Page 43 of Double the Redemption

“I think you broke him.” Jax snickered. “Dude, it was bound to happen. You can’t remain a washed-up old bachelor like Snake here.”

Snake flipped him off. “I like to keep my options open, and I thought Ink was going to be right there with me. With all of you falling like flies, it’s making me look real good with the club girls.”

His suggestive leer might once have made Ink laugh, but now it only made him feel uneasy.

“Ink’s working through things,” Fury interjected. “Not every night does the lady he’s into bite him like a wildcat.”

A few more laughs.

“Or shoots at our prez here,” Razor added.

Savage flipped him off, earning more laughs.

“Alright, enough. We don’t have time for this shit,” Rogue snapped. He pinned Ink with another hard look. “Are you going to let her walk away, or are you going to claim her? That’s the only damn way we have any chance of keeping her here.”

“She doesn’t want anything to do with me.” Ink sighed. The thought of her leaving because he fucked up made him queasy. But what right did he have to ask her to stay?

“Then you make her want you.” Rogue sneered. “It’s not fucking rocket science.”

“Says the man who stalked his woman and hid in the bushes like one of those crazy assholes in the books she and the ladies like to read.” Jax scoffed. “You could try hiding in her closet, Ink. Might make things more interesting. And less wet and cold.”

Ink ignored him. “Look, I’m barely realizing I want to keep Naomi and⁠—”

“Damn it, not another one.” Snake moaned.

Everyone ignored him. “Grow some balls and figure it the fuck out,” Rogue ordered. “I didn’t want Scarlett or the girls, and now there’s no way I’ll ever let them go.”

“And they’ve made him such a cuddly teddy bear,” Code said deadpan. He grunted when Rogue slapped him upside the head, but still grinned, unrepentant.

“Incoming,” Savage grunted as footsteps sounded outside the door. Ink tried not to panic, keep his face neutral, but the sympathetic looks aimed his way told him he wasn’t successful.

Shit. He had to make up his mind and fast.

The door opened at Savage’s command, and the Devil’s Predators walked in. Cold. Silent. Deadly.

A chill went down his spine. He didn’t look away, but it was a struggle when Taz’s gaze locked onto his, hard and cold. Ink couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Taz look like that. He was so crazy and wild. Seeing him serious made him wonder if they’d misjudged him all this time.

Was Taz the most dangerous in the group? Right now, it certainly seemed like it.

Karissa and Jag weren’t with them. Glitch sat at the end, her Devil’s Predator cut on display. She never so much as glanced at Code, who frowned and pouted. Ink wanted to roll his eyes, but he didn’t know if he dared.

The entire group looked ready to strike them all down.

Simba took the lead, and another chill rushed down Ink’s spine with every word.

“Give us one good reason not to take her and her little boy and stash them away where no one will ever find them again.” Simba’s eyes bored into Savage’s. “Give me one fucking good reason not to walk out that door and not come back here unless we’re called. We came to you, asked for your help, asked you to keep them safe, and you had a fucking party. I don’t fucking care what it was for,” he snapped when Jax opened his mouth. Jax snapped it shut and winced. “You want to party, fine, but you don’t fucking invite outsiders so some of you can get your fucking dicks wet when you know someone on the grounds is in fucking danger.”

“We take full responsibility for what happened, Simba,” Savage said. “The club girl who⁠—”

“The woman and her friends who should never have been on the damn grounds before your nine o’clock start,” Vulture stated. “Naomi was there twenty full minutes before that, when she should have been fine. She told us she planned to leave before they showed. Let in by your fucking prospects at the gate. Who the fuck else have they let in?”

The tension in the room mounted, but no one tried to defend it. What could they say? It was a major failure, and they’d gotten lax. Far too lax.

“And you,” Taz said, his gaze locked on Ink. Ink held his stare, but his fists clenched on his thighs. “It was your girl who started all this shit.”

“She’s not my fucking girl,” Ink snapped. “Kayla was gravely mistaken, and it’s been corrected.”

“Unless she’s in the fucking ground, shit’s been done.” Taz’s voice never increased in volume, but it sure sounded like a shout in his head. “You let that girl think she was something to you. You invited her here. As far as I’m concerned, this shit falls on your shoulders.”