Chapter 9
COLT
SEVEN YEARS AGO…
I’d been back at the club three days before Hawk pulled me aside for the pressure run.
He’d gotten word that the Hellhounds were leaning on one of our distributors and he needed me to back him and a few others up.
Good.
I needed the adrenaline.
A week away from Callie hadn’t done much for my personality or my sanity.
All I’d done was dream about her and talk myself out of going home because I wasn’t ready to face her in the light of day.
She deserved better than me.
Better than all of us.
Hell, I loved Hawk and Diesel more than my own life, but we were no good for anyone.
I rode alongside Hawk down the dark street.
Our headlights burned bright on the black asphalt, the yellow line streaking past when I gunned the engine and roared ahead of him.
No one called me back.
They all knew better.
This was my job, the only fucking thing I had going right in my life.
I’d seen how Hawk looked at me when I came back yesterday.
He’d been worried but hadn’t asked.
Instead, he’d given me shit jobs to complete around the clubhouse to keep me busy and make me feel useful.
I mean, it worked but shit. How did he know me so well that he had it all planned out?
But this? No one was better at leading the charge.
The warehouse came into view as I rounded the last curve.
I drove straight up to the oversized loading doors and killed the engine.
Hawk rolled up beside me and tipped his head. “What do you think?”
“Good place for an ambush. Place is dark and secluded. Clark asked you to come, right?” My mind ran a million miles a minute as I assessed the land, the contact, and the possibilities.
Clark was the guy being messed with, one of our regular distributors who’d always been loyal and took pride in paying on time.
“Surveilance says Hellhounds haven’t been here in a week or so.” Hawk swung off the bike and nodded once at Diesel. The rest dismounted in a wave, leaving me and Hawk to work out the details.
I stood and examined the area the best I could with nothing more than moonlight to guide me. “Good thing is, they can’t block us in here. If it is an ambush, we have several exits. They can’t close them all at once without giving themselves away.”
“Eyes open. Hands close.” Hawk circled his finger over his head, and the six guys he’d brought with him fell into two lines, with me and Diesel at the front. “You all know who we’re meeting tonight. Keep your heads and we’ll figure this out.”
Right.
I bit back a snort.
Ridge Malloy, the Hellhounds county president, wasn’t about to let any of this go.
The man thrived on chaos and loved nothing more than to make our lives miserable.
If he’d gotten to Clark and convinced Clark to set us up tonight, we were in for one more shit show.
Good thing I’d come back when I did. They needed me there to watch their backs.
Engines revved, and six bikes rolled in from the opposite side of the gravel lot.
Dust billowed from the dry heat. One man stood, swinging his leg off his bike and standing to face Hawk.
Ridge was the kind of man nightmares were made of.
All hard edges and a deep scowl, with a voice like sandpaper on concrete.
He smirked at us from a distance and flicked his fingers.
At the motion, the five with him fell into formation, fanning out to watch Ridge’s back.
“Well, well.” He clapped leather-clad hands in slow motion. “You actually came.”
Hawk stood with a tense spine but nodded without making it look like deference. “Not cause you wanted a chat. Seems one of my distributors has a complaint I need to take care of.”
“Oh?” Ridge rubbed a hand down his cheek. “Who would that be?”
“I don’t have time for bullshit, Ridge.” I took a step forward, closing the distance to stand right beside Hawk. My nerves thrummed with adrenaline, drawing my vision to a narrow point. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing trying to buy one of our guys?”
His smile showed a missing canine. “What’s this, Hawk? You letting your boys out of line now?”
“This boy doesn’t stand in line.” I kept my spot even when Hawk gave me a look that told me to get my ass under control.
Fuck no. I’d had enough of Ridge and his games.
“From what I hear, there are more problems than your distributors. Rumors running around you have a woman you can’t control.
What’s the bitch’s name? Claire? Kiki. No.
That’s not it.” He snapped his fingers. “Callie. That’s it.
Some bitch in heat named Callie working Vulture ground.
” He grinned and thrust his hips. “Likes to have a good time.”
I dove forward, hands drawn and ready to wrap around the motherfucker’s throat.
No one talked about Callie. “You keep her fucking name out of your damned mouth.”
One hand shot to the waistband of his pants and metal glinted.
Shit.
I twisted at the last minute, but not fast enough.
The knifeblade scored my ribs, tearing through my shirt and slicing through skin.
Hot blood trickled from the wound and my vision turned red. “You just ruined my favorite shirt.”
Smirking, the guy took in my vintage T-shirt with a nineties band I’d loved on the front and shook his head. “Looks like I did you a favor. More than one. Why don’t you go back to your friends before the real party starts.”
“I’m fine right here.” I lunged again, fist cocked and ready.
He hadn’t prepared for it, thinking I’d give in like every other cocksucker in Ridge’s club.
My fist connected with his jaw and sent him reeling back.
He swung the knife in a wide arc, almost slashing Ridge because he wasn’t paying attention.
“Hawk, call off your boy.” Ridge pointed at me.
I pointed back. “I’m not a boy. Not yours and not anyone else’s.” I spat toward the guy who’d knifed me. “Let’s go.” I curled my fingers in a mocking gesture, hoping to egg him on.
He shook his head, but the smirk remained firmly in place. “You might not be a boy, but you are someone’s dog, and your handler is here to take care of you.”
“Don’t you fucking dare, Diesel.” I knew it was him from the way he breathed.
“Don’t make me, Colt.” Knuckles cracked.
He was the first guy I wanted by my side in a fight.
Hawk was the second. I’d kill–or die–for either of them.
But having Diesel manhandle me back to Hawk’s side of the line? No thanks.
“Go. Now.” The prick with the knife pointed the bloody blade at me.
Several others behind him drew their own weapons, a heavy mix of knives and pistols.
Honestly, it was pure dumb fucking luck this one had pulled a knife instead of a gun. I might’ve been dead right now.
Fuck. I almost wished he had.
“Don’t.” Diesel turned his back on the club and looked me square in the eye. “Not like this.”
“Damn you.” I lowered my hands and nodded. Not like this was our equivalent of no man left behind. If I really and truly wanted to throw down, he’d go with me. Even if it killed us both.
But where would that leave Hawk?
Fucking idiots with their morals and rules.
“We’re done here.” Hawk held Ridge’s gaze. “We agreed to meet and discuss you pushing into Vulture territory. Seems we covered that. Keep to your side of the line, Ridge, and we’ll keep to ours.”
Ridge barely blinked, and he sure as hell didn’t agree.
We all knew better. This song and dance had been going on for decades. It would continue for decades. No one ever really won, but we all liked to think we did.
“Let’s go.” Hawk ordering us to leave first was a sign of weakness, and based on the way everyone looked at me, I was the reason.
Yeah, okay. I’d gone a little psycho.
Prick deserved it. No one talked about Callie and got away with it.
That kind of thinking was why I’d left after sleeping with her. She got under my skin way too easy.
“Keep walking.” Diesel stuck to my side but didn’t touch me.
Hell, the fact he said more than one sentence meant I’d rattled him.
I swung onto my bike, refusing to acknowledge any of the looks shooting my way, and rode point all the way home.
Hawk waited until we parked beneath the big oak to pin me in place with a black look. “You left the line.” He shook his head before I could argue. “You left the line and you put us at risk. We can’t afford your ego, Colt.”
My hands fisted around the handlebars, his words gutting me with an angry kind of hurt because I knew he was right.
I nodded once, the movement clipped. “Understood.”
News of my encounter swirled around the clubhouse before I made it to the door.
I heard the story repeated, with embellishment, as I walked up the stairs and into the house.
I bypassed the main living area and headed straight to the corner where we kept a first aid kit.
The wooden chair groaned when I sat, and I hissed through clenched teeth when I pulled the torn shirt away from my skin.
Hawk eyed me from the middle of the room, Diesel at his side.
Diesel lowered his head and said something that Hawk agreed to with a nod.
Probably something about overreacting or some shit.
What did I care?
Movement to the left gave way to Callie pushing her way through the crowd.
Her wide eyes landed on me, and she plowed forward, knocking a couple guys aside without so much as an apology.
I tried to ignore her, but it was like trying to ignore gravity.
She was just there, and then she was beside me, her hands on my ribs and her face inches from mine. “What the hell did you do?”
“Didn’t do this to myself.” I grabbed a bottle of water and splashed it onto a bandage, ready to slap it in place and go on my way.
Callie batted my hands to the side. “Stop. Let me.” She tossed my makeshift bandage in the trash, picked up the antiseptic and gauze, and cleaned the gash. “It’s not too deep. You might need a few stitches.”
“I’m fine.”
Her eyebrows shot up at my tone, and she poked a little harder than strictly necessary on a tender spot right above the deepest part of the cut.
“You’re right. Nothing wrong with letting a cut that’s too deep heal on its own.
Not like there’s anything here to protect.
” She swiped alcohol over the cut and ripped open a clean bandage with shaking hands.
“You can’t keep taking risks like this and acting like you have nothing to lose.
” She placed the bandage and smoothed the edges over my ribs.
The hell I did. “And what do I have that’s worth anything? Maybe I don’t have a damned thing.” I shoved the words at her, intending to use them to cut through whatever this thing was between us.
I grabbed her wrist despite my words, the push/pull of needing her close while desperate to push her away stirred acid in my gut.
Hawk and Diesel continued to watch.
Every eye in the house turned our way.
How could it not when I’d put on such a perfect display of bullshit.
All the laws said she could not belong to all three of us once a claim is made. I’d been told that so many times the words were branded on my brain.
Fine. If that’s how the rules were, then I’d make my own way.
Callie fastened the bandage in place, her eyes flicking from my face to my stomach and back again.
I stood, pulling her around with me.
She didn’t protest.
Didn’t say a damned thing or even try to resist as I hauled ass across the room.
Everyone watching muttered, some behind my back and others with open sneers.
I met every single look and silently dared them to say a single word to stop me.
No one did, not as we stormed through the middle of the room and not as I hauled her into the office where Hawk did paperwork.
The tiny space offered about as much privacy as a shoebox, but it would have to do.
At least it had a door with a lock and no windows.
Diesel could take care of the door if he wanted, but I highly doubted he could be bothered or that Hawk would let him.
I turned and pushed Callie behind me, leaving me in the open doorway to face the entire club.
I met Hawk’s eyes over the heads of everyone else and closed the door.
He didn’t look surprised.
Worried maybe, but not surprised.
“What are you doing, Colt?” Callie rubbed her wrist where I’d grabbed her.
“Did I hurt you?” I locked the door, then held out my hand. “Let me see.”
“I’m fine.”
“Then let me see.”
She held out her wrist for my inspection. Red ringed her wrist where I’d held on too tight.
I bent and kissed the soft underside, right where her pulse fluttered against my lips.
I lingered over the pulse point, rubbing my thumb back and forth.
“If I’m a risk, then take it.” I offered her everything that I had.
Myself. If she accepted, I was right back where I started.
If she turned me down, I’d have my excuse to stop feeling so damned much.