She sauntered back to the bar, hips swaying, leaving me alone with nothing but blood on my hands and Lucy still burning on my lips. The sound of Gabby’s heels faded down the hallway, but the echo of her words lingered, sharp and insistent. I closed my eyes, dragging a hand down my face again.Lucy.Her mouth. That kiss. The fury in her eyes.
I hated her. Ishouldhate her. She was Caleb’s little sister, off-limits and a liability I couldn’t afford. Every part of me screamed to push her away, to erase the taste of her from my memory.
But my body... my body refused to cooperate. My hands itched to grab her, my chest ached to hold her close, and every nerve was alive with the memory of her fight, her fire, her insistence.
I pressed my hands to my eyes and took a deep breath. I needed to see Link about the missing cash. Hurrying from the room, I made my way downstairs, desperate for the distraction.
I found Link in the back office, hunched over a ledger like the numbers might confess if he stared hard enough. He was a muscular bastard, glasses crooked on his nose, tattoos running down both arms, but his hands were steady as a surgeon. That’s why he was Treasurer, because Link didn’t flinch where money was concerned.
“Tell me it’s a mistake,” I said, shutting the door behind me.
He looked up, eyes flat. “No mistake. The cash is short. Not by a little either. Ten grand gone.”
My jaw tightened. “Club funds?”
“Club funds,” he confirmed, tapping the ledger. “From the shipment we lost. Someone is talking, but we already knew that.”
“And that someone wears a patch?”
Link didn’t answer right away. He closed the book, slow. “If it was an outsider, we’d have blood already. This quiet? This close? It’s inside, Pres.”
The words sat heavy on my chest. Missing money wasn’t about bills or whiskey. It was about weakness, cracks in the brotherhood.
“So, now we got two bodies and missing cash,” I muttered. “That’s not a coincidence.”
Link leaned back in his chair, arms folded. “You think Ghost found out?”
My throat tightened at the mention of Caleb’s road name. “He was asking questions before he died. Said he didn’t trust anyone, not even some of the brothers. Maybe he figured out who was leaking info.”
Link’s jaw worked. “If he knew and he was about to bring it to you?—”
“Then someone made sure he never got the chance,” I finished, the weight of it sinking in.
I left Link in the office with the ledger closed, but the burden pressing in on us. Ten grand gone, maybe a brother’s hand behind it, and Ghost zipped into a bag for knowing too much.
The walls of the clubhouse felt too tight, the air too heavy. I needed out.
I stormed back into the main room and found the brothers already scattered, beers and cards in hand. Their voices dropped when they saw my face.
“Gear up,” I barked. “We’re riding out.”
Bishop straightened. “Now? It’s past midnight?—”
“Now.” My voice cracked like a whip. “Move.”
They didn’t question me again. Chairs scraped and boots thudded.
Ten minutes later, engines roared through the night, like thunder rolling down the street. I tore out at the front, the wind biting hard at my face, the road a blur beneath my tires.
But I wasn’t riding to clear my head—I was riding to lose it.
Looking for a fight, for fists and blood and anything brutal enough to burn the thought of Lucy Kane from my mind. I wanted chaos and violence, the kind of storm only steel and speed could deliver.
Because if I didn’t bleed it out, it was going to consume me whole.
Chapter 13
Lucy
