Devil's Vengeance (Sydney Storm MC 3)

“What’s his plan now?” Nitro asked.

“Says he can’t afford to piss the feds off, so he’s backing away from Gambarro for the moment. He did say, though, that he wants to move forward in the future, once this all dies down,” Hyde said.

King turned silent, weighing up options by the look on his face. We all knew to stay silent while he thought it through. Finally, he said, “Gambarro goes on hold, but we keep eyes on him. Hyde, you and Kick stay on top of that and report back daily.” Eyeing Nitro, he said, “You and Devil pay a visit to Ghost. I want to know if the cops have anything there.”

Nitro frowned. “Ghost wouldn’t talk.”

King scowled. “Ghost is capable of anything, Nitro. Find out what we need to know.”

I’d never met Ghost, but I’d heard the stories about him and King. No love was lost there. Not after Ghost made a play for King’s woman years ago.

Nitro didn’t seem convinced, but he nodded. “Will do.”

As I followed him outside, I said, “On a scale of one to ten, how bad is this likely to get if Ghost is involved?”

He slowed so he could meet my gaze. “I’d say an eleven.”

2

Hailee

“You nail that chick last night?”

I glanced up from my phone and eyed my bandmate Hollis, who’d just asked one of my other bandmates that question. “Am I invisible?” I’d told him enough times lately to stop discussing the groupies they banged while I was in the room, yet, he continued to do it.

“Fuck, Hailee, this is how we’ve always talked. Even with you in the room,” he muttered. Gesturing at our other bandmates, he said, “Back me up, fuckers.”

Before either Dylan or Trent could say anything, I stood and said, “I know, but I’m over it. I don’t care that you do it, but I’d just rather you talk about your groupies when I’m not around.” Grabbing my bag, I said, “I’m gonna go grab a drink before our set.” The need to get out of this room was intense. My usually easy-going mood had disappeared, replaced with irritation I couldn’t shake. And I knew it wasn’t the guys causing it, but they were the ones who’d cop it if I didn’t leave.

Dylan frowned. “We haven’t finalised our set list yet.”

“Let’s just go with the same as last night.” I didn’t wait for anyone’s reply before exiting the room and heading towards the bar.

God knew, I needed a drink. It’d been a long day with the animal protest and then work. An argument with my grandmother right before coming to the pub had put me on edge. We hardly ever argued, but when we did, I usually realised she was right. And fuck it, I didn’t want her to be right this time.

“You look like you could murder someone,” Doug said as I leaned on the counter of the bar. He was my favourite Fling bartender, and Fling was my favourite pub. All of this caused me to smile for the first time in at least two hours.

Sighing, I said, “Yeah, myself.”

He placed a drink on the counter and slid it my way. “Saw you coming. Knew you needed this just by looking at you.”

I glanced down at the French Martini he’d made me and the

n smiled up at him. Before I lifted it to my mouth, I said, “You’re an absolute star, Mr Gilbert.”

He grinned the sexy grin that nearly caused me to sleep with him once ages ago. I’d come to my senses when I’d realised I didn’t want to chance ruining the awesome friendship we had. “And yet, she still refuses to sleep with me.”

My smile morphed into a grin to match his. “And yet, he doesn’t care as much as he makes out he does, because he knows we’re better off as friends.”

“I hope Wayne knows how lucky he is, Hailee.”

My smile disappeared and my shoulders slumped a little. Placing my cocktail down, I said, “What do you really think of Wayne?”

Many of our conversations revolved around my dating life. After a shitty relationship of mine ended two years ago, I’d spent the time since then trying to find love. Without much success. I’d been dating Wayne for almost a month, and I thought he was a great guy—thoughtful, stable, steady job, seemed settled in life—but my grandmother had told me that afternoon that he wasn’t the one for me. She said she saw no fire between the two of us.

“You want the truth, babe? Or aren’t you ready for that yet?” Doug’s eyes held mine while he waited for my reply. There was so much kindness there that I knew he’d give it to me gently. And he’d only ever tell me the God’s honest truth as he saw it.

I nodded. “Give it to me.”