Chapter 52
Slade
Bane sleeps as I look down at him. There’s a quiet softness in his rugged, handsome face that isn’t there when he’s awake.
There’s a peace about him that you wouldn’t expect from a lethal man like him.
Maybe being comatose, completely relaxed and unguarded, without the weight of protecting everyone around him, makes him look like this.
Or maybe it’s me. Because he told me he loved me, told me he wanted me to wear his brand as his Old Lady; that he’d wear mine. That he wanted to marry me so no one could ever take me from him.
You don’t deserve him. You’ll be his death. All the hurt and death that are coming will be your fault. All because of you.
The vicious words are said in Antwane’s voice and bring all the images of the Numbers lying on his kill table after he tortured and murdered them.
I close my eyes and shudder out a shaky breath. A warm hand cups my cheek, and I open my eyes to find Bane gazing up at me, blinking sleepily.
“Slade.” His voice is deep with sleep.
“Hey.”
His thumb rubs over my lips. “Come here.”
His hand curls around my nape, pulling my mouth down to his. The kiss is lazy, intoxicating. My head swims as he doesn’t rush; he just kisses me like we have an eternity to do so, and it allows me to temporarily forget the clock that feels like it has sped up its countdown.
When we finally part, he studies my face. “You okay?”
I force a smile. “More than okay.”
“Never lie to me, baby.”
I catch my bottom lip between my teeth and decide to be honest. “I feel like our world is about to implode…like there’s an ominous foreshadowing cloud hanging over my head. I need to leave, Bane.”
He shocks me by not immediately disagreeing. “Last night, before I arrived back at the clubhouse, Pix and I interrogated a Mambo Posse captain. They’re gunning for you. Said they were supposed to capture you once you were lured outside the compound.”
“Shit.” I sit up. “Do you think the Vanderalls sent them?”
“I don't know but I suspect Jez is somehow involved.” He catches me when I try to get up and pulls me back down, his eyes locked on mine. “I accept full responsibility for the mistake of trusting him with you. Know that his days are numbered, and we’re searching for him.”
I have many questions, but I focus on the critical factor: criminal factions are not only talking about me, but are trying to capture me.
A banging on the door snaps our attention.
“Get dressed, baby.” Bane rises, smooth and strong, out of bed and drags on his jeans.
“I only have my pants.” Since Destiny destroyed my shirt, and Bane sliced my underwear off.
He pulls out some clothes from his dresser and hands them to me.
“You have clothes for me here?” I eye them; they're all new.
Before he answers, there's a knock on the door again, and Army calls out, “Bane.”
Bane motions to the bathroom. “Get dressed.”
I hurry into the bathroom and Bane enters just as I finish dressing. He hands me my boots.
“What did Army want?” I ask.
“We need to get to Ash’s office.”
Bane opens a drawer in the vanity and hands me the toothbrush I had kept here, and we brush our teeth.
I splash water over my face and thread my wet fingers through my short hair to calm it down. “Any idea what’s going on?”
“No.” His answer is tight and grim.
The clubhouse is eerily quiet as we walk to Ash’s office, and my nerves are strung tight. When we arrive at Ash’s office, I pull up short.
All the Council members are there, with my brothers as well as Badger.
Along with my four friends—Granger, Camber, Sam, and Axel.
Granger and Camber are fraternal twins; Granger’s the taller and broader male version of Camber, with their light brown hair and bright blue eyes.
Sam and Axel are polar opposites—Sam is dark and smiley; Axel is blonde and broody.
They’re all dressed in their rich, preppy style, which is starkly out of place amongst a group of renegade bikers.
“What the hell,” I breathe in shock. Then panic and fear surge within me because they’re here.
I had left them another voicemail message, asking for us to get in touch, but I didn’t want them to come here.
So, if they came on their own without me asking, that means something had happened. My reaction is also because the two parts of my world are colliding, and the offspring of the country’s top protection and security leaders definitely should not be here.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Anger mixes with my panic and fear.
The four of them are motionless, stunned.
They’re all just staring, so I demand again, stomping toward them. “Answer me, goddammit.”
In answer, Camber bursts into tears and launches herself at me, and Granger looks on the verge of following in his twin’s footsteps. Sam smiles broadly as he wraps his arms around me and Camber.
Axel’s shell-shock wears off, and even that broody blonde smiles. “Good to have you back, sunshine.”
“You’re feeling.” Camber clutches me. “You’re feeling, Slade. And not…”
“Spiraling?” I offer, and she nods.
I glance over my shoulder at Bane, who’s standing close but hasn’t interfered with the reunion with my friends. Though he aims his possessive look at Granger, Sam, and Axel, wondering which one was my fake husband.
“How?” Granger asks.
“Bane,” I say simply.
They warily regard Bane as I introduce him and everyone else in the room.
Granger looks down at my hand. “Where’s your ring?”
Bane pulls me free from the group, wrapping his arm possessively around my waist, realizing Granger was my fake husband. “She doesn’t need your ring, boy. I’ll protect her.”
Jesus. Boy? Really?
I glare at Bane. “Can we not go all caveman?”
Granger’s eyes dance between Bane and me, and rather than be insulted, his lips curl into a smile. “Good to have you back, drama queen.”
To which I roll my eyes, and his smile broadens.
Even though I’d love to catch up with my friends, something is clearly wrong. “Why are you here?” I ask again.
It’s Sam who speaks. “One of the bugs we planted at the Vanderall's house gave us some active intel two hours ago.”
“How did you get here so fast?” Bane demands, more of a challenge than a question.
Granger faces off with him. “We’ve been staying close by since Slade basically went off the radar.”
“We don’t need your fathers looking into where you are,” Ash jumps in, “and focusing on the Havoc Guardians.”
Granger flashes me an accusing glare that I revealed that to the MC.
Fucking hell.
Camber keeps us focused, though. “Sam, tell them what was overheard from the bug.”
Sam’s normally bright face is grim as he looks at me. “Randolph Vanderall knows who you are.”
I knew this moment was coming, even though I prayed it wouldn’t.
Ash’s office is suffocating, and Bane is rigid beside me. His arm around my waist gets impossibly tighter, and I’m not sure if it’s a move of support or to make sure I don’t try to run and escape the compound.
“He’s contacted the Broker to take a contract out on you, Slade.”
“We already know about the one someone took out two years ago,” Digits says. “But I’ve found nothing to support one specifically for Slade.”
Sam regards him—hacker to hacker. “And you won’t.
” He continues when Bane looks like he’s going to go nuclear, “Slade’s name isn’t specifically listed on the contract, but over the bug, we heard Randolph’s phone call.
When he was talking directly to the Broker, he used Slade’s name and said that she was currently with the mother chapter of the Havoc Guardians in San Francisco. ”
Shit, shit, shit.
“How did he find out it was me who escaped and killed Antwane?” I ask, trying to remain calm. “And how did he know I was here?”
Sam looks at me with concern. I imagine I look pale as a ghost because all my blood is being redirected to the parts of my body that will allow me to run.
“I don’t know either of those answers. I only know that when he opened the contract, he told the Broker to only use your description and a code name. ”
“Little bird,” Bane guesses.
Sam shakes his head. “No. Peanut.”
My eyes find Ash’s; his are filled with fury. It’s now, without a doubt, someone in the MC. Someone close enough to the Council and me to have heard Ash refer to me as ‘peanut’.
“Where the fuck is Jez?” Bane growls, directing his question to Digits.
“I still haven’t found him.”
“I’ll interrogate our prisoner again,” Pix says openly, and my friends’ eyes widen. “I want to add Destiny to that as well; I’m certain she and Jez were working together.”
My friends’ heads ping-pong between Pix and me. Yes, they’re criminals who steal cars, but that’s mostly because they’re bored and want to dip their toes into the dark waters. But now they realize they’ve just been tossed into the deep end of shark-infested waters.
“We need to know more about the Broker and the contract taken out on Slade.” Bane looks at Army. “We need Len to use her contact with the Broker.”
Army nods and pulls out his phone, going to the far corner of the crowded office.
“Slade should leave with us,” Granger states.
“Not a fucking chance.” Bane’s hand moves from my waist to curl possessively around my nape.
“She doesn’t belong with you here.” Apparently, Granger has a death wish. “She never meant to stay when she came to say goodbye to her brothers.” He looks accusingly at Bane’s territorial grip on me. “You’ve been forcing her to stay.”
Well, he isn’t wrong. But I can see how this is going to escalate.
“Granger.” I pause until he looks at me. “This is my family—”
“We’re your family.” He points at himself and then Camber, Sam, and Axel. “All these assholes abandoned you to deal with your mom, and we all know how that turned out. Don’t be fucking stupid.”
Again, he’s not wrong, but he also doesn’t have the whole story, and I don’t have the luxury of time to make them understand.
The room bristles with tension and anger from the MC and my brothers. Bane is about to erupt.
“Listen here, you little fuck, I will cut you down where you stand if you ever speak to Slade with disrespect again,” he seethes.
“Holy motherfucking shitballs.” Camber fans herself. “Never thought the unhinged possessive look would be so freaking hot.”
Axel, her boyfriend, glares at her.
“Stop.”
The command to cease before there’s bloodshed between the people I care about doesn’t come from me, but from Army. He pushes into the center of the room, gripping his phone.
Army’s never been what you’d call smiley or easygoing, but the grave look on his face sends a chill down my spine.
“What is it?” I ask with a parched mouth, suspecting he’s about to drop a bomb that is going to possibly level my world.