Wolf doesn’t breathe. Doesn’t move. His voice is flat. “You sure?”
“I—I’m notsuresure,” Ryder mutters. “But the flame insignia, the chain and the skull. The placement. It’s fucking close, brother.”
“Fuck,” I breathe, backing up to the kitchen counter, palms braced tight. “Hell’s Army?”
Wolf lowers himself onto the armrest, elbows on his knees. “Doesn’t make any sense. They don’t roll through here.”
“They do now.” Ryder’s jaw tightens. “Or they will if they’ve been working with fucking Glory.”
My stomach churns. The fuckers were thisclose to Charlotte. I want to scream, yell. Tear the whole place down. My mind starts to conjure images of the horrors I know Hell’s Army is capable of.
Charlotte’s sleeping now or trying to, so I don’t let my voice rise when I speak. “I thought it was just Glory.”
Wolf grits out, “We hopedit was just Glory.”
Ryder shakes his head, fire lighting behind his gaze. “You remember how we figured out she was timing her deposits with Charlotte’s tutoring earnings?”
I nod slowly, bitter taste flooding my mouth. How could I not? I’d stared at those fucking bank statements. Let them decide what I believed about her. Never asked questions. Never pushed back.
I swallow hard. “I didn’t even flinch. I just believed it.”
“We know she planned it, Ruin,” Ryder says, softer this time. “Glory was calculative. From the beginning—”
“That’s for sure. And she’s still up to something. We haven’t traced the rest of the hundred grand,” Wolf mutters. “It just vanished. It hasto be about that.”
“That’s not what I’m getting at. And it can’t be about a measly hundred grand if Hell’s Army is involved. I think… she’s been in contact with them since the start,” Ryder says.
My mind whirls, thinking about the timing. How Glory couldn’t have two men from Hell’s Army at her back unless she knew them from before. “Could be,” I answer, my voice low. “Wait. She joined our club eight years ago. Before that? We don’t know shit, do we?”
“Her background check just showed a few foster homes she’d run through,” Ryder says, shrugging. “She also joined us just under a year before Charlotte came to us, though. I doubt that was a coincidence.”
The words hang between us like loaded weapons.
I glance at Wolf. He’s still as a statue, expression unreadable.
“I don’t think she befriended her to steal some damn money,” Ryder says, eyes distant. “This feels… deeper.”
“You think she was planted?” I ask hollowly.
Ryder nods, tension bleeding into his shoulders. “It doesn’t make sense, otherwise. How the fuck would she know another club—enough to grab two of their men—two days after her parole?”
“I don’t understand how Charlotte fits in this.” Wolf frowns, but I can feel the fear radiating off him.
Ryder’s eyes widen. “Fuck. I think… I think Glory came to see her tonight to check if we were keeping watch on her or not. There was nothing of substance she talked about, just spat some bullshit about the money. Fuck!” He paces away slightly, one hand clutching his hair. “Did she want to see if Charlotte was still under club control?”
“Or protection,” Wolf adds quietly.
My eyes snap to his. And everything slots into place with a sickening click.
“Fuck,” I whisper. “And we gave her the answer, didn’t we?”
No one speaks, because the silence says it all. We just showed Glory—and whoever the fuck she’s working with—that Charlotte doeshave Wardens’ protection.
And now? We have no idea what the hell that means. Whether it’s about Charlotte or an act of war on us by one of the deadliest, most vileclubs in the state. Hell’s fuckin’ Army.
I do know one thing. They’re going to learn real fucking fast. She’s mine. Ours. And she won’t ever be unprotected.
TEN
