Page 61 of No Mercy

I thanked fuck that one of the old ladies was keeping her company while Sam was in school and I was taking care of club shit. I was the VP, and a leave from my responsibilities was out of the question until we got to the bottom of this shit with the Blue Knights. At least we knew who weweren’tlooking for now.

As I stepped into the club bar, my gaze lit on Joanne. She looked away quickly, and I knew the reason why. She and Marnie had been tight. I knew she was grieving the loss of her friend. She’d approached me after Bullet’s funeral to say that she was sorry for what Marnie had done, but I’d brushed her off. It hadn’t been her fault. She had nothing to feel sorry for unless she’d known what Marnie’s intentions were going to be that day. Her reaction had convinced me that she hadn’t known.

I started to walk to her, but then changed my mind when Hawk stepped into the clubhouse. A sharp jerk of his chin told me to follow him back outside. We walked a distance away from where the bikes were parked along the building before he turned and faced me.

“Had a call from Stone, he thinks he knows who Blue Knights’ president is.” I raised my brows at the unexpected news. “He thinks it’s a biker who goes by the name of Boomer, a leftover from the Red Devils.”

What the fuck? I thought back to the time that we’d helped Wild Marauders and Dark Menace get rid of Wildman and the Red Devils. The MC had been a thorn in all our sides for years, the other two MC’s more so than Phantom Riders. The attack on Lynch’s woman, and then Stone’s, who had also been Wildman’s step-daughter, had sealed their fate. We’d wiped the fucking club out. At least I thought we had.

“I didn’t know there were any Red Devils left.”

“The club is gone, but there were a few members who weren’t present for the final war. Word is they scattered and became nomads. Kept quiet about who they were and played by the rules for a while. Now it looks like they’ve been quietly gathering members for their new MC, and slowly becoming a nuisance.”

I wasn’t convinced. “What makes Stone think this guy is from the Red Devils?”

“Stone had a mole inside the Red Devils for a while, think his name was Rebel. As he was looking over surveillance tapes from one of their strip clubs he recognized someone on it as a Red Devil. He was surprised that he was still alive. So I asked for a description.”

He took a significant pause. I got the impression that he wanted me to figure it out on my own. It didn’t take long for the obvious to hit me. “Let me guess. He has brown eyes, blonde hair, and a scar running through his eyebrow.” Hawk nodded with a satisfied look on his face. “Fuck.” Finally!

“The same clean-cut fucker who’s shown up on our tapes at the clubs,” he confirmed gruffly.

He’d had Fox looking over security tapes as soon as we’d learned that the bastard and his friends were showing up at the clubs we protected, including our own. They’d been asking questions and checking things out. Covacks was getting pissed, too, because some of his product had been in the trucks the Blue Knights had hit. We’d taken a big hit in the coffers by compensating him, but it didn’t replace the hard to come by merchandise he’d been shipping.

I stated the obvious. “Blue Knights have targeted a lot of runs from other MC’s, but they seem to have a special grudge against us.”

“I’m not going to fucking worry about the why,” Hawk snarled. “They killed Bullet. They’re fucking with us, getting close to our women. Either they stop and go away, or we bury the rest of them.” I silently agreed. “Where you going, brother?” he asked when I began walking back toward the door.

“To help Big John get some answers,” I growled over my shoulder. I fucking wanted to know where we could find this Boomer fucker. “And then I’m going to hunt down Boomer and end him.” For the first time in a long while I felt hopeful that an end was in sight.

“Church in the morning!” Hawk called out. I acknowledged him with a hand gesture and continued into the clubhouse.

Chapter 33

Allie

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Michelle asked, pausing at the front door.

She was reluctant to leave me alone after my attack. I’d healed completely, physically anyway. Mentally I was fragile, and though I tried not to show it, I knew that I couldn’t hide anything from Rock. He insisted that someone stay with me when he couldn’t be home, which, lately, had been often. He’d told me that he loved me, so I shouldn’t have worried that his frequent absences had anything to do with his feelings for me. But his change in attitude toward us filled me with uneasiness.

“I’m fine, I promise you,” I smiled, ignoring the slight panic that was already beginning to churn inside my belly. Michelle had gotten a call from the nursing home where her mother was staying. Apparently, they were having trouble with her wanting to smoke in bed. They were threatening to evict her if she didn’t stop. She was putting other residents at risk and the center was, for obvious reasons, a no smoking facility.

“Rock is gonna be so pissed−”

I cut her off. “I can handle Rock.” At least I thought I could.

He was gone more than he was home these days, and when he was home he treated me like a porcelain doll. He hadn’t touched me since before the incident, except for the occasional kiss that never made it past first base, let alone second. At first I thought that he might be afraid of hurting me, but the unwelcome notion had entered my head that he might be getting his needs met somewhere else. I knew that some men craved variety.

God, I didn’t want to think about him being with another woman. One who was perfect and didn’t have a scarred body, one that didn’t have a body that was changing everyday with pregnancy. He hadn’t seen me naked since the attack, but I was sure he had wondered how I would look. Did that turn him off? I realized that my insecurities were eating away at me, and that Rock was probably just giving me time to heal.

Knowing it didn’t keep me from wondering.

Maybe if I did something to piss him off it would be good for us, force him to react with something more than calm acceptance. He would definitely be pissed to come home and see that I was alone. I needed the old Rock back. The bad boy who made me feel wanted and desired with his actions, and even with just a meaningful look. I wanted him to lose the control he wielded like a shield these days, to push me up against the wall and fuck me blind. Anything that would alleviate my growing fears that he had someone else.

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking it’s time to show Rock that I’m a big girl and okay to stay by myself.” Sure, I’d been attacked and almost killed, but I had to put it behind me, behindus. Knowing the attacker was gone gave me some relief.

“He’s been worried about you,” Michelle nodded with understanding. “Our men can be over protective at times. And we almost lost you.”

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