“We don’t know, but we’re trying to figure it out,” Bush says, tapping his fork on my plate. “You need to eat before it gets cold. You’ll need the fuel today.”
My stomach roils at the thought of eating, but he’s right. I need the fuel, so I lift the fork, but I ask a question before I shovel food into my mouth. “What did he say?”
Chrome gives me the highlights. I’m certain he isn’t telling me everything, but what he says is enough.
“It sounds like Menace thinks I have something that belongs to him. What do they think I have?”
“We don’t know. Not yet. But we have two ideas. Either they want the money your father refused to pay, or they want you.”
“Me? They want me for what?” I take a bite of toast as I consider the situation. “Do they want to use me as bait or something?”
“Maybe, but I don’t think that’s it,” Bush says. He stares at me as if he’s trying to decide what to say. “You don’t know the full reason why I told your dad to get you both out of town. The real reason why I turned on the Bushrangers. They wanted to make an example out of your father when he refused to pay them extortion money.”
“They were going to kill my father?” I ask, believing that would be the type of example they’d set.
“No. Well, maybe, eventually, they would have killed him, but that wasn’t the plan. The plan was to grab you. They were going to hurt your father by hurting you.”
“They planned to kill me?” I ask in a whisper.
“Worse. They planned to rape you. They were going to run a train on you.”
“A train?” I ask, but I don’t need him to explain. I get what he’s saying. Clasping my hand over my mouth, I jump up and look widely about.
Cicely must realize what I need, because she hops up, too, grabs my arm, and tugs me toward the hallway. “This way,” she says as she leads me to the restroom. I burst into the stall and fall to my knees as every morsel I ate comes spewing back up.
CHAPTER 9: BUSH
When Zara runs out of the room, I stand to follow, but Chrome stops me. “Let Cicely take care of her.”
“I shouldn’t have told her about their plans for her,” I grumble as I sit back down.
“You had to,” Chrome disagrees. “She has to know what she’s up against. We’ll protect her, but it will be easier if she works with us instead of against us. If she’s scared, she’ll accept our help.”
I nod in agreement, even though that doesn’t make me feel less guilty for upsetting her. Unfortunately, Chrome’s right, I can't do anything about it now. Cicely will take care of Zara. We need to figure out how to protect her.
“Has Mode found out anything about her father?” Chrome asks.
“Smoke is the one looking into him. I called him, and he said he’ll do the search and hand it off. Mode was resting. Smoke said he or Maestro can come here if we need them since Mode is still recovering.”
“Hmm. You know, it might not be a bad idea to call in some help.” Chrome takes out his phone and makes a call. “Puma, it’s Chrome.”
Puma? Why is he calling Puma? I give Chrome a quizzical look, but he ignores me.
“Yeah, we have a situation, and I was wondering if we could borrow a couple of your guys. Well, in this case, gals. You remember Bush?” Chrome chuckles. “Yeah, that’s him. We have some folks visiting from Australia, but they’re not here to sightsee. They’re the assholes Bush took down. We don’t think they know he’s here, but they’re after someone Bush cares about. The thing is, she’s here for Fashion Week and needs bodyguards.” He chuckles at Puma’s response. “Yeah, we already figured out that a bunch of guys in denim and leather will stand out. I thought maybe Viper and Chill would be better options.”
I nod at Chrome’s suggestion. He’s right. Chill and Viper would blend in perfectly. Fuck, as a former showgirl, Viper could easily pass for a model. I’m thinking about how much better this will work as Chrome continues the conversation.
“I also want to expose my club to Viper and Chill. You know about Scorch and the two traitors we had in our club? We’re still debating about what to do with Scorch, but I want to address the root of the problem. The guys here are used to an environment where the women are all Kutte Bunnies. I’ve got an Old Lady now, and I want them to treat her with respect. They all need to come to terms with change. We may not be looking to patch in a woman yet, but I want to expose them to the possibilities. I figured Chill and Viper were the right ones to show them.”
I consider his plan as he works out the details with Puma. I spot Mode coming out of the hallway and wave at him. He nods before pointing to the kitchen. Next to me, Chrome ends the call and shoves his phone back into his kutte.
“Viper and Chill?” I ask.
He nods. “They’ll be here later today. Puma said Hunter is coming, too. He’s going to ask Rattler if he wants to join as well.”
I nod, knowing that made sense. Hunter is Chill’s man and a prospect for the Las Vegas Chapter. Rattler is Viper’s twin brother and a recent patch. Extra manpower is good.
“Was that Mode I saw?”
