AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Instantly, Venus’s expression hardened. “I do what I want. When I want. I’m with Thorn at Bane because he helped me once. He doesn’t dictate to me, or tell me what I can or cannot do.”
“I’ll go with her.” Piston shifted just enough to take everyone’s attention from Venus and put it squarely on him. “She's Salvation's Bane, so if Thorn has a problem with her takin' this up outside his club, tell him to take it up with me.”
“I don’t need you to fight my battles, old man.” Venus gave Piston an uncharacteristic show of anger and irritation. Usually the woman was as unflappable as they came, but I’d noticed how Piston seemed to get under her skin. Yeah. That was gonna be fun to watch.
“Didn’t say you did. But havin’ me as a buffer between you and everyone will let you get the job done quicker.”
Venus rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She pointed her finger at Piston. A finger with a dagger-sharp nail. Painted hot pink. “Stay out of my way.” With that she stomped off. Piston followed her without another word, his expression blank.
There was silence in the room as the two walked out. I glanced at Lemon who had tucked her lips between her teeth,looking for all the world like she was amused.
“We takin’ bets on how long Piston lives?” Bear’s gaze snapped to Ringo when he spoke, giving the other man a sharp look. Ringo grinned and shrugged. “Just askin’.”
“I give it thirty-to-one --” Falcon had a mischievous grin on his face. “-- Dude won’t make it through the month.”
“Oh, I’ll take that action.” Lemon laughed. “Hundred bucks.”
Falcon’s mouth opened in surprise, then his face split in a broad grin. “You’re out a hunk of cash, woman. Venus’ll eat that fucker alive.”
Lemon smirked. “Yep. She sure will. Just not the way you think.”
Falcon’s smile faded to be replaced by a wary look. Like he sensed a trap but hadn’t figured out how to get around it.
“On another note,” Crush sighed as he turned around, “I’ve been looking into Redwood. I should have let it go, but I couldn’t. Rocket, he and Hammer were tight. Did some service together overseas they didn’t tell anyone about.”
“You sayin’ they were closer than we knew they were. You think he was bidin’ his time until he could get revenge on someone in the club? Me?” His gaze instantly hardened. “Was he going after Lemon to get back at me?” Rocket stiffened, leaned back in his chair, resting one elbow on the armrest as he stroked his chin.
“Hard to say.” Crush pushed his glasses up on his nose. “We’re all off the books. But, you know if I dig deep enough and hard enough, I can find out anything. If he has someone else out there working with him, we’ll find out.” Crush scowled, shaking his head.
“You and Byte are invaluable to this club, Crush.” Rocket held the man’s gaze steadily. “Some of the shit you can do seems like magic.”
“Yeah, well, sometimes I wish we weren’t so good.” He and Byte exchanged a look. Byte winced and turned back to his computer, his shoulders hunching slightly. “I don’t know exactly what the op was they went on, but that’s when Redwood got involved with the same people Calhoun and Illivitch did business with. I don’t know how much Hammer knew, but Redwood was perfectly aware of what he was doing. I’m only guessing -- and I can’t stress enough, it’s only a guess -- Hammer knew everything Redwood did. What I can’t find is anything to link Hammer to the trafficking, but Redwood was in deep.”
“Fucker died too easy.” Deacon pulled me closer, and I could practically feel the anger vibrating through him.
Crush inhaled a long breath. Held it a couple of seconds, then let it out. “I know I’m the one who vets every single prospect who wants to join us, Rocket. I do it to keep everyone here as safe as I can, but I try not to go past a certain line. Everyone has secrets.”
“It’s uncomfortable for you.” Rocket didn’t phrase it as a question.
“Yeah. I accept my responsibilities as the club’s tech guy, but I never thought I’d have to spy on my own brothers.”
“You’re not spying,” Lemon moved to stand behind Crush. She put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re keeping everyone safe. Including the people you look into. Besides, it’s not like you share anything with anyone. You tell Rocket anything you think he needs to know. The rest goes in a file only you, Byte, and Rocket have access to. He can read it if he wants, but unless you tell him to look at something, he respects everyone’s privacy.”
No one in the room looked uncomfortable but Crush and Byte. Despite some pretty major setbacks, these guys had stuck together and started opening up to each other more than when I’d first met them. Which was mostly all Lemon’s doing. My sister was a force of nature when she decided she wantedsomething, and she wanted Grim Road to be a family. Slowly but surely, she was achieving her goal. All thanks to her.
“Was anyone else tight with Redwood or Hammer?” Rocket drew the attention back to him.
“Not that I’ve found,” Crush said. “I don’t expect to find anything. ’Course, I didn’t expect what happened with Redwood either.”
“No one did, Crush.” Rocket turned his attention to Deacon. “So? You’re letting Venus take point on this. You headin’ back to Iron Tzars?”
Deacon shrugged. “Don’t know.” He glanced down at me. “I suppose I’ll go wherever Apple goes, so maybe you should ask her.”
That startled me. “You really meant what you said before? You’d leave Iron Tzars if I wanted to stay here?”
“I meant it when I said I wasn’t leaving you again. That means I go where you go. I want you happy so if you want to stay here, I’ll put in whatever formal request Rocket wants for me to patch over to Grim Road.”
I looked at Lemon who gave me a smirk and nodded her head. I smiled at my sister. My twin. I loved Dani just as much as Lemon, but it was different. Lemon was part of me. The months we’d been apart when she first came to Grim Road had been the longest of my life.
