Rafe (Inked Brotherhood 5)

Megan was right. It is dangerous, and my side does hurt like a bitch. I’m not in my best form, and I’ve never fought in such a place. But I have to do it, I have to try. For my sanity, I have to try and put my ghosts to rest, so that I can be the man she deserves, not someone who needs pain to cope.

Need to do this.

The guys arrive ten minutes later. Only Zane and Dylan step out of the pick-up. I climb out of the Mustang and we clap each other on the back.

“Tyler?” I look around in case I missed him. I mean, he’s only six foot two or so. “I thought he was coming, too.”

“Change of plans. Audrey went into labor and Tyler and Erin are staying at the hospital with them.” Zane jabs his thumb at Dylan. “We’re more than enough for this job, huh, fucker?”

“Is Audrey okay?”

“Yeah. Well, no clue, to be honest.” Zane grimaces. “But she’s in good hands. It’s a damn good hospital, and her family’s there. Her mom is on her way, too. She’ll be fine. You focus on the fight, getting this motherfucker to confess, and getting out of it all alive, you hear me?”

“I hear you,” I mutter, more grateful than words can say that my brothers are here, as close as possible without actually entering the club, having my back. “I’ll be fine.”

“Make sure you got your cell on you,” Zane goes on, waving a hand in the air. “If anything happens, anything at all, you call us. We’ll be right outside.”

“Got it.”

“Rafe.” Dylan stops me as I turn toward the entrance to the club with a hand on my shoulder. He looks worried. “You sure that’s your guy? That you’re not putting your life in danger for something that isn’t real?”

I’ve asked myself that so many times. If I’d dreamed up that tattoo, that face, that voice. I’d been pinned to the door and bleeding like a stuck pig, for chrissakes. But I saw the tattoo, saw the face of this man.

“It’s real. This is the asshole. I know it.”

“And this guy who got you in? Colt something or other? Has he told you what he wants in return?”

“Yeah, he did.” Fucked up timing, with Audrey in labor. Then again, Colt never said he needs the info tonight. “He wants Asher to ask for some info from Johnny Cooper, the boss of the fight club, friend of Ash’s dad.”

Dylan lifts a skeptical brow. “Sounds easy.”

“Sure as hell hope so. You think Ash will say no?”

“Fucker, Ash would jump into the fire for you. We’ll ask him after the baby comes.” Zane rubs the shaved sides of his head, a frown on his face. “What about Meg? Did you tell her about this?”

“I did.”

“And?”

“And what?” I kick at a discarded, torn shoe on the street. “What did you think she’d do?”

Zane looks pained. “What did she say?”

“She asked me not to do it. I said I had to. Then she walked out. As she should.” I heft my duffel on my shoulder and start walking. “We gonna stand here talking all night? I have a goddamn fight to prepare for.”

“Damn.” Zane falls in step next to me, hands in his pockets. “Does she know the fight’s tonight?”

I blink. “Not sure.” Never told her it was tonight, did I? Fuck.

“She’ll come around, fucker. Meg’s a strong girl, and she really likes you.”

“Doesn’t matter now.”

I know I sound bitter, and I swallow the rest of the words down. That she left me when I needed her the most. That she said I deserve the best in life, and she’s the best, but she’s gone. That everyone leaves me, sooner or later, because I fuck up.

Because that’s what I do: I fuck up people’s lives, get them hurt. Get them killed.

She was right to go. But she was wrong about me deserving anything. I don’t deserve shit. Deep inside I know that all I was kept alive for was to find who murdered my family and get justice for my ghosts.