Annihilation Road (26 page)

“That’s bullshit. You were the one who insisted I get that fucking video from Alena.”

“You were getting too close to her. You’re always immune to the ladies, and she had you wrapped around her little finger. I needed you to show me where your loyalties were.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it. My loyalties have always been to the club. You didn’t expect Alena to have loyalty to her club. Frankly, neither did I, but that should have earned her respect, not this kind of crap. I gave you the video as proof of loyalty, and instead of deleting it like you said you would, you sent it out to everyone. You were the one who just lost us the one asset we had, so don’t put that shit on me.” Pierce sounded furious.

Plank sighed. “That might have been a mistake. Now we have to find another way to keep Torpedo Ink under our thumb. We don’t have anything on them. You have Alena’s fingerprints, right?”

“Yeah, I lifted a couple, like you told me.”

“Plant them on the body somewhere to implicate her.”

“You sure you want to do that?” Pierce asked. “We can’t take a chance on losing that club. They’re an asset no one else has, not even another chapter, Plank. You saw how they pulled off that job in Sac. They’re smooth. Fast. We know they did everything we asked, and we couldn’t catch them at it, even when we set them up. Anything you ask, they can do for you, but you take down one of their own, especially Alena or Lana, they’ll never forgive us.”

“If you kept your damn dick in your pants instead of in that bitch’s mouth, we wouldn’t have to go this route, but I doubt she’s going to be taking you back.” Plank turned and walked right up to Pierce. “You had it in the bag, and you blew it.”

“You were the one who suggested I have her send me a video, and then you wanted to see it and immediately sent it to everyone,” Pierce reiterated. “I don’t want to give her up. She’s different. I actually entertained keeping her. Making her my old lady.”

“You can’t keep it in your pants for five seconds,” Plank scoffed.

Pierce shrugged. “She’s better than anyone I’ve ever had. Doesn’t mean I’m not going to keep sampling what’s offered.”

Plank shook his head, grinning. “Should have known you’d never change. During the run, you keep that bitch Tawny concentrating on the Venomous boys, tell her she can earn her way back into my good graces if she brings us good intel. That should keep her working hard. Then I want her gone. Plant Alena’s prints on the bitch’s body, Pierce, and make it good, somewhere between Caspar and Boonville. Once the cops pick up Alena, we can offer our help to Torpedo Ink, get them indebted to us, but you take care of Tawny permanently.”

“Want that bitch to blow me again, and then I’ll have the pleasure of telling her she doesn’t come close to Alena, not even a little bit. She’ll fuckin’ hate that. She was always asking me if she was better. I’d tell her she was going to have to try a hell of a lot harder to beat Alena. That would make her crazy and she’d do anything. Not that it helped, but the guys thought it was great, because they benefited from her trying.”

“Alena’s really that good?”

“You have no idea,” Pierce said. “Never going to have that again. This could backfire on us. If the cops take her in and she doesn’t have an alibi . . .”

“She’s always at that restaurant of hers, and we’ll offer our lawyer.”

“They have Absinthe.”

Plank shrugged. “Small-time. We have a powerhouse. We’ll make it look like Tawny’s been hanging with the Venomous club. She goes from club to club; they’ll believe it. The cops will too. Plant that trail as well. You’re good at that.”

“Consider it done. After the run, I’ll have plenty of evidence to point them in both directions.”

Plank downed a small glass of whiskey and turned away. “I’ll offer an olive branch to Czar in a day or two and ask for another meet just before the run. Lay out to him my
concerns about the Venomous club. I’ll offer to meet on his turf. That should appease him.” He walked to the door and turned back. “Find out which of those women talked about the meet. Judge, if it was your old lady, you’re responsible. If not, she needs to be punished for being here.”

Savage didn’t look at Alena. He couldn’t. The betrayal ran too deep. He slid out of the vent and back onto the roof, where they waited until the Diamondbacks disappeared down the road before they headed back to their own clubhouse. Because everything had gone to shit, he went with Alena rather than going back to Sea Haven and his woman. He wanted to find Pierce and extract Torpedo Ink justice for hurting one of their own, but he knew only Czar could make that call.

The moment they swept into the parking lot, Alena was off her bike and inside. Savage reported the conversation to his president and the rest of the club.

Czar immediately signaled to Lana. “I want you with her, you understand me? She leaves, I don’t care if she doesn’t want you to go, you do it. This was another violation. A huge break in trust again for her.”

“I’m with her,” Lana agreed readily.

“I’ll follow in the distance,” Storm said.

“I’ll go too,” Mechanic said.

Czar nodded. “Fuck the Diamondbacks. We’ll get Pierce. Play it cool for now. Ice, you understand me? They’ll be looking for retaliation. We’re not giving it to them. Not yet.”

Ice nodded. He was off the bar stool and heading inside to his sister. Alena was already walking out of the back room, a small bag hastily thrown together. He caught her arm. She stopped when the others filled the common room.

“I don’t want any of you to touch him,” she hissed. “This was my mistake. Mine. I trusted someone I shouldn’t have. It wasn’t like I couldn’t see all the signs of trouble. I did this to myself.”

“Alena,” Czar said. “You weren’t the only one he took in. We all liked him. Every single one of us. If I thought for
one minute he was playing you, or playing all of us, I would have ordered you to stop. I didn’t. That’s on me. I didn’t see it coming, and I should have. His loyalty is to his club.”

“I’ve got to get out of here for a couple of days,” Alena said. “I texted Delia and she said she’d look after the restaurant for me. Just promise me no one is going to hurt him.” Delia Swanson had owned her own diner for years, was retired and often helped Alena when needed.

“You did great, letting that bitch come at you,” Czar continued, as if she hadn’t spoken. “I was proud of you. You could have killed her, and you let her put her fuckin’ hands on you.”

Alena’s chin lifted. “I’m Torpedo Ink. We were there for a purpose. I wasn’t about to blow the deal because some trashy bitch wanted to rub my face into the fact that I was stupid. Yes, a video exists, but I don’t want any of you to act like it’s a big deal, because there’s probably a million videos of me—of all of us. You all know that. Let it go. He isn’t worth it.”

“However you want to play it, honey,” Ice agreed immediately, lying through his teeth. “Where are you heading?”

“I don’t know, up north, I think, the Rogue River. I’ve always wanted to see it.”

“Lana’s going with you,” Czar said. He gestured with his chin toward the back room.

Lana immediately headed back to pack a few things. Storm and Mechanic did the same.

Alena shook her head. “No. I just need to be alone for a little while, Czar. I’m not going to do anything crazy because someone distributed a sex video I was stupid enough to make for him. I’ve got all of you and my dream restaurant. I just need a little time to get myself together.”

“I fuckin’ hate that I couldn’t put a bullet in his head right there for you,” Czar said. “His president was less than happy with him.”

“He wasn’t happy,” Reaper confirmed. “At. All.”

Savage remained silent, his gaze on Alena’s face. He detested that someone had hurt her—worse, someone she’d
given her trust to. He had to walk a fine line with his woman. He’d seen that look of devastation already on Seychelle’s face twice now. Once when he’d carried her into her home and she’d shared the memory of what she considered his betrayal of her. And tonight, before she’d gotten drunk. In the bar, when she’d been so happy singing—all that changed in one brief moment. He never wanted to see it again.

Alena was good at masking, but she didn’t bother, not with them. Pierce had stabbed her through the heart. He’d done that. It didn’t take a man hitting a woman. It took breaking trust. Physical or emotional, it was all bad if you broke trust. Savage had learned that lesson.

Czar wasn’t the only man in the room who wanted to put a bullet in Pierce’s head. Savage wanted to take him apart, hurt him the way he could see the man had hurt Alena. He knew Ice and Reaper felt the same way. Maestro as well. Pierce was a dumb fuck for playing Alena and leaving her exposed to someone like Tawny. He should have known Torpedo Ink would come for him—and they would. They were patient and they would bide their time.

He looked at Destroyer, the newest member of their club. Yeah, he felt the same way Savage, Ice and Storm did. He could take apart Pierce just as easily. They exchanged long, knowing looks with Maestro and Keys.

Alena nodded. “I’m heading out. Lana, if you’re coming with me?”

“I’m ready, baby,” Lana said.

Alena looked at her brother. “Ice, you have a woman here at home. She’s your responsibility. You don’t need to shadow us.”

“You’re my responsibility,” Ice corrected. “You belong to all of us, just as we belong to you. Storm and Mechanic will go with you. Those are the rules we set up, and you’re Torpedo Ink. You’ll follow them. I assume you’ve blocked Pierce on your phone?”

She nodded. “As soon as possible, I’ll change phone
numbers. Don’t worry, I’ve learned my lesson. I should have learned it a long time ago, but ever the fool, I guess.”

“You’re not that, Alena,” Ice said, slinging his arm around her. He pulled her to him and dropped a kiss on top of her head. “He’s the fuckin’ fool. Tawny isn’t worth the tip of your little finger. She’ll go from man to man, and she’ll never be a partner. She’s a taker.”

“They’re going to kill her,” she whispered. “Pierce is, and he’s going to try to implicate me.” She put her arms around her older brother and for one moment let herself sag against him for comfort.

Savage clenched his teeth. The pain Alena felt was almost agony, compounded by memories of childhood betrayal. He shouldered what he could, let it swirl through him until the rage was so strong, breaking close to the surface. He had to look away. So many times, everything they wanted or needed had been ripped away from them. When they were children, time and again they would be duped into trusting someone, an adult, another child, and they’d get their hearts torn out. That cycle had continued for years—until Czar had put a stop to it.

The code—they lived by it. They had woven their lives together and become whole. The few they allowed into their closed society had been tested, and they’d paid a high price for becoming part of Torpedo Ink. They might not be patched members, but they lived by the same rules and were held up to the same code.

Alena pulled back and gave him a small smile. She looked to her birth brother Storm, and Mechanic, her Torpedo Ink brother. “You both ready?”

“Let’s go,” Storm said and indicated the door.

Alena went out without looking back. The room was eerily silent for a long while.

It was Czar who broke that silence. “We’re going to get that fucker. He won’t get away with this. I want everything we can get on him. Code, you hear me? Find out everything
about Pierce so we can bury that pissant. We just bide our time before we take him down. I mean it: no one goes near him. No one threatens him. Nothing at all. Let him sweat. He’ll know it’s coming. The longer he has to wait for it, the more his nerves are going to stretch to the breaking point. We’re going to have to keep a lookout to make sure that he doesn’t come for us.”

They all nodded.

“Savage, I’d like to see you privately.” Czar indicated their meeting room.

Savage shrugged. A part of him had known this was coming, especially after what Pierce had done to Alena. He walked ahead of Czar into the familiar room and sank down onto one of the very comfortable leather chairs that surrounded the long oval table. The table was very thick and made of gleaming, polished wood. The room was large, the walls formed of warm wood. A bank of windows looked out toward the pounding sea. He liked everything about their meeting place.

Reaper closed the door and leaned against it. His brother. He always took Savage’s back, even when Czar was about to lay into him. They both had known it was coming sooner or later. In a way, Savage welcomed it. He had to know his brothers would watch out for Seychelle. If Savage ever tipped too far, went wrong, they’d take her back.

“We’re going to protect your woman. There has to be a plan in place.”

It was a demand, nothing less. No one else would dare, other than Reaper, tell Savage his business. Czar was more than their president. He was the man who had found a way for all of them to survive. Two hundred and eighty-seven children had entered that brutal, vile “school,” and only nineteen had made it out alive. They survived because Czar had taught them how to survive.

They were in a school to learn how to kill, and they did. As children, some starting younger than five, they learned.
They absorbed every lesson, they practiced any gift they might find they were good at and they wove themselves together, forming a pack every bit as strong as the wolves they shaped themselves after.

“She has to know everything, Savage. That’s the code. That’s what we live by.”

“I’m well aware, Czar.” Savage sighed and rubbed his temples. “You think I want to be the way I am? I’ve tried everything to be different. Nothing works.”

“I’m aware you’ve tried. I’ve done the research as well. There isn’t a cure for any of us, but none of us can tolerate any member of this club abusing a woman. If you bring her into this club, she’s ours to protect. You understand fully what I’m saying to you.” Czar pinned him with his direct stare, the one that warned all of them not to fuck with him. “You hit that girl, you punch her, slap her, abuse her in any way, I’ll put a bullet in your head.”