12. Kane
TWELVE
KANE
Dance music drummed in Kane’s, the heavy bass beat vibrating the floors and trembling the walls. Pulsing so deep I could almost see the strains distort the air.
I was in my office in the far back of the old building, sitting at my enormous mahogany desk and staring down at the tumbler full of scotch. Unable to stomach actually drinking it, but somehow, having my hand wrapped around the glass provided some sort of placebo effect.
Numbness coming on all while I could feel myself fraying apart at the edges.
Unable to stop seeing the image of that little girl that had been imprinted in my mind. A brand-new tattoo that had been marked on my soul.
All while I toiled with the parting words Emery had given.
A clear-cut statement that she wanted me to stay out of the little girl’s life.
Maci.
Maci, Maci, Maci.
Her name spun around me like a dream.
A daze that dragged me into confusion .
Which of course, then led to another.
Emmalee Voss.
No matter how much I wracked my brain, I still came up with nothing.
No recollection of who Maci’s mother might be.
A rapping sounded at the door, and my head snapped up. I hadn’t even realized it was close to midnight. The distinguished time for Sovereign Sanctum’s meetings.
I didn’t have time to call come in before Otto came striding through like he owned the place. Dude a fucking brute and wearing that giant-ass grin he hadn’t been able to wipe from his face since he’d finally given into this thing between him and Raven.
Wearing jeans and a plain white tee and his old motorcycle boots.
Covered in tats, the same as the rest of us.
“Hey, brother,” he said as he stepped through.
I fought for one of the smiles that normally came easily for me, but tonight felt impossible to find. “What’s up?”
His brow arched as he came deeper into the room. “You tell me.”
“Just have something I want to discuss.”
“That why your expression is glum as fuck?” From ten feet away, he made a circle around my face with his index finger.
I managed a smirk and stretched my arms out to the sides. “You mean handsome as fuck?”
He laughed like the action put him at ease, and he came and sat on the opposite edge of my desk. “No one would notice since you’re sitting a little too close to me.”
Dude wagged his brows, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Keep dreamin’, asshole,” I told him.
“Oh, I am absolutely dreaming. Living the dream. No question about it.”
There was a quick tap at the door before it was pushed open again, and Theo and River came waltzing through. Cash lumbered in on their tail, and he shut and locked the door behind them.
Second he did, I stood and moved to the huge bookshelves that took up an entire wall of my office. Pulling out two old, tattered books from the middle shelf, I revealed the keypad that was hidden behind them, and I punched in the code to release the latch.
It gave with a thunk, and I pulled open the section of bookcase that hid the passageway that led to the basement below.
“Ready?” I asked, turning back to my crew.
“Yup,” River said.
Speculation brewed in his expression, no question wondering what this was about.
River was a beast, midnight hair and eyes, dressed head to toe in black. He had tats rolling up his thick throat, five stars dotting his hairline, so menacing people tended to cross to the other side of the street when they saw him coming.
I took to the narrow stairway that led down into the pit below my office. This area was musty as fuck, dingy and dank, the walls brick and the floor a raw, exposed concrete.
A single light hung over the round table that sat in the middle of the enclosed space.
I took my spot, the same as each of my brothers did, chair legs screeching against the floor as we settled.
River glanced around at us before he pushed his left fist tattooed with the stacked Ss with the dagger running through into the middle of the table.
The rest of us did the same, touching our knuckles together in the middle, and he rumbled, “I call to order this meeting of Sovereign Sanctum.”
Immediately, his attention traveled to Cash, voice rough with the severity, diving right into business because down here, we didn’t fuck around. “What intel do we have?”
With a sigh, Cash scrubbed a massive mitt over his face and down his trimmed beard as he sat forward in his chair. Cash had a country flare about him, his brown hair cut short. Wearing a cap, a flannel, jeans, and work boots, though he never hesitated to climb onto his bike like the rest of us.
“Surveillance is showing that fucker pretty much doesn’t let her out of his sight.
Only time she’s been seen out on her own is when she’s dropping the little boy off at school and picking him up in the afternoon.
Means this is gonna have to be done in broad daylight, and we all know that makes it risky as shit.
Plus, her best friend has barely been able to get in contact with her. ”
Her best friend was the one who facilitated the extraction. Had reached out to one of the local shelters seeking help. Information had gotten passed along through one of the counselors who we’d screened and brought into our trust for when she came across the direst of situations.
That’s exactly what this was.
Dire.
Because the woman we were getting out didn’t even know we had plans to do it.
The only verification we had that she wanted help was her best friend had managed to get her alone long enough to ask if there was a way to get her and her son out of their situation, would she do it.
Her answer had been yes.
And this whole thing was riding on that ye s.
“Means she’s gonna flip when I grab them to get them the hell out of there because I’m not going to have time to explain.” River gave a grave nod. “Goin’ to think someone’s out to hurt her. That is if her piece of shit husband isn’t already watching from the sidelines.”
Bile rolled in my throat, and the rose on the back of my hand burned. Same reaction I always got when I heard about some piece of shit harming the ones they were supposed to love most.
Protect and care for the most.
Rage rolled out of River as he rocked back in his chair. Guessed we all pretty much suffered the exact same reaction.
I forced myself to take a sip from my drink, a bolster as I relished in the fire gliding down my throat, before I set the tumbler onto the table and looked at one of my oldest friends point blank. “You aren’t going to be the one to do it.”
Some contortion of confusion and ire twisted through River’s features. “The fuck are you talking about? ”
“Yeah?” Otto added as he sat back and crossed his arms over his chest.
I glanced at Theo who was sitting over there chewing at the inside of his cheek. He gave me an I told you so shrug of his shoulder.
I let my attention ride over my entire crew. Rolling from Theo to Cash, then to Otto and on to River before I finally spoke. “We might have been ignoring it, but every single one of us knows things have changed.”
“How so?” River’s head cocked to the side.
I scraped out a harsh laugh as I sat forward. “Whole reason we had the rule that we didn’t get involved with women is because this shit is dangerous. Not knowing when we are going to come to our end.”
All of us had always been willing to make that sacrifice.
But there was a whole ton more riding on this now.
River stirred, irritation riding through his nerves as he was hit with what I was saying.
Wondered what he’d think if he knew that I devolved into far darker things than this all the time.
I held my hand up to stop the rebuttal I knew was coming.
“It’s not a criticism, River. It’s just the truth. Two of you have families now.” I pointed between him and Otto. “We are long since past holding to the creed that we have to go it alone. It no longer stands. But that also means other things are going to have to shift.”
I let my attention slide to Otto. Otto who’d let it slip to me the other night that he and Raven were trying to get pregnant. Information I doubted River was privy to yet, and I wasn’t going to just toss it out there like a careless prick.
But Otto knew exactly what I was implying.
Both of them did.
A vision of that little girl flashed through my mind. Those chubby cheeks and dimpled chin and megawatt grin.
Those unmistakable eyes.
In a split, it felt like my chest got rent wide open, rib cage cracking at the force .
Heart pumping wild and fierce.
I fought it, sucking the reaction down and focusing on what had to be done right here.
Right now.
“Nolan has been with me for years,” River argued, though there was no spite behind it.
“Know it. And don’t tell me that hasn’t nagged at you this whole time. And now you’ve got Charleigh, too.”
“Charleigh who supports everything we do. One hundred percent.”
“Same as Raven,” Otto said with a dip of his chin.
I blew out some of the strain. “That doesn’t mean either of you should be putting yourselves in the line of fire. Not when you don’t have to. Not when there is someone else who can stand in your place.”
Otto sighed in frustration. “We each have our roles.”
“Yet we all started out the same,” I said.
Murderers. Thieves. Our days spent riding with the Iron Owls MC ensuring that. Our list of sins long and debased. Corruption seeded into our beings.
Only we’d taken it and used our brutality for this .
Jaw clenched, River rocked back farther. “You think you’re less important than the rest of us?”
Shrugging, I went for a nonchalant smile that likely came out a grimace. “Pretty sure to your little family, I am far less important than you.”
He was Nolan and Charleigh’s lives.
“That’s bullshit thinkin’, man,” Otto gruffed as he slanted his fingers through the longer pieces of his light brown hair. “Skewed as fuck.”
“And also the truth.”
Another flashfire of that little girl’s face blistered through my mind, this time accompanied by the memory of the woman I couldn’t extinguish. The way she’d felt against me. The warmth of those hands and the sanctuary of those eyes .
Like in that momentary sliver of time, we’d found respite in each other.
Fuck, how I’d wanted to be that for her.
Her peace.
This crazy thing inside me that wanted to make her mine .
That flagrant stupidity pierced me on a fiery arrow, and I gritted my teeth and forced the inane thought down.
She didn’t want a fucking thing to do with me, same as she didn’t want me anywhere near that kid.
My kid.
Fuck.
Nearly choked on it, the bolt of awareness that was making me contemplate reckless things.
River shifted his gaze to Theo and Cash who sat next to each other. “Either of you have thoughts on this?”
It wasn’t just what River and I wanted. Sovereign Sanctum was majority rule.
Everything put to a vote.
Of course, both he and Otto had gone around that with Charleigh and Raven, but some things were just going to come to be, no matter what any of us had to say about them.
“Think Kane is right. Things have changed,” Theo rumbled, jutting his chin at me.
Cash nodded. “Yeah, no sense in stacking risk when there is an alternative. That is if Kane really wants to take it on?”
I was the money guy.
The launderer.
Taking whatever Cash swindled with his hacking and spinning it so we could use it to support what we did. Using it to set up families that we’d gotten out of these horrible situations.
Using it to support ourselves so we could do it, though every business we’d opened here in Moonlit Ridge had begun to flourish—except for those couple of dives that served as the perfect cover.
And this time, I was going to be the enforcer. The one who got them out under any means necessary .
“Think we do it together.” Theo’s claim cut through the tense air.
I frowned. “That wasn’t what I?—”
“This one’s gonna be messy,” he growled, cutting me off. “Think we all know it, and I think we need to plan for the likelihood of you needing backup. Besides, I haven’t seen any action in a long time. Your boy is getting bored.”
He grinned.
All teeth.
A coarse chuckle rumbled out of me, and I wondered if any of us would ever fully be rid of it. The perverted thrill that came with taking out the sleaze.
“Sounds like it’s settled then,” I said, sitting back and glancing around at each of my crew.
My family.
The only ones in this world I’d ever trusted. Ones who’d had my back in every way. From the moment I’d had my world destroyed and had been left without anything.
A sigh of surrender pilfered out of River, and he stuck his fist back in the middle of the table. “All right then. We put this to a vote.” He hesitated before he mumbled, “Aye.”
Each of us did the same, and a roll of “Ayes” went around. A consensus.
Theo and I were going, not that I wouldn’t already be involved in something far seedier next week. Because they could never know my true failure.
What I’d done.
What I’d caused.
And I’d spend the rest of my life trying to make amends for it.
River began to close the meeting, the same way as we always did, his voice a low slash as he intoned, “Our oath to the afflicted. Our oath to the forsaken. Our oath to Sovereign Sanctum.”
We all repeated it before we stood. The second the meeting was adjourned, the mood immediately shifted. Casual conversations struck up as my brothers began to climb upstairs .
Otto, Theo, then River.
I held back, eyeing Cash who obviously knew I had something to say since he did the same.
I was unable to stop myself. The urge to take action.
This need I couldn’t turn away from, even though I had no fuckin’ idea what to do with it.
When they were out of earshot, I leaned in close to Cash and muttered, “I need a number.”