Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Rage pounded on the apartment door. “Lyric!”
Hook would need to tow the damaged Toyota to the body shop tomorrow. A shitload of work would be required to get the SUV back to where it was prior to their stupid decision to go all the way to Uniontown to see fucking male goddamn strippers.
Forcing his jaws to unclench, he turned his attention back to the door when it opened.
“What are you doing here?” Bri blocked the opening with her body.
“Need to see Lyric.”
“Why? She’s in bed.”
“Get her up.”
“I’m not sure who died and made you boss.”
“Nobody had to die.” Maybe some Souls did, but the fuck if he was telling her that. “Get her or let me in.”
With a long, dramatic sigh, Bri stepped back and swept a hand toward the apartment’s interior. “Better hope she wants to see you.”
“Don’t matter if she don’t.”
Bri snorted. “I’m going back to binging Real Housewives. If you’re going to fuck, keep the noise down, will you?”
“For fuck’s sake, woman.”
Bri shrugged and headed down the hallway back to her bedroom. “Lyric, your first dick—but hopefully not your last—is here.”
Jesus fuckin’ Christ. Good luck to any fucking man who was forced to deal with her ass. While crazy was usually good in bed, if you weren’t able to kick them out immediately afterward, you risked getting your throat sliced.
Bri was one woman in the sisterhood Rage wouldn’t touch, even with Pugsy’s dick.
Not bothering to wait for Lyric to emerge from her bedroom, he took long, determined strides down the hallway and opened her bedroom door.
“What—” he heard before he slammed the door behind him. She had been in the middle of dropping an oversized T-shirt over her head when she spun to face him. “What are you doing here?”
“Wanted to make sure you’re okay. Wanted to hear why you went to fuckin’ Uniontown after I told you not to.
Wanted to hear what the fuck happened on Fisher Road.
Pick one. Don’t care where you fuckin’ start, just start.
” The more he thought and talked about the situation, the higher his blood pressure rose.
He closed his eyes and shook his head. Do not lose your fuckin’ shit!
When his eyes opened, he roughly pulled Lyric into him. Locking his arms tightly around her, he squeezed her for a few heartbeats before pushing her away to hold her out at arm’s length to inspect her from top to toe.
Instead of waiting for her explanation, he asked, “You good, baby?”
Thank fuck he saw no visible injuries. He hadn’t noticed any earlier, but wanted to make sure for his own peace of mind.
“Yes.”
“What the fuck were you doin’ all the fuck the way down there?”
“I told you we were going to The Pink Pearl.”
“And I told you you weren’t. You did it anyway.” He released her and spun away. “Holy fuck. Tonight reminded me how much you women are our fuckin’ weakness.”
“Wow.”
He spun back to face her, taking one step closer to where she still stood.
“Second time you’ve had to deal with those motherfuckers.
They coulda fuckin’…” He shook his head.
Keep a fuckin’ lid on it. Yellin’ won’t help.
He blew out a breath, hoping the wrong words wouldn’t escape with it.
“Your mother’s a good goddamn example of what those motherfuckers coulda done! ”
He shut up, let that sink in, and when it did, all the color drained from her face.
Right. Reality could be fucking a harsh bitch.
“While I appreciate your concern, this is all a bit over the top, isn’t it?”
Over the top? “How d’you think Crow’s gonna feel when he hears about the risk you women took?”
“He doesn’t need to know,” Lyric whispered.
“The fuck he doesn’t. Maybe he’ll talk some fuckin’ sense into you. Just like Nash and Cross should talk some fuckin’ sense into your goddamn roommate. And Jag needs to get Ivy’s mini-me under control.”
“We’re not children.”
“No, you ain’t. But everyone I just mentioned lived through the bullshit of what the Warriors did. The Souls are doin’ the same goddamn shit by taking pot shots at you women. That means they think you all are our weakness. If it’s up to me, the sisterhood’s goin’ on fuckin’ lockdown.”
She blinked. “What? You can’t do that.”
“Oh yeah? Watch. We fuckin’ can’t risk you women gettin’ snagged, beaten, or…even worse. Ain’t gonna sleep ‘less I know you’re safe.”
“Did you forget we all were forced into self-defense training?”
He didn’t. And if he had to admit it, which he wouldn’t, what Bri, Lyric, and Avery left behind on Fisher Road was damn impressive. They took on four big bikers and basically got away scratch free. The Toyota being the big exception.
While that was impressive, he would’ve rather they hadn’t had that run-in in the first place. They were lucky all three of them weren’t in a morgue right now.
“Gotta be smart, baby,” he said in a softer tone. “Doin’ what you three did wasn’t smart.”
“We simply should’ve given up?”
“Fuck that. Meant going to the goddamn Pink Pearl in the first place. If you go out, you stick to where you’re safe and surrounded by us or the Knights.”
“We can’t live in fear all the time.”
“Don’t gotta live in fear. Just gotta be smart ’til we get a handle on this shit with that MC and their puppet masters.”
“You also need to keep us apprised so we’re prepared.”
Rage happened to agree with that. To a point. While they did need to be better about sharing info in the future, there would always be limits, whether the women liked it or not. “Yeah,” was all he said. “Wanna tell me how that all went down?”
“Which part?”
“How many fuckin’ parts are there? How ‘bout the part where one Soul was laid out cold and the other three were hurtin’ big time?”
“Did you ever think maybe our badass sisterhood isn’t an actual weakness?”
“Fuck no.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, Avery and Bri went all badass biker bitches on them.”
Rage dropped his head and scratched the back of his neck. After a few forced breaths, he lifted it again. “And you?”
“I helped where needed.”
“Great,” he muttered. All he knew was that he could’ve lost her a second time.
The fuck if there would be a third.
“You have blood on you.”
He glanced down to see a few smears on his jeans. Probably from dragging the bodies and piling them up in the woods. “No shit.”
“What did you do?”
His eyebrows shot to the top of his forehead. “Me? They were goddamn bloody when we got there. We simply finished the job you women started.”
Lyric frowned. “Will that come back to bite the DAMC?”
Of course it fucking would. If the Souls found out it was them. “Disappeared the problem.”
“But will they tie it back to us?” He wasn’t sure if he should tell her about the Chinese family the Shadows were setting up. It was probably better to keep that shit under wraps for now. The less people who knew, the better.
“Don’t know,” he answered truthfully, his arms snaking around her again. He still didn’t know all the details of what happened between the Souls and the women before he and the Shadows arrived. “That don’t matter right now. All that matters is you’re okay,” he mumbled into her hair.
“I can’t breathe,” came muffled from between the flaps of his cut.
That almost made him grin, but he wasn’t in a grinning mood. “If you’re talkin’, you’re breathin’.” He tightened his arms around her even more. “For fuck’s sake, Lyric, that was dumb as fuck.”
“You’re not telling me anything I don’t know.”
“Whose idea was it?”
“We were simply trying to help Vi by getting the info to her.”
“And then what?”
“And then we got made.”
He blinked. “Made?”
“Isn’t that the term when someone is spotted?”
For fuck’s sake. “Yeah.”
She tipped her head back until they could see each other’s faces. “Do you have tracking devices on our phones and vehicles?”
“No.” While officially the answer was no, putting tracking devices in their phones and vehicles would be a good idea. He’d have to bring that up with the other club’s officers, as well as Vi’s crew.
“Then how could Vi track us?”
“The Shadows can track anyone carryin’ a cell phone or drivin’ a vehicle if they’re linked to a network. Not just you. Your cell phone’s a walkin’ GPS locator. Also, think ‘bout how services like OnStar work. Gotta go totally off grid to be invisible. Just be glad we could find your asses.”
“We did okay on our own.”
He blew out a breath to keep from combusting. The only thing keeping his shit together was holding her. “Gotta take this shit seriously, Lyric.”
“Believe me, I am…we are, but there’s a lot we’re kept in the dark about. That’s not helpful. Especially if there are threats to us and our family.”
“Will talk to Zeke ‘bout that.”
“Good. We deserve to be kept in the loop. If you’re going to say we’re a part of the DAMC, you need to act like it.”
Of course the sisterhood was a part of the DAMC, but pointing that out was unnecessary. The problem was once the women started their own MC, they thought they’d no longer be labeled DAMC property.
They couldn’t have been more fucking wrong. He wasn’t in the mood for that argument right now.
“Who knocked the Soul out?”
“Bri.”
No surprise. “With what?”
“She keeps a bat in her car.”
Thank fuck for that. It would be a good idea to make sure all the women had some sort of weapon in their vehicles. On their person, too.
“She was pretty damn impressive, if not crazy. Avery, too.”
“Can agree those two are crazy.” But what the fuck would’ve happened if she had been alone?
Thinking about that scared the fuck out of him. Lyric wasn’t like Bri or Avery, Vi or Indie, or even the majority of the sisterhood. She was gentler, kinder. Quieter. Not one to cause issues or be loud or obnoxious.
Her temperament was more even-keeled, like her father.
And fuck, it hit him right in the gut. That was why she was perfect for him.
He needed even. Level-headed. Not prone to losing her shit or spinning out of control, which would make him spin like the cartoon version of the Tasmanian Devil.
It was also why her presence and touch were like a cooling balm when he was ready to burn it all down.