Page 49 of Devil's Vengeance

“He will if I call twice. It’s our signal. I only do it if there’s an emergency. Stopping him from killing my friend freaking counts as an emergency.”

She dialed again, leading me into a room with a double door entrance at the end of the hall. I wasn’t sure why at first, until she dragged me past her and swung around, slamming the door right in Bear’s face. I hadn’t even noticed him following us.

“You’re not allowed in here, Bear. Fuck off!”

“Riley, come on. He’s busy, and–”

She ignored him, putting the phone on speaker so he could hear the ringing. It was obvious he wanted to stop her, but he wasn’t willing to enter the room to do it. Bringing me up here made more sense. She knew they wouldn’t be able to come in here to do anything about it.

The phone clicked as Croy answered with a terse, “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong is you’re threatening my friend’s life. Where is he, Croy? If you hurt him–”

“How the fuck do you know about that?”

Riley ignored his question, thankfully. I got the feeling Croy already hated me. I didn't want to make things worse. Saving Chase’s life by putting myself on the shit list of the actual devil seemed counterproductive.

“Is he alive?”

“That’s club business. Who the fuck told you?”

“That’s my business,” she snapped back. “Did you think you could just sneak around behind my back and I wouldn’t notice? He’s my friend, Croy!”

“He brought trouble to our crew for a personal grudge. He put you and my entire crew at risk for his own shit. Whatever happens to him, he fucking asked for it,” Croy growled.

They went back and forth for a while. Riley refused to back down. Lacey was right that she was the right person to go to. She wasn’t afraid in the slightest to argue with Croy. And he cared enough about her that he didn’t ignore her and hang up like I expected. I thought the phone call would be a long shot. It would at least let him know she was unhappy about it before he made any decisions. But he was actually listening to her. Arguing against every point she made, but he still listened. I’d be impressed if the man didn’t hold Chase’s life in his hands.

“Enough! I’m done arguin’ about this, baby. This is club business. I’ll be home later.”

“If you go through with this, I’ll never forgive you.”

Riley’s voice was low and deadly serious. It wasn’t a stupid threat in the heat of an argument. She was one hundred percent serious. I held my breath, silently praying that he loved her enough to take her words seriously.

The line went quiet. For a moment, we both thought he hung up, andRiley tapped on her screen to see if they were still connected. When he spoke again, Croy’s voice was almost deadly.

“We’re taking it to a vote. He made his bed. If the crew decides he dies, he’s gonna lie in it. End of discussion.”

That time, he did hang up. Riley growled in frustration, drawing her hand back like she was going to chuck her phone at the wall. I stopped her before she could.

“Don’t. Maybe he’ll call back.”

She shook her head, letting her hand drop down to her side. “No, he won’t. Croy doesn’t ever change his mind.”

My heart sank. “So… What now?”

“Now… we wait.”

CHAPTER 30

CHASE

I couldn’t hear the deliberations of the officers. Church and Croy’s office were soundproof. Honestly, I didn’t want to know. I accepted what was coming. I didn't want to get my hopes up about someone standing up for me. I fucked up. I’d face the consequences. As long as Nevada kept his word, I’d take whatever they had to give me.

A part of me wanted to call Mariah, to hear her voice one last time. But that was selfish. I wasn’t going to drag this out for her. I had done enough damage. I’d be lucky if she ever had a normal life after all this. All because I was too much of a coward to tell my crew that Trick had come looking for me before I even had a chance to go after him.

I sat outside church, ignoring the looks I got from my crew. They didn’t know the full story. All they knew was that I screwed up and put my crew at risk. That was all they needed to know. They gave me dirty looks, glared at me, and just overall wrote me off before I could even explain myself. Whatever. It didn’t matter. I was the idiot who didn’t handle my Trick problem when we were kids. He’d always fought dirty. I thought having a crew to back me would make it harder for him to get the jump on me. To have the same backing he had when I came for him. I shouldn’t have waited. He was even cockier now. Willing to start a war just to get back at me.

“I know that look.”

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