Page 5 of The Riders’ Reign

“Technically, I can’t let her out of my sight,” Ace says. “Sorry. Jack’s orders.”

“Don’t play games, Ace,” Saul snaps.

“Not playing games. If you think for one minute Jack would want her left alone, especially right now, you’ve lost your damn minds.” He shoots them a meaningful look, conveying something I don’t understand.

Saul sighs. “Fine. The girl comes, too. Everyone else, please go back to your homes, and stay inside. Or gather in the bar, but keep safe. I want four armed men on the gates, and at least another three or four walking the perimeter.” He taps Zoo on the arm. “Can you gather everyone’s cell phones? Then bring them to the meeting?”

“What?” one woman says indignantly.

A rippled murmur of outrage passes through the group.

“We need everyone’s phones. Sorry.” Saul is calm but firm.

As Zoo starts to gather the phones from the crowd, we head to the clubhouse, through the bar. Saul takes out a key and unlocks the door to Jack’s office.

I walk in, and Jack’s familiar and sexy smell hits me. I bet he was here earlier. Maybe he even keeps some aftershave in here, because that musky scent grabs me by the throat, and I work to swallow down my sob.

Damn it, Jack, you can’t die on me. Not now. I’d never get over it.

“I still don’t think she should be here,” Saul says. He looks at me, and it’s not with anger, but simply thoughtful. “There’s clearly a leak, and she might be it. I ought to at least take her phone.”

The next moment, Ace has Saul by his collar and shoves him up against the wall. “Take that back! She would never, and anyway she’s been with one of us all the time. I swear, Jack will have your balls for suggesting this.”

“What the fuck, Ace?” Phoenix hauls Ace off Saul and shoves him into a chair. He points at him and snaps, “Stay.”

“I’m not a dog,” Ace snarls.

“Then act smarter than one.” Phoenix pinches the bridge of his nose. “Goddamn it.” He kicks the filing cabinet and starts to pace the room.

“What do you mean there’s a leak?” I ask, looking between the men.

Rook sinks into a chair and looks at me with those gorgeous bright blue eyes of his. “Someone knew we were coming. That was no normal oil spill from a vehicle. That shit was all over the road, right at the worst bend. Then we were ambushed, so yeah. Someone planned that.”

“Maybe the Revenants?” Ace says, almost hopefully.

“No way. This was not them. This was guys in big vehicles, like I said, with blacked out windows and fucking machine guns and Christ knows what,” Rook states. “We need to get all the footage from as many local security cameras we can, and call Normie and ask him to reach out to his contacts in the police. Anything we can find on cameras on the highways or back roads can help. Plus, the cops can run this plate number for whatever it’s worth. I doubt it’ll be real. Does anyone have a way we can access flight logs? See what private planes have come in and out locally? I doubt they fly American Airlines, right?”

Rook is so calm and in control, and it strikes me that he’s stepping up and taking charge.

“The cartel,” I say softly in response to what he’s saying. “It’s my fault. All my fault.” Tears sting my eyes, but I won’t cry in front of everyone, so I blink them back.

“What can you tell us about these men?” Phoenix demands. “Anything you can give us, Camile, could help.”

“I don’t know anything, not really. I mean other than the family name of Sanchez, and I already told Jack and the others that when we first brought Ledger back here. Plus, Ace tortured Ledger and got what information he could out of him. They used to do business with my father, but then it went wrong. I guess we became enemies, and they started to carry out raids against our businesses. I had no idea they’d become powerful enough to do all of this.”

“Could they know what happened with Ledger?” Rook asks, looking around. “Is there anyway they’d have found out we were the ones who took him?”

Phoenix purses his lips. “It’s possible. Someone could be talking, which is why we need the cell phones.”

No one had believed the cartel would come all the way here and hit an MC. Ledger said he was working alone, and I believe he was because why else did he need the help of absolute idiots like the Numbnuts and the hired hang-arounds from the Revenants? Those men weren’t under his control, and they did things he didn’t approve of. If he’d had access to the cartel and their men, he’d have used them.

“None of this makes sense,” I say. “Ledger was here without his family’s help, at least initially. I’m convinced of that.”

“Same,” Ace replies. “I can assure you, he was very thoroughly tortured by me.”

“Sure fucking was.” Big Mike shoots Ace a faintly disgusted look.

Phoenix crosses his arms over his chest, making his biceps bulge. “Right, but the facts remain, either the cartel is after us, or a totally unheard-of enemy has decided to attack for no reason. Hear hooves, think horses not zebras.”