Duke (The Henchmen MC 5)

Our arms all went up, mine with a bottle of vodka in one hand, feeling the warmth of it flood my system, numbing some of the pain.

"Don't know why you're holding guns on us," Reign reasoned. "We were the ones attacked. Two of our men were taken out in the yard," he explained and one of the men nodded at him and moved toward the back door and slipped outside, two men behind him.

"Reign," a tall, strong, relatively young detective with dark hair and eyes said as he moved in. "Care to tell us why we got reports of machine gun fire here?"

"That's a good fuckin' question, Lloyd," Reign said with a nod. "We were just hanging out, having a couple of drinks and someone started shooting up the place."

Lloyd nodded, lips tipped up ever so slightly. "And you guys, being completely upstanding businessmen in this community, just sat tight and waited for us to arrive."

Reign nodded. "Something like that."

"So if we ran a gun powder residue..."

"Squeaky clean," Reign cut him off with a shrug.

"Squeaky clean," Lloyd said, lips turning up into a sneer. "Yeah, you know, I've never met such clean bikers before. You guys clean the place with bleach, huh? It reeks of it in here."

"We're good housekeepers," Cash agreed, deadpan, despite the fact that the entire room was full of red Solo cups, discarded beer bottles, and various food wrappers.

"There are two men down," one of the cops said as he came back in.

"Yours," Lloyd said, looking at Reign and, if I wasn't mistaken, there was a hint of sympathy in his expression.

"Vin and Shredder," Reign nodded.

"Government names?" he pressed.

"Vincent Georgio and Scott Leonard."

Lloyd pulled out a notepad and started jotting things down. "Did any of you see anything?"

Reign shook his head. "I tried to head out the front. But it's dark as fuck out. Couldn't see shit."

To that, Lloyd nodded. "Alright. I am going to go check out the bodies. All of you need to stay in the building. We will need to get all your statements."

He said it in a way that implied he knew it would get him nowhere.

With that, he headed out, leaving us with a few uniforms around, guns away, but all seeming tense.

"Penny," Renny said quietly into my ear, a world of things said in the one word.

Fuck. Penny.

There was no way she didn't hear the machine gun fire and shouting. And she was alone in a dark room after having already being kidnapped and beat the fuck up.

Christ. I needed to get to her.

"Can I go to my room?" I asked the nearest cop, swaying on my feet for good measure. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

It worked and he shrank back from me like I might blow chunks all over his shiny shoes. "Yeah, just stay in the building," he said.

I wobbled and slammed into the wall as I walked, sober as a God damn judge, but laying it on thick for anyone watching.

I moved down the hall and opened my bedroom door, surprised when I found it pitch black. I had barely slammed the door, my arm raised to flick the light switch when I felt something sharp slice down my arm, searing into my skin.

I hissed and flicked the light on, finding Penny standing there, the knife I kept in my nightstand raised, a hint of blood on the blade from the slice she made down my arm.

"Fuck," I said, dropping my arm, feeling the blood start to trickle down my forearm and toward my hand.

"Duke? Oh my God. I'm so..."

She lost the rest of that sentence when my hand clamped down over her mouth. "Shh," I demanded, eyes intense, trying to communicate how important it was. "Okay?" I whispered. She nodded and I dropped my hand. "The cops are here," I explained, taking her hand and prying the knife from it, pulling her toward the bathroom and turning the water of the sink and shower on full blast to muffle the sounds of our voices.

"What happened?"

"Looks like whoever went after you meant it when they said we were all next. They got two of our guys tonight."

To that, her entire small body stiffened, her eyes going huge. "You mean... killed them?" she asked, voice trembling a little.

I wanted to sugarcoat it. I wanted to spare her feelings. But there was no room for that right then. "Yeah, baby. They killed two of our guys."

"Oh my God. Who..." she started, despite not knowing many of us.

"Vin, who was like the club grandfather. And... Shred," I said, my stomach turning sour at the sound of his name, making me seriously wonder if I was maybe going to be sick after all.

"Shred? Like... Shredder?" she asked, voice understanding and sad.

"Yeah, Shredder."

Her face fell at that. She didn't even know him, but she was sad that his life was lost.