Chapter Thirteen
Mimic
My blood boiled seeing Indie on the back of Gunner’s bike. She was fucking mine, dammit. She should be on my bike. When I looked at King, he shook his head.
My hands clenched into fists, and I stomped off to my bike.
Archie and Jonah had arrived to fix Indie’s door.
If it weren’t for her personal things inside, I would have told them to leave it.
She wasn’t going back there. She wasn’t leaving the clubhouse again.
If I had to lock her in a cell downstairs, I would.
I had my own fucking key now, and there was one thing I had learned from George motherfucking Stone. If you wanted something, you fucking took it.
And I wanted Indie.
I sat on my bike and waited for King to pull out first, then Gunner, then myself. Cash and Rose had already left with Indie’s car and her suitcase. We rode single file with Gunner in the middle because that was where Indie was.
On his fucking bike.
She didn’t fucking belong there. These guys didn’t take women on their bikes.
Not unless it was their old lady, or family.
I’d seen King take Beck on his bike. But she was his niece.
Ellie hadn’t been on Jingles’ bike, but she also hadn’t been on Ryder’s, seeing as how she’d been pregnant almost from the moment we met her.
She’d had the baby now. She and Beck both had. Sam and Maureen, the sheriff’s wife, were next. A picture of Indie flashed in my mind. Pregnant. Her stomach protruding with a child.
Not my child.
I couldn’t have children. George had made sure of that shit. Said the world didn’t need more of my father’s bastards running around. I wasn’t given a choice. There were a lot of things I wasn’t given a choice about. Like putting Indie on the back of my bike.
We pulled into the clubhouse, and she hopped off before Gunner had even turned off the bike. That wasn’t her first ride, and I wondered who I had to kill. Who was the motherfucker that put her on his bike and then let her go?
Did he let her go?
Or was she running?
Is that why Sting came for her? Had she belonged to a Death Dog and got away like Aspen did? Had she been beaten the way Aspen was? Abused by someone who was supposed to love and cherish her?
My anger grew with every step I took, and it hit the boiling point when I saw Johnny behind the bar looking at Indie.
My jaw ached from the way I ground my teeth as I struggled with my control.
I wanted to knock him the fuck out. His vote was coming up quick, and I knew King thought a lot of him, but if he didn’t stop eye-fucking my woman, he’d never become a brother.
“Who pissed in your Cheerios?” Jack asked as I slammed down into my chair. I flipped my middle finger at him, and he grinned. He knew that no matter what he said to me, I wouldn’t take it out on him because of Sam and Charlie.
“First things first,” King began, his eyes locked on mine. “What the fuck were you doing in her apartment?”
“Protecting her.”
“From what?” King asked.
“The fucking Death Dogs!” I snarled.
“Kid, there was no reason to think the attack was more than random opportunity, or that she was in any further danger,” Cash said.
I hated it when he called me kid. I wasn’t a fucking kid. I had lived more in twenty-one years than most of the men in this club.
“You call my sister kid?”
Cash’s glare promised death before he said, “Watch your fucking mouth, kid.”
“Mimic, what made you think Indie was still in danger?” Colt asked, trying to ease the tension.
“I can’t answer that.”
“Can’t or won’t?” Blade asked.
“Can’t. I don’t have a fucking reason. All I have is a feeling, and that goddamn feeling was right.” I took a deep breath before continuing, “Look, I know I’m young and I’ve been an enforcer for less than a month, but you fucking chose me. If you don’t think you can trust me—”
“I thought I could fucking trust you when I told you to stay the fuck away from her.”
“She’s mine!” I jumped from my chair and slammed a fist on the table.
“Jesus Christ,” King sighed.
Jack threw his head back and laughed. Blade sat in his chair grinning, and Nav coughed onto his computer.
“Sit your ass down, kid,” Cash scoffed.
Gunner remained suspiciously quiet, and when I glanced at him, his stare held me in place. “What the fuck did you just say?”
“You heard me.” I wouldn’t back down. Not from him. Not for her.
“Do you even know what to do with her?” Jack asked. “I haven’t seen you with a woman since you got here.”
I knew what to fucking do. I might not have actually ever done it, but Dakota gave me quite an education while I was locked up.
“Fuck you, Jack.”
Blade and Nav laughed. Fuck them too.
“Enough. Mimic, sit the fuck down.” King rubbed his hands over his face. “We’ll talk about that later. Do we know anything about Indie?”
“No,” Nav answered. “Everything she has is legit. All her identification is real. If she isn’t Indigo Cambridge, then she’s got some powerful fucking friends.
I have an entire background here. Parents, grandparents, high school, college.
Everything I’ve found points to her being exactly who she says she is.
A twenty-six-year-old tattoo artist from Texas. ”
“Where in Texas?” Jingles asked.
Nav clicked on his computer keys for a few minutes before his head dropped and a muttered curse fell from his lips.
“Fuck.”
“What did you miss?” Colt asked.
“Tyler, Texas, is thirty-five miles east of Athens, Texas.”
“Fucking Gods of Mayhem,” King growled. “We can’t reach out to them. Not yet. Not with Aspen here. We need to talk to Indie and see what she can tell us.”
I went to stand, and Gunner said, “I’ll get her.”
He opened the door and called out, “Indie. Come in here, please.”
“Why?” I heard her ask, and I grinned. Asshole. She would have come if I’d called her.
You sure about that?
Fuck you!
Gunner crossed his arms over his chest and, a moment later, Indie slinked into the room like a teenager caught sneaking out of the house.
“Indie, please have a seat.”
Indie glanced at King before scanning the room until her eyes settled on me. I kept my face blank, not letting her see my concern. Something she saw on my face at her apartment pissed her off, and I didn’t want her anger at me preventing her from talking to us.
“What do you know about the Death Dogs?”
“Nothing.”
“Nav,” King instructed, and pictures of Skinner, Vulture, Sting, and Pepper, as well as a few other officers, appeared on the screen at the front of the room.
I watched as Indie viewed the images. Her eyes widened barely a fraction, but she’d recognized someone.
I didn’t believe for a minute it was Sting, though he was the one she pointed out.
“That guy is the one who hit me,” she said, pointing out Sting.
“What about the rest?” Cash asked.
She shook her head, letting her eyes drift down to her lap. She was lying. She knew someone on that screen. Maybe even more than one.
“Did you know Daniel Scott?” I asked.
Her head snapped up, and panic showed on her face. It was so quick I almost missed it.
“Isn’t that the guy who was killed in town?” she asked.
“It is,” King answered. “Did you know him?”
She shook her head no, but I knew she was lying.
“What do you know about the Trick Pony?” I asked.
She swung her head to peer at me. “The what?”
“The Trick Pony. It’s a sex club in Miami, Florida,” Colt explained.
“Do I look like I go to a sex club? What the fuck is going on? And why were you in my apartment?” Her heated questions came out fast, like a tommy gun aimed directly at me.
“I was watching over you.”
“Without my permission? That sounds a lot like stalking.” She swung around to Gunner. “Did you teach him that?”
“Indie,” Gunner growled.
“No!” She stood up. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but it has nothing to do with me.” She stormed out of church, letting the doors slam shut behind her.
“She’s lying,” I muttered.
“We know she’s lying, but we can’t force her to talk.” King turned to Nav. “You still have those files?”
“I do.”
“Start digging,” King said.
“When are you planning on talking to Steele?” Cash asked.
“I wish I fucking knew. I need a reason to get him here. He won’t tell me shit on the phone. But I can’t bring him up here with Aspen here.”
“Who can you talk to down there?” I asked.
“What?”
“Reaper said you had the votes. Who do you trust down there that can give you information? Tell you what they’re doing?”
If Steele was as much of an asshole as Cash said he was, someone down there was willing to talk.
I didn’t really know him. I’d joined the club after they’d opened this chapter in Nebraska.
I’d met Steele a few times, but he was quiet around most of us.
When he was here, he usually just sat at the bar talking to King.
King and Cash looked at each other before turning to Blade.
“No! No fucking way!”
“We need information, brother,” Cash said with a grin.
“You’re an asshole, Cash.”
Cash shrugged and said, “You know I’m right, brother.”
Blade pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed a number before putting it on speaker.
“Yo!”
“Need to talk, brother.” Blade glared at Cash as he sneered into the phone.
“Now’s not a good time, baby. Club shit.”
“Fuck, you know why I’m calling?”
“Of course, baby. I got just what you need. Give me a couple hours and I’m all yours.”
“Okay, call me back.”
“Talk to you soon, baby.”
Angel made kissing noises before the line disconnected, and Jack burst out laughing. “What... the fuck... was that?” he asked between guffaws.
“How the fuck did he know why you were calling?” Jingles asked.
“Because he knows Blade hates him. So if he’s calling, it’s fucking serious,” King said.
“Think he knows the Death Dogs are up here?” Gunner asked.
“Yeah, I do.”
I agreed with King. That phone call did nothing to steady the concerns we all had running through our heads.
According to Sypher, Steele and Stone murdered their parents to take over the club.
Anyone who would murder their parents wouldn’t think twice about turning their back on their brothers.
According to King, Steele already had when he sent Chasm into a warehouse alone before it blew up.
Chasm was another brother I didn’t know. His death was the catalyst for King asking for his own club. A club that was now at war, and it appeared we might not have the backing of our Mother Chapter.
We knew Skinner was in bed with Daniel Scott, and Steele was in bed with Skinner.
What we didn’t know was what that had to do with Indie.
She wasn’t twenty-six, that was for damn sure, but it looked as if she might have ties to the Gods of Mayhem.
A club that was supposed to be our ally.
Except, they were allied with the Death Dogs if the marriage that Kronos orchestrated between Aspen and Pepper was any indication.
I might have joined this club because I was ordered to, but this was my family. These men were my brothers. I would fight beside them to the death.
And it just might come to that.