I followed him through the crowd, but I could feel her eyes on me, just for a second, sharp as a blade. Like she was trying to figure out what kind of storm I was bringing with me.
I told myself it didn’t matter. I was home after several months away, and we had business to deal with. That was all that mattered right now. But as I sat down across from JD, the whiskey warming my blood, I knew one thing with absolute certainty: Colorado was already getting under my skin.
I forced myself not to look back at her. I’d been back in Rocky Pines for all of five minutes, and the last thing I needed was to get tangled up in a woman who looked like she could gut me with a single sentence—yet I had a gut feeling that she was about to become someone important.
JD dropped into a chair, nodding for me to take the one across from him. I leaned down, shaking hands and patting backs with my brothers—men I hadn’t seen in over six months, and yet it felt like so much longer. Moose had gotten bigger, if that were possible for a man that was already built like a tank. Swampy was wearing more rings than before. The man liked to leave the imprint of his silver rings on every face they came in contact with. And Bear was as love-worn as he’d been when I’d left. Ridge and Confessor were there too, and both men gave me subtle nods as they drank.
Ridge was the sort of man you only went to when you wanted someone taken apart piece by piece. He liked the violence and appreciated the human body in ways that weren’t exactly wholesome. Confessor was a grumbly old bastard who had been with the club for longer than I could remember being alive. Hewas an old-timer that kept his hands in the club at all times and he kept every man in their place, stopping them from losing their goddamn minds at times. The past couple of years, he’d been going wherever Ridge went, and I knew that was on purpose so he could keep Ridge in check.
In my peripheral, I felt the stare of men from other tables. Not hostile, but not welcoming either. Just measuring, and learning their place in the food chain.
I wasn’t in the slightest bit worried. I’d been measured before and I usually came out fine, but I also didn’t want to fuck up the bar, so I kept my eyes on my own table. I was more than willing to get into it if needed, though.
“Appreciate you coming back,” JD said, leaning forward, forearms braced on the table. He looked tired. Not weak. Just worn down in a way presidents got when they were trying to hold too many pieces together at once.
“Didn’t give me much choice,” I said, taking another sip of whiskey. “You said it was urgent.”
“It is.” JD scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “We’ve hadincidents.”
“Incidents,” I repeated. “That the official term?”
“Call it what you want. I like to call it sabotage. Someone messing with our shipments. Someone messing with our business.” His voice dropped. “Someone messing with our people.”
I felt the shift in the air. The men at the table went still, waiting.
“Our people?” I asked.
JD nodded. “Your brothers. This town—its people.”
I didn’t like that one bit.
“Internal?” I asked, appreciating that we were getting straight to business.
JD hesitated, and that told me everything I needed.
“Don’t know yet,” he said, his mouth tight. “But it’s getting worse. I need someone steady who can root out what the fuck is going on.”
Someone who wouldn’t take sides and someone who wouldn’t be afraid to call bullshit on whoever needed it.
“Who’d they get to?”
Bear leaned forward. “I was taking a shipment to the supplier and got jumped.”
I looked at him, noticing the fading bruises and scabbed-over cuts on the side of his face and knuckles.
“Got in some hits of your own?” I asked, quickly assessing my other brothers for anything and noting they were all clean of injuries.
“Of course, what do you take me for?” Bear laughed. “Took one of their fuckin’ eyes out though, brother. Gauged it out myself.”
Ridge made a noise in the back of his throat, and I raised an eyebrow but he stayed silent. Jealousy for the violence, Jesus Christ.
“This sick fucker was carrying it around in a baggie for a week. Checking the hospitals for anyone it might match,” Confessor said with a shake of his head.
Bear held up his hands. “What? I thought that whoever had jumped me would have to go to the hospital at some point. It was a valid point.”
“So what happened?” I asked, drinking the last of my whiskey. Goddamn, but that was good. Bartender hadn’t given me the cheap tourist shit. He’d given me the top-shelf homegrown stuff and I’d be sure to keep his bar intact for it.
Moose leaned in, resting his elbows on the table. “Cops found him. He was buried in a shallow grave half a mile away from our clubhouse.”
