“Baby, stay right here with Czar. Don’t you move unless he does. Do what he tells you.” Savage leaned down and brushed the top of her head with a kiss and then moved into the shadows. Maestro did the same. Keys and Mechanic took their places.
“Bringing in company, Czar,” Lana called. “Plank and five of his men have come to see you. Plank’s old lady, Sylvia, is with them as well. Said you were expecting them.”
“Keys, Mechanic, take Seychelle as far back away from the light as you can get her,” Czar said. “Let me see what they want. Honey, go with them and stay quiet until I call you or Savage comes and gets you.”
Seychelle nodded. Keys took her arm and led her to the heavy brush that bordered the back of the campsite. “There better not be ticks,” she whispered. “If there are, I’m collecting them and letting them loose in the Diamondback campsite.”
Keys flashed a grin at her. “That’s Tony Ravard. He goes by Shark. His brother Leonardo, who goes by Lion, is with him. Trade, Judge, Pierce and Plank.”
Savage joined Czar and the others gesturing toward the picnic table. Plank sat down with Czar, but the president of the Diamondbacks was looking around the campsite. “Where’s your woman, Savage? I wanted to introduce her to my old lady. Shark insists she could talk to my old lady and tell whether some bastard planted that suggestion in her. Shark and Lion said they want to talk to her first though, just to make certain she’s the real thing.”
“It didn’t occur to you Savage might be busy with his woman?” Czar asked, his tone mild, even a note of amusement in it.
There was nothing amusing in the way Savage was looking at Shark and Lion. Both men clearly were uneasy, but they stood their ground.
“Yeah,” Plank admitted. “But I wasn’t going to have a good time. None of my men are either if we don’t clear a few things up. Would you mind producing her, Savage?”
Savage didn’t like any of the alternatives. If he did as Plank asked and Seychelle didn’t cooperate, they would be in trouble. He’d look like a fucking pussy who couldn’t control his woman. His club would really look bad. She was pretty angry with them all. She wanted to go home. They hadn’t cleared everything up.
If she did help Plank, he’d want her to test every one of the women he’d brought with him. He wouldn’t understand—or even care about—the danger to her. He’d only care about the danger to his men.
Czar tapped out a code on the table. You have to go get her. We don’t have a choice.
They had choices. Czar just didn’t like any of them. Savage turned, taking two steps away from the group. Lion and Shark shadowed him. He swung around.
“You don’t want to be anywhere near me right now,” he warned, his tone low.
“Know you’re pissed, Savage,” Tony said. “I can’t say as I blame you. There was no way to get to you alone. Or to get to Seychelle. I wouldn’t throw her under the bus so a few brothers could get blow jobs tonight, not after what she’s done for our mother. We suspect there’s something bigger happening here.”
Savage kept walking to ensure they were a distance from any of the others. He folded his arms across his chest. “Start talking.”
Leonardo immediately objected. “Just to the woman, Tony.”
“Don’t be a dumbass, Leonardo,” Tony snapped at his brother. “Do you really think Savage is going to let us near her if we don’t tell him what’s going on? Or that she isn’t going to ask his permission first and tell him everything we say to her once she finds out?”
Lion stared at his brother.
Tony glared at him. “Did you think you were going to shut her up after she helped us?”
“Hell no. What are you talking about? I just don’t want any of this getting back to Plank. He’d kill us both, Tony.”
“You going to argue all night or get to the point?” Savage said, forcing a bored tone.
“A while back Czar sent a club to us, the Demons.”
“I remember.” Torpedo Ink had retrieved the wife of the Demon president from the Ghosts. She’d been kidnapped so the Ghosts could horn in on a pretty sweet counterfeit operation the Demons had. It was nearly impossible to tell the difference between real money and the money the Demons produced. The Demons wanted Czar to run the money through Diamondback territory for a cut. Czar refused, but he’d put them together with Plank and had them make their own deal with him.
Tony looked around and lowered his voice even more. “The last two shipments never made it through our pipeline. The Feds were waiting on the other end. I personally handled one of the shipments. Lion handled the other. Someone has been ratting to them. They’ve got undercover Feds here. A team.”