Before Angel, I was the easygoing one. I was the party lover, the one who’s always having a good time, the one who ruled fair and loose.
I’m not that man anymore.
“Holy shit, is everything okay? Tomi, what’s happened?” Mel says, already fucking naked even though the place doesn’t open for another hour.
“Put a fucking shirt on and get your ass moving, I’m not a man to mess with tonight. Where the fuck is Diamond?”
“I’m here!” she calls out with a smile, all sorts of syrupy sweetness but the shit leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
Fake fucking slut.
The bouncers both walk in as well, good, and Axe gets the door shut behind them, leaning back on it and crossing his arms.
“Is there something you want to tell me, Diamond? Something you’ve done?”
She pouts at me, all fake and fucking manipulative. We’ve let her take care of shit down here too much, she’s gotten too fucking comfortable.
“You know I tell you everything, Tomi! We’ve got this place running like a well-oiled machine, even after the Demons were here. Oh, is this a debrief? I’ve already told Rue everything that happened but I’d be happy to go over it again.”
I stalk forward and Diamond is the only fucking one who doesn’t see the danger she’s in. Nah, all she sees is a patch she so desperately wants.
Everyone else is hugging the walls, trying to get the fuck away from my rage.
“How about we start with who called you and told you Angel was underage, hm? Which brother stepped the fuck outta line and told you?”
Her lips press together but I expected as much.
“How about you tell me who the fuck gave you permission to speak on the club’s behalf? Rumor has it you told Angel I wanted her dead. Now, I’d think really fucking carefully about how you answer this one because I’m here for blood.”
Her jaw drops and she dares to look fucking shocked. “For blood? Tomi, she lied to the club! She could’ve had all our asses thrown into fucking prison!”
I take the last step towards her until I’m standing over her, the need to kill her thrumming through my blood. “She risked her life for you, you miserable cunt. She stood up and stopped the Demons from hurting you.”
She blinks back tears but I’ve got no fucking time for that shit. “She practically put herself on a platter! She’s a biker slut. She saw a patch she liked the look of and threw herself at them—”
Her words are cut off by my hand around her throat. I’ve never laid hands on a woman before but fuck if I’m going to get the job done right. She didn’t just fuck with my girl, she stepped out on the club.
“She stood in for her friend to save you all and your jealous fucking self didn’t even stop to say thank you. Now that’s enough to get your ass kicked out but to lie to her about me? To tell her I want her dead? Bitch, you fucked with the wrong man.”
Her eyes start bugging out before I drop her back down to the ground and she collapses to her knees.
“Listen carefully. Angel is mine and if I find out one of you cunts so much as side-eye her you’ll get the same as Diamond. You hear me?”
I ride out to the lake to clear my head.
Axe must have called Rue because I find him tailing me before I even hit the highway, riding like a reckless fucking idiot because clearly he’s in one of those moods where he wants to flirt with death. He’s spent his whole damn life trying to decide if he wants to live or die and something is going on in that grumpy fucking head of his that has him questioning if he needs to go out in a blaze of glory.
I wait until we park up by the lake before I take a deep breath and try to calm the fuck down.
Rue glances at the blood on my hands and says, “Diamond?”
“Dealt with. We’re gonna need to spend more time at The Boulevard.”
He shrugs. “Worth it. Angel is fucking worth it.”
Damn fucking right she is. I glance around but the place is empty like it always is. There’s a reason I headed up this way once I knew Rue was riding along.
“Look. We need to talk about your little flower.”
It’s like a thunderstorm rolling in, I see the darkness shutter across his face. “No we fucking don’t. Have I said a single fucking thing about your woman? Nope, I kept my mouth shut.”
Fuck, maybe I should have brought Speck out here just so we’d have a referee but he’s still hobbling around like he’s on the brink of death. “Shut up, asshole, I’m trying to tell you we have a whole new fucking problem to deal with. I’ve risked my ass for her on the run so cut the shit.”
He doesn’t say a word not even when I pull the silencer out of my pocket, like I need to prove to him and myself that I’m not fucking losing it or something.
“I got separated from the others at the drop off. I ended up with a gun to the back of my head from the Demon Enforcer.”
Rue frowns. “I thought you got him with a fucking headshot.”
I shake my head slowly. “Rue, I didn’t kill him. I was about to be taken the fuck out except then another Demon shows up, talks him outta killing me.”
I hand him the silencer and he frowns down at it. “What the fuck is this?”
“That would be the silencer Colt Graves used to kill Cliff without being heard. He let me go, doesn’t say a fucking word to me, just lets me leave with my skull still intact.”
Rue scowls down at the silencer in his hand like it's some impossible thing. I know exactly how he feels, I’ve been staring at the fucking thing for days… trying to make sense of what the fuck it all means.
“Why didn’t you tell King or Hawk?”
I blow out a breath. This is the hard bit. “I live and bleed Unseen… but I also know Posey like I know Trink. I’ve watched that kid grow up, I know exactly who she is, no matter how much shit I give you about her. If I tell King he’s going to think she’s in on this somehow… that she’s some sort of sleeper cell in our club.”
Rue curses under his breath, swipes a hand over his face. “She’s not. She’s really fucking not.”
I nod. “Exactly but she’s also full of fucking secrets. You need to get them outta her, give her your patch, get her safe in our club and away from that other family of hers. Pure and simple, she’s yours and no one else’s.”
Rue scratches at the shadow on his cheek. “Did Angel tell you anything about them?”
“No. But I’ll be asking her about them the second I’m sure she believes we don’t want her dead.”
Chapter Thirty One
Angel
I wake up on the couch after my first night in my own house and two things filter into my head as I lie there looking at the morning sun filtering through the cracked and broken blinds on the living room window.
I love my house more than any woman really should love such a thing, and I’m fairly certain my ribs were bruised and not broken because I can breathe with only discomfort and not agonizing pain.
I’m sure after the day I’m planning that shit will change but I’m glad to take a minute and just lie around, looking at all of the cracks I’ll need to fill and the mud that’s still on the floor.