Chapter 11 Cash
ELEVEN
CASH
I flew down the two-lane road toward Moonlit Ridge.
Taking the winding curves that snaked down the mountain at a clip.
The powerful engine of my bike roared in my ears, and cool wind lashed at my face as the night seeped into every crevice of the earth.
A dark canopy that hugged the world in a counterfeit comfort as the masses let go and lost themselves to sleep.
It was Sovereign Sanctum’s job to protect it. At least the little bit we could.
Turning our brutal propensities toward the good in the only way we knew how.
I glanced at my left hand that clutched the handlebars. The stacked Ss tattoo with the dagger running through and the eye in the middle burned so hot my hand might as well have been consumed in the flames from the torch that sat on top.
My life had been committed to what that tattoo represented. My life sacrificed to those who couldn’t protect themselves. The one place I could direct the violence that forever lived in me and use it for good, though there were plenty of times I used that violence for ulterior purposes.
I was the one they would call when someone vile needed to be taken out.
Swiftly and quietly.
My ties to Silas and his crew were much deeper than my brothers at Sovereign Sanctum knew. As far as I was concerned, sleazebags didn’t deserve to breathe, and I never minded being the executioner.
I was already on my way to hell. Might as well take a few monsters with me.
It’s why I chose to live my life alone. Cut off from the rest of humanity because I had no humanity left.
And then Daisy had shown up with her children.
Anxiety twined my insides in a fist, and my mind spun with what she asked of me.
It was bad enough, her being within a thousand miles of me. Her goodness too great to be tainted by the scum that I was. But there was nothing I could do but bring her into the shelter of my home.
Protect her.
Give her anything she needed or wanted.
Except what she was asking of me…
My throat nearly closed off, and I focused on the last bend before the road opened to the slumbering town of Moonlit Ridge below. All the businesses were closed for the night except for the few bars that glowed their neon signs and invited people to dip their toes into a little debauchery.
The red sign for Kane’s gleamed up ahead, and I slowed to take the left into the parking lot of the enormous stone building. Its towering spires disappeared into the endless expanse above, riding so high they appeared to touch the stars.
Kane had converted the old church into a club when we first settled in Moonlit Ridge close to seven years ago. The perfect cover for the business we attended to.
My bike chugged and rumbled as I wound around the side of the building.
The row that ran along the wall was reserved for motorcycles. It appeared all my brothers were already there, their bikes facing out, the metal glinting and gleaming in the shower of moonlight like a warning of who was lurking inside.
Men who were not to be toyed with, but few had any clue what that really meant. How deep our ruthlessness went. How we’d been carved in violence from the beginning, but we’d somehow taken that cruelty and turned it toward righteous vengeance.
Slowing to a stop, I planted my boots on the pitted gravel so I could walk my bike backward between River and Theo’s. Dull lamps hung from the walls and cast a murky glow out into the rambling stretch of cars and trucks that filled the lot.
I kicked the stand, killed the engine, then raked a hand through my hair as I swung off.
Resituating the disorder that the wind had whipped it into, though more so hoping it would do something to quell my fried nerves.
My mind fucked and twisted, tied on the woman and those kids who I left at my house. Did my best to remind myself to focus and not to go slipping because I had business to attend to.
I couldn’t afford to get distracted.
I was always on the straight and narrow. Never straying from the permanent path I chiseled out for myself.
Forcing myself to move, I followed along the side of the building toward the entrance at the front.
The thud of the bass from the dance music playing inside beat against the walls and reverberated out into the night.
I rounded the corner and bounded up the five long steps that fronted the building.
Jonah manned the massive double doors. He was one of the bouncers at Kane’s who helped Sovereign Sanctum with security outside of his nightly duties at the club. We’d had to bring him on the inside six months ago after he witnessed some shit go down at The Sanctuary Motel that Theo owned.
We used the motel as a cover for housing the women and children we brought under our protection before we got them to their new permanent homes.
Jonah was now fully invested.
“What’s up, brother?” he asked with a lift of his chin.
“Not much,” I grunted, the same thing as I always gave him, which tonight wasn’t even close to being the truth.
“Rest of your crew is already here and waiting in Kane’s office.”
“Thanks,” I said as I angled into the pulsing duskiness of the club.
The place was packed shoulder to shoulder. Always was on a Saturday night. People filled every space, and the dance floor writhed with bodies. Lights strobed from above and glinted off long, vertical stained-glass windows that sat up high on the cavernous ceiling.
They sent glittering flashes of color over the faces of the people below.
A haze clung to the air. A sense of barely bridled chaos and mayhem that crawled through the atmosphere.
I shouldered through, cutting into the middle of the masses and winding my way toward the hallway at the far-left corner of the building.
People parted, making me room, as if they sensed the threat I emitted.
There was a large booth at the very back that was always reserved for our family, though now it was empty since it was a rare occasion the women were here on a Saturday night. Women who had changed the face of our secret society.
But more so, women who had completely changed my brothers.
Without slowing, I hooked the left at the narrow, long hall and strode to the end. I rapped an impatient fist on the door to the right.
“Who’s there?” Otto sang from the other side like the goofy motherfucker he was.
“It’s me,” I grunted.
“Who’s me?” I could hear the laughter in his voice.
For fuck’s sake.
“It’s Cash, and if you don’t open the damned door, I’m going to put your head through it once I get in there.”
Metal creaked as the lock was disengaged, then Otto’s smug, grinning face was on the other side. “Sheesh, man. Why always so violent?”
I didn’t indulge him with a response.
Brute chuckled and clapped me on the back as I entered. “Hey, hey, no need to get surly. Just messin’ with you, brother.”
Never got how there could be any lightness on nights like these. This was business. Where our focus needed to remain.
I let my attention wander Kane’s office, taking in my crew.
Kane was behind the enormous mahogany desk, his boots propped on top. River leaned against the front of it with his ankles and arms crossed, and Theo lounged on the velvet sofa that sat on the wall closest to me.
They were all a smidgeon too casual for my taste, but I knew them finding joy and peace in their lives didn’t make them any less deadly. Everyone was still committed to this cause, even though I wasn’t sure how we were going to maintain it long-term.
Living on the edge of constant peril with their women and children in the mix.
Our intention had been that only Raven, River’s little sister, would ever be involved or know what we did since she was there from the beginning.
Now that circle had grown in a way I couldn’t fathom.
Terrified me, but how could I wish it to be anything else? Couldn’t imagine taking that joy away from my crew, but I guess them losing it was what scared me in the first place.
Concern flashed through River’s dark expression as he took me in. Like the guy could read my anxiety that was a hundred times thicker than it normally was.
I was always the fucking cloud that fogged over the room.
But tonight…
“Hey,” he said, his pitch-black eyes appraising.
Dude was as intimidating as they came. Wide and thick, but pure fucking muscle.
Black hair the same color as his daunting gaze.
Every inch of him was covered in ink. Color swirled up from his shirt to surround his neck, touching the backs of his ears, plus he had a row of five small stars that dotted his hairline.
He was our artist, writing our flesh like a history book of our sins.
He never asked me what mine meant when he did them. He sat silent, respecting the fact that I rarely spoke.
“Hey,” I returned, itching as Otto closed the door and worked back through the locks.
Theo stood and raked a hand through his midnight hair, dude canting a sly grin in my direction. The guy was happier than he’d ever been, his world turned upside down when Piper showed up in town with her little boy and her grandmother six months ago. The last of my crew to hook up.
Leaving me the odd man out.
That was just fine.
I’d been a loner for a long fucking time.
Seemed fitting.
Theo’s head tipped to the side, no question he picked up on the agitation, too. “You okay?”
“Yup,” was all I gave him. I sure as hell wasn’t about to dish about Daisy. Not when I didn’t have the first clue how I was going to handle the situation.
He gave a slight shrug, clearly not expecting anything else.
I turned to Kane, who was rising from the desk. “Let’s get this over with, yeah?”
He scuffed a hand through his light brown hair, face full of an overbearing smile. “Someone’s in a hurry. What, is it too much to hang out with your brothers for a little bit?”
There was no anger to it. Just a razzing, which I got about every time I got in their space.
“He’s just saving me from having to look at your ugly mug for that long,” Otto cracked as he crossed the room.