Page 8 of Sweet Revenge

I smirked because it was true. We’d all watched Race and Becs dance around each other for years. One of these days, that shit was going to blow up.

The door to Maggie’s room swung open, and one of the nurses held it while the other nurse pushed Maggie’s bed through the opening. The nurse stopped moving right outside her room and went back in, leaving Maggie in the hallway with us. Luke and Bear were leaning against the wall, speaking quietly to each other when I walked over to the side of her bed.

I leaned in close. “We will find him.”

She closed her eyes slowly before she let them flutter open, and whispered, “Nothing touches Snake.”

I leaned my forearms against the rail on the side of her bed, putting my face closer to hers. She swallowed hard but met my eyes. “Those days for Snake ended when he made me a liar.”

She looked confused. “I don’t understand.”

My eyes flicked back and forth between hers. “I promised to protect you, and I failed. That won’t happen again.”

She moved her head slightly, almost like she wanted to deny what I was saying, but then winced from the pain. I felt my anger rising again. “I chose to leave. That was my fault.”

“None of this is your fault, Maggie.” She looked away, but I continued. “And I promise you that very soon, you’ll have the freedom to come and go when you want to.”

She blinked slowly. “I don’t believe in promises.”

I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “You will.”

“Are you ready, Maggie?”

I looked up and saw the nurse once again positioned at the head of the bed, and I stood when Maggie said yes quietly. I didn’t say more. Words were pointless to a woman who had lived through what Maggie had, and I knew nothing I said would hold any weight. The nurse pushed her past us, and Bear followed Luke to once again stand with me in the center of the hallway.

“I need to take off.” Bear looked my way. “You stayin’ here, brother?”

I nodded. “I’ll stay while she talks to Luke.”

He slapped his hand against the back of my shoulder. “We’ll find him, and when we do, we’ll take him down.”

We’d find him, and when we did, I would not only take him down, but I also planned to take down the whole fucking club.

CHAPTER SIX

GUNNER

I pushed through the door to the clubhouse, not surprised when I heard the music pounding through the room. It was Friday night, and the boys were rowdy after a long week of work. This was the benefit to having a bar in our clubhouse—a place to unwind, to hang out with good people, and to just let the rest of the world disappear. This was the club life Bear wanted to give everyone, and he was doing it.

But this shit with Snake and the Widows was going to change that.

Moving toward the bar, I tapped the top to get Skinner’s attention, one of the prospects, who was bartending. We’d been getting more and more prospects lately, a lot who’d done their time in the military and were looking for a place to belong, a place where they could be with a lot of people like themselves. They were all young and rowdy, but hell, so was most of our club. We had a few older members who’d stayed after Bear announced the changes he planned to make, but we also lost a good bit. The old members who’d been around when club life was a little rougher weren’t interested in a club that wanted to get clean and stay clean, so Bear told them they were all free to go with the promise of no retribution.

And we started building a brand new type of club.

“What’d ya need, Gunner?”

I grinned at the kid who had one eye on me and one on the blonde leaning over the bar with her tits practically hanging out. They would be by the end of the night.

“Give me a bottle.”

He nodded and moved down the bar to grab a beer. I didn’t care what kind it was; I just needed something to take the edge off. He handed me the bottle across the bar, and I put it to my lips, taking a long drink. Leaning my back against the bar top, I scanned the room, my eyes pausing on Bear who was talking to Bull across the room.

Bull was one of the original members and had been on the fence about staying when offered the chance to leave, but something made him stay. I wanted to think he stayed because he liked the direction we were taking the club, but Bull was a little rough around the edges. He didn’t mind doing the dirty work, the shit no one else wanted to do but would if they had to. He was all in when we brought up the idea of bringing down the Black Widows, but he wanted to do it fast and dirty, and we knew we couldn’t. That kind of impulsivity would end this club before it even had a chance to take off. Bear kept a close eye on him because he had a quick trigger and that could bring us shit we didn’t need. Especially now.

“Hey, Gunner.”

I glanced to my right when I felt a soft body push in tight against my side. “Candy.”

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