“We got something we didn’t ask for,” Blackjack said carefully. “Something big. Bigger than me, you, or the Giorlandos. I don’t know the full of it yet. But I know if it gets into the wrong hands, it won’t just be my clubhouse catching fire.”
“And you’re so sure your hands are the right ones?” she asked.
“I’m sure I’m trying to stop a wildfire from exploding more than it already has,” he said. “If whoever’s hunting that bike finds out you’ve got any piece of it, they’ll come for you next. Your girls. Your bars. Your shelters. They’re not street punks. They’ve got military training and cartel money.”
On the other end, she laughed. Sharp, humorless. “I appreciate you worrying about my girls,” she said. “But us Vipers have teeth. We take care of our own.”
“You ever gone head-to-head with mercenaries trained to move like a unit?” I cut in before I could stop myself. “Because we did tonight. They weren’t just playing bikers. They were soldiers on steel horses.”
There was a beat of silence. I realized I hadn’tspoken to her directly before. Not like this. Not as more than a rumor behind Blackjack’s eyes.
“And that must be your enforcer,” she said. “Voice matches the reputation. Jersey Boy, was it?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“I’ve heard about you before. Hear you play cards like the devil and hit like a truck,” she said. “Impressive resumé. Still doesn’t change the fact you boys brought something nasty into my neighborhood without asking.”
“Wasn’t planned,” I said. “Bike wasn’t supposed to go that far north. Neither was he. He moved it because he smelled danger. He went down trying to keep that danger off our doorstep and yours.”
Another pause. I could almost feel her weighing the truth under my words.
“This is why I don’t mix business with men,” she said at last. “You all leak.”
Blackjack snorted quietly.
“You want that toy back,” she went on, the edge back in her tone. “You’re cutting me in.”
I straightened. “No,” I said.
“No,” Blackjack echoed. “You don’t want a piece of this Riann. I promise you.”
“Sweetheart,” she said, and I could hear the grin in it. “I’ve had your balls in a vice before. How’s the pressure these days?”
Despite everything, a ghost of a smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. Blackjack’sexpression didn’t change.
“Still attached,” he said. “Trying to keep them that way.”
“Then don’t tell me what I do or don’t want,” she said. “If a storm’s rolling through my sky, I’m getting a weather report and a cut of the lightning.”
“You’ll get information,” Blackjack said. “You won’t get tied to that bike. You take a cut from this, you’re not just in the storm, you’re on the lightning rod. I don’t know whose involved. But if they find out Shore Vipers put their hands in that pot, they’ll do more than send dirty cops to hassle your girls.”
“And you think they’ll stop at your door if I play nice?” she asked. “You’re adorable.”
“This isn’t me being noble,” he said. “It’s me being practical. You’re a stabilizing factor up there. You keep the worst men off the women who got nowhere else to go. If your clubhouse turns into a battleground, half this side of the state loses its only safe space. That makes the streets hotter for all of us.”
For the first time, her voice softened. Just a fraction. “You always did know how to stack an argument,” she said. “We will get the bike from the junkyard once we track it down. As for everything else, fine. No cut. For now. But if this is as big as you say it is, you’re going to owe me something down the line.”
“I already do,” he said.
She let that sit. “One man,” she repeated. “He comes in. No pack of bikes behind him. My girls see more than one Devil’s Aces cut near that hospital, they’regoing to assume it’s an invasion.”
“He’ll respect your line,” Blackjack said. “He’s there to check on our brother, not stir your pot.”
“See that he remembers it,” she said. “And Alice?”
“Yeah.”
“Whatever this bike is,” she said, “put it in a deeper hole. I don’t want my streets becoming a shortcut in somebody else’s war.”
