Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Luke yanked on his sweatpants and wrapped Holly in a blanket, making sure most of her beautiful, silky skin was covered.
Then he joined his brothers and other men from the town—including Mr. Elmer who had to be way past sixty—in forming a line along the riverbank with the women and children behind them.
Abe moved next to Luke, and together they waited.
“Where is Hawk?” Abe asked.
“Not here.” Luke looked around and didn’t see his cousin anywhere.
Trent moved next to Luke and Abe, fists curling. “Hawk and Izzy are back at the church doing paperwork. There’s an issue with their marriage license.”
Luke smelled the stench of diesel fuel first. Then the Harley Dynas rode in from the dirt access road. Twelve of them, kicking up dust. The MC members wore matte black helmets, black leather, and everything else was chrome.
The laughter on the riverside died like a switch had been flipped. Kids rushed toward mothers. Frisbees hit the ground and were forgotten. Even the mosquitoes seemed to go quiet.
Luke glanced back at Holly, who looked pale. When she caught his gaze, she nodded slightly. He knew her well enough now to know she was more furious than scared.
The riders parked their bikes in an even, perfect row, and cut their engines at the same time. The silence that followed was worse than the noise.
One man dismounted.
“Fuck,” Luke muttered beneath his breath.
“Agreed,” Trent whispered next to Luke. “This is not good.”
Kane stepped up first to meet the biker. Ben and Jacob flanked him.
The tall, broad-shouldered biker had tattooed knuckles and a faded patch on his cut that read Vice President. His name was Ripper, and Luke knew him well enough to know he wasn’t there to chat. Ripper was the new veep of the Kingsmill Chapter, second only to Damian who was still the president.
“You got what’s ours,” Ripper said directly to Kane, voice flat. “And we’re not leaving without it.”
Of course Ripper had focused on Kane. Because Kane, for a long time, had been President of the Devil’s Renegades—until Eve put an end to that nonsense.
“We’re not handing anything over,” Kane said, stepping forward a few more feet. “And we’re not letting you threaten our women.”
Abe nudged Luke and nodded toward Eve. She stood off to the side, alone, with her hands fisted and wearing a glare that could burn paint off a fender.
Luke released a deep breath. No one in this town had been hurt more by the MC—and Damian—than Eve. The biggest shock was that she hadn’t burned down The Ren, the Devil’s Renegades’ clubhouse and bar on Main Street, with all the MC members in it.
“No threat.” Ripper looked past Kane, scanning faces, until his gaze focused on Eve. “Just a fact. That drive pinged back a location. Our location. Here in Kingsmill. You think the higher-ups don’t notice that kind of thing?”
No one said anything.
So Ripper held up a flash drive identical to the ones Holly had taken. “You’re not just screwing with Kingsmill’s MC,” he said. “You’re screwing with the network. That map, those drives—they’re part of a system you don’t understand.”
Now Gage forced his way to the front, like the former Army Ranger Master Sergeant he was. “You make weapons runs through our towns. We understand the danger just fine.”
Ripper’s smile was cold, calculating, and he moved until he stood inches away from Gage. “Then you know what happens to loose ends.”
Ben barked a laugh, but there was no humor in it. “What do you want? A pinky finger as proof we’ll stay quiet?”
“A guarantee, Sheriff. Or should I call you J-Reb?” Ripper smiled at his own joke of remembering Ben’s old MC name. “Something we can take back. Or next time, it won’t just be a picnic we destroy.”
His gaze slid deliberately to Eve. Then to Holly.
Luke moved in front of her without thinking. “You so much as look at her again—”
“We all got something to lose, Surfer Boy,” Ripper cut in. “Maybe think about that.”
“Hey!” One of the bikers yelled out, and everyone turned their attention back to the line of motorcycles.
Eve had moved quickly, despite her girth, and now stood at one end of the bikes.
Slowly and deliberately, she raised her foot and kicked the first bike.
That first bike slammed into the next, and the next, and so on, until all the bikes fell in a loud cacophony of metal crunching metal that echoed around the mountain.
No one said a word. But Luke and Abe exchanged shocked glances.
Even the bikers stared at Eve, obviously not knowing what to do next.
But before anyone could move out of their shocked state, Eve turned and walked back to the river, not stopping until she sat alone at a picnic table, almost hidden beneath a tree, part of the town but emotionally separate.
“Wow,” Trent whispered. “That. Was. Awesome.”
Kane, on the other hand, was rubbing his fist against his forehead as if exasperated, frustrated, and exhausted with the whole MC mess.
“This isn’t the end of the problem,” Ripper said as he straightened his bike. “You’ll be hearing from us. Soon.”
Once all the bikes were upright, they roared to life again. Dust churned and exhaust burned through the air. They rode out the same way they’d come—fast, deliberate, and final.
The silence that followed felt haunted. Kids cried softly. Someone knocked over a cooler, and no one moved to pick it up.
Clara pressed a shaking hand to her heart. “Well, that killed the vibe.”
Jacob took Clara’s hand and said, “Let’s get the kids home.”
“Wait.” Gage motioned for everyone to gather around him. “We need to make a plan.”
“Not tonight,” Kane said tightly. “I need to talk to Eve.”
Gage nodded. “Seven. Tomorrow morning. We come up with a plan. In the meantime,” he nodded at Kane, Luke, and Abe, “make sure Kane’s house is secure. And make sure you have eyes on both Eve and Holly until tomorrow.”
Kane nodded and stormed off to find Eve.
Luke turned to find Holly next to him, her brown eyes wide and filled with questions he couldn’t answer.
“Ivy and I will help clean up,” Trent added, already rounding up towels.
Ben swore softly under his breath. “Do we even have a play here, Uncle Gage?”
Gage squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Not yet. But we’ll think of something. I still haven’t heard from my FBI contact.” He glanced at Lily who’d come over to take his hand. “Let’s get home. Sleep. Think. And tomorrow we’ll regroup.”
Luke took Holly’s hand and led her toward his truck, his chest tight, his heart heavy. They were almost out of time—and still out of answers.
* * *
Holly’s mind raced with everything that had happened in the thirty-six hours or so.
And now that she had her phone, she decided she had no interest in anything it could offer.
That had to be a first for her—usually she was addicted to her phone as it’d once been her only connection to the real world.
Except that had been a false belief. She understood that now as she stared into the fire in the old stone hearth in her bedroom.
The flames popped softly, casting amber light across the wide-plank floorboards.
Although it was late May, the evening carried a chill that matched the cold she still carried from playing in the river.
She lay on her side beneath the quilt, her hand curled under her cheek as the flames shifted and curled.
It’d only taken one day to realize the life she’d been living before hadn’t been full and happy.
Yes, she was a doctor, doing what she loved.
But she’d never been truly happy until today.
Until meeting Luke and his wild, chaotic family.
Maybe her ex-husband had been right to leave. They’d never truly been married. But it’d taken her falling into the arms of a man she barely knew, a man who was so different than she was—so filled with fun and spontaneity—to discover she wasn’t who she thought she was.
The house creaked randomly, full of age and memory. Somewhere down the hall, a floorboard groaned under someone’s footsteps—probably Kane doing his final security check. After the MC’s ambush, no one was sleeping deeply.
Luke stood in front of the fireplace, wearing just boxer briefs, poking the embers back to life like he didn’t know what to do with his hands.
His hair was still damp from the river, curling slightly at the ends.
He looked tired, tense, and so intimately masculine as to be beautiful. At least in her eyes.
“Are you going to stand there all night, brooding like a Byronic hero?” she whispered.
He turned, his mouth tilting into a weary smile. “Maybe. If you think it’s a sexy look.”
“It is,” she said softly. “I have something to tell you.”
“That sounds ominous.” He poked the fire again. “Please don’t tell me you’re married.”
“No.” She hesitated before adding, “I was married. I’m now divorced.”
His eyes widened in surprise. “Oh. I didn’t know that.”
She sat up, keeping the quilt around her. “I married another doctor during medical school. I did the thing everyone tells med students not to do. And it didn’t work out.”
“You didn’t love him?”
“Not the way I should have.” She shrugged and refocused on the red and yellow flames. “I gave everything to my career while he gave everything to his girlfriend.”
“That mystery hotel keycard in your purse, that one you tried to bribe me with…”
“It was the keycard I found in his pants pocket that told me he was having an affair. I’m not sure why I’ve kept it, maybe to remind me that I need to guard my heart.”
Luke crossed to the bed in a few slow steps, sat on the edge, and took her hand in his. “I’m sorry. That’s a shit thing to do.”
“Yes.” She nodded. “It is a shit thing to do. But I don’t regret the marriage ending.”
“Still, endings are sad. And there’s always grief. But you have to move through the hard feelings, tear down the guard rails around your heart, and live again.”
She gently touched his lips. “Philosophy from a surfer dude?”