Page 33 of Rogue

A few of them chuckle. Most of them don’t. Not a great sign.

“As you all know by now, Lotus is fine,” I say and wave to her. She’s sitting by the bar counter and blushes a deep red as half the room suddenly turns towards her.

“The men who attacked her are probably linked to the trafficking ring we attacked a week ago,” I add. “So, for now, I want everyone to travel in pairs, watch each other’s backs and be vigilant. I’ve also doubled the security on this place. You’re all safe here.”

“That’s your plan? We just sit tight? Like a bunch of damsels in distress?” Tito pipes up and laughs harshly.

Only some join him in laughing. Mostly the ones who haven’t been with us very long.

“Skye is busy tracking down the men who hurt her,” I say. “Once she does, we’ll have a good long talk with them.”

Skye shook her head when I mentioned her, the look in her big brown eyes plainly telling me that she got no further in the search than she was this morning.

“Talk?” Tito asks. “Why not just attack them?”

“We will respond if threatened, Tito,” I say. “Don’t worry about that.”

He’s making my blood simmer and I’d rather not lose it on him in front of everyone, but if he keeps coming at me, I might. His little family is real close to getting kicked out of the MC, but clearly they don’t know it yet.

“The way I see it, we already are threatened,” he says. “And I was led to believe Rogue Angels MC doesn’t back down until justice is served.”

And I was led to believe you didn’t belong to an MC that sold drugs to children in schoolyards, Tito.

But I don’t say that, even though there’s a special ring of hatred in my heart for people who do that. I lost good friends to addiction and prostitution because of scum like his old MC.

“Or does that only go for the justice you want done?” Tito adds, both Widow and Whip nodding along.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask. “When have I twisted what we do for my own ends?”

“When you sent us into a losing fight to pay a debt to the guys who told you where to find your girlfriend’s killer, that’s when,” Widow says her eyes glassy and milky. “But I don’t think you’d do the same for the guys who told me who murdered my old man.”

Whip and Tito nod along to her words.

“Devil’s Nightmare MC is a powerful ally,” I say. “Yes, they did me a personal favor, but that’s not the only favor we owe them.”

They also supplied us with valuable info on human traffickers over the years. I just wasn’t aware it was coming from them until recently.

“They’re a bunch of cold-blooded killers,” Widow snaps.

“Killers who will have our backs if this threat from Hydra gets any worse,” I say. “Not that we’ll need it.”

“What we need is a good hard look at the difference between personal problems and justice,” Whip says, echoing what I told them when they asked me to make war on the men who killed their brothers.

Alice gives me a warning look from across the room. I can read it all too well. She’s warning me not to take the bait and go down this rabbit hole in the conversation. She wants me to deflect and move on. But I’m about to disappoint her, because my blood’s reached boiling point.

I scan the room, trying to read what the others are thinking off their faces. Not that it matters.

“It’s true, the Devils told me where I can find Angel’s killer. Then Alice, Creed, Blade and I rode to take him out,” I say.

Alice scrunches up her face and shakes her head.

“We’re the only members who knew Angel personally and we’re the MC’s founding members,” I continue. “Angel was a founding member too. She’s as much part of this club as anyone is. I honored her in the name we wear and ten days ago, I honored her in taking revenge on the man who killed her. I didn’t involve the whole club because this was personal.”

I take a breath and scan the room again. They’re all with me, for the most part. I think. So is Angel. I can almost see her in the back of the room, nodding at me, her long blonde hair glowing a pale gold and her eyes still holding that same fire that could always consume me. I haven’t felt her this strongly since the night she said goodbye to me in the desert. But this isn’t her spirit now like it was then. This is my memory of her and she’sangry, because in this memory, I always disappoint her. Always fail to save her from her killer. Always fail to avenge her death.

I shake my head to dispel the vision.

“I would avenge each and every one of you in the same way. As I have done over the years, as many here will tell you,” I say, including the three chaos-makers in my gaze as I sweep it across the room again. Several of the others nod and mutter agreements.

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