Savage studied Czar’s hawklike features. He was worried. A club like the Diamondbacks asking for a meet at three in the morning, not in either of their clubhouses, signaled trouble. The Diamondbacks had chosen a bar on the outskirts of Boonville. Torpedo Ink scouted the place out numerous times. It was closed, but the lights were on. There were bikes parked in the front along with a couple of cars. The Diamondbacks brought a full contingent. Plank wasn’t going to take any chances with Torpedo Ink. Technically, the Diamondbacks could call on them, and did, to go after enemies the club couldn’t afford to have traced back to them. This looked more like a war council. The members of Torpedo Ink nodded, their expressions sober. Like Savage, they understood this meeting could change everything.
Alena took lead. She sometimes hooked up with one of the Diamondbacks’ enforcers, a man who went by the name of Pierce. He was a former SEAL and had joined the Diamondback club years earlier, working his way through the ranks. The man could handle himself, there was no question of that. If the president of his chapter was there, he would be as well.
She rode with Lana by her side into the parking lot of the bar and, in true Alena fashion, was off her bike without seeming to pay attention to the small group of women just getting into a car, obviously to leave. The moment they saw Alena and Lana, the women thrust open the doors and got out again.
Alena turned to Lana and took a small compact from her and began to fix her lipstick. Four women, led by Tawny Farmer, a woman who had been banned from anything to do with Torpedo Ink, surrounded the two newcomers. Alena glanced up as if just noticing them.
Several Diamondbacks emerged from the bar, hearing the sound of the motorcycles. Their prospect, no doubt, had reported the arrival of two of the Torpedo Ink members, with others coming in right behind them.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Alena?” Tawny demanded. “If you think you’re going to fuck Pierce, he’s already been taken care of. He’s with me now, not you, so keep your hands off him. I ride on the back of his bike and I fuck him until he can’t see straight.”
Alena looked her up and down coolly, one eyebrow up, but she said nothing. She glanced at Lana, who looked amused.
That only incited Tawny more. “You don’t have to believe me, but that stupid little video of you, naked, your fingers busy, and your fake moans, everyone has that. He mailed it to all the members of the club and showed it to me while we lay in bed together laughing over it.”
Alena didn’t so much as blink. Her expression remained as bored as ever. Lana rolled her eyes as if to say who cared who had a video.
Tawny shrieked and threw herself at Alena, her long nails curved like claws going for Alena’s face. At the last minute, Alena turned her head, but she didn’t try to defend herself or even block the series of blows Tawny rained down on her. Lana held herself very still. The other three women shouted encouragements at Tawny and obscenities at Alena.
Pierce and four of the Diamondbacks pulled Tawny away from Alena. Czar, Reaper, Ice and Storm rushed the small group as Plank, the president of the Diamondbacks’ chapter, hurried out with two more of their club members. Pierce reached for Alena, but she stepped back to stand with her Torpedo Ink members.
“What the fuck just happened?” Plank demanded. He’d obviously witnessed it but couldn’t seem to believe his eyes.
“Seems that you can’t control your women,” Czar said, his tone low, furious. “My members know how to conduct themselves when we’ve been invited to an important meet. We don’t have club trash attacking the invited club.”
Tawny hissed an angry obscenity at him, but one of the other women tried to cover it by telling her to shut up. The man holding Tawny shook her like a rag doll.
Czar was so furious he simply looked up, whistled and did a low circle with his finger, indicating all of Torpedo Ink get on their bikes. Immediately, the club members complied with their president’s order, all of them returning to their motorcycles with the exception of Reaper, Ice and Storm.
“This is bullshit, and insulting,” Czar snapped, never once raising his voice, but his gaze flicked to Pierce briefly, then returned to center on Plank. “We gave you every respect, and to have a piece of trash like Tawny—and I don’t particularly give a fuck if she is riding on the back of your enforcer’s bike—attack one of my people is pure bullshit. He can’t control that shit, he isn’t where he should be. We’re gone. You have a problem with that, you let me know.”