Thrash (5 page)

I was the kind of man who could fit in just about anywhere, and the bars of North Hills were no exception. I looked the part, acted the part, and I sure as hell didn’t stick out.

Bones was a self-important shit, and most of his new crew was like him in that. If there was one thing self-important people did, it was overlook individuals in groups.

So I wasn’t surprised when no one noticed me at Shaky’s bar. My skin was dark. Half the block was black. That was all Bones’ boys would see.

There was a flock of them, spread out around the perimeter. I recognized one of them right away.

Tommy. It looked like he had joined up with Bones. Kid was a former prospect for Fire and Steel and one of the motherfuckers I helped beat the shit out of for kidnapping and holding Layla hostage.

Considering the beat-down I’d given him, even Tommy’s narrowness wouldn’t let him forget my face that fast. But I’d cut my dreads since he ate my fist. That change seemed to make all the difference.

Tommy looked right at me without recognition.

I spotted at least six others. I had always been a people watcher. These men didn’t wear their cuts out in the open, but I knew how to spot allies – even when they weren’t mine.

Bones was close. These men were part of the ensemble he was building. A man in Bones position didn’t spread his boys out, not when he was so close to his goal. He was either in the building or next door.

That was all I needed to know.

I finished my beer, paid, and got the fuck out of there before Tommy decided to get bright.

As I reached the sidewalk, I shook my head. It didn’t matter how many times I had told Tommy to pay attention to his surroundings. Kid didn’t listen, and he didn’t follow orders.

Well, if we had to lose one, might as well be him. I was disappointed all the same. We really had tried with him.

His ignorance worked to my advantage now, though. No one was on my tail. No one noticed me.

That was exactly what I wanted.

I climbed into the little blue pickup and I fished out my cell. As I dialed Rage, I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel. I could’ve driven Nora home in this little piece last night, but I hadn’t. I hadn’t lied. The pickup wasn’t really mine, but that was semantics. The truth had more to do with wanting her arms around me.

“Yeah?” Rage’s voice rang out on the other end of the call and it sounded rough.

“What’s with you, man?” I asked, backing out of the lot.

We never kept secrets from each other. Hell, we grew up in the club together. Sean might’ve known more, but he was gone. He was lost to us because of Bones.
Fucking murderer
…

I bit down a surge of pain and disgust that welled within me. Focused on Rage’s voice. He really did sound like shit.

“Been up all damn night,” he explained. “Layla had morning sickness. All. Damn. Night.” The weariness in his voice was palpable. “How is that?” he asked, sounding bewildered. “I thought that shit happened in the
mornings
?”

I smirked, but it wasn’t at his expense. “Shitty nickname, man. ‘Morning sickness’ is different for everyone. She can have it all day, all night, whenever her body says ‘Nope. Kid don’t want that.’”

I caught Rage’s groan through the phone.

I winced for him. “Head’s up: she might have it the entire pregnancy.”

“I spent half the night holding her hair back for her…”

“As you should.” I smiled sadly.

That sparked his agitation. “Fuck! So we go from no sleep in a shitty pregnancy to no sleep with a baby?”

“That’s about right.”

I’d asked my sister everything I could when I found out Layla was pregnant. She had been passing information along to me as quickly as she could fact check it. As she put it, ‘Those boys will hear it better from you.’

I figured, why shouldn’t the guys get a hold on it? We all lived together, and with as much action as that old clubhouse was seeing, babies were just a fact of life. Might as well know what was coming along with them.

“Puke, and screaming, and a hell of a lot of poop,” Desiree had warned. “And cuteness. They’re good at cute. Survival tactic, probably. Hopefully, you guys get a good sleeper.”

I wasn’t sure how we’d handle it all, but I knew most MC’s found a way. Hell, the world found a way.

I grinned wryly, thinking about just what some of those solutions were. We
could
leave it to the women to deal with the shit and puke and sleepless nights. We could stick together ‘as men,’ deal with the raids. Stay out of it completely. But that wouldn’t go well. The bunnies would enjoy the cute bits and wander off after a while. And the women who stayed? The ol’ ladies? Layla and Emma and Donna wouldn’t like us much if we didn’t pull our weight. And if they didn’t like it, we’d all feel it.

I chuckled to myself. Rage and Wrath
really
wouldn’t like it. Women were funny like that. You wanted to make the kid with ‘em, they expected you to stick around long enough to raise it.

Facts of life. Just facts of life.

We’d have to come to some sort of arrangement, though. With Bones on the loose, we had to be alert. Sleep was going to be important…

I was not looking forward to that conversation with Layla.

I liked kids. They were interesting. A pain in the ass, sure, but interesting. I also recognized that I liked it when they went home at the end of the day. Maybe I’d feel differently one day, if the kid was mine, but that wasn’t something I had to worry about these days.

For Rage’s kid, though? I’d do the prep work, call in favors, gather info. We were in the middle of a war. Rage was thrilled, but it was going to be rough, juggling Layla’s condition and focus on the reality of Bones. The old bastard was a real threat, and gathering strength. And we couldn’t wait till he had it, either. Because we were first on his hit list.

I was working with Rage to figure out how we were going to deal with it, balance everything, keep our shit together and hopefully do it all right. That was my job, no matter the circumstances.

“Look on the bright side,” I offered. “You’ll have help. You have a whole crew to keep an eye on your kid.”

Rage wasn’t taking the bright side, though. He had a sick lover. “I thought they were supposed to glow? Pregnant women, I mean.”

I raised a brow and tried to focus on the road. Suddenly it wasn’t so easy. “You having regrets?” I asked, struggling to keep my voice mild. The man was about to become a father. I was going to be pissed if he pulled that shit right now.

“What? No. Fuck no.” I could hear the worry in his voice. “I just thought this was supposed to be a good thing. She doesn’t let it show, but between us? Layla’s having a rough time of it.”

I shook my head. “She looks beautiful, even when she’s pale and tired and nauseous.” I meant it, too. I had a crush on her when we were kids. It had been a fleeting thing, but it had left me a bit protective of her. When she and Rage had gotten together, I had been glad. They were the two people who mattered most to me. And now they were having a kid... It was good.

It also made me a bit restless.

“When are you going to put a ring on that girl’s finger? If you don’t I will.” I meant it. Rage was nuts about her. I’d never seen either of them happier. And logistically speaking, not much was likely to pull those two apart. So why the fuck was he waiting?

“Soon,” he said. “I’m waiting for the right time - so keep your fucking hands off.” He laughed, but the lack of sleep put a raw edge in his voice.

We needed to change the topic.

“Yeah. I got it. I want one, get my own?”

Rage’s laugh wasn’t light, but it was better than what I’d been hearing from him.

“I’m driving,” I warned him, having to double-take to be sure I was passing through a green. I didn’t like driving on the phone. I couldn’t do it on the bike, and I liked it that way. But I hadn’t been about to sit around outside Bones’ hub and tempt fate. Now what I was looking for was a place to pull over. Preferably before a cop spotted me.

“Need to call me back?” Rage asked.

“No. I got this.” I set the phone to speaker and made a point to focus.

“So, Shaky’s? Was the information good? You get in?”

I nodded, even if he couldn’t see me. “Yeah. And out, too. Tommy’s as dumb as ever.”

“Whatever works.”

I smirked.

“What did you find out?”

“They’re congregating there,” I said. “Over half his men were in the bar. He can’t be far.”

“So Strike’s information was good?” I could hear the smugness in his tone.

“Yes, Strike’s information is good.”

“You think we can trust him yet?”

I shook my head. “I
trust
you. I’m good at watching your back because I
don’t
trust anyone else. Strike’s information may have been good, but trust me on this, he has his own motives for sharing it with us. Men like Strike want people like us under thumb and heel. He is going to expect something for this, and we’d be wise to figure out what we’re willing to do – and what we aren’t.”

Rage sighed into the phone. “What do you think he’ll want?”

It wasn’t a bad question, just one he couldn’t discuss with anyone else. “I don’t know, and
that
is what I don’t trust.”

“If he’s half as smart as he thinks he is, he won’t ask for anything we aren’t willing to give.”

Something about the way he said it set me off. “What does he want now?” We had known one another too long for me not to see where this was going. Aggravated, I pulled off into a parking lot a little quicker than was wise. I missed the lines of my spot, and growled. I didn’t dare try to straighten it out. I’d hit someone. That was how irritated I was.

Rage heard my aggravation, but he didn’t ask about it. Instead, he did what he did best. He worked to convince me that this was all worth it. “No worries, man. It’s a fair trade. He needs a favor. For his brother. Hawk’s wounds have been healing but he needs to have them looked at.”

Fair trade
… “You want me to bring my sister to him.”

“Yeah,” Rage said bluntly. “She’s a good paramedic, she’s discreet, and she knows what she is doing.”

She wasn’t just a good paramedic. She was on her way to being a great nurse. Someone like Hawk, like that family, could fuck it all up for Desiree.

I didn’t want that smart-ass motherfucker anywhere near her.

“Cullen –”

He cut me down, bite for bite. “
DeMarcus
, please.” He sounded angry. Exasperated. “The man saved our ass. He’s dealing with an infection. If he can’t get legitimate help from us, he’ll start looking to someone else. And then we lose any power we have to negotiate.” He paused a second to let that sink in, then went on. “Your sister is a tough woman. Hawk tries anything slick, she’ll break his arm – and we’ll watch her back. Period. All right?”

I nodded. Rage couldn’t see it, but he knew me well enough to know I had.

He went on. “If I thought she’d let that little shit push her around, I wouldn’t even ask you. But we both know Desiree. She’ll have him shitting bricks if he tries anything.” He chuckled.

Yeah, we both knew my sister all right. She was more than a bulldozer. She was intelligent and sharp-tongued and no nonsense. She was also gentle and she really cared about people. But she really would clear out Hawk’s colon if he tried anything stupid on her time.

“Fine. I’ll talk to her.”

“Glad to hear it,” Rage said.

He seemed to be assuming I could make her cooperate. With any luck she would tell us to put it where the sun didn’t shine. But I knew better. Desiree was a professional. She hated that we had been running raids lately, but she had still made a point to come by and patch us up. Hell, screw Hawk,
my
life could mess up hers. Bones’ reputation – and our loyalty to him – had hurt us worse than we had initially thought.

Desiree was too adamant a medical practitioner to deny us care just because our organization was frowned upon by the city’s high and mighty. She’d help Hawk. And she’d give her a piece of her mind while she was at it. I just hoped her altruism didn’t hurt her.

We got back on topic. “How is the event coming?” Rage asked. It sounded like he was running down through a list.

I decided to stay off the road and cooled my heels in the lot. “Event’s coming along good,” I replied. “Aidan knows what he is doing, and Emma is a natural at planning with Layla. It’s going to be excellent.”

“If you say it will, I believe you.” I caught the crackle in his voice again. He really did sound like shit.

“You need to get some rest, man. I’m heading back to the club, and I better not see your ass there or at the garage working. You can’t be dragging ass and still look like the president of a major club. You’ll give us a bad name!”

I laughed. He laughed. But I added, “I am not kidding. Get some rest.”