29
SOLANA
“Anyone ever tellyou you’re a big baby?”
Silver scowls at me from where he’s sitting on the edge of the couch, resembling a grumpy bear who got poked one too many times. I press the cold compress gently against his right eye—swollen and already turning a lovely shade of purple after the brawl at the Steel Saloon—and he winces.
“Maybe it’s because I’m fine,” he grumbles, easily catching my wrist in his hand. “I don’t need you fussing over me. It’s not my first black eye, and it won’t be my last.”
I click my tongue, pulling my wrist free and adjusting the compress. “I don’t understand why you were all brawling in the first place. Why can’t you just use your words like adults?”
Silver cocks a brow at me, a hint of dark amusement flickering in his one good eye. “All this coming from the girl who stabbed a guy?”
I narrow my eyes at him. Then pour some extra iodine on a cotton round and apply it to the gash along his jaw.
He hisses sharply, jerking back. “Fuck, Solana?—”
“Oops,” I say in my sweetest voice. “Sorry.”
He stares at me for a beat before chuckling. He grabs me by the waist and wrenches me close, crushing his mouth to mine in a hard, bruising kiss. His split lip must sting like hell, but he doesn’t seem to care.
When he pulls back slightly, his eyes are flashing with carnal heat.
“Yeah, I bet oops. More like payback.” His hand slides up my spine, pressing me tighter against him. “But damn if it isn’t sexy how you’ve got that little spark, baby.”
My cheeks flush, but I refuse to let him distract me. “I think it’s sexy when you don’t let drunk assholes like Tom Cutler get the best of you.”
“I hadn’t planned on using my fists instead of my words,” he admits. “But I’ve had enough. Years of this shit building up... something had to give.”
I sigh, setting down the cotton round and the bottle of iodine on the coffee table. The first aid supplies are scattered across the top of it—bandages, antiseptic, the cold compress that’s already starting to warm.
We’ve been at this for fifteen minutes, and Silver looks like he went ten rounds with a grizzly bear.
He tilts my chin up, drawing my gaze back toward his. “Listen to me. This is serious. It’s not some pissing contest between alpha males anymore. Tom’s taken it to a whole other level.”
“What do you mean?”
“Tom basically admitted to everything. He’s been behind a lot of what’s been going on. He’s been tailing us. He was the one who exposed us to Rachel—fed her information, maybe even told her to check your journal.”
The blood drains from my face. “What?”
“But worst of all...” Silver pauses, like the words taste bitter on his tongue. “He’s working with Wheels. With the Road Rebels.”
An unplanned gasp sputters out of me as I stare at Silver in shock and confusion.
It feels like the floor has dropped out from under me. Tom Cutler—the president of the Steel Kings, Silver’s oldest friend, Mason and Logan’s father—has been working with one of the club’s worst enemies?
“Why?” I croak. “Why would he do that? The Steel Kings is his club. You’re his best friend. I don’t understand…”
He lets out a heavy sigh, briefly closing his eyes as if he’s suddenly pained by a migraine. “Because Tom’s gotten it into his head that I’m responsible for him ending up behind bars. Nothing I’ve said can convince him otherwise. So he’s joined forces with Nathaniel Rollins to basically destroy the club himself. Burn it all down out of spite.”
I stare at him, my mind reeling.
All this time, I thought the threats were coming from outside—from the Peñas or even the Road Rebels. Initially, from Kel and his friends who seemed determined to make my life a living hell.
But the real enemy was inside the club all along. Sitting at the head of the table at events. Wearing the president’s patch.
“Do the rest of the guys know this?” I ask.
