Chapter Ten
Sabrina looked down at the text she’d just received and felt her stomach drop.
Hey, I was going to let this go, but I decided to be a nice guy and give you the heads up. I’m not coming tonight. The weekend was great, but I’m not interested in seeing you again. I like my women a little wilder. Good luck out there.
She read it again. And again.
They’d talked hours before and Wyatt hadn’t given her a single hint he was anything but excited about their date. He’d talked about which burger he would order and asked if she would want to dance with him.
Not once had he told her he was thinking about dumping her because she wasn’t “wild” enough.
Tears threatened to blur her vision.
This wasn’t Wyatt.
She texted back.
Hey, what’s going on?
She waited a couple of minutes, hoping to see the little circles that would tell her he was writing back. Impatience took over.
Wyatt, you need to talk to me.
A message not delivered sign appeared under her text, and she noticed it wasn’t the same color it had been before. All of the previous messages had appeared in blue and the one she’d last typed was now in green.
Had he blocked her number?
He’d slept with her for days, told her how much he wanted her, and then blocked her number?
She would have slept with him anyway. But that fucker had basically made her fall in love with him. He’d told her how perfect she was for him, how great they could be together, and it was all a lie.
Or was something else going on?
“Hey, can I get you a drink? I feel like the first bottle of wine should be on the house since I know what happened at school today.” Callie Hollister-Wright wore a Trio T-shirt and jeans, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail.
Charlie and Zander, Callie’s twin boys, had taken hide and seek to a whole new level today. They’d been playing with the younger kids and managed to hide in the ceiling. They’d damn near given Del a heart attack, but Sabrina had excellent hearing and they couldn’t contain their glee at freaking the teacher out. “They’re good kids, but I think I will have a drink. Vodka tonic.”
Callie’s brows rose in obvious surprise. “I thought you were more of a white wine girl.”
Should she even stay? It might be a better idea to leave and drink alone at her place with the freaking ghost.
How was she going to tell her sister she’d been a complete idiot? That she’d been played?
She should have known. This shouldn’t come as a complete surprise to her. It was how her life worked. What the hell had she been thinking? She wasn’t even close to their league looks-wise, and neither of those men would want a schoolteacher for a girlfriend. Sawyer had been plain. Wyatt had lied.
“Vodka tonic it is,” Callie said with a nod. “I will be right back.”
Callie hustled off, and she saw her stop at a booth to her left. Callie leaned over as though whispering to whoever was in the booth.
Everyone would know because she’d been stupid enough to announce it to the world.
Sabrina Leal—schoolteacher extraordinaire—had told the whole town she had a boyfriend, and he hadn’t even shown up to their first date.
She was not going to cry.
Well, she would, but she wouldn’t do it here.
When she got home she would cry her eyes out and figure out how to put on a brave face when her dad asked her how things were going with Wyatt.
Her dad? Was she an idiot for calling him her dad? He wasn’t. He was Elisa’s dad. Sabrina’s father had never wanted to see her. He’d left and never looked back. He hadn’t sent her birthday cards or called to see how she was. He’d walked out and left her with a cold, unemotional mother.
“Hey, aren’t you supposed to be on a date or something?” A familiar blonde slid into the seat across from Sabrina. Gemma Wells was dressed for a date night in a white silk blouse, a rope of pearls around her neck and her makeup done perfectly. “Your sister mentioned this was a big thing for you.”
Gemma worked with Elisa. She supposed it wasn’t shocking Elisa had mentioned her sister had a date since it rarely happened. She had to be set up with guys. She couldn’t find her own.
Her brain sought for any other explanation than the truth. But there wasn’t one. Lies would only get her into more trouble. “He changed his mind.”
“Changed his mind?” Gemma asked.
“Who changed his mind?” Holly Burke turned in her seat. She was at the table to the side of Sabrina’s booth, and she wasn’t alone. There was a large man with longish dark hair, a slightly smaller one with gold-blond neatly cut hair, and a baby girl in a high chair. Alexei Markov, Caleb Burke, and their little girl, Amelia.
Sabrina should have remembered Bliss wasn’t a town where people kept to themselves. They weren’t in high tourist season, so everyone inside the cozy pub was a local and everyone would be interested in gossip about the new girl.
She’d kind of wanted it when she’d thought Wyatt would be here. She’d wanted to sit in Trio with her hot guy and know everyone was talking about the new couple in town.
Pride goeth before the fall. She could hear her mom say the words, see the judgment in her eyes.
Had it only been a couple of hours before that she’d sat with her sister and promised to ignore those voices? She sniffled and forced a smile on her face. “Wyatt was supposed to meet me for dinner, but it turns out he has other things to do. It’s okay. I don’t mind eating alone.”
The big Russian leaned over, his head cocking to the side to look around his partner. “Wyatt Kemp? He asks you to dinner and does not show? We are certain he is all right and has not had the accidents?”
She wasn’t sure why Holly’s husband was so concerned. Alexei wasn’t the doctor in the group. Dr. Burke was, but he showed zero interest in anything but getting Amelia to eat her dinner.
“Oh, it was no accident.” A bit of anger was starting to thrum through her system. There had been no need at all to tell her he cared about her. He could have had his weekend of sex and fun and she would have gone on her merry way. She wouldn’t have opened herself up the way she had. They both could have come out of this thing with whole hearts, but some men needed a trophy.
It wouldn’t be her tears.
“It was not?” Alexei stood and moved close to Holly, who had turned her chair.
Callie came rushing in with her vodka tonic. She placed it in front of Sabrina. “There you go, sweetie.”
“Damn. Did my kids drive you to drink, Teach?” Max Harper stopped as he was making his way across the dining room. She’d seen the Harpers sitting with Nell and Henry and their baby as she’d walked in.
Sawyer called her Teach. He growled it when he wanted her attention on him. Said it softly when he kissed her. Winked at her as he said it when he was feeling playful.
Damn it, they were going to get her stupid tears.
Max’s eyes widened as though he’d realized he was in the room with something terrifying. He backed up even as Holly stood and started toward her.
Sabrina felt tears rolling down her cheeks.
Max’s horrified expression deepened, and he started walking away. “Rach, we’re going to lose her, but it’s not my fault. I think Alexei said something to her.”
“I do not be saying anything to her except questions,” Alexei replied. “She is obviously in a state of emotional distress.”
Rachel ran onto the scene with Nell on her heels, both women looking at her like a disaster was unfolding right in front of their eyes. “What’s happening? She was fine earlier. She was great.” Rachel’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll kill the little fucker.”
He wasn’t little, and he really knew how to do the other part. He was an excellent fucker. Maybe she was bad at it. She had to tap the brakes because this scene was getting out of hand. She was creating a gossip wave she didn’t know how to ride out. “I’m fine.”
Sabrina took a long drink. And managed to not cough because someone had poured that sucker strong. There was a lot of vodka and not much tonic.
Gemma was nodding. “Good. Drink up, girl. I found it is so much easier to beat down who I need to when I get enough vodka in me.”
“You aren’t beating anyone down,” Jesse McCann said from his seat in the booth behind them. He’d craned his neck to look over.
He wasn’t the only one. Sabrina realized a whole lot of Bliss was in Trio, and they were all looking her way with the exception of Caleb, who was still trying to get his daughter to eat something. He was currently trying to use the airplane method, but Amelia’s landing strip was stubbornly closed to all carrots.
“I will beat down whoever I like,” Gemma shot back.
“Jesse, I thought better of you, sir,” Nell said, shaking her head. “You know I do not condone violence, but Gemma is not a puppy for you to command.”
“No, she’s my sub,” Jesse argued.
Cade Sinclair stood up, a grin on his handsome face. “Oh, I have been living for this. Go on, Nell.”
“Nell knows the obligations of a submissive.” Henry had joined his wife and held Poppy against his chest. The baby was wide eyed and looking around the room like this was the best entertainment ever. “And she also understands there is a time and a place to discuss such things, and it’s probably not in the middle of Trio. I take it one of the MC boys fucked up? Was it Sawyer?”
Sawyer had been open and honest about what he wanted, and it wasn’t long term with her. It made her ache but she could handle his rejection because it had always been out there. Wyatt had lied, and his lies made her more than sad.
His lies made her angry.
“It was Wyatt, and this is why I am concerned,” Alexei explained.
“I would have thought it would be Sawyer,” Max replied. “Well, hell, that makes it way easier. I’m pretty sure I can beat the other guy down. He’s not as big as Sawyer. You want me to beat him down for you, Teach? Or do you want Gemma to do it? I know she looks like she wouldn’t, but there are videos proving she can. Though I don’t know Wyatt has enough hair for her to pull.”
“Oh, I’ll pull more than hair,” Gemma vowed.
“Slow down, people. We need to think this whole thing through. Perhaps we should protest Wyatt.” Nell looked thoughtful, as though trying to decide how many signs to make.
“Stop,” Sabrina said, sniffling again. She had to get control of this situation. She wasn’t sure she could think of anything worse than a Nell-led protest of her getting dumped. “No one is beating Wyatt down or protesting. It’s fine. We spent a nice weekend together, and he changed his mind about seeing me again.”
“He came by and told you he didn’t want to see you?” Holly asked. “He dumped you right here in Trio?”
Sabrina shook her head. “No.”
“He called you?” Callie asked.
Was it worse? She wasn’t sure. Maybe the text had been a kindness since she didn’t have to see him again. “No.”
Except she did because he wasn’t moving, so he would be around. She would see him and know he hadn’t even cared enough to tell her in person he’d changed his mind.
Rachel’s eyes narrowed. “Do not tell me he sent you a text telling you he wouldn’t be making it to your first date. To the date he promised you after you spent all weekend with him. Do not tell me that.”
Max’s head shook. “Seriously don’t tell her. She might explode. We’ve been doing real well, and I haven’t even been arrested in over a year, so she’s got an unhealthy amount of rage with nowhere to put it.”
Rye walked over, holding the baby like a football he needed to protect. “Guys, you’re leaving me alone with the kids, and they do math now. They know I’m outnumbered. What the hell is going on? Ethan already slobbered all over Max’s burger.”
Max looked at his twin. “Rach found out the woman she loves above all others got dumped by the new guy via text, but only after she spent the weekend riding him like a horse she was training.”
Rye’s eyes widened. “I can handle the kids.”
He ran.
“Wyatt better like the food at Hell on Wheels.” Callie joined Rachel and Nell, their solidarity clear. “Because he is never coming here again.”
“Stop.” The last thing she wanted was a scene. Though it was nice to know there were people who cared. “This is nothing for anyone to worry about. I’m fine. I thought we had made a connection, but it appears it was one sided. There’s no need to blackball the poor man. It simply didn’t work out, so I’ll move on.”
“In a car that rolls over his body.” Gemma advised.
“I can drive it,” Rachel offered.
“I don’t believe we should violently assault the man.” Nell was looking at her like she was a baby deer with a broken leg and Nell was going to nurse her. “We should merely show our distaste with his actions by singing outside his house for a period of no less than twenty-four hours and perhaps bombarding him with texts about inappropriate things. It might teach him what texting is for.”
“Everyone stop,” Alexei said with a shake of his head. “This makes no sense. Look, I am not allowed to talk about certain things.”
“Because Wyatt’s his patient.” Doc said, finally joining the conversation. Amelia had grabbed the spoon.
“Caleb,” Alexei admonished.
“Well, everyone knows, and I’m not his therapist. I’m the guy who sits behind him at Stella’s for breakfast who has to listen to him drone on and on about how he wants to be good enough to date someone like Sabrina Leal.” Caleb took a spoon to the face without missing a beat. When Amelia laughed at her own antics, Caleb stuffed a piece of banana in her mouth. “What Alexei can’t say is there has to be some other reason for the aforementioned emotional change in Wyatt because that man is into you. He’s crazy about you, and it would be out of character for him to hurt someone like this.”
“I would not be able to be saying these things because of patient privacy,” Alexei said with a frown.
“But it’s accurate?” Holly asked.
Alexei nodded. “I will be calling him tomorrow. Something is wrong.”
They weren’t listening to her. “He changed his mind. He liked the idea of me, but then he actually spent time with me and he doesn’t like me. I guess he said all the stuff about us dating to make sure I didn’t cause a fuss when I left. He also might be a little intimidated by Mel.”
“He should be intimidated by me,” Rachel said, an unholy gleam in her eyes.
“He should be intimininadated by me, too, Momma.” At some point Paige had joined them. She stood there in her pink jumper, hands in fists on her hips. She was Rachel’s mini-me, and she had her momma’s rage down pat. “Ms. Leal is the best teacher, and no one should hurt her. I will kick him in the shins. No one treats my teacher bad.”
“Badly.” She was still a teacher, after all. “It’s no one treats my teacher badly, Paige.”
“His leg’s going to feel badly when I kick it.” Sometimes Paige didn’t want a lesson.
“You are not kicking anyone,” Max said with a huff.
“Aunt Nell, Daddy is patriarching me,” Paige proclaimed.
“Huh. I wonder if it has anything to do with Hell on Wheels getting robbed,” Gemma mused.
“What?” Someone had obviously buried the lead. Sabrina turned to Gemma. “What do you mean someone robbed Hell on Wheels? No one told me.”
“Well, I didn’t think I should. We’re not terrifically close, and I kind of thought the guys would tell you. Or your sister, though now that I think about it, she wasn’t on duty when we got called out there,” Gemma admitted.
Sabrina didn’t care about why she hadn’t known. She did however have some questions. “What happened? Is everyone okay?”
Gemma waved the concern off. “Everyone’s fine. Someone broke in while the storm was going, and we’re pretty sure it was a group of bikers making a mess. I tracked them via traffic cams. Though we should call it something else because it’s not like we get traffic out here. We should call them road cams.”
Bikers? “Like his family? Gemma, this is important. Could it have been his brother?”
Now all eyes were on Gemma, and she seemed to realize she was the center of attention and wasn’t sure she liked it. “Uh, I don’t think so. He didn’t say anything if it was. You know the Horde is based in Colorado Springs. It’s hours from here. I doubt they would drive all that way to steal a couple hundred bucks and some cheap liquor.”
“Well, cheap is all Sawyer has,” Max added unhelpfully.
Alexei stepped closer. “Sabrina, if there is even the hintings Wyatt’s brother is trying to contact him…”
“He would want me to stay away.” A thrill of hope sprang through Sabrina. Was this Wyatt’s way of trying to protect her? Oh, the hope was suddenly squashed by anger again. “He would rather break my heart than tell me what’s happening?”
“It’s just like a man,” Paige announced. “Don’t worry, Ms. Leal. Me and Charlie and Zander will get him.”
Callie’s eyes went wide, and she looked down at Rachel’s mini-me. “I think we should leave the twins out of this.”
It was time to start taking control. If she was right and Wyatt had done this to “protect” the little woman, he was about to find out exactly who the little woman was. And she was not going to have her students turn into a vigilante gang.
“I never leave Charlie and Zander out of anything, Miss Callie,” Paige declared. “They’re my best friends and we love Miss Leal because she is the best teacher in the world. We can take this Wyatt guy down. I bet he’s never even had a snake in his bed.”
Rachel gasped.
Max shrugged as though he should have expected it. “It’s fine. She won’t put a venomous one in.”
“Paige Harper,” Sabrina said in her best teacher voice, “you will not put a snake in Wyatt’s bed.”
Paige nodded. “It would be hard. I don’t know where his bed is. So I’ll slip it into his boot when he’s not looking. See, this is where Charlie and Zander come in. They’re real good with distractions.”
“We’re going to need bail funds,” Callie said under her breath.
“Paige,” Sabrina said, reaching a hand out to Paige. “My darling girl, what is the most important thing we can be?”
Paige’s little mouth formed a flat line as though she wanted to argue, but she huffed out her response. “Kind.”
“Even when people are not kind to us, we have to remain true to being the people we are. It doesn’t mean you let someone walk all over you, as Mr. Kemp is going to learn this evening, but it does mean we don’t seek revenge over hurt feelings. We talk about our feelings. Also, it would be unkind to the snake.” She got a nod from Nell for that last bit of advice. “I am going to talk to Mr. Kemp, and no matter the outcome, we’ll be polite to each other.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Paige replied. “I hope it works out for you, and I won’t kick him next time I see him. But only for you.”
“She is a miracle worker,” Max breathed his wife’s way.
“I told you,” Rachel shot back. “Paige, could you please go help Papa with your brothers? I’ll be right there.”
Paige nodded and walked away, her ponytail swinging.
“Well, see now I think I should go beat the shit out of him,” Max said with a shake of his head.
Sabrina pointed his way. “Do you need the same lecture I gave your daughter?”
Max snapped to attention. “No, ma’am. You should handle Wyatt in your kind way.”
“Perhaps we should talk tomorrow in my office,” Alexei offered.
She wasn’t going to wait so long. But then she also didn’t need five concerned parents following her to Hell on Wheels. She stood up and grabbed her purse. “I will call him tomorrow after I’ve calmed down and ask if we can meet up. Thank you all for your time. I will see you at school tomorrow.”
They all watched her warily as she walked away.
She made it out to her car when Gemma came rushing out behind her.
“Hey, Sabrina,” she said as she caught up. “You know I’m a lawyer, right? I got my Colorado license last year.”
“Good for you.” She wasn’t sure why Gemma thought she needed to know her career status. Her brain was already on the fight she was about to take on.
Had Sawyer told Wyatt breaking her heart would be the best way to ensure she stayed away? They would talk about that, too.
Gemma frowned, arms crossing over her chest. “You’re not going home. You’re going to Hell on Wheels to take that man’s balls. I heartily agree with this plan, though if anyone asks I had no idea. If you need to do shady shit, don’t tell me so I can defend you. It’ll be fun. All I’ve done so far is file crap for the city. I would love a murder case.”
She wasn’t going to kill him.
Just maim him a little. And hope Paige Harper never heard the tale.
* * * *
Wyatt looked up at the clock, his heart clenching as he realized she was probably still sitting at Trio looking pretty as hell, and she now knew she was all alone.
Had she left the restaurant when he’d blocked her?
Hey, what’s going on?
They were likely the last words he would hear from her. Not anger and rage. No promises of retribution. She’d been worried about him. He’d been as big an ass as he could be and she’d wanted to know what was going on because she couldn’t quite believe he would hurt her like that.
Now she knew. Blocking her would put all doubt to rest. The next time he saw her, he would be cold. He wouldn’t acknowledge she existed.
And in a few months, he would leave Bliss since it looked like Sawyer was right and his brother wasn’t going to let him go easily.
Sawyer slid a beer in front of him. He was sitting at the end of the bar, turned slightly since he was waiting for the moment when the door opened and his past came back to haunt him.
Did his brother know what he’d done and all of this was some elaborate plan to draw out the punishment? He wouldn’t put it past Wayne to come up with some elaborate retribution. It would include some emotional torture.
Of course if Wayne knew, there would be way more than emotional torture. There would be pain until he couldn’t handle it a second more and he gave up everything he’d done.
The one thing he was absolutely certain of was his sins wouldn’t touch Sabrina.
“How did she handle it?” Sawyer passed off two more beers to Lark, who walked off to take it to table twelve.
“It was fine.” He hadn’t explained to Sawyer that he wasn’t going to take his oddly reasonable advice. This wasn’t a reasonable situation, and if Sabrina knew he was in trouble, she would want to help. Helping in this case might cost her mightily. “I don’t think she took things too seriously, either. She was only being polite.”
A brow rose over Sawyer’s dark eyes. “The woman let us play with her asshole. She wasn’t being polite. She was into us. You, in particular.”
He’d been right the first time, but Wyatt had given up his dream. There would be no happy threesome, no settling into the sweetest, most fun town he’d ever been in. He wouldn’t be everyone’s helpful friend, wouldn’t play with the kids and the dogs and help out when someone needed strong arms.
He would leave as soon as he could and never look back, and when he got to the next place he would keep to himself. He wouldn’t put anyone else at risk.
“She wished me well and said everything is cool.” Let that be the end of it. He didn’t want some weird fight with Sawyer before he had to deal with his brother.
Dark eyes narrowed. “You’re lying.”
Wyatt huffed. “It’s none of your business.”
Perhaps pointing out he was being nosy would get the man to back off. Sawyer was the most misanthropic person he knew.
Of course he only knew what to call Sawyer because Sabrina had a wide vocabulary and liked to share it with the world.
“Uh, it’s absolutely my business because if you didn’t do what I told you to do, we’re going to have a serious problem,” Sawyer replied.
“I solved the problem.”
“How did you solve the problem?” Sawyer was insistent. “Did you give her some weird drug that makes you forget things? Did Jax have any left? Because unless you erased last weekend, she’s going to show up at some point in time. Look, if you did give her a drug, people are going to come after you. We need to make it clear you’re the only one responsible for that particular action because there are some boys from Texas who will take offense, and I don’t want to mess with them.”
When had Sawyer developed a sense of humor? It was a really inopportune time to develop a dry wit. “Of course I didn’t do anything to harm her physically. I’m trying my best to ensure nothing hurts her.”
“But you didn’t tell her what was happening? You came up with some reasonable excuse for why you couldn’t join her this evening. Right?”
Sawyer was going to kill him tonight. “No. I didn’t. I told her thanks for the sex but I wasn’t interested in seeing her again and then I blocked her. So now she knows exactly who I am and she’ll stay away.”
Sawyer groaned, and his head fell back. “Damn it.”
He didn’t have to say anything else because the doors opened and four familiar men walked in. They were all wearing jeans and T-shirts and black leather vests proclaiming their full membership in the Colorado Horde.
Sawyer straightened up. “Doug. He’s your brother’s second, right?”
Wyatt nodded. “The big one is Doug. The tallest one goes by Murphy. You probably remember the asshole in the back.”
He was the one looking around, checking all the exits and eyeballing who was where in case he needed to beat the living shit out of someone. It was what Brutus did best.
“Yeah. I had more than a run-in with him,” Sawyer said. He called over to Lark. “Time for you to take a break.”
“But I just had a break,” Lark argued.
“My office. Now. Lock yourself in,” Sawyer ordered.
Lark nodded, seeming to know when the boss meant business. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about her.
“What can I get you, boys?” Sawyer asked.
Wyatt didn’t recognize the fourth man, but he was big and brawny and looked like he ate nails for breakfast. So his brother had replaced him with another enforcer.
Doug’s gaze was on Lark’s backside as she strode away. “I was hoping she would take our orders.”
Wyatt bet he had. All of these men would treat her like she was on the menu. Precisely why Sawyer had sent her away.
Wyatt watched as the only two other customers in the place seemed to feel the shift in the air.
A couple of regulars who came in from Creede stood and threw some cash down and walked out.
So they were alone.
At least no one else would get hurt.
“She’s taking a break,” Sawyer announced cooly. “So why don’t you boys get your business done and we can all get on with our evenings.”
“Not very hospitable of you, Sawyer,” Doug said with a sneer. He slapped the new guy’s chest and pointed Sawyer’s way. “Jeff, this here is Sawyer Hathaway. He rode with us for a while, then his brother did a tiny stint and he couldn’t handle it. I don’t know, Hathaway. I think you would have done well in prison. Pretty boys are popular there.”
“I’ll never find out,” Sawyer replied smoothly. “I’m a simple barkeep now.”
“I doubt you’re anything simple,” Doug said, looking Wyatt up and down. “You get your brother’s message?”
“He’s not my brother.” Wyatt intended to make things plain to these men. “He made himself clear when he burned the tat I never asked for off my chest. But I did get the message the president of the Horde sent me. I gave you all the account numbers. I didn’t leave a damn thing out.”
“Well, your brother…excuse me, the president of the MC, seems to think you did, so you either need to take a look at these accounts or pony up the three hundred K we’re missing,” Doug announced.
His temper threatened to flare.
“Oooo, looks like little brother is getting mad,” the new guy said. “I’m so fucking scared.”
Brutus leaned over and whispered something in his ear that had Jeff frowning.
“Seriously?” Jeff asked.
“Once saw him take out eight guys by himself,” Brutus replied.
“There’s a reason his brother’s not here.” Sawyer had come from behind the bar. “They call Wyatt the Berserker. He’s perfectly calm until he loses it, and then we’re lucky if he doesn’t kill someone.”
Wyatt hated the nickname. He’d definitely hated the way his father had slapped him on the back and called him a real man the first time he’d beaten a man near to death. He’d been sixteen, and one of the older bikers had hit him and called him a bunch of names that would get the man canceled. Wyatt had seen red. He hadn’t even remembered his first fight, but his father had pushed him for more.
It was a side of himself he’d hoped he’d left behind forever, a side he’d never wanted Sabrina to see.
“Did you bring the laptop the new guy is using?” Wyatt didn’t want to talk about the past. “I left the one I used. Tell me he didn’t try to get a new one. No one in the MC really knows computers.”
His brother recruited for other skills.
Jeff stepped up. “I know a little, and I brought this piece of crap you left behind. It’s useless. I barely managed to find the other accounts.”
Wyatt took the laptop from Jeff and opened it. The dumbass hadn’t even changed the password. He knew exactly what was wrong. “There are two accounts I didn’t keep with the others. They’re behind a wall, but I left instructions on how to get around it.”
“If you didn’t hide it, I wouldn’t have to get around it,” Jeff shot back.
“I have to hide it because it was earned through criminal means and needs to be laundered before the club can use it, dumbass,” Wyatt replied, touching the keys with purpose. The faster he got them what they needed, the sooner he could go back to mourning Sabrina.
Doug grunted. “Well, he’s not wrong. Sawyer, why don’t you get us all a couple of beers while Wyatt finds the info we need.”
“He’ll be so fast you won’t have time for a beer,” Sawyer replied. “Besides, you already stole from me so fuck you.”
Brutus frowned. “Well, you weren’t here so what else were we supposed to do?”
“How about not fucking breaking in?” Something nasty was rising in Wyatt’s gut. His brother was playing games with him. He’d done everything he was supposed to do—Wayne thought he’d done everything he was supposed to do—and this was how his brother kept a deal.
His brother had already cost him everything. Being born into his family had cost him a normal childhood. It caused him to be arrested for the first time when he was freaking ten because kids needed to pull their weight in his father’s narrow-minded world. This life had denied him an education, individuality, any form of freedom, and now it cost him the one woman in the world he’d ever truly wanted.
“How about not being a little pussy.” The new guy had a couple of inches on Wyatt and probably fifty pounds of muscle. “Look, I don’t care what they call you or if once you got in a decent punch or two. You’re a momma’s boy pussy, and now you’re going to get the job done and you’re going to hand over everything you owe your brother and then you’re going to serve us some beers and introduce the nice young lady the big guy sent away and then maybe, if she satisfies us, we’ll go away. Otherwise, my needs will change and I’ll require some violence.”
“Wyatt.” Sawyer’s tone was a warning.
Somewhere in the background he heard the front door opening, but it was a distant thing. What was far more immediate was the buzzing in his ears.
Everything. These motherfuckers had cost him everything and they wanted more. They thought Lark wasn’t a person. She was nothing but a doll to play with and toss away. No one outside the Horde mattered. They were kings, and peasants were there for their pleasure.
He hated them.
“Wyatt Kemp, we are going to talk,” a familiar voice said.
“I fucking told you,” Sawyer ground out. “Sabrina, you need to leave. Right now. You go back down to the valley and forget you were here tonight.”
Sabrina was here. She’d walked in the door. It didn’t hit his brain the way it should.
“Now we’re talking,” the new asshole was saying. “Me and Brutus can take this one and Doug and Murphy can play with the brunette.” He walked right up to Sabrina—his Sabrina—and put a hand on her. “You and me are going to have some fun.”
And Wyatt saw red.