Ties That Bind (Ruthless Sinners MC 1)

“I bet. It’s definitely not a road for the squeamish,” I replied. “Natchez Trace is also a good one.”

“Hell, yeah, it is. Nothing better in this world than being out on the open road with the brothers. I wouldn’t trade those days for anything.” McClanahan glanced up at the ceiling as he tried to get a grip on his emotions. “You boys still ruling the roost downtown?”

“Doing what we can,” Viper answered. “It seems like it’s getting harder and harder these days.”

“With a good, strong leader like you, those boys of yours can handle anything.”

We continued to talk, and in what seemed like no time, two hours had passed. McClanahan was starting to grow tired, so Delilah stood up and said, “I hate to cut things short, but I think it’s time for our friend here to get some much-needed rest.”

“No need to rush off. I’m fine,” he argued.

“As much as we’ve enjoyed it, we best get going,” I interjected. “Besides, we wouldn’t want to upset the boss lady.”

“Yeah,” McClanahan looked over to Delilah and smiled. “She can be a real stickler when she has to be.”

I glanced over at Delilah. “I know that all too well.”

“Let’s move it, boys,” Delilah ordered with a smirk.

We each said our goodbyes to McClanahan, and as we started out the door, Delilah called out to us. “Hey! Wait a second.”

Viper turned to her and asked, “Yeah?”

“I just wanted to thank you for coming.” There was no missing the sincerity of her voice as she said, “It meant a lot to Mr. McClanahan, and it really meant a lot to me.”

“Glad to do it.”

“Well, thanks again, and I hope you guys can make it back sometime.”

“Definitely.” Viper gave her a quick wink. “Good to see ya, Delilah.”

When he turned to walk away, the others followed, giving me a moment alone with Delilah. I leaned forward and kissed her, then said, “I better get going, but I’ll see you later tonight.”

“Okay.” As I turned to walk away, she called out, “Be careful.”

“Always.”

When I reached the others, they were already on their bikes and ready to go. I slipped on my helmet, and just as I was about to start up the engine, Viper looked over to me and said, “I gotta admit, I had my concerns about your girl being able to keep her mouth shut with everything that went down with her brother, but she’s done all right. Looks like you might’ve been right about her after all.”

Without giving me a chance to respond, he pulled out of his parking spot and started towards the exit. The rest of us quickly followed suit, and as we drove back to the clubhouse, I was feeling pretty fucking good about things. Delilah seemed pleased by our visit, and Viper was starting to come around where she was concerned. I couldn’t blame him for having his doubts. Hell, I had plenty of my own, but time and time again, she’d not only proven herself to me but to everyone around her.

When we got back to the clubhouse, Viper called all the brothers in for church. It had been several days since we’d met, and he wanted to fill us in on some new developments. As soon as we were gathered in the conference room, Viper stood and said, “Before we get started, I want to commend you on all your hard work getting the new club up and going. I think you’ll each agree that last night was a big success.”

“Absolutely,” Axel replied. “Only one thing would’ve made it better.”

“I’m about to get to that.” Viper’s smile faded as he said, “You all know about our issues with our last shipment and the fallout that came after. That being said, it’s time for us to nail down a new dealer, one that we can trust, with the means to handle the demands of two clubs. Axel and I have been looking into it, and we think we might’ve found someone.”

“You feel good about them?”

“It’s hard to say,” Viper answered. “In my gut, I think he’s our man, but after the way things played out with Danny, I think it would be in our best interest to do a little more digging into this guy. We need to know everything there is about him before we make a move.” Viper turned to Menace and said, “I’ll get you everything we have on him, and you see if he has any skeletons in his closet that we should know about.”

“You got it.”

“What about Miller and Danny?” Rafe asked. “How we handling all that?”

“Miller has been dealt with—Billy had his boys take Miller’s car and set it up to look like the guy bolted with both the cash and the drugs, taking any speculation that we were involved off the table.” Viper let out a deep breath, then said, “Danny, on the other hand, is a different story altogether. While he wasn’t the one behind the counterfeit drugs, he did try to skip out on us, and he shot Rafe ... twice.”