Page 9 of Grave Games

“She let me drive her home.” Jesus, that sounded lame, but when it came to cracking a hard case like Shiloh, that was practically on the level of copping a feel and not getting slapped for it. “I finally got that particular door open, so now we’ll see if I can work that stepping-stone to… the actual target.”

Predictably, Ash’s shaggy head snapped up. “What target?”

“She did mention he lived a life that wasbeyond her reach, whatever the hell that means,” I went on, ignoring Ash. “Doesn’t sound like they’re close, but I’m still convinced this angle’s going to bear some kind of fruit we can use.” And after that, I’d be free to do with Shiloh McKeen whatever the hell I imagined.

And I’d imagined so, so much as I’d watched her every move over this past month.

“We know the waitress’s relative didn’t come into the life the normal way.” Tyr was frowning, looking into the middle distance while rocking back in his chair. At the mere mention of Shiloh, it took all my concentration to focus on Tyr, and not on how Shiloh’s long, toffee-colored hair would look wrapped around my hands, pulling on it like reins while I plowed her from behind… “My uncle Hades wanted that boy in the club bad, and he pulled a lot of shit to get that guy to wear our former club’s patch. The kid’s never been happy, though, so if we can get close enough to offer him an off-ramp without Hades seeing it coming…” Tyr cut off abruptly before sending us a hard glare. “If you’re done pissing and moaning about a busted-up nose, Ashtray, get yourself home and into bed. And do yourself a favor—keep this whole waitress beatdown to yourself, yeah? Make up some shit about being in one of your legendary brawls if you have to, I don’t care. The one thing I don’t want you to do is admit some skinny waitress from nowhere fucked you up. You wouldn’t survive a day if anyone knew the truth, and I sure as hell don’t want it getting out that my guys’re so weak, some baby chick’s elbow did one of them in.”

“He deserves that broken nose,” I offered once Ashtray had grunted his agreement and shuffled out the door with his proverbial tail between his legs. I moved to swing the door shut to make sure we had total privacy. “I told him to scare the shit out of her but otherwise keep his hands to himself, but did he listen? Hell, no. He fucking full-on tackled that poor woman when she rabbited.”

“That’s because Ash doesn’t think things through. You do, or so I thought. Then tonight happened, and here we are.” With a short sigh Tyr pushed to his feet, and suddenly the room seemed to shrink. It wasn’t just the mere size of the president of the Gravediggers that did it; the badass, over-the-top menace that was Tyr Colgrave was enough to suck the air right out of the room. Lucky for me I was just as much of a badass, so I didn’t mind a bit when he came around the desk, crossed his arms and scowled at me. “You know who you are, right?”

This didn’t sound good. “I do.”

“You’re one quarter of the Original Four,” Tyr went on as if I hadn’t said anything. “You, me, Slash, and Ajax. So many others from Hades’s crew have joined us over the past five years, but the four of us were the first to go. The first to start this new chapter. We did it because we went through hell in Uncle H’s club, and we barely came out of it alive. We made our own way, because our vision of what the Gravediggers MC should be was nothing like the freakshow Hades had turned our mother club into.”

“I know, Tyr. Striking out on our own was the best decision we ever made.”

“It was the only decision, because good ol’ Uncle H was letting all of us die off in his senseless wars. He made it obvious from the start he didn’t give a damn about any of us.”

“I remember.”

“Do you remember that when we first hatched this plan with the waitress, I specifically told you we needed to keep it on the downlow?”

Here it comes. “I do.”

“Yet you brought Ashtray in on this mission.”

“Yeah, I did. It was necessary.” I kept my gaze level, because no matter how pissed off Tyr might be, I knew in my bones bringing Ash in had been the right call. Shiloh was open to me now. I had a chance with her. On several levels, that was the only thing that mattered. “I told him nothing, Tyr, other than the fact that this was club business that needed to get done. He doesn’t know the name Shiloh. He doesn’t know that her brother is Chef McKeen, or that we’re trying to go through her to get to Chef. And for what it’s worth, I doubt Ash even had Hades on his radar until you said his name just now.”

“Is that a dig?” For a moment a terrible rage lit in Tyr’s eyes. “Answer, asshole. Was that a dig at me and the way I’m running this op?”

“Jesus-fucking-Christ, Tyr, if I ever decide to take a dig at you, you won’t have to ask. You need to remember two things—one, I love tangling assholes with anyone who steps out of line, and I’m not doing that with you. And two, I’m on your goddamn side.”

“I’m the only one on my side, trying to keep this club from going belly-up. That’s about as far as my trust goes.” Then he looked away with an angry huff before turning to perch on the edge of the desk, signaling that the threat had passed. “Which fucking sucks, because you became my brother from that first time we raced and you somehow cheated and beat me—”

“I totally beat your ass fair and square, slowpoke.”

“The point is, Romeo, I should be able to trust my own damn brothers, especially one of the Original Four.”

I allowed myself to relax a fraction. “Yeah, you should.”

“And if that was a dig, I fucking deserved it. I’m just used to talking about club business in front of all my brothers without worry or fear that it might reach my uncle’s ears. I hate that I’ve got to keep so much of this shit locked down now, even from the people I’m supposed to trust the most.”

“The info you received… about how there’s a spy in our midst,” I said, scowling as the words left a bitter taste in my mouth. “Are you sure it’s solid? I mean, this club is tight, Tyr. I’d swear on a stack of bibles that every last one of our brothers would die before betraying this club. Thisfamily. Maybe your source misled you—”

“It was my brother Loki,” Tyr said grimly, and it was enough to send a chill through me. “Remember the raid we did on those idiots who took Loki’s woman a couple months back?”

Like I could forget busting up a warehouse full of small-time wiseguys. “Yeah.”

“While she was there, her captors made it clear they were working with Hades. They knew all about her, her family, how deep she and Loki were.Everything.”

“Fuck.” I clenched my teeth as I absorbed the enormity of that gut punch. “Jesus…fuck.”

“I see you’re getting the picture, my brother, but let me spell out to you exactly what’s going through my mind. No one knew Loki and Alice had hooked up, or that we had scooped up Alice’s foster brother for safekeeping. No one knew, except for our brothers in this club. Yet somehow Hades knew all about it, so he tried to thin out our numbers by pitting our chapter against those dime-store hoods who took Loki’s woman. But the war Hades wanted to ignite didn’t happen. Instead of crippling us, we walked away stronger than ever because taking out a mob boss gives you the kind of street cred that rings out across the whole damn region. We’ve got more prospects coming in than we can handle, showing up with ambitions of wearing our patch. Not the Chicago Gravediggers patch.Ours.”

“So that’s why you’ve been turning away so many of our recent prospects and hang-arounds.” I shook my head, because all this made a hell of a lot more sense than it did an hour ago. “With Hades trying to get through our defenses, I can see why you’ve been so selective with our new recruits.”

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