“I know, baby. I’m so sorry.” I cried into her hair as I held her and waited for the inevitable. My eyes closed tightly against the impending capture once again.
“Kat.” I opened my eyes to Slyce’s quiet voice and her hand on my shoulder. The man standing behind her looked angry.The cut was unmistakable. I couldn’t see the patch on the man’s back, but I didn’t recognize him as a member of the Death Dogs.
“Kat, this is Stocks. He’s a member of the Silver Shadows. You can trust him.” Slyce looked over her shoulder at the man. “Well, you can trust his vice president.” She stood from her crouch and held out a hand. “Let’s go.”
“Where?” I asked as Frankie and I stood. Frankie hadn’t said a word, just stood close to me with one arm around my waist.
“To Diamond Creek, Nebraska.”
“I can’t do another club, Slyce,” I whispered.
“It’s only for a day or two. Just to get our bearings. His vice president’s old lady is a Nyght Nymph. Between the two of us, you will be safe.”
I stared at the burning structures. Whoever the Silver Shadows were, they’d just blown up the clubhouse and surrounding dwellings. A black SUV drove across the field toward us, and I hugged Frankie tighter.
“It’s okay, Kat, they’re with Stocks.”
I didn’t respond as the vehicle came to a stop and I saw two more men inside. One wearing a cut and one without.
“This is Payne and Eros,” the man Slyce called Stocks said before turning to the men and confirming, “They’re coming with us.”
The ride to Diamond Creek was quiet. Frankie cuddled against me in the back seat while Slyce sat in the middle seat with Stocks. Payne and Eros were in the front.
I woke Frankie as we pulled into the lot. The clubhouse was a huge brick building, with a porch that spanned the front. My immediate thought was how much nicer it was than what the Death Dogs had in Wyoming and in Arizona.
Frankie and I stayed at the back of the group as we entered the building. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it wasn’t this. There were men everywhere with various cuts on their backs.
“Oh fuck!” one man said as he stared at Frankie. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and pulled her back against my chest. I didn’t want to scare her further, but I didn’t know these people.
“Jack? You know them?” another man asked.
“Never met them,” the man named Jack replied, never taking his eyes off my daughter.
A young girl with pink hair pulled my attention from Jack when I heard her call out, “Slyce!”
“My name is King. I’m the president here. Is this your daughter?”
I nodded but didn’t speak. I hugged Frankie tighter.
“You’re safe here.”
Slyce snorted, her eyes glaring at King, and I wondered why she brought us here. She said we’d be safe, but her reaction said the opposite. King raised a brow to Stocks, who only shrugged.
“Church, now.” King walked away toward the double doors on the other side of the room, then turned. “Kytten, would you bring your friend? Zeus, you too.”
King held the door open as we all shuffled inside. I was once more at a loss as to what to expect. I knew what church was, but the way Clay described it, no one outside the club ever entered. Kytten, the girl with the pink hair, led us over to a couple of chairs, and King sank down into his.
“What the fuck happened?”
Payne looked at Stocks and waited for him to speak. I was surprised when he didn’t, as this was Stocks’ club. Clay never would have let someone take credit for his work.
Shaking his head, Payne said, “We got out there and wired everything up. Chatty Cathy over here”—he motioned toward Stocks, and I knew he was being sarcastic—“wired up the barn while Eros and I took the trailers. We were just about to blow them up when Stocks took off running. I guess he’d seen the women and the kid when we hadn’t.
“He ran after them, and a few guys took off after them too. Stocks took them down and yelled for us to blow it up. There is nothing left. We made sure the guys who went after Stocks were dead and threw their bodies in the fires.”
King focused on Slyce. “What about you?”
“This is Kat and Frankie. I was tasked with locating and protecting them. I found them living at the Death Dogs’ compound.”
