CHAPTER13

Ryder

“Well?”I asked, immediately after Devon and Bones walked through the door. “Did you speak to the informant?”

“We never got a chance to,” Devon replied, and I realized he looked pale and angry.

“What happened?” I said urgently, standing up and walking towards them.

“Someone got to him before we did,” Bones replied. “His throat had been split.”

I froze. “Fuck.”

“It’s definitely Godwin and his men.”

“No shit,” I said, through gritted teeth. “What was the point of killing him?”

“He said he had information to give us on Walter Black,” Devon replied. “Apparently Godwin didn’t want us to know that information.”

“Looks like I’m not the only one barking for revenge,” I said. “He’s doing his best to piss me off.”

“He’s still going to claim that we were the ones who broke the truce first,” Bones pointed out.

“How?”

“We stole away one of their women.”

My eyes bulged. “One of their women?” I repeated. “Abby’s Devon’s sister.”

“I don’t think they’ll see it that way,” Devon said. “Abby was Walter’s girlfriend, and the truce was built on the agreement that neither club goes after any of the other’s people.”

“Family beats any other relationship any day,” I said. “Abby’s connected to the Fallen Angels through blood. How the fuck is she connected to Walter?”

“You know how the Knights are about their women,” Bones said, and I felt my fists clench.

“I know,” I replied darkly.

“Do you have a game plan here?” Bones asked. “Are we just going to continue to make noise and try to smoke this guy out? Or are we going to take a more direct route?”

“What would be a direct route?” I asked with a frown.

“Orchestrate a meeting with Godwin.”

“Fuck that,” I said immediately. “I’m not meeting with that fucking asshole. None of you are to approach him or any other members of his crew… Understood?”

“Understood,” Devon nodded.

Bones looked a little unhappy, but he nodded finally.

“Are you so ready for a fight?” I asked him.

“He’s a threat to all of us,” Bones responded. “And by lying low and waiting for him to make the first move, we’re putting ourselves in the weaker position. We’ll be forced to go on the defensive.”

“And we may live longer for it,” I said. “Godwin has more men than we have.”

“But we have stronger fighters.”

“We think,” I pointed out. “We haven’t gone head to head with any of them since the truce, and that was years ago. We barely know their set up anymore. We heard months ago that he lost his deputy, his second-in-command, but we don’t know who he was replaced by. We can’t go on the offensive when we don’t know what we’re getting into. For all we know, Godwin has been planning this for months.”