23
TEX
The night felt wrong.
Too loud. Too bright. Too full of shit I didn’t want.
Music pounded through the clubhouse, the bass rattling the walls like a second heartbeat. Laughter echoed off the walls. Glasses and bottles clinked together, and women moved between bodies like smoke, perfume and sweat mixing into something thick enough to choke on.
This place had always been home, but tonight it felt more like a cage.
I leaned against the bar, whiskey in hand, staring into the amber liquid like it might give me the answers I needed. It didn’t. It never did. But it burned going down, and right now that was enough.
We’d spent hours in the Chapel earlier—just me, JD, Moose, Swampy, and Bear. Others had stood outside waiting, furious that they hadn’t been brought in. Offended that they hadn’t been trusted.
I couldn’t blame them, I would have felt the same, but I also couldn’t allow them in.
It hadn’t mattered though, we’d gotten nowhere.
No leads on the cartel.
No idea who was feeding them information.
No idea how deep this shit went.
Just a whole lot of dead ends and rising tension.
“Someone’s talking,” JD had said, voice low, dangerous. “And when I find out who, I’ll handle it—handle them.”
Yeah. He would.
But that didn’t help us right now, and it sure as hell didn’t help Rowan.
Dealing with it when we caught them didn’t stop the bullets, and it didn’t stop the image burned into my brain—her body going limp in my arms, blood soaking my hands.
I tightened my grip on the glass.
I’d left her at the ranch.
Left Gods in charge of keeping her safe.
I’d thought I was doing the right thing, but now I wasn’t so sure. Because every second I was here, she was there without me, and right now it felt like I was the only one I could truly trust.
“You look like you wanna kill someone.”
Jordan slid up beside me, hip bumping mine like she’d done a hundred times before. She smelled like cheap vanilla and trouble.
“Maybe I do,” I muttered.
She smirked. “Well, I guess you’re in the right place.”
I didn’t answer her. I didn’t feel like playing tonight. Hell, tonight, I didn’t feel like anything.
Her eyes studied me for a second longer before she sighed dramatically. “Jesus, you’re worse than usual. That ranch girl really got under your skin, huh?”
My jaw tightened. “Careful,” I said, my voice low.
She held up her hands in mock surrender, but her grin didn’t fade. “Relax, I’m just saying, you look like a man who forgot how to have fun.”
