I don’t think I could have felt more of an asshole than I did in that moment. If I let myself dig too deeply, I honestly wasn’t sure what I would find. Was I starting to care about this place? Or was this some kind of Stockholm syndrome? I honestly didn’t know anymore.
“I’m sorry. I’m just chatty this morning. What would you like me to do today? Other than clean the kitchen and the—”
I didn’t get a chance to finish the last of my sentence. There was a knock on the door, and before Drew could so much as tell them to come in, Slater was already there, head firmly around the door and looking more disturbed than I thought he was capable of.
“Drew, we got trouble, man.”
It was as though the word trouble was all he needed to hear for Drew’s face to fall flat and for him to rise. “What kind of trouble?” he asked Slater as he stepped around the desk in two quick strides. Before Slater even had a chance to answer, the heavy boots of the other members could be heard runningup and down the corridor in one giant stampede, and my head snapped to the noise coming from the window outside—the sound of what seemed like a thousand motorcycles pulling up outside the building we were currently holed up in. “Oh shiiiit!” He growled, turning back to look at me. “Ayda…”
I didn’t need to be told twice. I’d seen the worry there and just nodded. “Go. I’ll be fine.”
I wasn’t sure that was the truth, but it felt like the right thing to say. If this was something he needed to deal with, the last thing he needed to be doing was worrying about me. He was pushing past Slater before I could so much as blink, and as stunned as I was, and as eager as Slater was to follow, his eyes landed on me.
“It’s gonna be safer to wait in the bar.”
Then he was gone, almost as swiftly as his friend had left, the thunderous noise making the walls of the building tremble and pushing me to my feet with a sense of desperation I’d never encountered before.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Drew
Adrenaline was a poor man’s steroid. It did the trick every single time. The moment I heard those engines rolling on in through my yard, I charged through the club and out on to the porch to see who was here to pay us a visit. At worst, I was about to have a standoff with three rival MCs in one night. At best, these unexpected guests would be old friends from another charter here to find out where Drew Tucker was at, both mentally and physically.
My feet slowed down as I stepped into the sunlight. As soon as I saw the first bike pull up in front of me, I knew that it was neither the worst or best case scenario, but somewhere in between, although definitely more on the nightmare side of the scale than I would have liked.
The Emperors had arrived.
Even from behind his thick, black shades, I knew Chester Cortez’s eyes were fixed firmly on me as all his brothers pulled up in a perfect V file behind him. He’d always had his troops well trained.
It wasn’t long before Slater, Kenny, Jedd, Harry and all my other men were landing out on the porch beside me, and the air around the place changed with every twist of thethrottle from one of the bikers out front. So much time had passed since I’d last had to do this, and while I knew it ran deep inside me, the sight of The Emperors patch all over their motorcycles, helmets and cuts had my body tensing so badly, I wasn’t sure how much I could keep myself under control.
My jaw tensed while my hands balled into fists down by my sides. Every tooth in my mouth was pressed down against another and I was grinding them so fucking hard, I was pretty certain I was about to crush the lot. I did a quick scan of the formation in front of us all. The headcount told me there were eighteen men and eighteen motors—a clear, unspoken message that they weren’t here to provide me with anything less than a threat.
Not a single person moved as we stared back at one another like we were in some kind of fucking western. Not even Harry had any words of wisdom for this one. It was only when Cortez held one hand up in the air to silence the men behind him and the sound of the engines faded to nothing but creaking leather jackets and the scuffing of feet on the gravel, that I knew what was about to go down.
Chester had that arrogant smirk going on that made me want to launch myself off the top step and wrestle that fucker straight to the ground. It held nothing in it but assurance and smarm as he swung his leg off his bike and began to make his way over to the bottom of the steps.
Slater took a step closer into me on my left. Jedd did the same on my right. I just stretched my fingers out slowly before curling them back into fists as I watched him stroll closer. Chester scrunched his face up to one side and peeled his sunglasses away from his face.
“Tucker,” he croaked in that raspy, lung-infected voice ofhis. “I heard you got out. Thought it was time to see for myself that the rumors were true.”
I couldn’t find a single word to say as I continued to stare down at him, my nostrils flaring wider and the muscles in my jaw working harder.
“Now you’ve seen, you can go,” Slater answered for me, quietly.
“As welcoming as ever.” Cortez smirked, glancing at the men on either side of me before planting his eyes firmly on mine. “What happened to the brotherhood, huh? What happened to us working together and all that harmony shit you all used to spout?”
“Five years ago happened,” Jedd spoke up, readjusting the weight of his legs, stepping up front even more.
“Not our fault.” Chester shrugged, raising the hand holding his glasses as casually as you could fucking imagine.
“Now is not the time,” Jedd said flatly.
“I think it's the perfect time.”
“You need to leave,” I growled through my teeth, snarling at the fucker that dared to come onto our land and throw that shit up in our faces.
“Ah, I see. I guess the old MC unity has truly gone now, Mr. Tucker.” He grinned up at me, showing off the gold tooth that always looked more like a target to me than anything else. If I could just go down there and…
