Chapter 25
?
— Dutch —
My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. I’d tried gripping the armrests, pressing my palms flat against my desk, even lacing my fingers together—nothing worked.
The tremor just moved somewhere else, settling into my jaw, my shoulders, the hollow pit in my chest. When Holden’s name lit up my phone, I grabbed it like a lifeline.
“We’ve got a problem in Louisville.” His voice was tense. “The Wolves situation is spooking our contacts. They’re threatening to back out of the expansion deal if we don’t send someone to reassure them personally.”
“Send Colt.”
“They want you. The president. They want to know the Venom Riders can handle their business without dragging them into a war.”
I closed my eyes. Louisville. The expansion we’d been working toward for months. If word got out that the Wolves could rattle us, the whole deal could collapse.
“When’s the meeting?”
“Tomorrow morning. Early.”
I ran the math. Fly out tonight, handle the meeting first thing, fly back tomorrow afternoon. Quick in and out. I could be back before the Wolves’ deadline expired.
But a part of me wondered if this was exactly what someone wanted. Get me out of the area. Distract me so the Wolves could make their move while I was a thousand miles away.
“I’ll do it,” I said. “But I’m flying. Back tomorrow.”
“Whatever gets you there, brother.”
After he hung up, I walked to my office door and called out into the main room. “Colt. Glitch. My office. Now.”
Glitch appeared first, laptop tucked under his arm. He set it on my desk and angled the screen toward himself, eyes flicking between me and whatever he was monitoring. Colt followed a moment later, closing the door behind him.
“I’m going to Louisville,” I said. “Got a meeting tomorrow morning, be back by afternoon. Before the Wolves’ deadline.”
“And Indira?” Colt asked.
“That’s why you’re here.” I looked between them. “I need eyes on her every second I’m gone. The prospects Glitch already put on her—they stay. Round the clock. No one gets near her.”
Glitch glanced up from his laptop. “Already on it. I’ve got the feed pulled up right now. She’s home, lights on, no movement outside her building.”
“Good.” I gripped the edge of my desk. “I don’t like this. Feels too convenient—club business pulling me away right when the Wolves are circling.”
“You think it’s a setup?” Colt’s voice was sharp.
“I think I’d be an idiot not to consider it.”
Colt nodded slowly. “Then we treat it like one. I’ll coordinate with the prospects personally. Glitch monitors remotely. Anyone so much as looks at her wrong, we’ll know.”
“She won’t know we’re there,” Glitch added, “but we’ll be there.”
I looked at both of them. “I’m trusting you with the most important thing in my life,” I said quietly. “Don’t let anything happen to her.”
“Nothing will happen to her on our watch.” Colt’s voice was firm. “You have my word.”
Glitch nodded. “Go handle Louisville. We’ve got her.”
?
The flight to Louisville was two hours of hell.
I’d never been comfortable in the air—preferred the open road, the wind, the control of having my hands on the handlebars. But I’d chosen this deliberately. A plane meant I’d be back faster. It meant I was taking this seriously.
It meant I was desperate.
Every pocket of turbulence made my stomach lurch.
I’d white-knuckled the armrest through takeoff, ignored the flight attendant’s offer of drinks, and spent the entire two hours watching the tracker on the seat-back screen like it could speed up time.
My throat was dry. My neck ached from tension.
And every time I closed my eyes, I saw Indira’s face—the betrayal in her expression when she’d figured out I was lying.
In Louisville, I handled the meeting on autopilot. Smiled when I needed to smile, reassured contacts who were spooked by rumors of Wolves-related trouble, promised that the Venom Riders had everything under control.
I was lying through my teeth, and I suspected they knew it.
I went straight from the airport to the clubhouse when I got back, still in the clothes I’d been wearing for two days. The brothers were already assembled when I walked in, their faces a mixture of concern and impatience.
“Louisville’s handled,” I said without preamble. “Contacts are nervous but staying in the deal. For now.”
“And the Wolves situation?” Handful asked.
“Unchanged. Their deadline is almost up. They’ll either make a move or they won’t.”
“And Indira?”
I felt every eye in the room turn to me.
“She’s not speaking to me.” I let that land. “I tried to warn her about the threat. She figured out I was keeping secrets and called me on it.”
The silence stretched.
“So she knows there’s danger but not why?” Handful asked carefully.
“She knows I’m hiding something. She knows it involves the club. And she knows I broke my promise to be completely honest with her.”
Handful shook his head slowly. “So your woman is out there, pissed at you, unprotected—”
“She’s protected. Prospects are watching her twenty-four-seven. She doesn’t know about it.”
“That’s not going to blow up in your face at all,” Glitch muttered.
I slammed my palm on the table. “What else am I supposed to do? Tell her everything and violate club code? Let her walk around unprotected while the Wolves are hunting her?”
“You could let her make her own choices,” Holden said quietly.
“She doesn’t have the information she needs to make choices. That’s the whole problem.” I ran a hand over my face, exhaustion pulling at every muscle. “I’m stuck between my promise to her and my oath to this club. There’s no clean answer.”
The room fell silent.
“Actually,” Glitch said slowly, “there might be.”
I looked at him.
“She doesn’t need to know everything. But she needs to know enough, right?” He leaned forward. “We’ve brought old ladies into the fold before. Limited information, enough to make informed choices without compromising operations.”
“She’s not an old lady,” Handful pointed out. “She hasn’t been claimed, ain’t wearing his property cut.”
“She would have been. Before this blew up.” I thought about the box still sitting on her coffee table.
She’d have been my old lady for over a year now if she hadn’t walked in on me and Crystal.
But she’d also still be in the dark about this side of me.
And I’d probably still be fucking club girls whenever she was away, telling myself it didn’t count because it was her I was thinking about.
“Then technically, she’s entitled to old lady privileges.” Glitch looked around the table. “Right?”
“That’s a stretch,” Handful said, but there was less conviction in his voice now.
“Is it? She’s been with Dutch for two years, on and off. She’s observant. She probably knows more about this club than half the old ladies. The only thing she doesn’t know is the specifics—and we can give her enough specifics to understand the threat without compromising our operations.”
I stared at Glitch, something loosening in my chest. “What are you suggesting?”
“Call a vote. Ask the brothers to approve limited disclosure to Indira. Gun running—not routes. ATF scrutiny—not operations. Crystal’s leak, the Wolves threat, why she’s in danger.” He shrugged. “Enough for her to make real decisions about her life. Nothing that would hurt us if it got out.”
I looked around the table at faces I’d known for years. Men I’d fought beside, bled for, trusted with my life. My choice became clear.
“I need to tell her the truth,” I said. “Not every detail. But enough for her to make an informed choice about being with me.” I paused, letting the weight of my next words settle.
“If that violates club code, vote me out. But I won’t lie to the woman I love anymore.
She deserves better than that. And frankly, so do I. ”
The silence that followed was deafening. I could feel my heartbeat in my throat. Sweat prickled along my spine despite the air conditioning.
Handful was the first to speak. “You’re asking us to trust a civilian with club business. A civilian who’s pissed at you. Who might decide she doesn’t want anything to do with this life.”
“I’m asking you to trust my judgment about the woman I love.”
“And if your judgment’s wrong?”
“Then it’s on me. I’ll take the consequences.”
Glitch stood up. “I want to speak for the motion.”
Handful’s eyes narrowed. “What motion? He hasn’t made one yet.”
“I’m making one.” Glitch looked at me, then at the rest of the table.
“I move that Dutch be authorized to share limited information with Indira—specifically, the nature of the club’s business, the federal investigation, and the current threat.
No operational details. Just enough for her to understand why she’s in danger and make her own choices about how to respond. ”
“Second,” Colt said immediately.
Handful shook his head slowly. “You’re all being led around by your dicks. This is a civilian we’re talking about. She could walk out of here and tell anyone—”
“She won’t.” I cut him off. “She’s had opportunities to burn me, Handful. When she caught me with Crystal, she could have gone to the cops, claimed I was involved in something illegal. She didn’t. She walked away clean.”
“That was before she was pissed at you.”
“She’s not the kind of woman who would use information as a weapon. That’s not who she is.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I know her.” I looked around the table. “Better than I’ve ever known anyone. And I trust her with my life—with all of our lives. That’s what I’m asking you to trust.”
The room fell silent again.
“Anyone else want to speak?” Colt asked.
No one moved.
“Then we vote. All in favor of authorizing limited disclosure to Indira.”
The ayes came slowly at first, then faster. Glitch. Colt. Holden. Brothers I’d known for years, choosing to trust my judgment even when they had every reason not to. My hands unclenched under the table, fingers stiff from how hard I’d been gripping my knees.
I looked at Handful, waiting for the nay I was sure was coming. Instead, he met my eyes and said, “Aye.”
Every head in the room turned toward him. Even Glitch looked surprised.
Handful shrugged. “I like Indira. I was just putting forward the opposing view to make sure we covered everything because the club will always be my number one.” His expression hardened. “Brothers, money, tits, in that order.”
“Motion passes unanimously,” Colt announced. “Dutch is authorized to share limited information with Indira at his discretion.”
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
“Thank you,” I said. I stood up, feeling lighter than I had in days. “I’ll go talk to her now. Give her the information she needs.”
“And then what?” Glitch asked.
“Then I let her decide.” I pushed back from the table, but my legs felt unsteady. The vote had been the easy part. Now came the conversation that would determine whether I’d just saved my relationship—or handed Indira everything she needed to walk away from me for good.