Annihilation Road (39 page)

That part of her that needed to heal others had her on her
feet and trailing slowly after them. She knew Savage wouldn’t be happy if she followed Preacher and Sabelia back into the bar and took on some of Sabelia’s injuries, but it was difficult to resist.

“There you are.” Shari’s strident voice jarred her nerves.

Seychelle turned to face her, aware of Fatei gliding close to her. Shari wasn’t alone. Seychelle hadn’t expected her to be. Melinda was with her, but also the two Diamondbacks who had been seated close at the table. At least, they rounded the corner of the building a few feet behind them. Behind the two Diamondbacks came Brandon, but he stayed right at the corner.

Seychelle glanced toward the bar, but Preacher and Sabelia had already disappeared inside the building. Seychelle wondered if Brandon had anything to do with Shari’s hatred of her.

“Shit,” Fatei hissed under his breath. “Come on, Seychelle. Let’s go.”

“Were you looking for me?” Seychelle asked, trying to get a feel for Shari’s voice.

“Yes,” Shari snapped. “You don’t stand a chance in hell of keeping him. You know that, don’t you? A prissy little thing like you can’t begin to know what he likes.”

“Do I know you?” Seychelle asked, her gaze moving over Shari’s expression. Her eyes looked glassy. Drunk? Was she hypnotized? Did she really hate Seychelle that much? And what was she saying about Savage?

“Seychelle.” Fatei indicated the back door. “You need to get inside.”

“Run away,” Shari sneered.

“What exactly do you want?” Seychelle challenged, ignoring Fatei. He put a restraining hand on her arm, and she shook it off, her chin up, her eyes cool as she regarded Shari.

What the fuck? He’d made himself very clear. Stick with the band. Stay right with them. Did she do it? No. There she was. Seychelle. She looked . . . gorgeous. A little wild. A sinful temptation to any biker. He should have made himself very clear to Fatei, not to her. She was completely oblivious to the way the men looked at her. He’d noticed that before. She looked at them through the eyes of the healer, not the woman.

She had that voice. That body—tits and ass. All that thick, wild hair. Those eyes and that mouth. Now she was absolutely challenging Shari and her friend right in front of the two Diamondbacks, who were already a little obsessed with her. Not to mention Brandon lurking around the corner like a creep. She was ignoring Fatei’s instructions to get her ass back in the bar; in fact, she shook his hand off her arm.

Savage was going to
kill
that woman after he punished her and then fucked her brains out. He had a job to do, and it wasn’t looking after her. Or even watching her. He was lying up on a rooftop with his rifle, eye to his scope, backing up his sister. Pierce had made his request to speak with
Alena formally, and Czar had had little choice but to agree to it.

Pierce had maneuvered them into a corner, and he knew it. They’d listened to Plank laying out his concerns about the Venomous club. It hadn’t come as a huge surprise to them that the club continued to try to chop away at Diamondback territory. They moved into a small section without permission, without respect, and acted as if they were just a weekend club, doing nothing but getting together to have a good time. If the Diamondbacks made a move against them, to law enforcement and civilians, the Diamondbacks would look like an outlaw club bullying a group of nice weekend dads getting together to ride. In truth, Venomous was anything but.

Torpedo Ink had seen the tactic used over and over. The moment the larger club defended their territory, they were in the wrong to the outside world, but if they didn’t defend it, inevitably they were perceived as weak, and they lost it. Venomous was coming at them from all directions, hitting chapter after chapter. Plank wanted Torpedo Ink to quietly take care of the problem before, during or after the run. Just make it go away but make it look like an accident, or if they got into a fight, anything that would distance itself from the Diamondbacks.

Plank had information that the Venomous club intended to take over the Mendocino territory first. It had already begun chipping away at the borders, swallowing the outside edges of the county and moving to take smaller pieces a little at a time. The county was rural and hard to patrol. Venomous frequented the Torpedo Ink bar and were often seen in Fort Bragg and Sea Haven as well as Caspar, all Diamondback territory. The Venomous club members were wearing their colors openly when riding, a major sign of disrespect when they’d never gone to the Diamondbacks to ask permission to be in their territory.

Plank had been very specific about the targets. He had
rumors of a conspiracy to kill him. He even had somewhat of a vague timeline. Supposedly, he and a few of his inner circle were to be assassinated on the run that was coming up. When questioned, he’d admitted to using a couple of the patch chasers to get information. Whether it was good data or not still had to be confirmed, but Savage suspected it was. The Venomous club members were all too cocky when they showed up wearing their colors in the bar and at local events. They believed they were in control.

Then Pierce had made his request to talk to Alena, and he’d made it through Plank, his president. It was impossible to deny him, the way Plank presented his case. Plank claimed they hadn’t known Tawny would be at the last meet. She’d lied to hurt Alena. Pierce wanted a chance to explain things. Plank felt he’d had a hand in making things worse between the two and would appreciate a few minutes of Alena’s time.

There was nothing for it, although all of Torpedo Ink were seething, knowing that Plank had ordered Pierce to kill Tawny and throw the blame on Alena. Savage had Pierce in his sights and settled on the roof, wire in his ear, listening to the conversation, as several of the other Torpedo Ink members were doing as well.

Alena looked sexy as hell. She always did. There was something about her that just screamed sensual with every step she took. She looked cool and calm on the outside, but Savage could feel the inner turmoil raging in her. She had agreed to meet with Pierce the moment Czar asked her. She would never shirk club duties, no matter how tough they were, but it cost her to even look at him. Savage took the brunt of that rage and pain for her so she could face Pierce just like she was, with her cool demeanor, as if the Diamondback enforcer counted for nothing.

Unfortunately, that pain transferred to a deep well of rage that just kept adding to that force, building and building until the volcano in Savage would have no choice but to
erupt. And that meant his woman would have to be ready. The time he had to prepare her was getting shorter and shorter. The need to put a bullet in Pierce’s head was stronger than he would have liked.

“Alena, I want you to just hear me out. That entire thing with Tawny, that was fucked up. I didn’t have a chance to talk to you. To explain,” Pierce said.

Alena shrugged, waved her hand as if dismissing him very casually. “It’s all right, Pierce, it was a misunderstanding. I thought our relationship was exclusive, and you didn’t. Had you been up front with me that you wanted something different, I would have known from the beginning what we were all about. But the video . . . That’s something else altogether.”

Alena shook her head, gave him a faint smile, but didn’t change her mild tone. “That makes you a fucking bastard. I didn’t want to give that to you, but you insisted. That was a pretty big deal, and you knew it. You played me, and I have to think about the why of that. Your ego?”

She shrugged. “Maybe you get off on playing women. I do hope you and Tawny had a good laugh together in bed the way she said. That one did hurt, I’ll admit, but then I let myself care about you, and that’s on me.”

“Damn it, Alena. You know I never took that bitch to my bed. Never. She was lying to you. She might have been in someone else’s bed watching the video, but it wasn’t mine.” There was a short silence while Pierce thought about what he’d just said.

He cursed while Savage thought about putting a bullet in the betrayer’s head. He wanted to pull the trigger more than he wanted to take his next breath. To keep from doing it, he forced air through his lungs and wiped his forehead on his sleeve, all the while keeping the scope aimed dead center between Pierce’s eyes.

Alena’s pain was visceral. One could take only so many betrayals. Alena and her entire club had already had their
share. She’d let Pierce in. She’d known better, but somehow, she’d let him in. He didn’t deserve it, and the Diamondback enforcer knew it. He knew what he’d lost just looking at her. Savage could see it on his face. He drained off more of Alena’s pain, a little at a time, just enough to allow her to keep functioning with that same cool demeanor.

“That didn’t come out right, honey.” Pierce shoved both hands through his hair. “Marry me. Before the run. I want you to marry me, Alena. We can fix this.”

Alena stared at him for nearly thirty seconds without speaking while Savage resisted a second time, not pulling the trigger.

“I think you’ve really lost your mind. You want me to marry you? Before the run? How would that work, exactly? I’m Torpedo Ink. You’re Diamondback. Nothing has changed, Pierce. You want me riding with you on the run?”

“Yes.” He nodded. Frowned. Shook his head. “No. Not on the run. You’d stay home. Work at your restaurant. There’s no need for you to be at that run.”

She regarded him for another full thirty seconds in silence. “How would our marriage work, Pierce? You’re not the faithful kind. You go on runs and have fun with other women? I go and have fun with other men? Or I stay home, and you think I’m going to be the good little old lady? We have an open marriage? How do you envision this?”

He shoved his hands through his hair again. “I don’t know, Alena. I never thought about marrying anyone before. I can protect you.”

She put her hand on her hip. “Do I need protection? From what?”

He shook his head. “I don’t understand why you’re making this difficult. I’m trying to do the right thing. Work this out.”

“Like you did the right thing, setting me up when you asked for the video? You kept asking and I kept saying no. You guilt-tripped me the night you came to my restaurant
and pointed out I kept missing our dates. You did that on purpose. Answer me why you would do that to me, Pierce.”

“Damn it, Alena. I didn’t distribute that to everyone.”

“It just jumped off your phone.”

“Will you at least think about it? Marrying me? I’m serious.”

“I’m going on the run, Pierce. We can talk more then. Right now, I don’t know what to think. Betrayal is really ugly. It feels ugly. Two of your boys sat next to me in the bar and made a show of playing that video. Being your old lady and having to put up with that crap would be very hard for me after the respect I’m used to having in my club. Even my old man wouldn’t be giving me the same level of respect I’m used to getting here. Trading respect for what? Having my man getting blow jobs and whatever else when he’s away from me doesn’t sound like a great trade-off, but I’ll give it thought. Thank you for the offer. I know it came from a well-meaning place.”

Pierce stared at her for a long time and then he shook his head. “Damn it, Alena. I don’t feel so easily. It just doesn’t happen. You coming along was unexpected. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

She studied his face. Savage studied it as well. He was fairly certain Lana and Scarlet were doing so from their positions on rooftops as well, each trying to figure out Pierce’s real motives. Had Plank put him up to something else? Why have Alena stay away from the run? Insist she marry Pierce when he wasn’t the kind of man to be faithful? Nothing about what Pierce was saying or doing made any sense.

“Maybe if you told me why you think I’m in some kind of danger it would help, Pierce,” Alena said, her voice very quiet.

Pierce took a deep breath as a loud whistle cut through the night. “I’ve got to go. Unblock me. Talk to me on the phone.”

Alena shook her head. “I don’t think I’m quite ready to forgive the video thing yet, Pierce. Until you explain that to me, there isn’t a way to talk.”

“I can’t explain it if you won’t let me talk to you.”

They stared at each other for a long time. Pierce sighed. “If you’re going on the run, will you at least think about what I said? We can talk there.”

“I’m going on the run with Torpedo Ink,” Alena affirmed. “But I’m not making any promises about revisiting this very bizarre conversation. We’ll see what transpires.”

He stepped toward her, and she stepped back. “Don’t. Don’t even think about touching me. I have standards, Pierce. Tawny’s leftovers leave me with a very bad taste in my mouth.” She turned and sauntered off, hips swaying suggestively, Pierce cursing inventively.

Savage was proud of her. Alena never once showed the devastation Pierce had left behind. She looked classy, regal even. She walked right past the two Diamondbacks standing behind Shari and Melinda and went straight to Seychelle to wrap her arm around Seychelle’s waist. Savage could have kissed her for that alone.

“You sing like an angel, girlfriend,” Alena greeted as if she didn’t notice the tension.

The two Diamondbacks reluctantly responded to the second whistle calling them back to their bikes. One of them he recognized as a man going by the name of Trade. He was a good friend of Pierce’s. Code had done a little background work on him just because he seemed to be Pierce’s closest friend. They’d been in the service together. Both had been on a SEAL team before they got out and eventually joined the Diamondbacks together. It was Trade who turned back to look at Seychelle before he reluctantly went around the corner to join the rest of his friends leaving the premises with their president.

Savage knew it wasn’t just Seychelle’s body. Her looks could definitely attract dozens of men, but she had a siren’s
voice, one that could tempt the devil. She’d clearly drawn Brandon Campbell to her. And Joseph Arnold. Now was he going to have to contend with Trade from the Diamondbacks as well? That was always going to be the downside to her singing. When she used that voice of hers to sing her love songs, she could cast a spell without trying.

“She’s no angel,” Shari snapped.

The smile faded from Alena’s face. “Excuse me? Just who are you? I don’t think I was talking to you. How did you even get into the conversation?”

Shari jutted her hip out and stuck her hand on it. “I believe you interrupted me first. Little Miss Not-So-Innocent Man Stealer was talking to me when you rudely interrupted.”

Alena’s eyebrow shot up, and she turned to Seychelle. “You’re a man stealer? Whose man did you poach? Does Savage know?”

Seychelle laughed. Savage’s gut clenched. He was going to use a crop on her body for his enjoyment. Teach her to love it. His cock reacted. Hell. He was like some out-of-control teenager around the woman. When she laughed, those little golden notes floated in the air, light and airy, touching him in places he’d thought long dead, giving him a gift every time.