I feel like I shouldn’t be rude and thank the Devil but talking to him is fucking terrifying and I don’t want to piss him off.
So I keep my mouth shut.
I guess I can thank him through Poe later and pray I never have to stand in his presence again.
“She already knows the score. She speaks about us, I carve her up until there’s nothing fucking left.”
I trip over my own feet and the guy has to catch me.
“Nate, for fuck’s sake, she’s Poe’s friend! If she’s willing to sacrifice herself for her then I’m sure she’ll keep her mouth shut,” Lips says, scolding him which clearly makes her the fucking bravest woman to ever walk this Earth.
“I don’t believe in hoping for shit. I mean what I say, better she knows to keep her mouth shut. Call me when you’re home, there’s too many Demons on the fucking road these days.”
The guy holding my arm snaps, “Ash, get the fucking engine going on this thing. I want to get the hell out of this fucking town and get some miles between us and that fucking psycho.”
Right.
So Blondie is Harley, the dark-haired one is Ash, and I’m very aware of which one Blaise Morrison is.
I have a bag back at The Boulevard full of shirts with his face on it.
Harley gets me sitting on the front seat to poke and prod at my cheek, looking for breaks I guess. I wince but the way he's handling me is so clinical that I don’t have the chance to freak out.
When he gets out a stethoscope and starts listening to me breathe he explains where he’s going to touch me each time, waiting for me to nod each time before moving.
I feel really safe now.
Which, after the Devil is a fucking miracle.
He gets out a penlight and says, “Follow the light for me."
I do what he says and when he finally clicks the penlight again he says, "You'll live. You need painkillers and sleep but that's about it."
I nod and he helps me swing my legs around to sit in the passenger seat properly. Two minutes later we’re on the road, Ash driving and the other three squished into the backseat.
“The— uh, I mean… Nate has already told me not to tell anyone about him. My lips are definitely sealed.”
Ash scoffs as he changes gears and gets us back on the highway to Coldstone.
I can’t wait.
“Ash will drop us off somewhere before he takes you back to the clubhouse. It’s safer that way.”
Uh.
What?
Ash glances at my face and smirks at me. “I’m the least recognizable person in the car.”
I glance back over my shoulder and Lips shrugs. “Blaise is obvious but everyone knows the lost O’Cronin heir belongs to me and I’ve been pretty fucking careful about making sure no one ever knows Poe and I are related. We’re never in public together, I avoid the Coldstone charter when they show up in the Bay… it’s hard work but it keeps her safe.”
I still have no fucking clue what they’re all talking about and Harley finally huffs and says, “Lips is the Wolf of Mounts Bay, the fabled fucking assassin and one of the founding members of the Family. You might not recognize her but there’s a few members of the MC that would put shit together and we know all about their rat problem.”
Oh God.
Holy fucking shit.
My stomach bottoms out. "So you're the Wolf of Mounts Bay. Your brother is the Devil, and Posey Graves is your sister. The smiling, cheerful, rainbow of a girl I'm friends with is the single most dangerous person in Coldstone, not because of who she is but because of whose blood she shares?"
Blaise cackles and Lips shrugs with a grin. "I dunno. I've taught her a lot about how to kill people. Nate also showed her how to skin a man alive last summer so she's not exactly helpless."
Holy Jesus.
Okay, Rue has definitely underestimated her. So has his entire family, fuck. I'm vaguely scared of her now.
Actually, you know what?
Fuck that.
I’m fucking terrified of her.
Lips scoffs and leans back in the seat. “Just go to sleep, Angel. We'll get you home safe. That’s what family does.”
Chapter Twenty Eight
Tomi
We ride back to Coldstone as fast as we can fucking manage.
We still have to stop over in a roadside hotel for a night but it’s only really a five-hour stop. I can’t fucking shake the need to get home. I’ve kept in touch with Angel the entire time we’ve been away and she might be fine but that doesn’t stop the need to get home to her from clawing at my gut.
Rue gives me a running commentary of her days and she keeps to every last one of my rules while we’re gone.
Fuck.
Maybe she is fucking perfect for me. At the very least she’s trying and if that doesn’t make me wanna step the fuck up, nothing will.
We get back to the clubhouse just before dawn, the parking lot overflowing with hogs and all fucking types of rigs.
Rue’s bike is there.
Angel’s truck is too, thank fuck, and my plan is to bypass the entire party and just fucking eat her the hell up for the night. Fuck her so long and hard that she can feel me for days and know that she’s marked as mine. My mouth waters a little at the thought of her in those tiny scraps of black lace she’s been teasing me with.
Fucking perfection.
The high of thinking about being in her lasts for as long as it takes me to swing off of my hog, the truck Hellion is parking catching and keeping my attention.
The fucking rats lost us another shipment and almost our fucking lives.
I could set fire to this fucking building with the heat of the rage in my blood.
“Get that look off of your fucking face before it gets you and the rest of this club dead. We can’t do a fucking thing until we know who the rat is,” Hawk says, his voice pitched low so no one hears us.
I jerk my head in a half-nod and then I say the words that have been choking me for weeks. “They’re further up than we thought. That mess we were just in proves it.”
He grunts under his breath, just as fucking pissed off about it as I am especially since we can’t just fucking deal with it. I hate the mind games, the fucking lies and deception, and knowing that your brothers are supposed to have your back and instead they’re twisting a knife there instead?
Fucking guts me.
King shoots us both a look and jerks his head to get us all moving, get us back into the clubhouse that should be our solace and yet we’ll all be walking on fucking eggshells, watching our mouths and doing everything we can to not say something that might get our family and brothers killed.
The bar is full of Unseen from both Coldstone and the Shreveport charter but way too quiet. Damn near fucking silence in the room. My blood turns to ice in my veins.
What the fuck has happened now?
Rue comes walking up, thank fuck, and I’m relieved to see that he’s fine until I get an eyeful of his face.
Angel.
“What the fuck happened?”
He holds out a hand like he’s trying to approach a fucking bear and not get his face ripped the hell off. “Demons came into town… they took her, been gone almost three hours.”
“Three hours? Three fucking hours?! And what exactly have you fucking assholes been doing while she’s been gone?”