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Sky chuckles dryly, having resumed his seat at the bar, while Spike is kind enough to replace our empty beer bottles with double shots of rye whiskey. “Right, we’re not the ones to be trusted. Have yourselves a great evening, officers.”
“We’ll be back,” one of the juniors replies, while Snyder gives us a side-eye and leads his team back out the double doors.
“And we’ll be waiting,” one of our Steel Knights brothers mutters, prompting the others to burst into raucous laughter. I can’t help but smile, relief washing over me like a crisp ocean wave at dawn.
“That wasn’t as close as I thought it would be,” I tell Sky and Raylan.
The tension in the room has lessened as soon as Snyder and his team left. It’s as if I can breathe easy again. Oddly enough, I’ve been under tremendous stress since we first brought Ariana upstairs on Friday night. It’s been bothering me ever since, but as soon as the cops left, it’s as if that anxiety walked out the door with them.
“We were prepared,” Sky reminds me. “And our lawyers were ready to block them at every turn, even if by some mishap they made their way upstairs and found Ariana, the charges never would’ve stuck. Not in court, anyway.”
Raylan shakes his head slowly. “We know damn well that the minute our asses land in jail, we’re dead. The Black Hand will not hesitate.”
“We avoided that,” Sky says, slightly annoyed. “Let’s just keep moving forward.”
It’ll get way worse before we see actual results. I only pray that Henry David won’t be stupid enough to try and pull something on us. I’m ready to burn him and his people down to the ground if I have to. They’ve been running loose for too long. Somebody needs to stop them.
“We’ll have to move her,” Raylan says. “You heard Snyder. They’ll be back with a warrant.”
“They can try to get one,” I mutter.
“Listen, I’m just saying. We need to be ready to move her at a moment’s notice.”
Sky nods in agreement. “Not any time soon, though, not without some certainty that they are, in fact, entitled to search upstairs,” he says. “They’ll have eyes on the clubhouse from now on. They’ll have a patrol car somewhere outside or plainclothes cops hanging around in here pretending to be patrons. We’ll need to be careful.”
“I’ll let the bar staff know to be extra vigilant,” Spike chimes in.
We’ll need all hands on deck for this one. All it takes is one undercover cop to bring the whole operation down. We’ve come too far to let them catch us. Sooner or later, those we are targeting will pay for what they’ve done. I just hope Ariana doesn’t get caught in the middle.
But she will. Inadvertently, she will suffer through this entire ordeal.
Especially when the truth comes out.
6
Ariana
Ithink it’s Wednesday.
I may have lost track of time, and it’s weird living without my phone. For the first couple of days, I suffered from anxiety without my screen to fiddle with. But there’s plenty of stuff to watch on Spike’s movie stick, and Raylan even brought me a few books to read. He’s the charmer of the three.
They’re all different. I think I’ve got them figured out, more or less, despite their consistent effort to keep a certain distance from me. My guess is they’re trying not to get too close to me. I’m their pawn, their leverage, not their friend.
Sky is the leader, the club president, and the man calling the shots. But he keeps it sort of humble, often relying on Raylan and Kendric for counsel. Spike confirmed that as well. Spike is a lot chattier these days, likely because I’m a lot chattier, too. I figured I might try to make some friends while I’m here and hopefully secure my survival for whatever comes next.
Sky fascinates me with his restraint and his remarkable self-control. I’ve pushed his buttons plenty of times to warrant at least a verbal ass-kicking, yet he has been nothing but patient and calm. The fact that he’s gorgeous only adds to his appeal.
Raylan is dangerously charming, playful, and always carrying himself with a hint of self-assuredness and wearing a kid-like smile; he won’t show you how deadly he can be unless he has to. He also doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously. However, the way he looks at me often sends shivers down my spine. Many things are left unspoken between us, but his lingering gazes tell me there’s a fire burning just beneath the surface, and if he’s not careful, it’ll burn everything in his path.
Kendric, on the other hand, is absolutely and unabashedly deadly. He will not hesitate to crush you with just his presence, his gaze, let alone his massive frame or iron fist. That man is strong and built for war, a grunt through and through. He inspires dread with such ease that sometimes I think he enjoys scaring the crap out of people. But despite all that, something happens when we get close, albeit without intention. His steel gaze softens. It drops. And I can almost feel the air changing between us, dissolving my fear and turning it into desire.
That’s the hard truth. They’re hot, and they’re getting me bothered. They absolutely shouldn’t have that effect on me, not under these circumstances.
I’m restless again.
I haven’t made much progress with my screw on the iron frame, but maybe today’s the day.
After twenty hours of sleep the other day, I’m feeling refreshed and up to no good, like I could wreak some havoc. I’ve been too nice despite my snappy tone. And maybe I haven’t exhausted all of my options yet.
