“Listen here, you Russian fuck!” Priest interrupted me in typical Priesty fashion, which was growly. “You can take your men and get the hell out of our town. We don’t want you here, and we don’t need you here. We can take care of our own.”
“Yeah, seems like you’re doing a bang-up job.” Ivan snickered under his breath, causing Cricket, who overheard his comment, to puff up in his seat.Bob almighty, de-escalating this man spat wasn’t going well atall.
“Indigo isn’t a Crow. She’s a Petrov, and the bratva will do a better job protecting her than you did,” Riordan stated in a flat, bored tone.
“How did you know the compound was under attack?” Bones asked in a lethally calm voice before Priest could start yelling, his dark eyes hooded with pain and face bruised. His attempt to change the subject seemed to work, though the vibe in the bar was going from tense to deadly.
Riordan sat back in his seat, and his face looked tight with anger. “We got a tip that someone had claimed the bounty on Indigo’s head. We believed it meant Callahan was coming for her and came to protect my cousin.”
“Atip? A tip from fucking where?” Priest sneered. “Seems pretty convenient that no one knew where Indi was until you got involved in her life, and then youjust so happento ride in to save the dayafterher abductors got away? I call bullshit.”
Riordan leveled Priest with a scoff. “I don’t owe you an explanation for my actions. You sound like a child having a tantrum. Maybe you should have a time-out while the adults deal with the mess your club has landed in.” Priest’s icy-blue eyes clashed with Riordan’s stormy-green ones, and it didn’t take a genius to see they were both a hop, skip, and a jump away from fisticuffs. Which really wasn’t fair because if anyone deserved to have a bratty fistfight, it was me!
“Answer the question, Riordan,” Duke interjected, throwing Priest a hard look so he’d shut up.
“You don’t make demands of our futurepakhan,” Ivan growled, his normally snarky demeanor replaced by a grumpy mobster face.
“Hey, guys,” I said a little louder, giving energetic jazz hands to get their attention even though I wasn’t in a very jazzy mood. “It’s been a rough day for everyone, and by everyone, I especially mean Bones and me. So maybe—”
“Maybe you Crows should say ‘thank you’ for the help after your club started tearing itself apart. You need a little friendship right about now, considering your members are killing each other, don’t you think?” Ivan interrupted, his tone vicious. I glared at him for interrupting me when my brain screeched to a halt as I processed his words. Wait… killing each other?
“Hold on!” I snapped. “Killing each other? Who?”
My eyes met a pair of blue ones from across the table, filled with sadness and grief. “I’m sorry, darlin’,” Duke said with a slow shake of his head. “When Pyro cut the power to the compound, Ace musta left the clubhouse to check on the generator. Pyro… he killed Ace.”
I snapped back in my seat like I’d been slapped. I’d been knocked out before Pyro revealed himself that night, but I knew he’d been the one to betray me and the Crows. I just had no idea he’d murdered poor Ace, too.
You’d think after everything Uncle Roark had done to eradicate anyone or anything I’d ever become attached to, I’d be used to losingpeople. Riley, Shade, even my favorite toys were all given just so they could be taken away. But Ace, he’d been a friendly shadow in a trucker hat on the compound, always around to listen to me talk about everything and nothing while he fixed potholes or weeded the herbs. And now, he was dead because of me, because Pyro wanted the reward money offered by Uncle Roark.
I wasn’t sure how long I silently spiraled. By the time I snapped out of my guilt, voices were raised and angry in the bar. Cricket traded barbs with Ivan, who had an arm around a silent Sutton. I’d honestly forgotten she was even there. Duke and Priest were going back and forth with Riordan, all three men determined to steer the conversation in their direction while making no progress. Bones was watchful, listening to what everyone was saying—and not saying—and I was sure he was coming up with some strategy in his head.
My head hurt, and I felt like I needed a good cry in the comforting bosom of Sheila’s cargo area. I had hadenough. I quietly pushed my chair back, my movement going unnoticed by everyone except Sutton, who watched me with curious eyes. All six men were too enmeshed in their own thoughts and feelings and fuckingangstthey didn’t notice me picking up a barstool and taking it behind the bar to use as a steppy stool. I climbed up on it, a little wobbly from exhaustion, and reached up to grab Cricket’s fancy bat.
Hugging the cricket bat to my chest as I scampered off the stool, I took a moment to shut out the furious voices and threats implied and stated outright. I was getting overwhelmed, and the demons in my head were riling up thoughts and feelings best left explored in a safe, private space. I didn’t want to lose my shit in this bar, but I was rapidly approaching burnout, and that brought out the industrial-strength psycho in me.
Suddenly, the fancy cricket bat was snatched from my hands by none other than my bestie, Lennon. The men hadn’t noticed her join us, but they were about to see firsthand that Lennon was here, and she waslivid.Lennon strode forward as quickly as her short legs could carry her, her dark curls bouncing around her face and eyes burning with ire. Bones noticed her approaching like a hurricane about two seconds before she brought the bat down with an ear-splittingCRASHon the table.
Duke’s and Priest’s mouths snapped shut. Ivan had drawn his gun, but Riordan held an arm across his chest to keep him from raising his hand. “¡Puta madre!I can’t believe this bullshit!” Lennon pointed the bat at Riordan. “We’re planning the funeral of a family member. Now is not the time for you to push in and try to manipulate a formal relationship. Have you no shame? You say Indigo is your family, so how about you act like it and make sure she’s okay.” She turned her bat on Priest, her eyes narrowing. “And you, quit being so combative all the fucking time, you giant man baby! Deal with your feelings and stop picking fights with Riordan just because he’s getting closer to Indi. They’re cousins, for Christ’s sake. It’s not like that.”
Lennon handed the bat to Cricket and walked back over to me with a huff. “Indigo and I are going home. Feel free to spew whatever toxic alphahole bullshit you want after we leave. Just know if you bring that shit back to the clubhouse and ruin Ace’s wake, I’ll help the ole ladies dig your graves myself.” She put her arm around me and tucked me to her side. “Let’s go, bestie.” She guided me toward the door.
“Well, I like her,” Sutton said to Riordan with wry amusement.
The Wicked Sisterhood gained a new member. Fuck yeah. With friends like mine, who even needed men?
Chapter 6
Priest
Lennon’s dramatic exit achieved her ends. Petrov and his people agreed to a meeting in a few days to iron out the details of a potential alliance and headed back to Reno. I wasn’t sure why they were so eager for a partnership, unless it was to get their hooks even deeper into Indi. Cricket was uncharacteristically quiet while he closed up the bar, leaving with Bones and Ratched in the truck while the rest of us Crows followed on our bikes. Staggering our bikes, we rode in formation back to the compound while keeping a watchful eye on our surroundings. Our club hadn’t been the target of a major attack like this since the early ’80s, before I was born. Rusty had been a casualty in the war the Iron Raiders MC waged against Los Cuervos back then, and I knew losing Ace brought back bad memories for Duke. We could never be too careful.
Before we’d left for Crow’s Landing, I’d debriefed with Duke, telling him everything Clover had said about the Petrov bratva. And not said. After the stress and long hours riding my bike in the past few days, I wasexhausted and needed to have an alert mind before I called Clover back and had her explain what she meant when she said that the Petrov organization had singled itself out in the human trafficking network overseen by the Russian syndicate. Riordan’s dad, Mikhail, was thepakhan,or head, of the Russian bratva in the entire US and answered only to the powers that be in Moscow. All the other Russian bosses in America ruled over their fiefdoms, but ultimately, they bent the knee to Petrov. If he had distinguished himself somehow as a trafficker, what she had to say could have serious implications now that the bratva’s heir lived in our backyard.
I needed Clover’s intel before the Scold, a meeting of all Los Cuervos Motorcycle Club presidents under the leadership of Duke. Scolds only occurred when shit really hit the fan. The last Scold was over the Salt Lake City incident, but I tried not to think about that particular clusterfuck if I could help it. Whatever Clover had to tell me would affect the decision made by the combined presidents about the path forward for the Crows. But first, we all needed some rest.
I had been run ragged ever since we left for the Alvarez job, and if I didn’t get some shut-eye soon, I might drop. When we got back to the compound, Thor and I rode the perimeter of our land after the gate was locked just to make sure we were secure before parking at the clubhouse. Thor trudged straight to Ace’s side. It was his turn to sit vigil over our fallen brother, several Crows taking turns until his funeral the next day. Candles filled the bar, their waxy scent perfuming the space. The AC was pumping in the clubhouse, keeping it as cool as possible until Ace could be laid to rest. The chill air and the scent of melting wax laced with an undertone of decay turned my stomach.
I was almost to the stairs when a somber Indigo came creeping down the stairs, clutching a blanket and a pillow to her chest. I cataloged the bruises on her face, which had blossomed into a brilliant purple, making her skin look even paler than it usually was. Her eyes were distant and guarded as she approached the bottom of the steps. “Indi? Everything okay?”
