Page 30 of Obey

Frank narrowed his eyes and pressed his lips together, and anger rushed through my body. I’d known Frank a long time, and I knew his expressions like the back of my hand.

He was keeping something from me. Or he was planning to keep something from me.

“Frank,” I said, my voice full of warning.

He held up his hands, acting like he hadn’t been about to lie to me. “I don’t know what it is,” he said quickly. “I only know that something is happening and that it involves Saraya and Sioux. Sioux says she’s got something set up and that at the end of it, she and Saraya might both be free. I don’t know anything more than that. I swear.”

I stared hard at him, trying to figure out how much of that was the truth and how much was a lie. Did he know more than he was telling me? Why would he withhold it, though? If he knew, he’d tell me. He knew how important this was to me.

It could be, I guessed, that this Sioux just hadn’t wanted to give him too much information. Or maybe she didn’t know much about what was about to happen. Saraya was a planner, but she might not be letting Sioux in on her plans, and that made sense. She wouldn’t know for sure whether she could trust the other woman or not, and she’d be worried about Devil finding out what she was up to.

If this was Saraya’s plan, she’d play it close to the vest.

Good girl.

“She doesn’t know any more than that?” I asked slowly.

He shook his head. “Not that she would tell me, at least. Could be that she knows more and isn’t telling me, since we can’t interfere. Whatever’s happening, Boss, we need to let it happen. If Devil has eyes on us and sees us getting ready for anything—anything that might be different in our routine—shit’s going to go sideways on us. And we don’t want Saraya caught in the middle of that shit storm.”

He was right about that. I had no doubt Devil was watching us, which meant we had to act like everything was completely normal. If we looked like we knew something about something, he’d get immediately paranoid, and anyone in his sphere would be in danger.

Especially if they were in the midst of trying to escape.

“So what are we supposed to do, just sit around and wait?” I hated the thought. But I hated thinking about putting Saraya in more danger even more. I didn’t want her trying anything stupid on her own, though I knew I couldn’t stop her.

I’d have to keep her safer in any way I could. And if sitting around pretending I didn’t know she was doing anything kept her safer...

“Once they’ve done whatever it is, Sioux will text me and let me know. And then, we move.”

He looked at me for a moment, his face conflicted, and I had the thought once again that he knew more than he was letting on. Why would he do that, though, unless he knew Saraya was going to do something I wouldn’t approve of?

Just concern, I told myself. He was concerned, the way we all were. Saraya had only been with us a week, but that was all it took for her to become part of our family. We all wanted her back, and we all wanted to kill Devil for what he’d done to Tink and Brock. That was all I was seeing in Frank’s face. And I wasn’t going to give him any trouble for that.

“You let me know the moment you hear anything,” I said sharply. “And I mean the moment, Frank. I don’t want any delays. If my girl is out there and needs me, I want to know about it within seconds, you got me?”

“I got you, Boss,” he said. “We’ve all got you.”

I watched him walk out of the room, going through our own resources. Most of our men were getting out of lockup soon, courtesy of our lawyers and a whole lot of money. The cops hadn’t had anything on them, of course, so it had just been a matter of pressing on the right judges and getting judgements in our favor. It had taken most of the money we had saved up, but it was worth it.

My Banshees were gathering around me and getting ready for the coming war. I was starting to feel like I had my full club at my back again. And that meant that they were all privy to what was going on. They were all ready to go out there and do whatever it took to get Saraya back.

I ground my teeth and turned to the window, pulling my boots on and wondering what we had to eat in the kitchen. I’d been laying around most of the day and it was time to get to work. If we were getting Saraya back tonight, it meant the war would start tomorrow. I still needed to get word out to several of the MCs, and get answers from others about who they were going to back. I needed to make sure we had the weapons we would need and the bikes in order.

I needed to make sure Saraya and I would have a quiet place to sleep tonight, where I could hold her without any interruption. Because if I was getting her back tonight, I was going to want to spend the entire night with her before tomorrow’s war came.

I wondered what the hell she was planning—and if I even wanted to know. Saraya was one of the smartest people I’d ever met, and she knew Devil inside and out. She knew exactly how to push his buttons and manipulate him, and I was betting she’d planned something that could only have come from a mind that knew him that well. I hoped it wasn’t dangerous, though I knew it must be. No escape from Devil’s camp could ever be uncomplicated or safe.

If I knew Saraya, she was planning something dramatic, and I remembered her telling me that she wanted to kill Devil with her own two hands for what he’d done to her. Now he’d killed Tinker and Brock, two men she’d cared for. He’d shredded our club and sent many of us to jail, and then kidnapped her. She’d had reason to hate him when he was only hurting her, but now that he’d started hurting people she cared for...

She was going to try to kill him. I was sure of it.

And she was going to put herself in danger doing it.

I flexed my hands into fists and fought to control my need to protect her, furious with her for what I was guessing she was going to do... and terrified that she’d fail at it.

The idea that I couldn’t do anything to help her, couldn’t ride in there and save her before she had to do anything stupid and reckless, made me want to scream. I’d never felt so ineffective and helpless before. I was a man who did exactly what he wanted to, right when he decided to. I was the head of this motherfucking club! And yet here I was, sitting on the bed and trying to figure out what my girl was going to do to save herself while I did nothing.

Instead of going to save her, the way I wanted to.