Chapter 10 Diesel
TEN
DIESEL
With Makenna pressed against me, my eyes finally drift closed, and I relax for the first time in days.
She’s here.
She’s safe.
She’s mine.
For now.
I trail my fingers over her spine, the tension bleeding out of me with every stroke. She knows everything now. All the dirty shit happening in the club, how badly I fucked up and put us in this position, and she’s still here.
A noise catches my attention. Distance but annoying for a moment, then it morphs into the unmistakable, familiar rumble of pipes.
My pulse skitters.
No one is meant to know we’re out here.
Fuck.
I slide out from under Kenna’s body, careful not to wake her. She makes a sleepy grunt, but her eyes stay shut.
I creep to the window and tug the drapes back as a bike glides to a stop in front of the house.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I can’t breathe as a familiar figure kicks the stand down on his bike.
Riot.
The two parts of my life that I have been desperately trying to keep apart are suddenly colliding in the worst way imaginable. This is not how I planned this.
My spine snaps straight, every inch of me bracing to protect my wife from a man I’ve called brother for years.
I shove my feet into my boots, not bothering to lace them as I slip down the stairs like a fucking assassin.
Maybe I can get him out of here before he sees her.
When I slip out of the front door, he’s got his helmet off and his kutte is tight over his shoulders. Mine’s draped over the end of the bed upstairs and I feel fucking naked standing in front of him without it.
His eyes lock to mine. I expect some irritation—I did disappear without a word—but not the outright hostility I get.
“Been trying to get in touch with you for the last five fuckin’ days,” he snaps the words out.
My shoulders square, loose but ready. The shift in him, the tone—all of it. I read it for what it is. The intention behind it. This isn’t a friendly visit. I can feel the suspicion rolling off him.
The muscle in his cheek twitches as he stares at me. Yeah, he doesn’t trust me. I can see it in the way his fingers linger near his hip and the bulge beneath—his weapon.
The air is thick like treacle between us, and then his eyes lift to the house behind me.
It feels like I’ve been doused in ice. Makenna, my wife, is inside and if he moves an inch toward the door, I’ll leave him bleeding in the dirt. I don’t care if he wears a patch, if he’s loyal to the club, I’ll drop him.
“What are you doing here?”
Anger flashes as he snaps his attention to me. “Are you fucking serious?”
His gaze cuts over my shoulder and I react before I engage my brain. I twist, expecting to see Makenna standing there, but she’s not and when I turn back, Riot has a gun pointed at me. His eyes are cold, his stance a threat wrapped in a promise.
My mouth dries instantly and I freeze. Betrayal burns through my veins as I stare at a man I thought I could trust. I’ve never seen Riot twitchy like this, like a man already preparing to kill his brother before he’s proven his guilt. That puts me on edge instantly
“If you’re going to point that thing at me,” I growl, “you better be prepared to use it.”
“Oh, I’m prepared,” Riot assures me. “I’ve got too much to lose.”
He’s not the only one. We all have stakes in this game.
He doesn’t move either and he hasn’t fired. That tells me he doesn’t want to kill me. So what does he want? My attention? Because he has that. My supplication? No.
“So do it.”
He scoffs and his finger hovers over the trigger. “The only reason you’re still breathin’ is because Dash vouched for you.” He did? That surprises me. We’d… bonded, I guess, but enough for him to put his neck out like this? I don’t know.
“I’d hate to see how you’d turn up if he hadn’t.”
“You’d already be in the ground,” Riot says it casually, like he’s not threatening to kill me. “Dash has got a good heart, thinks the best of everyone. Not me. I don’t trust anyone. I definitely don’t trust someone who goes dark the same night Grub tries to kill three of our brothers.”
I hear what he says, but my mind doesn’t really take it in at first. Then the words filter down. Grub tried to kill… who? Our vice president… I blink. Then I do it again. What the fuck? Does he… does he think I had something to do with this?
Oh, fuck, he does. I angle my body toward the door. Makenna is still inside and I’m facing a man who thinks I’m a traitor.
An enemy.
“Who did he try to kill?”
Riot sneers. “You think I’m stupid? You disappeared off the fucking face of the earth right after that prick set them up. We only managed to track you because we got word that you’d kidnapped some girl and it wasn’t hard to guess you’d bring her here.”
Fuck. That loud mouthed dickhead in the car park must have called it in, like he threatened to.
I was sloppy, and now it’s going to cost me. Every part of me wants to glance back at the house, check Makenna’s still hidden, but I don’t dare.
“She a part of whatever plan you and Grub are cooking up, or should I say was cooking up since Nic sprayed his fuckin’ brains all over the tarmac.”
Sweat beads on the back of my neck. Everything I feared is staring me in the eyes and I’m standing here like a complete idiot unable to protect even myself, let alone her.
My mind, usually calm, is racing. My thoughts collide with each other, but the only one ringing out loudly is I have to get Makenna out of here.
Riot has no idea the turmoil swirling inside me or the lengths I’ll go to for her. There’s calculation in his stance that says he’ll end me right here and won’t hold an ounce of remorse about it.
“You don’t seem surprised,” Riot remarks, the gun still levelled at me.
“I’m not.”
“Because you knew Grub was going to hit us?”
I grit my teeth. Is he really this fucking blind?
“Because this has been on the cards from the moment the Pioneers first hit us. Look around, Riot. Our chapter has been imploding for years. The resentment, the power plays quietly simmering in the background while everyone is moving chess pieces around as if no one notices. You think I didn’t see you, Mace, Nic, and now Dash have been playing the game too. ”
He pushes his tongue against the inside of his cheek. “You sell us out?”
“No.”
I don’t elaborate. He’s either going to believe me or he’s not.
“Prove I didn’t make a mistake keeping you alive. Because I want to trust you, man, but I’ve got to think about my family. If you’re a risk to them—”
“I’m not.”
“Right, and I guess it’s just coincidence that you went off grid the moment this shit went down?”
I drop my voice low, and when I speak every word is measured. “You think I’d run from this?”
His gun lifts higher, moving from my chest to my head. “I think you picked a side, and I ain’t sure if it’s the right one.”
I risk taking a step forward, slow and deliberate, careful not to spook him. “I’ve bled for this club, killed for it, sacrificed for it. If I wasn’t loyal, do you think you’d still be breathing?”
If Riot really believed I’m dirty we wouldn’t be talking.
He’d have put me in the ground the second he rolled up.
The fact he’s in front of me alone tells me more than his words and actions do.
Mace would never have let his brother come without back up if they all really thought I was a threat.
This little show of fucking dramatics is a test, a sanity check.
He’s being cautious, of course he is. He’s got Ivy and their daughter at home.
He’s walking the line between duty and survival.
I would do the fucking same in his shoes.
“I think you disappeared the moment things went to shit.”
I need to calm him, distract him. Move him the fuck off the property. I’ve never been one to use words to fix things, but right now that’s all I have. “Coincidence. Bad timing. Pick your poison,” I say.
“I don’t believe in coincidence, Diesel.”
The space between us tightens, like the air is shrinking around the weight of the accusation against me. “I don’t have to prove to you that I’m loyal to the patch.”
“From where I’m standing you ain’t doin’ that anyway.”
My control snaps. He’s looking in the wrong fucking direction, and even though I understand why he thinks I’m the problem, I don’t have the patience for this. “You don’t know shit about where I’m standing.”
He opens his mouth to reply, but then his gaze lifts behind me. I almost don’t look, not falling for that shit again, but then I hear the crunch of gravel, and my stomach drops through the floor.
Makenna is running toward us, barefoot. Her hair is a tangle around her face, the hoodie I put on her before we tried to sleep is drowning her.
She is fucking beautiful, but also a nightmare. My heart stutters as she throws herself in front of me like a shield and wraps her arms around me like a vice. Her back is protecting my chest from the very real, very dangerous gun still pointed at me.
“Don’t shoot him! Don’t!”
I’ve never felt fear like this. I didn’t know it was possible to be this scared. The one thing in my life that means everything is standing in front of me, trying to save me from a bullet.
I twist her away from the danger, even as she clings to me like a barnacle. My pulse is roaring in my ears, and I’m shaking so hard my teeth rattle. I fold around her like a protective blanket.
I brace for the pain, but he doesn’t fire.
I grab her face between my hands, unable to hide my terror. “Get inside!”
“No. I’m not going to let him kill you.”
Her eyes are wet, wide and wild. Panic claws at my throat, and I glance back over my shoulder at Riot. “You point that gun at her again and I swear on my fucking life, I’ll make you eat that bullet yourself.”
Riot stares at Makenna, then at me. “That what you’ve been doing up here while the club is fucking imploding? Getting laid? You chose pussy over the patch?”
It’s oil on a burning fire. I keep Makenna behind me as I prowl toward him, ready to rip his throat out with my fucking teeth. “Talk about her like that again and Ivy won’t find anything of you to bury.”
I’m snarling, more beast than man right now. My fingers itch to fight, to protect.
The disbelief on his face would be funny if I didn’t have Makenna pressed to my back. Her fingers dig into my sides like she’s not sure whether to pull me back or hang on tighter.
I track every twitch of Riot’s fingers like a bomb tech watching a countdown to detonation.
There’s betrayal burning in his eyes, and I get it.
If I was in his shoes this wouldn’t have been a discussion.
He’d be bleeding out on the ground. But he wants to understand.
I see it beneath the hurt. He wants blood, but righteous blood.
“Who the hell is she, Diesel?”
“None of your fucking business.”
I glare at him, expecting that to be the end of it, but then Kenna throws another match onto the fire.
“I’m his wife, and if you shoot him, I swear you won’t live long enough to walk out of here.”
My heart sinks into the floor. Because whether she understands it or not Makenna just handed him the only weapon that can be used against me.
Her.