Page 148 of Tempting Fate

When my best friend gives me the reaction I sought, I rock back on my heels and observe the interplay between the men I call my brothers to determine exactly how bad things have become in my absence. They don’t disappoint. Cub attempts to restrain Slash. Despite his own injuries, Hunter helps him. Isaiah stays out of the fray, observing closely, ready to fix things once everyone is calm enough for him to step in with reason and logic. Wyatt and Nate edge closer to me, loyal as ever, ready to have my back if needed. The three older men simply shake their heads while my father and Toker continue to act as silent bystanders.

Sander ignores the rest of them to advance on me.

His fist glances off my cheekbone. “You fuckin’ left her. Alone. To deal with everythin’.”

As much as it kills me to act like I don’t care, I refuse to allow Lily’s twin to break me. I sniff with contempt. Shrug. Cock my head to the side as I tell him, “It’s better this way.”

“Better. It’s better?” he growls. With two hands, he shoves me in the chest. I take a step back. He pushes me again. Another backward step. “It must be better for you ‘cause it’s not better for Cherub. She’s fuckin’ hurtin’, and you’re off gallivantin’ all over the east coast. I trusted you to look after her.”

“That’s the problem,” I tell him. Sander pulls up short when he moves to shove me a third time. Shock in his gaze, he stares at me. “I didn’t look after her. She got hurt on my watch.”

“Zeke…” Dad calls my name. “It wasn’t?—”

“If you tell me it wasn’t my fault one more time, I’m gonna punch a hole in your oxygen tank.” The wry chuckle he gives in response to my exaggerated threat tells me he’s aware I’m at the end of my rope. Edging past Sander, I address Angelis. “Look, you’re obviously the appointed spokesman here… why don’t you say what it is you needa say so we can all go our separate ways?”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Hunter interjects. He rubs his hands together, presses a palm to his right shoulder, then rolls the joint like it’s annoying him. “Good old Venom. Always gotta be in control. The first to run into danger. The last to leave. It must be killin’ you to have had absolutely no say over the shit that went down with Alex?”

“I’m not here to be analysed.”

He grins. “But analysin’ is what I’m here for.”

“Angelis—”

“We know what you did to Brutus,” Slash’s father informs me. “Just don’t know why.”

“He pissed me off.”

“Bullshit.” Cass snorts. “My brother is an expert at pushin’ people to their breakin’ point. He threatened you with somethin’… somethin’ you’re running from. Somethin’ you’re trying to protect. Somethin’ bigger than the club.”

“Has to have been little Cherub,” Hunter remarks with a sharp nod. “She’s the only thing that’d make him snap like that.”

I glare at the little smartarse. “Didn’t snap. Knew exactly what I was doin’.”

“I notice you don’t deny it involves Cherub.”

The expectant looks from my brothers pin me to the spot. Aware that I need to give them some answers if I’m to find a way through this, I settle on an abbreviated version of the truth. “He knows Alex is dead.” Sander makes a choking sound that ends when I frown at him. Eyes on the ground, he scuffs the toe of his shoe in the dirt and swings from side to side. “Threatened to pin it on Lily if we took the president’s patch from him.”

“Why would we take his patch?” Cass grumbles. “He didn’t mean to lead us into an ambush.”

“The ambush was his fault,” I inform Brutus’ older brother. “It was payback for tryin’ to renegotiate the deal he’d made with Joseph Kingsley and the Maddison Clan to distribute their drugs and sell the women they traffic.”

“Again, I call bullshit,” Cass snaps. “Brutus would never sell pussy.”

“Why not?” Toker demands. “He bartered little Cherub to the Kingsleys… any man who’ll do that to his own daughter ain’t gonna blink at a little sex traffickin’.” When Cass opens his mouth to object, Toker silences him with an impatient flick of his unbroken arm. We all give him our complete attention when he launches into his explanation, “I heard things—saw things—when I was being held by Bear... not that anyone has bothered to ask. This deal has been brewin’ for years, well before Alex even knew Cherub existed. The Bishops have been tryin’ to patch us over since they found out about it. They’re broke, needa reap the rewards of the new deal and our current interests to stop from goin’ under.”

There is annoyance in Hunter’s voice when he interjects, “So, that’s why they had Bear infiltrate us three years ago—they needed an inside eye.”

“I think so,” Toker agrees. “Can’t confirm that’s the complete picture ’cause Brutus has somethin’ else going on separate to all this. Alls I know is after dippin’ his toe into it, having his faction run a little drugs behind our backs, he only got serious about taking it on full time a few months before Alex was released.”

At his mention of Lily’s ex, my gut tightens and twists.

Lily’s cousin looks at his dad. Duke is watching him with a mixture of pride and worry. Toker quirks his lips in a tight grimace of acknowledgement, then continues. “Brutus ain’t heartless… second he found out what Alex had done to Cherub, he tried to pull outta the deal.”

“That doesn’t answer…”

“Shut up, Hunt,” Slash and I admonish the younger man at the same time.

With a snicker, Hunter motions for Toker to continue speaking.

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