Page 85 of Cruel Savior

JD seemed to momentarily come into the moment and got one look at what Mandy was wearing and stopped in his tracks, forcing Mandy to stop too.

"Were you sleeping?" He was used to me and my insane sleep schedule. For as long as I could remember I never slept for more than a few hours at a time and I was always available for JD night or day.

"Yeah," she admitted. "But we can sleep later. I want to hear about Bear and Sasha. I've been thinking about them a lot and meaning to get to the hospital to visit them."

"Bear would probably like that. You really seemed to impress him the day of the race. Sasha though—" His face darkened, and I could see whatever was troubling him the most centered around her. I'd known this day would come. Not that she would be almost killed, but that he would eventually realize she meant something to him and that it would throw him into chaos. I only wish the circumstances were better so I could enjoy it more.

"Is she not doing well?"

"She won't allow me in her room. But I have a doctor on payroll who keeps me apprised of her condition. I'm not sure if he's telling me the whole story or not though. He says she should pull through, but that her injuries are extensive. That if she makes it then she has months of healing and skin grafts or something ahead of her."

That pit in my stomach that appeared anytime I thought of finding her in that building, her clothing already on fire, grew about ten times at the news. "I should have gotten there soo—"

"No!" JD roared. "That is not why I came here. You are at no fault." He turned to Amanda too, where her face looked a little ashen as well. "Or you! Listen up, because I do not want to repeat myself. The only fucker or fuckers responsible are either dead or sneaking around this club pretending to be loyal. Neither of you is to blame." He turned back to me. "You saved her life. By all rights, she should have ended up in the morgue right alongside the governor's aide, and would have, if not for you. Got it?"

I nodded and Mandy followed suit. Although I sure as fuck didn't feel like some kind of savior. I should have spent a little more time investigating this bullshit instead of worrying about whether Mandy could be trusted.

"Wait?" My brain finally seemed to catch up with all of his words. "You still think we have a traitor in our midst?"

Anger flashed in his eyes a second before they narrowed. "It sure as fuck seems like it. Tel is adamant that no one outside the club could have gotten through his security to plant those goddamned explosives. And while I'm not naive and I know nothing is fool-proof in this world, I've got a bad feeling in my gut that won't go away. I'm missing something important and I intend to figure out what or who it is."

The idea of investigating my own club brothers made my stomach twist. Loyalty is everything here and each one of us knew that. A traitor? Fuck, my blood was already boiling just thinking it might be possible.

"How are you going to figure out who it is?" Mandy asked. I looked over at her and could already see the gears of her beautiful, complex mind working on the problem.

"That's why I came here. I want you to work with Tel to figure it out. Just the four of us will know what's going on behind the scenes until we figure this shit out."

"Uhm—"

He shook his head. "I know you aren't about to tell me you already have a job. You have skills I need for this, and I pay a hell of a lot better than a cleaning company can."

She looked up at me and I could see the excitement in her eyes. She wanted the job. Her entire body practically vibrated with it as she fidgeted moving, from foot to foot from thinking about it. Part of me wanted to say no. She was pregnant and the last place she needed to be was in danger. I also knew that I couldn't tell her what to do. That would be a sure fire way to not only get my ass kicked, but for her to tell me to fuck off.

"I was going to say I'd committed to cleaning cabins. But it's not the job I care about. It's the fact that Mike went out of his way to get me the job and a place to live. His mom took me in no questions asked and I know how hard it's been for her to keep employees."

"Mike? Who the hell is Mike?" I asked, my eyes narrowing that I'd heard nothing about this Mike before now.

"Firefighter Mike. Remember from the night of the explosion? He found out I was in the hospital and he visited me."

"Well, Mike can fu—" I stopped short at the head signal JD gave me that was his way of saying, shut the hell up. When Mandy's hands hit her hips I knew I'd been about to go too far. "We can talk about it later.”

My jaw clenched, but I let it go.

JD shook his head. “Give her whatever notice makes you feel okay with it, I don’t care. This isn’t a situation we are likely to resolve in a couple of days. If someone is fucking us over they have been hiding it well. The job isn’t going to be a cake walk.”

Mandy raised her brow and I barely bit back my bark of laughter. Prez knew just the words to light her fire. He was playing her like a damned musical instrument.

She looked over at me and I nodded. She would have my full support in whatever choice she made. At least if she worked on the compound, I could make sure she took care of herself and her and Tel slaving behind a computer screen would not be as physically taxing as her scrubbing toilets and her traipsing up and down the mountains. I’d assign a prospect to her after Tel and I dug through their backgrounds again. No prospect had access to compound security and wouldn’t likely be our traitor, but with her, I couldn’t be too careful.

“I’m going to need at least three weeks.”

“Done. Come to the clubhouse tomorrow for lunch. We’ll go over the details. Then, if you and Tel want to work on anything in your off time, you can.”

“That sounds great,” she said, her smile growing wide.

“You probably shouldn’t be putting in too many hours,” I started before she cut me a sharp look. I raised my hands in surrender, taking a step back.

“Is there something going on I should know about?” JD seemed confused as he looked between the two of us.

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