Fucking Hardy. He was my president, but just lately I’d been coming to the conclusion that he was more out for himself than his brothers. That this wasn’t a club but a way for him to direct us to do his dirty work. The strange thing was, being a soldier for the Devil’s Highwaymen had never been clean work, yet it was only recently that I’d begun to feel dirty from it.
Killing, torturing, kidnapping—none of that had ever fazed me. When you grew up like I did, there wasn’t much you hadn’t seen before you were out of diapers. But after what went down with Ripped and Battle, something had changed inside me.
I was questioning every order, every motive, every decision, instead of doing what my president ordered. People were beginning to notice. But worse,Ididn’t like the man I was becoming. I couldn’t decide if it was me that was seeing things that weren’t there, or Hardy that was pulling strings.
It was why this job had to go right.
I loved my club and needed to pull it back together. I was driving a wedge between myself and my brothers, and the only way to fix the gaping chasm was to find out who the mole was and show Hardy that I still had his—and the club’s—back. That I could still be his soldier and follow orders.
I needed to get things back to normal, but while no one was being made accountable for Skinny being shot and Hardy turning a blind eye to the issue, it was getting harder and harder to do.
Gauge and I sat in silence staring off into the sunset, watching as the sun dipped under the Atlanta horizon, both of us thinking our own dark thoughts but neither of us voicing them.
“I’ve gotta get back,” I finally said, taking a deep breath.
“Let me know if you need anything,” Gauge said. “Keep her hidden until I say so.”
I nodded and started my bike before grabbing my helmet and pushing it back on. I turned to look at Gauge. He looked like he wanted to say more but was trying to decide if he should or not, so I gave him a nudge in the right direction.
“You can trust me, brother.”
It was his turn to nod now. “My life for my brothers.”
“And my brothers for life,” I finished for him. I reached out and we shook hands in agreement. I liked Gauge, he’d always been straight up and to the point, none of this shady shit which Hardy had him doing recently.
“You don’t trust anyone with information on the girl but me. You hear me?” he said.
“Got it.”
I waited, because there was still more.
He dragged a hand over his beard, his eyes growing hard. “Not even Hardy right now.”
And there it was: the coffin being pried open to reveal the club’s dirty secrets. I wasn’t the only one who didn’t entirely trust Hardy. It was a relief, in some ways, to know that I wasn’t going fucking crazy in my suspicions.
“I hear you,” I replied. I held out a hand and he shook it before jutting his chin out to me.
I spun my bike the opposite way and began the short ride back to the safe house and Penny.
~ 6 ~
Fighter
Her scream echoed from the walls of her room, bouncing around from floor to ceiling and side to side. She’d been screaming like that for over an hour now, trying to get my attention, but all she was really doing was wearing herself out.
She thrashed on the bed, rattling her cuffs against the metal frame, smearing blood from the gashes the cuffs had left on her down her arms. It was a fucking beautiful sight. She screamed loud and long again, but this time the scream was cut short as her body suddenly went limp, her head sagging to one side.
My hand holding my coffee mug paused on its way to my mouth, my eyes trained on the small screen until I saw the small telltale twitch of her left foot that told me she was bluffing. I smirked and shook my head before taking another sip of my coffee.
Five minutes went by before she finally opened her eyes and stared right at the camera, lifting her head off the pillow so she could get a better angle. Woman looked like she was trying to stare into my very soul and if I had one it would be chilled to the fucking bone right now.
“Fuck you!” she screamed, and thrashed again, and I chuckled and set my mug down so I could pick up my burger. “Fuck you, you fucking creep!”
I saluted her in agreement and took a large bite of my burger. Goddamn, it was good. Really fucking good. I chewed and swallowed and took another large bite before finishing it off with a third.
She’d stopped screaming by the time I was washing my mouth out with a beer, and I wondered how hungry she must have been right then. Not to mention thirsty. But the real kicker was she still hadn’t pissed. Over twenty-four hours I’d had her there and she was, no doubt, just barely holding on to that bladder of hers.
I didn’t give a shit though.
