Page 48 of Ride or Dies

“Ya’ll know this isn’t the first time in the past couple days that they’ve done shit like this.” Levi nodded in my direction. “They went after us at Nona’s parents’ place. Junkyard’s shoulder got fucked up and Mason was shot. Now, I know some of ya’ll thought we should’ve gone after them right then, but I didn’t want to start something until I knew more of what was going on. Except, waiting seems to just have made ’em think that we’re not gonna fight back.”

“Anyone hurt at Rocky’s?” Sweeper called out the question. “Kayla was working today.”

Levi shook his head. “My brothers and I showed up just as the Cobras started shooting, and chased them off. I recognized two of the shooters as enforcers for the Cobras. I didn’t see Harley Quinn’s bike, but we all know those enforcers don’t do shit without his say-so.”

Now I understood why Levi had been so sure it was the Cobras when Tucker and I hadn’t been able to say it definitely. He was right. I’d gone head-to-head with a couple of Quinn’s enforcers, and they had the sort of blind, dumb loyalty that meant they’d never stop to think if something they were doing was right or not.

Yeah, I was loyal to my MC and to my brother, but I liked to think I had enough honor that if I was ever told to do something like shoot into a civilian business at random, I’d take a minute. Not that Levi would ever tell anyone to do something like that, but he hadn’t always been in charge.

“Ya’ll know that one of the things the Thunder Riders pride themselves on is protecting our territory and the people in it, especially if we have claim to those people.” Levi’s voice was still even, but his eyes were flashing now, a sure sign that he wasn’t as calm and cool as he sounded. “You heard Sweeper say his sister was there. Well, so was mine.”

That got a reaction from the men. All of them had met Jenna at one time or another, and they treated her like their own family.

“Jenna and Evie Hayes, the woman who’s been staying here under our protection, were both in Rocky’s, so that’s three people with direct connections to our MC. And there might’ve been more.” Levi stood up. “So we’re gonna ride on the Cobras, show them that we’re not gonna take them coming after our people or our turf. I’m guessing they’re gonna count on us coming in half-cocked, but I’ve got a plan. We’re waiting two hours. Long enough for them to think that we’re not coming. Label us as pussies. Get themselves thinking they’re invincible. Won’t be long enough for them to do anything else, though. It’ll be that sweet spot of time where their guard’ll be down, but before they’ll have another target.”

“Smart,” I said quietly.

Tucker nodded his agreement.

“Anyone got any problems with how we’re doing things?” Levi asked.

“As long as I get to cut the heads off some Cobras, I’m good,” Sweeper said, his usually laid-back expression one of pure violence.

“All right,” Levi said. “Be ready to roll out in two hours. Sober up if you need to. Get your bikes and weapons ready.”

As church ended, Levi came over to where Tucker and I waited.

“Good plan,” I said.

“Thanks.” He glanced toward the front door. “Jenna okay?”

“She threatened to kick our asses if we don’t make things right with Evie,” Tucker said.

Levi shook his head. “Evie should’ve listened when we told her to stay here. Not sure what else there is to say.”

“Maybe we should ask her if she has something to say,” Tucker suggested.

Levi barked a laugh. “You two know Evie as well as I do. What are the chances she doesn’t have something to say?”

I chuckled at that because he was right, but it didn’t change what I needed to say. “Still, if we’re gonna be heading out into something dangerous, we should probably make sure we’re doing it with our heads clear.”

“We’re not telling her what we’re doing.” Levi’s tone was the one he used when he was being the president and not our brother. “That’s club business and none of hers.”

I wanted to ask if he was keeping the other old ladies in the dark, but I already knew the answer. The club rule was that most club business was off-limits to sluts, but not to old ladies or prospects. Only the sort of shit that was absolutely need-to-know, the stuff we didn’t even tell prospects, was kept from the old ladies. And even then it was usually only the ones whose men weren’t directly involved.

And while we’d talked about sharing Evie, none of us had brought up what exactly that meant within the MC. We’d never label her as one of the club sluts, there for anyone to proposition, but that didn’t mean we’d publicly claimed her as ours either, and that meant she wasn’t our old lady.

Hell, I didn’t even know if three of us could claim the same woman. Yeah, we weren’t the only ones in the MC who’d shared a woman, but it’d only ever been for sex. We were in new territory for anything else.

“Fine,” I said. “But we still need to deal with this shit between us. If we’ve got that hanging over us, we’re not gonna be totally focused on what we’re doing, and that’s dangerous.”

Levi sighed. “You’re right.”

Feeling relieved that I wasn’t going to have to fight him more on this, I followed my brothers to Levi’s room. It wasn’t until he paused to unlock the door and grab her purse from where it’d been sitting next to the door that I realized he’d locked her in.

Damn.

We were lucky if she didn’t take our heads off as soon as we stepped inside.

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