Ace (Reckless Souls MC 2)

“Why do you want to come?”

“Seriously?” She rears back at that question, hands on her hips, eyes slits as they glare at me. “He is the key to what happened to my best friend, and you think I’m just going to sit back and let you ask all the questions? I don’t think so. I have questions, and I want answers, dammit.”

She sits up, tits free and jiggling, a determined expression on her face.

I bite back a smile at the ferocious baby pitbull she’s become. “How will you get answers with your expert interrogation skills?”

McKenna thinks long and hard for a minute, her eyes focus on some spot just over my head, the gears churning in her mind.

“I’m going to ask him what I want to know.”

This guy answers to Hector Santos, so he’s probably done his dirty work too many times to count. Not exactly some Boy Scout.

“You’re persuasive, but not sure you’re that persuasive.”

She shrugs. “I don’t have to be. I’m just banking that he cared about Grace the way she cared about him. I read her journal, remember?”

I nod, knowing that prolonging this argument is pointless. “You’re not going.”

She laughs. “And like you said, a man doesn’t hide from his own club without a damn good reason. Maybe he was meant to be found with Grace.”

I let out a sigh and turn fully to her. “If I don’t take you with me, you’ll just do something reckless like follow me and risk your safety, won’t you?”

McKenna nods and smiles mischievously. “Probably. Almost certainly.”

A growl escapes from me, low and angry, but any good fighter knows when to retreat and regroup to continue the fight. I nod and turn to her, my gaze completely serious. Gravely serious.

“Fine. You can come.”

Instead of gloating, McKenna nods.

“Thank you. I’ll be ready in five, promise.” She scrambles off the bed, showers quickly, and scans the room for her sexy orange dress. “Not sure that’s going to work.” She taps her chin and then looks up at me. “You wouldn’t happen to have a spare leather jacket, would you?”

“Not that would fit you. You got ninety seconds left, McKenna.”

She rolls her eyes with a sigh.

“Fine.” She dresses quickly and gathers her hair into a thick bun at the nape of her neck, pinching her cheeks before she turns to me with a nervous smile. “Ready.”

This is a bad fucking idea, and I know it down to my bones, but leaving her alone to get up to her usual mischief is worse.

My guys found Nico hiding out, which means either Hector’s been looking for him, or he thinks his club is gunning for him. With Hector and the Iron Kings on the loose searching for Nico, I can’t leave McKenna unattended, left to her own devices. Somehow she’ll end up in their sights.

So bringing her with me is the lesser of two evils. I reconcile myself with that fact by the time we arrive at the south end of Ace’s Motors, where The Chamber is located.

McKenna jumps off the back of the bike and frowns. “What’s this place?”

“It’s where Nico is,” I tell her easily. “No more questions, Kenna.”

She opens her mouth to ask another question before her lips snap shut, and her shoulders fall. “All right.”

I turn to her just outside the entrance to The Chamber and place my hands on her shoulders, forcing her gaze to meet mine.

“Don’t say anything at all unless I tell you it’s all right. And I don’t want any shit about this right now, Kenna. I can’t worry about you giving away any details until I get as much from him as I can. Got it?”

Her gaze searches mine for a few seconds. Eventually, she nods in understanding.

“I’ll wait for your go-ahead, Mark. I promise.”

I kiss her forehead and take her hand. “Thank you. And please don’t call me Mark in here. It’s Ace.”

I guide her inside and give her hand a squeeze when she gasps at the sight of Nico, ankles tied to chair legs, arms hidden from view, but I know they’re tied too.

Coop comes into view first with a crooked grin. “Kenna, hey.”

“Hey, Coop,” she says shyly.

He laughs and turns to me. “Other than him being strapped to this chair, this is how we found him. He won’t say, but it looks like his own MC did this to him, and that’s why he ran.”

Coop’s gaze slides to McKenna, sympathy swimming in his eyes.

“All right. Thanks.”

Coop nods and stands behind Nico on one side. Jordi stands on the other with his arms folded and a menacing look on his face.

“Nico. Do you know who I am?”

He nods. “These ropes are unnecessary.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. It’s not like our clubs have the best relationship.”

Nico’s head falls forward with a sigh. “Yeah, well, I thought maybe you took Hector up on his offer and decided to kill me for him.”