Page 64 of Iron Heart

I stand up with a grunt. “You tried callin’ him?”

“Not yet.”

I pull my phone out of my pocket and punch Dom’s number. He doesn’t answer.

“That’s fuckin’ weird,” I grumble. “You want me to track him down?”

Axel considers my question. “Nah, not yet. We can wait another hour or so. See if he shows. After that, I might have you go out and look for him.”

Axel goes back down the hall toward his office. I stand there for a minute in silence, pushing down my irritation at my brother.

Goddamnit, Dom. You better not be fucking up.

Suddenly I’m feeling restless as hell. Setting my shot glass down on the table, I grunt an excuse to my brothers and head downstairs to the basement gym. I need to burn off some steam, and if I stay around people right now, I’ll probably end up punching someone.

I crank up the stereo in the gym to top volume and start pounding out bench presses, curls, and pull ups until I’m bathed in sweat and breathing hard. Slipknot, Megadeth, and Rage Against the Machine power my fury and keep me from thinking about anything but my next rep. The music is so loud that I can’t hear anything else.

Which is why I almost miss the first blast. Until I realize the shaking of the basement walls isn’t my imagination.

The music is still pounding as I run up the stairs, just in time to hear the next thud, halfway between a gunshot and a sonic boom. The brothers upstairs are on their feet; the women are screaming at each other to take cover.

“It’s the garage!” Rourke roars. “It’s a b—”

The explosion cuts him off. The next one comes immediately after, striking something hard with a dull thud. then another. A millisecond later, there’s a loud roar and a flash of light.

Fuck. They hit the fuel tank.

We all bolt for the front door, just in time to see a plume of flame coming from the far side of the garage. The building itself has the bay door blown off and splintered.

After the initial boom of the gas tank blast, the explosions stop. Through the crack of the flames, I register the sound of engines moving away.

“Jesus Christ!” Axel roars. “Check the garage, see if anyone’s hurt! Rourke, with me!”

Rourke and Axel sprint off to their bikes. Seconds later, they peel out in the direction of the engines.

It’s a fuckin’miracle no one is seriously hurt. A couple of the prospects have minor injuries, and Ranger has some glass shards lodged in his arm. But other than that, everyone’s okay.

The back of the garage, on the other hand, is pretty fucked.

Somehow, we get the gas fire under control without the fire department being called. Axel and Rourke come back, looking grim.

“No luck,” Rourke grits out. “Fuckers got away before we could catch them.”

Seconds later, Yoda comes over to us. He raises a cylindrical object.

“Fuckin’ grenade launcher.” He nods at the casing. “Forty millimeter.”

“Goddamnit,” Axel seethes. “This was a message more than anything. Got to be Los Caballeros. They know where we are. And they want us to know it.” He looks from me to Rourke. “Dante, get hold of Dom and tell him we’re gonna need to reschedule the pickup. We can’t risk that Los Caballeros have been watchin’ us enough to know he’s involved. Tell all the Lords to watch their six, and their families. This was a warning, but it ain’t gonna be the end of it.”

When I get hold of Dom a few minutes later, he picks up right away. He says he’s on his way to the clubhouse. I tell him to hold off, per Axel’s orders.

I spend a couple of hours helping the men with the beginnings of cleanup. But when we break for the day, instead of going back into the clubhouse, I decide to head home. I need to think, and to clear my head.

It takes everything I have in me not to point my bike in the direction of Tori’s place.

26

Tori

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