“We need to get out of here! The alley shielded us, but it’s only a matter of time before someone sees and calls the cops.” Her eyes were huge in her face, and she was shaking. I activated damage control mode.
“Okay,” I said matter-of-factly, “we need to tie them up and get out of here.” I opened the truck bed and found zip ties and some other nefarious supplies. I handed Lennon a few ties, and she secured the hands and feet of the man behind the truck while I got the man I’d knocked out in front of the vehicle. I scanned the street, thankful that it was a slow Sunday morning and the people of Sagebrush weren’t out and about in force yet. Once the men were bound, Lennon and I worked together to get them into the truck bed. It took elbow grease, some swearing, and more than a few minutes to heft them into the truck bed, but we got there in the end. Lennon only had to take one break to throw up behind a dumpster, and I think that had more to do with her lingering hangover than it did her squeamishness.
We were both sweaty, shaky with adrenaline (or maybe shock in Lennon’s case), and exhausted after loading them up.
“Okay,” I panted, “here’s what we’re going to do. You take Sheila and drive to the compound. I’ll follow you in the truck. Don’t speed, just be as casual and easy-breezy as you can. Sheila will help. She’s the breeziest.” Lennon nodded rapidly, and I grabbed her hands, pulling her into a quick hug. “I’m so sorry this happened, but look on the bright side! You did such a good job defending yourself. I’m really proud of you, and I’ll happily hold your hand while you work through it later, but right now, I need you to focus. Channel your baddest bitch self and get you and Sheila to the clubhouse in one piece, and I’ll be right behind you. You can do this.”
Lennon gave herself a little shake, pulling herself together right before my eyes. I handed her Sheila’s keys and gave the lot another glance before sending her over to the van. I briefly considered running inside to tell Ratched what had happened, but I didn’t want to ruin his breakfast after a long shift at the hospital. The guy was a total workaholic; he deserved to eat Briar’s pancakes in peace. I decided to catch him up on current events during our next Animal Planet binge sesh. The truck’s keys were still in the ignition, so I buckled myself in and followed Lennon out of the lot. When we stopped at a red light, I pulled my phone from my back pocket and quickly called Bones. He and the Crows needed to know that we were heading back to the clubhouse, and we were bearing gifts. Hopefully, Priest could get some information out of the two asshats in the flatbed… once they regained consciousness, that was.
Chapter 17
Priest
“Oops,” Indigo said innocently, shrugging and holding her hands up in the air.
“Oops?” Duke questioned, an eyebrow raised in wry amusement as Tank hefted the dead Iron Raider from the truck Indigo had driven back to our compound after she and Lennon were attacked in town. When they’d driven onto the compound, we’d met them over by the confessional, and Bones had Indi recount what had happened. Lennon had been uncharacteristically quiet while Indigo told us about having breakfast at Misty’s Diner and how two men had tried to snatch them from the parking lot. I’d put a call into Clover, who was working now to erase any security camera or traffic footage taken on their route so it would be as though Indigo and Lennon had never been in Sagebrush at all.
“Well, what do you want me to say, Duke?” Indigo snapped. “I didn’t plan to kill him. He just went ahead and died! I brought you one livingsouvenir, though. Oh… unless you’re mad I didn’t bring you any pancakes. Are you hangry, Mr. President? In that case, Iamsorry.”
So she wasn’t sorry she’d killed a man, but she was sorry she didn’t offer to DoorDash my old man brunch? I shook my head and resisted the urge to pull her into my side and kiss her on the top of her head. She was too adorably insane sometimes.
“I ain’t hangry, darlin’,” Duke rasped, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Where’s the other one?”
“Waiting below,” I responded. Sticks had his arm wrapped around Lennon, who didn’t look good. Bones was obsessively scanning her from head to toe, looking for signs of injury or damage. Tank had the dead man draped over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold.
“Where do you want him, Prez?” he asked, not even straining to carry the dead weight.
“Call Gia,” Duke responded. “Store him in the confessional until then. I’m sure his friend will appreciate the company,” he said with a dark look at the dead Raider.
“Who’s Gia?” Indigo asked curiously.
“A friend of the club, like you,” Sticks answered, still holding his daughter firmly at his side. “Georgia owns a hog farm about an hour away, and from time to time, she helps us get rid of the trash.” Indigo’s eyes lit up, and I knew what she was going to say before she even said it.
“Can I go visit the piggies? Oh my gosh, I bet they’re so cute!” I sighed. Of course she’d think seven-hundred-pound hogs that eat dead bodies would becute.
“We’ll see. Once the threat of the Callahans and Iron Raiders is gone, maybe we can ask Gia if we can visit,” Duke said placatingly. I hoped Indigo forgot about Georgia and her farm because I really didn’t want to drive out there for anything other than a body drop. She didn’t raise too many man-eaters, but the ones Georgia did have creeped me the hell out.
“Sweetheart, why don’t you come home with me?” Sticks asked his daughter, thankfully drawing Indigo’s attention away from man-eating pigs.
“You would have been so proud of Lennon if you’d been there, Sticks,” Indigo said with a big smile. “She remembered her Sith trainingand helped me kick that guy’s ass.” Indi gave Lennon a thumbs-up, but her friend didn’t return it. Instead, she gave her dad a weak smile.
“I think I’d like to go back to my room, if you don’t need me, Indigo?” Lennon looked worn out, and I had the feeling she was having a difficult time processing what went down this morning. She grew up witnessing occasional bar fights and brawls, but that was very different from what happened today.
Indigo quirked her head to the side and gave her friend a reassuring smile. “Get some rest, bestie.” Sticks released his daughter so she could give Indi a hug, and I heard her murmur into Lennon’s ear as they embraced. “You defended yourself. You didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t kill him. I did.” She pulled back from the hug and put her arms on Lennon’s shoulders. “It was me, okay? You had every right to protect yourself.” Lennon’s eyes widened to hold back tears. She nodded and turned away from all of us before her tears could fall. Bones watched her walk away with her dad for about thirty seconds before he gave up pretending and stalked after them without giving the rest of us a backward glance.
“Alright, Priest, you’re up,” Duke said, slapping me on the back. “I want to know what the Raiders are up to. We’re gonna have to move our plans with Petrov up so that we can retaliate sooner rather than later and put the Iron Raiders down for good.” My dad turned to Indigo. “Indi, I saw Lorna looking through her cookbook tryin’ to find a new cookie recipe for y’all to try. Why don’t you head over to our house and spend some time with her?”
Indigo snorted back a laugh. “Good one, Duke.” My father’s eyes narrowed at Indi, not appreciating being brushed off. “That guy tried to snatch me and my bestie, and almost rear-ended Sheila. He totally ruined my Wicked Sisterhood bonding vibes, and that just grinds my gears because we had a real good thing going! I love cookies as much as the next gal, but I’m not in the mood to bake right now. I’m in the mood to fuck that guy up. And give Priest pointers on intelligence gathering,” she said with a grin. I frowned at her.
“Respectfully, of course,” she tacked on, giving me a thumbs-up. Great, looked like it was “take your crazy chick to work” day.
Riordan
Fluorescent lighting burned harshly overhead, illuminating a room buried deep beneath Allure. Even if the room hadn’t been thoroughly soundproofed, the thrumming bass and deafening cacophony of club music and dancing would muffle any conspicuous sounds coming from our interrogation room. Clear plastic sheets were draped over the walls to catch any mess Gregor made, but I hadn’t bothered to suit up before stepping in to relieve Ivan in entertaining ourguest.I wanted to feel his blood as it spilled for the audacity of betraying our family to the Callahans and The Consortium.
When I’d been properly initiated into my father’s bratva as a teen, I’d had to work in various aspects of the family business, and I was an apt student. The brotherhood ran in my veins, and like my father, I would do anything to protect it. It had been a long time since I’d studied under the tutelage of my father’s most effective interrogator. I’d moved on to bigger and better things. While I had many skills, my passion did not lie in bloody wet work. However, I made an exception tonight.
The hammer in my hands was covered in blood, as were my clothes. Tiny shards of bone flew into the air as I brought the hammer down on Gregor’s hand, where it was pinned to the table. His fingernails had been removed days ago, but I found that wasn’t enough punishment for hands that had been raised against my family. Ivan, similarly blood spattered, leaned against the far wall, wiping his hands with a damp cloth. Unlike me, Ivan never wore a cover when he worked a target over. He reveled in the mess of it all. Red dotted his bleach-blond hair and face, giving Ivan’s impish smile a sinister quality. I brought the hammer down againand again, until Gregor’s hand was nothing more than a squishy flesh bag filled with blood and splinters of bone.
