Chapter Eleven
Damon
We’ve all just gotten back from a ride when Corey and Bella pull in. Bella, who normally parks like a professional, turns the engine off while the car is still diagonal, and gets out in a rush. Corey does the same.
“What’s wrong?” I quickly ask, giving them both a once-over to make sure they are okay.
Bella hurries inside and Corey stands next to me. “I mean, nothing happened, so don’t freak out—”
“Corey—”
“We were at the lake, and some guy came over to us—”
What the fuck?
I should have been there, watching her.
“Who? What did they say? I’m going to kill—”
She cuts me off, and I grit my teeth, listening to her every word.
“It was Tatum. My brother,” she blurts out, a worried look in her beautiful hazel eyes. “He’s a part of that motorcycle club. I think that’s why the Lost Lions are here.”
I pause.
Fucking hell.
This is even worse than I thought.
I’ve heard about Tatum from River, but to show up here like this?
That man is either stupid as fuck or has balls of steel.
I’m thinking that it might be both, which is the most dangerous combination. A biker knows that you don’t mess with the women unless you want to start a fucking war. And he’s made the first move to do so.
“Why do you think that?”
“Tatum hates River. Always has. It is no coincidence that the Lions are here.”
Shit. Well, that makes sense. I’ve been having a fucking awful time figuring out what the hell a new club like the Lost Lions wants in such a well-known area. Clubs like theirs operate in the middle of nowhere to stay undetected.
“He just chatted with us and left, so obviously he just wanted a reaction, which is apparently what he’s going to get,” she mutters, grabbing onto my arm. I look down at her delicate fingers on my skin. “We need to be smart about how we handle this.”
“And we will be,” I growl, pulling her arm gently so she’s closer to me. At the same time I step toward her. “He didn’t touch you? Didn’t say anything inappropriate?”
She shakes her head. “No, he just said he was taking a walk and saw us and thought that he’d say hello. Do you think he was following us?”
I pull her against my chest and hold her. Imagine if something had happened to her today. I could have lost her forever. That same feeling of despair comes over me, just like when she was kidnapped. Just like when my mother died. Everything is so complicated between us, but in these moments it all becomes so simple.
“Maybe. Don’t go anywhere alone without an escort from now on, you hear me?”
She pushes my chest and glances up at me with annoyance. “And who are you to call the shots on my safety, Damon? I’ll be listening to whatever Julianna, River, and Romeo tell me, not you. You worry about Melinda.”
Fucking Melinda.
I’ve let it drag out and used it as a barrier to put between us, but I’m done with that.
As she walks off I call out, “That day you saw me having lunch with Melinda was the day I broke up with her! I don’t give a shit about anyone else, Corey.”
That’s the cold, hard truth.
And I’m done fighting it.
She stops in her tracks and turns around. “And why didn’t you say anything then?” Her hazel eyes narrow to slits. “You wanted me to think you were taken, didn’t you? Because then you wouldn’t have an excuse to not be with me. You know what? You might be a badass biker, Damon. But when it comes to me, you are a coward.”
With that blow, she storms inside, and I suddenly want to beat the shit out of something.
Or someone.
Tatum better watch the fuck out.
After a few deep breaths to calm myself down, I follow her back inside where everyone is sitting in the living room, discussing what took place.
“The women aren’t to go anywhere alone,” Romeo states, and I look over at Corey, and the worry in her eyes kills me. “They’re fucking with the wrong club. Jeremiah and Blaze, you stay with the women. The rest of us are going for a ride.”
The men all head off to prepare.
I want to talk to Corey a little more and try to explain myself, but it’s going to have to wait until we get back. My eyes linger on her, but she doesn’t even look at me, instead listening intently to whatever her brother is saying to her. She nods, and then takes Julian from Julianna, cradling the infant.
Sighing, I turn and follow the men to our bikes. “What’s the plan?” I ask Romeo.
“I don’t have a good one,” he admits, jaw tight. “But I’m thinking we go find them, and then maybe just go in and beat the fucking shit out of them.”
I nod, shrugging. Sounds like a pretty good plan to me.
And so we ride off in a group of black and leather, with no fucking plan, and full of anger.
Foolproof, right?
Romeo leads the way and we just follow in formation. We go down the Strip first, and finally end up at the biker bar where we first met them.
Their bikes are out the front.
They knew this is where we’d look, and it means they are expecting us. They obviously have anticipated the moves we’d make, likely based on what they’d do in the same situation.
They might have the upper hand in that sense, but this is our city, our home, and that is where they will lose.
We get off our bikes and enter the bar as a group, Romeo in the front, River to his right, and me to his left. The rest of the men are behind us.
Gio lifts his head when he sees us, and without any further warning we approach them. I look around for Tatum, but don’t see anyone with the description River gave me.
“You come near our women again and it will be the last thing you do,” Romeo says. His deathly calm tone is almost chilling.
“What women?” Gio replies, smirking. Tatum isn’t here, so it looks like his president is going to take the brunt of the anger. “You mean those pretty little things at the lake one of my men had an innocent chat with? How were we supposed to know that they belong to you? You don’t own all the women in this town, Devil.”
We all know that Tatum knew exactly who we are and what he was doing.
River steps forward and stares Gio in the eye. The two of them are about the same height, but Gio is a lot wider than River.
Instead of saying anything, River just smiles at him. It’s an evil smile, and it sends chills up my spine.
And then he head-butts Gio right in the face.
And then chaos breaks out.
I grab one of the men and hit him square in the nose, and from there it’s just a violent outburst of punching and hitting until we hear the wail of sirens.
Then we get the hell out of there, rushing to our motorcycles.
I know it’s messed up, but I haven’t felt this alive in a long time, and looking around the group of men, I think that they feel the same way.
River looks over at me and smiles, blood covering all of his teeth.
Jesus Christ.
I’m glad he’s on our side.
But then the sound of a bike pulling up grabs our attention. The rider is in all black and he pulls right up beside River. He turns his bike off, helmet still on, and slowly takes a riding glove off a finger at a time. Finally he pulls off his helmet and River’s smile drops.
“Tatum.”
The man in question, bald, with dead brown eyes, looks over at him. “Hello there, brother.”
River lunges for him, jumping on him just as he gets off his bike, repeatedly punching him. The man doesn’t back down, though, and gives as good as he gets.
One of the men bumps into my shoulder, pushing me back, which breaks me from my surprise, and I jump back into the pit of male ego.
They are going to regret the day they ever decided to test us.
And as for Corey?
I’m done playing games.
She’s going to be mine.