Page 38 of Fire for Effect

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she looked at me askance, silently asking if there was something strange about her name.

The hair on the back of my head prickled. What had Matthews said about not knowing who she really was? He had said her name. Her full legal name.

“The things we’ll do to Trinity Blaze Guerro…”

I stepped in front of her, pulling her behind me.

“The fuck is it to you, buddy?” I asked, puffing out my chest.

Was he one of them? One of the fuckers that wanted to harm her? Did she just give him the confirmation he needed? Over my dead body. I’d happily take another dozen bullets.

“Griff…” Her hand went to my shoulder, trying to pull me away, but I shrugged her off.

I was ready to fucking fight. Hell, I wanted a fight, just to release the energy in my body. Just so I could feel like I was doing something to protect the woman that I was sure I had put in danger, somehow.

I should never have put her on the paperwork. I had wanted her there for my own sake, because I knew my mom. She’d make it seem like Kristin was my widow if it got my Dad some California electoral votes for his Presidential bid. But I wanted to be clear about who would get everything, and it was the woman standing beside me. Was it a point to make to my parents? Sure.

But it was also because I knew Taz would do something good with everything I left behind. My condo, my money, my truck… all of it.

Maybe she wasn’t my wife but she was the person who had my back. We had been in combat together. That meant something.

“Come on, brother,” I said the last word satirically. “What’s her name mean to you?”

Are you one of Matthews’ guys? Are you one of the people sent to get her? Just give me a sign, buddy. I’d beat you to within an inch of your life, string you up, and keep you alive, just for the pleasure of breaking you again, mother fucker.

“I thought it was an interesting name,” Cobra said, narrowing his eyes, hunching his shoulders forward as he regarded me. I wanted to puff my chest out, and he wanted to lean in. We were approaching our confrontation like two different animals. “Biblical, ya know? The Holy Trinity.”

“Jesus, dude, you into astrology too? Wanna tell her the numerology of her name and figure out what her fire sign is?” What was he? A spiritual biker?

Cobra coolly lifted a single, thick brow. “Guerro comes from the French word, Guerre, meaning war.”

The man’s eyes turned to Taz, assessing her from head to toe. It threw me off, because he didn’t look at her like she was a woman. No, there was something… paternal about his gaze.

“Together, Trinity Guerro means spiritual warrior.” He let out a soft laugh. “Maybe even someone who goes to war for the Holy Trinity.”

The fuck kind of biker was this? I gazed at the patch on his cut, the Prodigal Sons. Were they some kind of religious MC? A cult? I needed to have Sierra look into them.

I narrowed my eyes, pinning a hard stare on the fucking weirdo with a hard on for my Psycho. I didn’t care if she thought we were in the middle of a dick swinging contest. Not when I’d put her at risk with Cerberus, when this fucker could be linked to Matthews.

“What are you, some kind priest?” There were often religious elements when it came to extremist groups. Was this one of them?

“No, brother,” he said throwing my sarcasm back at me. “Just a philosopher.”

He pushed himself off the jukebox and gave Taz a small nod. My skin prickled again, and I stood my ground in front of her, as if his gaze was a bullet, and I was ready to catch it… again.

“See you around, warrior,” he said with a wink, walking past us and back to his biker buddies. “Should you ever want to find me, we’re bunked at the warehouse on Amsterdam and Church Street. I’ll usually be there.”

Was that a threat? I couldn’t fucking tell.

As if he could read my question, he turned around, pointed at Taz, and said, “We can even clock your bike on a nice open trail, if you like. You know, for science.”

Matthews was a bad guy. He had been so easy to read, he was practically made in two dimensions. But this guy? I couldn’t read the subtext, even though I knew there was more going beneath the surface. It was like trying to read the depths of a murky lake with the naked eye.

But just because I was paranoid, didn’t mean that people weren’t out to get her. I needed to make my point, just in case he was the guy. How long had the MC been here? Ellen said they had just arrived this week. It was too coincidental.

When his back turned to us, I called out, “If any of your guys come after her, I will rain down so much Hell that none of you will ever be the same.”

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