Chapter 11 Makenna
ELEVEN
MAKENNA
Zane’s fingers twitch against my back, like he’s trying to hold together the pieces of us I just detonated. I didn’t mean to drop that bomb, but I panicked. Walking outside to a gun aimed at my husband’s head is an image I’ll never scrub out of my brain.
So I didn’t think. All I cared about was stopping him from dying, even if I had to take that bullet myself.
But now he’s looking at me like I dropped a match in a room doused in petrol.
My stomach knots as he trembles in my arms. He’s scared, and that terrifies me. I can only count a handful of times where he’s truly been afraid and shown it. Usually, he keeps his emotions locked down tight.
“Zane?”
He brushes my hair back from my face, so gentle, so different from the sharp edges he’s carrying in his body. “Wish you hadn’t done that, firefly.”
“He was going to kill you,” I whisper.
His lips brush against my forehead, and I cling to his biceps like he’s a life raft in stormy waters. I hate how cold his skin feels under my fingers.
I don’t know why it matters that this guy knows I’m Zane’s wife, but clearly, it’s a big deal. “Stay behind me.”
Zane turns and shields me like a wall. I curl my fingers into the back of his shirt, like it’ll keep him tethered to me, but he’s not invincible.
He can’t stop bullets.
Then, in a voice I’ve never heard from him, he snarls, “You point that gun at her again and I’ll kill you. I don’t give a shit if you’re wearing the patch, I’ll put you in the fucking ground.”
There’s a beat of silence and I can barely breathe through the tension. I should have stayed in the house, out of sight.
“She’s your… wife?” I can’t see the other man’s face, but I can hear the shock threading through his voice. “Since when?”
Come on, Zane… just leave.
“You really give a shit about my private life, Riot?”
Riot… Of course that’s his name. It fits. He looks like the kind of guy who lives for chaos.
“You bein’ married ain’t private. It’s club business.”
I peek around Zane, my gaze gravitating to the gun still aimed at us. My fingers tighten in Zane’s shirt. I hate this guy. Who does he think he is? Our marriage has nothing to do with him, or the Sons.
Zane agrees. “She’s not club business. She’s my business.”
Riot laughs, an ugly, dark sound that makes my stomach flip. “That ain’t how it works, and you know it. So I’ll ask again, Diesel. How long have you been married?”
Silence stretches like a band pulled too far. We’re all waiting for it to snap back.
“Long enough.”
That’s an understatement. We were in single digits when we first met. Fifteen when we realised we loved each other. Twenty-two when he was put in jail for defeating my monsters. And twenty-six when he married me.
Thirty when I left him divorce papers on our kitchen table and tried to disappear as if we never existed.
“For four years, you’ve sat at our table, worn the patch and never said a fucking word about having a wife. Do you see how that looks?” Riot says.
The nausea that has been rolling through me since this nightmare started sits in the back of my throat, burning. Don’t puke, Makenna. Not right now. Not when you need to be here to protect the only person who has ever loved you.
“I don’t give a shit how it looks,” Zane says in that tone he uses when he wants to tell the world he’s unbothered, but I know him. He’s internally unraveling.
“You should. Men who are disloyal disappear and if you ain’t on the right side of this I will put you down without blinking.”
I flinch, burying my face against his spine. No. I’m not losing my husband to this club.
Zane reaches behind him, his big hand wrapping around my hip. It makes my eyes burn that he’s offering comfort even though he’s the one staring down death.
“You want to talk about loyalty, Riot? I’ve bled for this club. I’ve done things that made me question everything and I still nearly lost the only thing that’s ever—” He breaks off, sucking a breath in through his nose. I squeeze his side. I’m still here. You haven’t lost me.
He relaxes under my touch, just enough to continue. “How do I know you’re loyal? You show up here alone, pointing a gun at me after telling me our VP lost his mind and had to be killed? And I’m supposed to just trust you?”
“Whether you think I’m loyal or not really depends on whose side you’re on.”
“And whose side do you think I’m on?”
“I don’t know. Dash says you’re one of us, but he had a concussion not that long ago so I’m not sure he’s thinking straight. Does he know you’ve got a secret life?”
“You think I kept her secret because I’m part of some grand plan to—what? Destabilise the club using my wife?” Zane laughs. The noise goes through me. It’s harsh, like metal scraping over stone.
“I think it shows a pattern, brother.” The way he says that last word, like he’s chewing on glass shards, hits me like a punch. “If you didn’t trust the club with her maybe you shouldn’t be in the club.”
“You’re telling me you wouldn’t hide Ivy and Seren if you thought they were in danger?”
That seems to hit a nerve. I don’t know who they are, but Riot flinches, the gun lowering a fraction. “Ain’t the same thing.”
“Let me ask you this, Riot. When was the last time you took your old lady and your kid to the clubhouse? I’ve never seen Mace sitting at the bar with Maylie or Toby.
I don’t assume Dash’ll be bringing Dayna around the moment their kid is born.
” There’s no answer “Exactly. I won’t excuse how I protected the most important fucking person in my life. ”
I shouldn’t get involved. I’ve already caused problems, but I’m not going to stand here while this ass lays into my husband—not when our marriage was the thing that suffered in this.
I close my eyes for a moment, find my steel, and then I speak. “You think he’s disloyal? You have no idea what he’s sacrificed.”
Riot slides his eyes to me before they re-centre on Zane.
“I’m only going to ask this once, and if I find out you’re lying, if you betray us in any way, I swear I’ll burn your club tattoos off your skin myself.
” He licks his bottom lip, his finger twitching over the trigger. “Who’re you loyal to, Diesel?”
“You think asking if I’m loyal makes it true? People lie. I could tell you all day long I’m loyal while working behind your back.”
I pinch his hip. Is he fucking crazy?
“I think it takes a special kind prick to stand in front of someone they call ‘brother’ and lie to their face about their intentions.”
“You mean like you, Mace, Nicky and now I guess Dash have been doing for months? Pretending to be loyal while plotting to bring down Crank—the elected head of our chapter?”
It’s silent after those words drop. “Plotting to fix the club,” Riot corrects.
“Crank’s president. You see how that looks?”
I hold my breath. This is a political landmine and we’re all standing on a trigger plate trying not to explode.
“And how do you see it?”
Zane takes a beat, and I know he’s working out how to say it without his words getting lost in translation.
Finally, he speaks. “I want a safe place to bring my wife. I want brothers who have my back, so I get to go home to her every night. I want a clubhouse where I can take her and not worry that someone’s going to put their filthy hands on her.
I want what I was promised when I took this fucking patch.
” He slams his fist against his chest, the blow vibrating against my cheek still pressed against his spine.
“I want the club, Riot. That’s why I’m still here. I want it. Just… not like this.”
Riot lowers the gun, and I breathe for the first time in what feels like hours.
“That’s all we’re trying to do.” He tucks the weapon into the holster under his kutte.
“This version of the club ain’t what it’s meant to be.
” Riot lets his gaze drift over the hills.
“You’re gonna have to pick a side, Diesel. ”
Zane doesn’t miss a beat. “I pick the side that keeps my wife safe.”
A flutter beats inside my belly. He chooses me.
“I gotta say—all the scenarios I ran through my head when I came up here not one of them included you having a secret fuckin’ old lady.”
“We didn’t exactly conjure you up in our minds this morning either,” I mutter, “so I guess everyone’s having a surprising day.”
“Why’d you come up here?”
Zane freezes at that question, and Riot notices, stiffening. I know what he’s thinking. His reaction feels like an omission of guilt. It’s not. He doesn’t want to admit I was running but fuck that. I need us to walk out of this alive.
“I was leaving him,” I say. “Got sick of dealing with the second person in our marriage. Your club nearly caused our divorce.”
“Makenna.” Warning snaps through my name.
I ignore Zane. “Of course, I knew he wouldn’t let me leave him, so I ran.
I tried to put some miles between us, but I married a man too smart for his own good.
He tracked me down, bundled me into my own car and drove me out to this very pretty prison like we’re on some kind of couple’s retreat.
Then he’s spent the past twenty-four hours trying to convince me to come home.
We were getting somewhere before you showed up threatening to paint the walls red. ”
Zane mutters something that might be ‘fuck me’, but I can’t tell.
“So you did kidnap a girl,” Riot asks.
“Can’t steal what’s mine already,” Zane mutters.
“You cuffed me to the bed,” I supply unhelpfully.
The look my husband gives me tells me how over my shit he is.
Riot glances between us before he shakes himself. “Not my circus… definitely not my monkeys, but whatever shit you have going on you’re gonna need to put it on hold. The club’s a mess. Everyone’s scrambling and the others trust you.”
But I don’t…
He doesn’t say it, but he doesn’t need to.
Zane doesn’t move, not even an inch. I know it’s going through his head. If he goes with him, he’s telling me I’m not important enough to stay, but if he doesn’t…
What happens then? Do they come for him? Try to kill him for betraying them?
“What makes you think I’m going to let him walk out of here with you when you just threatened to kill him?” I step around Zane, who instantly grabs my bicep and pulls me back against his chest.
“Breathe, firefly.”
“I’ve already lost enough of you to this club. I’m not going to let them take your life as well.”
His mouth goes to my ear. “You have no idea how hot you are right now spitting fire like an angry kitten.”
“Yeah, well, this kitten has claws.” I lift my gaze to glare at Riot. “And I’m not afraid to use them.”
Riot cocks his head at Zane like he’s a puzzle he can’t quite solve.
“You want to stay out here and play marriage counselling, fine—I’m headin’ back.
Club needs me and I’m gonna do what’s needed to keep my family safe.
” He gets on his bike, clutching his helmet in his.
“If you don’t come back then we’ll know what side you’re on.
But just so you know, Nic just killed the last person who stood against us.
We’ll do what’s needed to protect the patch. ”
My stomach knots at the threat. Zane doesn’t react. I’m not sure he’s still breathing, but he is staring at the man like he’s already buried him a hundred different ways.
“Clock’s tickin’, Diesel. Don’t make us come find you again.”
He tugs his helmet on and starts up the bike. Zane moves in front of me until the bike roars off and disappears into the distance.
Only then does he let his shoulders drop and take a breath. When he turns back to me, he’s shaking. He stares down at me like I’m a fucking nightmare wrapped in defiance before I’m pulled against his chest, his hand cupping the back of my head.
“Don’t ever fucking do that again, Makenna.” He holds me like he’s terrified I’ll disappear, and then he says, “You don’t know how close we just came to losing everything.”
But he’s wrong. I do, and I’m not sure we’re still not going to.