proof we needed. He’s meeting Jackals, planning a takeover, and he’s dumb enough to think I’ll help him.”
Stones leveled me with a hard look. “You think you can do what needs to be done?”
“I proved that when I dealt with Trip. I’ll do whatever it takes. That man is nothing to me but a fucking sperm donor.”
Stones nodded and stood when I did, pulling me in and thumping me on the back.
“We’ll deal with him tonight. When I go to Lila, I want her to know she’s safe.” My father dealt in threats and intimidation. He’d hunted her down and terrified her. He’d done that to my sweet girl, and I’d make him bleed for it.
“I need to talk to Drums, see what he knows, make sure he’s on board. Then we’ll clean house.”
Drums was the president of the Albert chapter and a strand-up guy. There was no way he was in on this shit with my father.
I strode across the bar to Dane and took him aside.
“What’s up?”
“I need you to make sure Lila is covered tonight. Get Eves to have her around, fuck, get her drunk so she can’t leave, if you have to. Do whatever you need to. But she has to stay there with you, where I know she’s safe. I’ll come for her when I’m done.”
“What the hell’s going on?”
Dane wasn’t a Rambler, but he was my brother in all the ways that counted. “I know why Lila ran scared. My father said something to her. Shit, he threatened her, I know he did.”
Dane cursed. “You know, Lila looked shaken when she found us again after your fight. I thought it was because she wasn’t well, but she wasn’t sick, she was scared.”
I was going to kill that old fucker.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jesse
I sneered into my father’s face.
“You’re a worthless piece of shit. You hurt Mom, you fucked with Trip’s head until you turned him into a twisted mirror image of you, and now you’re betraying your own club because you think you’re owed something you never earned.”
Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, his green eyes burning into mine. “You’re a bunch of fucking pussies. You’ve fucked this club and fucked over your brothers.”
“No, old man, you fucked them over when you went to the Jackals to take out my president.”
Tiny had found the Jackal in question, and after spending some one-on-one time together, he’d shared what my father wanted them to do. And the old man had admitted it himself in the end. The humiliation of his son beating his ass in front of the whole club had been too much for him to take. His anger had gotten the better of him, like it always had, and he’d spilled his guts in a fit of rage. He’d wanted to put Stones out of commission to “fast-track” me up the ranks.
“You don’t deserve to wear our colors and you never did.”
He spat blood on the floor, before his eyes came back to me. “You’re just like your mother. A pathetic bitch.”
I slammed my fist into his gut. “I’d kill you where you stand, but a useless old drunk isn’t worth expending the energy it would take. Instead, we’re going to take you and your friend back to the Jackals, and they can do what they want with you. If you ever come back to Black Stone or Rocktown…” I moved in closer, and our eyes locked. “If you ever go near Lila, I will kill you, and it won’t be a nice death. Understand?”
I’d do it now, but I couldn’t go to Lila after this with my father’s blood on my hands. She wouldn’t want that, and I couldn’t lie to her. His jaw clenched, as he searched my gaze, seeing the truth in my words. I would do it and I’d feel no remorse afterwards. For once he didn’t say anything.
Stones and several brothers moved in and grabbed him, dragging him outside. They tore his cut from him, tossing it in a steel drum, burning it in front of him. Then he was tied and gagged, and he and the Jackal we’d questioned were tossed into the back of the van, ready to be delivered to our enemy.
They might kill him. They might not.
I didn’t care.
And if he survived, we’d be watching him. He wouldn’t get a second chance to fuck with us or come anywhere near Lila.
I strode to my truck and climbed in. Stones gave me a chin lift and I gave him one back, then I headed for Spring Haven, to my girl. I was getting her back tonight, whatever it took.
Dane had messaged. Eves had gotten Lila to come over for a movie night, and he’d make sure she didn’t leave. Their house was between Rocktown and Spring Haven and the nearly hour’s drive seemed to take forever.
Then finally, I spotted the house up ahead. It was set back from the road, but lights blazed inside. Lila was in there now. I’d only seen her that one time on the street in nearly two weeks, and it’d been torture.
I pulled up outside and Dane opened the door as I strode up, eyes sharp. “Everything sorted?”