“And you know how to get hold of this guy?”
“Not yet. But we will. Let’s go.”
“You couldn’t have done this with a phone call,” I grumble, getting on my bike.
“Is this Desperate fucking Housewives?” Ballistic snapped at me. “We pick up the phone and gossip and get the answers?”
“No,” I dip my head.
“If there is one thing you take from this, it’s learning about cultivating contacts, getting relationships locked in where you can, whether it’s with a rival or a friendly. Ranger could have given us a whole lot moreora whole lot less. He didn’t give us anywhere near as much as he could of. But he gave us something. Because when he was Prez of that MC, we reached out.
“King didn’t want bad blood. It isn’t like we socialize but we’re close in proximity, so it’s good practice to keep thingsamicable, know our boundaries and we stood by that, until…” he glances back at the house again, the muscles in his jaw bunched as he grit his teeth.
“Isn’t he putting this guy Mace in the line of fire?”
“No,” he said it like he knew from experience. “Mace is not the kind of guy to roll over, to anyone. Ranger only let us know that because Mace can handle it, or he thinks he can. We’re being watched,” he cut off any more questions. “We’ll head back to the compound.”
“Not the warehouse?”
Ballistic shook his head. He was done talking. I hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary on the street, but as I started the bike and followed Ballistic off the driveway, I spotted a car a couple of houses down, two guys inside, watching us.
They followed us until we were back on the NJ-23, then made a U-turn and headed back. Ranger may have been cast out of the Kingsmen MC, but he still had more than enough power to maintain protection for himself.
Maybe Ballistic was right, he didn’t have to give us anything, but what little he could, he had told us. I breathed out a sigh of relief watching their taillights disappearing, the tension in my shoulders releasing slightly.
I fucking hoped War was faring better than we were, despite what Ballistic thought, we were still no closer to finding Waverley.
Chapter Three
My mother beamed, like my calling her ‘Mom’ was equivalent to all of her birthdays and Christmases coming at once. The urge to puke was suddenly very real. I swallowed the excess saliva in my mouth slowly, trying my hardest to settle my roiling stomach. I was tied to a chair, my arms behind me, the last thing I needed to do was cover myself in vomit. I took long, deep breaths, my eyes pinpointed on a large stain on my sweatpants. It was blood. I didn’t know whose but my heart thumped at where itcouldhave come from.
No one had spoken while I was trying to keep my shit together. My eyes flicked to the man in the corner, the VP of the Kingsmen. Mace? He looked like he was made of marble. He’d barely moved, except to stop his President from hitting me. His eyes were penetrating right into me but I refused to allow him to see how uncomfortable I was. How confused and, if I was brutally honest, scared I was. I got the feeling I wasn’t pulling it off. It felt as if he knew everything that passed through my head.
Eventually, I pulled my gaze from him and focused on the woman in front of me. “You’re supposed to be dead," I said flatly.
I’d given her enough emotion already, once I’d realized who I was staring at. Now I knew the truth, it was obvious. I could see myself inher face, Warren too. We had our father’s eyes but everything else we’d inherited from her. Our faces were the same shape, she had the full pouty lips Warren and I shared, hell, even the shape of our foreheads were the same. I hated that I could see all of these little things in her.
Over and over in my head I repeated ‘she may have given birth to me, but this woman is not my mother.’ After everything I’d learned since being back in New Jersey, any fantasies about her being a loving mother forced to leave us were long gone. Now this? She was behind all of it?Shewas responsible for me being taken from the Devil’s Chaos.
From her interaction with the President, it was obvious there was a lot more going on than even my father knew. He thought she was dead. Jesus, they were against far more than they realized, and I had no way of letting them know.
“Oh, believe me, the old Danica Walker is well and truly dead.”
My fists clenched behind me. Had they realized I was gone yet? Would they know who took me? And Connor. I couldn’t stop the tremor in my lower lip but I fought valiantly to shut him out of my mind. All that did was make me think of Warren and Hudson. I had no idea how much time had passed since Lily drugged and took me from the house, leaving Connor behind.
What would they be thinking? Warren would be out of his mind over Connor. And Hudson? When he left, things had changed between us. One phone call from the Kingsmen may have undone everything we’d built over the last few weeks. I’d seen the way his face shut down. He hadn’t even said goodbye. He just walked away. Now I’d been taken, what was that going to do to him?
I lifted my head and looked at Mace. His jaw was shifting slightly, like he was clenching his teeth. He looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but here. I glared at him. He was one of them. One of the assholes responsible for everything that happened. Itchy. Declan. The original attack on Connor.
“I never was a part of the Devil’s Chaos,” Danica interrupted my thoughts. “Sure, they took me in, but they didn’t treat me the way I was supposed to be treated, even when he claimed me. He did it out of obligation.”
“Like you did it for love?” I sneered. “You were part of a rival MC. They didn’t have to take you in, but they did. They saved you from what your own sick family planned for you.”
“They made me a whore,” she yelled, her persona slipping a little. Danica took in a deep breath, composing herself. It was fucking eerie how quickly it happened, her outburst waved away like a flick of her hand. “They weren’t any different than my family.”
“Yeah, but you clawed your way out of that, didn’t you?” I wasn’t sure baiting her was the right way to go but the words were out now, the resentment clear on my face.
Her lip moved in a dangerous smile. “I see Oliver has told you his side of the story.”
