Page 67 of The Devil's Conflict

“Let’s get all of it upstairs and outside,” Bullet says with grim determination. “We’re going to make a statement.”

It’s another hour getting everything out, including the stacks of cash. Once it’s all outside, Bullet moves around the cabin until he comes back with a couple jugs of gas he found under the deck of the cabin. Then he dumps both on top of the pile.

When he’s finished, he looks at all of us. “We all know that they have eyes on us now and I’m making my stand. As much as I want to burn the fucking building to the ground, with the way they have it structured, it might burn down the forest and we can’t risk that kind of attention. So we’re going to make sure that they see all of this burn and lose out on any profits they would have made.”

“And if they come after us?” Stone asks curiously.

Bullet’s eyes go hard and cold as he stares back at us when he pulls out his lighter. “Then we’re going to meet them head on. I’m done playing. This? This put us all in danger. Put our women and our children in danger on top of what they’ve already been through. This would have had the women arrested, your children taken from you, and everything we built gone. And now, we’re going to get rid of them for good.”

He flicks open the lighter in his hand, sparks it, and tosses it on the pile. As we watch it burn, I feel the same determination inside me. We’ve been fighting this fight for too long, and we finally have the break we need. Now, there’s no stopping us.

TWENTY-EIGHT

THEA

Sniper is going to be a key player. I just have to hope it’s not going to send him back to being what they created.

The moment Sniper,Bullet, King, and Stone all walk back into the club, I know that they found something, and whatever it is, it’s not good. I want to go to him and ask, but I manage to hold myself back. Not only because I don’t want to leave the women, who are technically under my charge right now, but because doing so will advertise to everyone I know more than I should.

After the commotion when the other group got back, two of the Misfits hurt badly enough Medic is still seeing to them, stirring up anything else isn’t going to be a good way to top off the day. Instead, I wait until Sniper finishes a soft conversation with the others, before he turns and heads my way.

When he reaches me, he takes my hand, looks around and makes eye contact with Carson, who is behind the bar, and then pulls me away without a word. Guess I’m off duty. I don’t fighthim as he pulls me up the stairs toward his room, though I do note that he smells smoky. We pass a few open doors, and I see a few of the Misfits in them, a couple of them talking quietly. They just nod when we go past, but don’t stop their conversations, and I note the tension between them. I wonder what’s going on there.

Sniper pulls me to his room, unlocks the door, pulls me inside, and shuts the door behind him. Then he pulls me into him and presses his mouth to mine in a hard kiss that has me instantly melting into him, and gripping his shirt to keep myself grounded. His tongue slides over my lips before thrusting between them to sweep my mouth. I moan, my body heating with desire.

Is it always going to be like this? I hope so, because the chemistry between us is hot as hell.

He pulls away and presses his forehead to mine, slightly breathless as he stares into my eyes. “I should be pissed at you, but after what you figured out, I can’t be,” he tells me softly. “I’m damn grateful, because you figuring that out might have turned the tide for us.”

I give him a teasing smile. “That’s why you shouldn’t have only your men rule, because there are some of us without a dick that can be very helpful.”

He chuckles softly. “Oh, I know.” He gives me another quick, hard kiss, before he pulls away. “But that’s not the biker way, and it never will be. It’s for your own protection. If we’re ever hauled to court over something, they can’t make you testify because they know you won’t know anything. And even though you do now, the cops and lawyers will just assume you don’t and leave you be.”

“I get it, but it’s still silly,” I say with a shrug as he moves to sit on the bed and take off his boots. He moves up so he can press his back against the wall at the head of the bed, and then gestures for me to come forward. When I’m next to the bed, hepulls me down so that I’m between his legs, my back against his front, and his arms around me.

It’s such a couple thing, I can’t help but smile. Who knew another dream of mine would come true so quickly?

“Thank you,” he says softly.

I turn my head and look up at him in surprise and confusion. “You’re welcome,” I reply cautiously. “But why?”

“Because you figuring out that journal page gave us the information about Vlad using a decoy system to hide where his actual operation is based. And the one that you helped me figure out led us right to one of the cabins and it’s on our land.”

I turn more fully to look at him in shock. “What? How the hell are they managing that?” I demand.

He explains the location and how well they camouflaged it, and I have to admit it’s damn brilliant. Whoever thought this up knew what they were doing. “And you think the cabin is relatively new?” I ask curiously.

He nods. “It wasn’t there when we bought the property, because we definitely would have seen it when we were marking it. We’ve been here for a couple of years now, so that means Dagger and Dmitri, the one Vlad replaced, built it, and considering how much land we own, we never would have known. Cryos only put sensors on the few acres close to the clubhouse. We own about a hundred and fifty in total.”

“And they used that to their advantage,” I say, my mind already spinning with this new detail. “Namely, if things went south, it would be your club’s ass on the line, not the Russians.”

He nods. “If we wouldn’t draw too much attention to ourselves, we would burn the fucking thing down, just to make a statement, but it’s so hidden in the trees, there is no way we could do it and not burn the forest down with it. So Bullet had us bring everything outside and he burned the pile.”

“I wondered why you smelled like smoke. I suppose it’s better that you burned the evidence at least so you don’t have to worry about your prints and things being on it.”

He nods. “When this is all over, we’ll burn the whole thing down, but we’ll be careful about it.”

“So while you were burning your pile, the others were at another location and they didn’t have the same luck?” I ask curiously. He doesn’t answer for a moment. “I overheard Viper and Hulk talking. I don’t think they realized I was there. Something about a trip wire or something and stuff exploding.”

---