Ties That Bind (Ruthless Sinners MC 1)

“You might be right, but we’ll never know unless Shotgun has a go with her.”

As if he could sense my unease, Shotgun leaned forward and said, “Let me see what I can get out of Danny first. If he gives us what we need, there’ll be no reason to involve the girl.”

“He may have a point there. No need involving her any more than we have to. Otherwise, we’ll just have another problem to contend with,” Axel added.

The second the words came out of Axel’s mouth Billy the Butcher came to my mind. He was the club’s “cleaner.” Whenever we had a mess to be cleaned up or a captive that needed to be dealt with, he would take care of it—using any means necessary. The thought of him handling Delilah made my blood run cold. I didn’t get why it even bothered me. I knew nothing about her. It shouldn’t have mattered to me what the brothers did or didn’t do to her. Since she was already the topic of conversation, I decided to use the opportunity to say, “We’ve got another issue with the girl that needs to be considered.”

“Oh?” Viper’s brows furrowed as he asked, “And what’s that?”

“She’s got friends ... people she works with who’ll be curious to know why she hasn’t shown up to work. We don’t want folks snooping around and trying to find her, so it might be best to let her contact someone ... make up a reason for being out of touch.”

“Get her phone from Shotgun. You send the messages that need to be sent.”

I nodded, and was relieved when the topic of Delilah quickly changed as Bear asked, “Any word on Rafe? I haven’t had a chance to get down to the infirmary yet. He making it okay?”

“Yeah,” Viper answered. “He’s on the mend. Should be back on his feet in a couple of days.”

“Good.” His expression grew fierce as he added, “Hope Shotgun is giving Danny hell for putting a bullet in our brother.”

“Don’t worry. Danny is getting what’s coming to him,” Viper assured him as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “Two hundred grand is a lot of cash. I know you’re all as eager as I am to get this thing dealt with … and we will, but I don’t want it distracting us from the bigger picture. We’ve got some leads on a new distributor that we’ll be checking out, and we still have the new club to get up and running.”

“I’ll be heading over there this morning,” Axel replied. “I want to see if those building permits have cleared so we can get going on the expansion.”

“Good. I’ll check on the liquor license and see if Cassandra has made any progress with getting us some new girls.” Viper stood as he ordered, “The clock is ticking. Let’s get this day rolling.”

As we all started to disperse, Shotgun followed me out the door and into the hall. A look of concern crossed his face as he asked, “Something going on with you that I need to be aware of?”

“No. Everything’s good.”

“You sure?” he pushed. “Sure seems like something is up with you and that girl.”

“You talking about Delilah?” When he just stood there glaring at me, I shook my head. “No, brother. Nothing’s up with her. Just want us to be careful.”

“Oh, come on, man.” A smirk crossed his face as he gave my shoulder a brotherly slap. “I’m just fucking with you. I know you’re smarter than that.”

He was right. I was smarter than that. It was time for me to get my head fucking sorted before I ended up doing something I’d regret. The thought had me thinking about Lisa’s offer from the night before. I wanted to believe that some quality time with her might put an end to the nagging pull I’d felt towards Delilah, but I knew that wasn’t the case. Nothing was going to get that woman out of my fucking head. When Shotgun started down the hall, I shouted, “I’ve got some shit to take care of. I’ll be down in a bit to check your progress with Danny.”

“See ya then.”

As soon as he was out of sight, I went down to the kitchen. After I grabbed a cup of coffee and some biscuits, I headed to the room where we were holding Delilah. Once I’d unlocked the door, I walked in without saying a word and placed everything on the desk. She was still sitting on the bed and Animal Kingdom was back on the TV, but her eyes were trained solely on me as I turned and started back out the door. “That’s it? You’re just gonna leave without saying anything?”

“Nothing else to say.”

“Seriously? I’ve been locked up in this room for hours on end, and you still aren’t even going to tell me what the hell is going on?”