Bare (Diamondback MC 3)

“Gonna have to patch him in, brother,” I remark, fingers drumming on my thigh, leg twitching, and my trigger finger is at the fuckin’ ready. This ball of stress in the pit of my stomach is worse than anything I’ve ever felt before.

“Yep, thinkin’ the same thing. We get this shit settled, I’m taking Persephone and goin’ on vacation. Almost forty damn years old, and all she’s been talkin’ about is going to Colorado, something about snow, gettin’ away from this Godawful heat for a while.” He’s not wrong. Shit hasn’t been slow and steady with the club for too damn long now. It used to be that we make illegal gun trades in the form of cold, hard cash, have a turf war every now and then, but lately shit is escalating.

“You do that. I’m gonna tie Sadie to me permanently, adopt Henley as my own, and never let her leave my sight,” I admit, not caring that I sound like a fucking pussy.

“Probably a good idea, well, if she doesn’t run for the hills because of this.” He takes a turn into the next town over, thankfully only a twenty-minute ride from the compound, just on the outskirts of our own.

“Yeah, thinkin’ she’s got her head on straight, but this might have her second-guessing way more than I want her to.” I didn’t even think about her being scared and leaving, taking Henley with her. Fuck, not seeing them ever again would tear me up inside, but since they were kidnapped, I’d be a fool if I didn’t see it coming.

“We could be wrong. Won’t know until we see what happens.” I look in the back of the van. Jamie is passed out, and that just pisses me off more.

“I think I’ll wake up sunshine here and see what he’s made of.” I stand up, keeping my body hunched over. It doesn’t take me long to get to where Jamie is. I didn’t bother duct taping his mouth, though I may rethink that in the next couple of minutes.

“Don’t fuck with him too much. We’ll be with the brothers in less than five minutes. The last thing we need is him wailing like a fuckin’ baby.” Shovel’s eyes don’t leave the road, but that doesn’t stop me from stepping on the wound above Jamie’s knee.

“Shit!” Jamie bellows. I ignore him and step on it harder, giving him as much weight as I should.

“Thinkin’ you can sleep through this when my girls may be in hell? You better start praying, fucker, because if there’s so much as a mark on them, you’ll be pleading with me to end your life.” I press my foot back into his wound, letting him feel just how real my words are.

“God, I know, man, I know. I fucked up, but my dad, Christ, he’s totally lost it, making deals with other organizations.” He didn’t say shit about this in the hangar, yet now he spills it.

“You gonna tell me about which organizations he’s been dealing with. Let me know just what he’s up to, or you going to sit here like a baby and cry some more?” Jamie shuts up, realizing he’s said too much.

“That’s what I thought.” I walk away from him, going back to my seat.

“This shit is worse than we thought.” Shovel takes another turn down a dirt road. We see the bikes in the distance, and I know it’s time to rock and fucking roll.

“Yep, but we’ll get it all figured out. It’s what we fuckin’ do.” I pull out my gun, check that it’s loaded, put the safety on, and then do the same with my other gun, preparing for Armageddon to rain down on Tony and his fucking men. All I care about right now is getting to Sadie, Henley, and Monroe.

Sixteen

Sadie

“Holy crap, you’re Jamie’s mom.” Monroe stops short beside me. Now, I’m dying to take Henley back in my arms, but with the woman before us, I know that’s not likely.

“Where is my son?” she asks. Dark hair, darker eyes, the same shape of lips and nose as Jamie’s, yet if this is his mom, who is Tony to this woman and Jamie, because he looks nothing like Tony.

“I have no idea. We were kidnapped outside the pharmacy,” I tell her, leading the story.

“Somebody has him, and I didn’t kill Tony, Scar, Ralph, and Juarez just to be stuck with you girls.” The noise of motorcycles and a car coming up the drive gives me the time to decide what I’m going to do. If this woman is responsible for killing four men without a hint of remorse, who’s to say she won’t take anyone else out?

“Well, clearly, it’s not us. What you see is what you get.” If I can keep her talking and her eyes away from Monroe and the boys coming up the driveway, all the better.