Page 33 of Dragon Strife
“Can your brother really track us?” I lift a brow at her. “You seem confident.”
“My iPhone finder is on and sitting in the passenger seat of my car you grabbed me from in front of the bakery. They have three cameras and one of them points to the parking lot in front of the shop. You may have had your faces covered by bandanas and your cuts missing, but there’s no mistaking you’re bikers.” Her face suddenly falls when she sees the smile on mine widening with every word she speaks. “Why do you all of a sudden look as dangerous as your brother?”
“You confirmed something that solidifies my plans,” I tell her. “You have a tracking device on your phone. They’ll surely find us.”
“Oh!” She nods emphatically. “So all of this was a ploy to get my brother over here and kill you both? Nice. Very elaborate when you could’ve sucked the barrel of your own gun and blew your heads off that way.”
“I like you.” I grin as I shake my head, my chest rumbling with laughter.
A chuckle escapes her as she shakes her head with me and says, “I think the Charles gene is psychotic.”
“You have no idea.”
I step out of the back of the warehouse, now empty because my brothers have all moved back into the newly-renovated compound, and stare up at the sky. It’s fucking stifling hot today and it’s doing nothing to soothe the heat of shame that coats me. Hearing the little I did about Genni’s treatment at the hands of Hell’s March is nearly choking the fragile life I have left inside of me.
The sounds of a distant rumble have me stepping back to the door and my hand inching toward my piece tucked into the waistband of my pants. I don’t know what Laith has planned and if he’s prepared for Diego and his twin because he wouldn’t tell me everything. I get why, he feels like I’m not yet trustworthy, and I don’t blame him.
My hand wraps around the handle of my gun when one bike comes around the bend, the sun’s rays obscuring the rider, but I relax when I see it’s one of our new bikes. The same bikes Jaeger had commissioned when his vengeful stepsister blew ours up. He’s trying to be a good President, to lead us all with promises of riches and power, but I see his grief beneath it all.
The thought of Vic and Claire threatens to bowl me over as the bike pulls into the lot. I could close my eyes and the sound would transport me back to when Vic and Genni would pull up for our training sessions. Unfortunately, there’s no transforming the man sitting on the bike to the girl I can’t seem to forget.
“Chip!” I call out as he grins and hauls the helmet off his head. “Did you get out without anyone noticing?”
“Nah,” he calls back as he gets off the bike. “I just told them I was making a trip to refill the bar.” He begins to open the compartments at the back of the bike as he hauls grocery bags out of them. “Water, food, and surprisingly, Chino, no fucking alcohol.”
“Needed a clear head for this,” I grumble as he comes forward, his eyes narrowing in on my split lip.
“Did she do that?” He whistles and fights hard to hold in a chuckle. “Please tell me she’s hot.”
“Shut up, man,” I snap at him and grab some of the bags. “What’s happening at Diego’s house?”
“No one’s home,” Chip replies and follows me back inside. “No one came back and I can’t tell if Genni is even there.”
“They were all there earlier,” I surmise as I drop the bags onto the foldout table of the main room. “I don’t think Genni would go to the clubhouse.”
“Unless she’s a member,” Chip adds.
“From the way Diego’s sister was talking, they hurt her there. I don’t see her stepping onto that compound willingly.” I grab a bottle of water and down the contents in one go, missing the burn of liquor along my throat. The Genni I knew would curl up in her bed and hide under the covers.
“Maybe she’s blowing up their bikes,” he supplies. “She did it to us.”
“Yeah, maybe.” I doubt she’s blowing up anything, to be honest. I drop the bottle to the filthy floor. “It’s hard to get eyes on that compound without starting a fucking war.”
“Send over a few of the girls,” he suggests. “Carrie has been trying for months to get back into your good graces.”
I stew on what he’s saying as I look around the now empty warehouse, the sight reminding me more of when Genni and I were here training. Chip has a point. If I send over Carrie and Angel, they would be enough of a distraction and would give us eyes inside of the compound. I doubt Hell’s March would be able to trace them back to the Dragons.
“Can you bring these into that room?” I point out the small office to Chip. “Laith is in there with Delia. I need to head over to the strip club.”
“Delia?” he purrs, his lips tipping into a smile. “I like her already. Carrie and the girls are at the new clubhouse right now, helping the brothers celebrate.”
“Thanks for helping us, brother.” I clasp a hand to his shoulder as he begins to pull up his light-blond hair into a ponytail.
“I want what you and Laith want. Our club back to what it used to be. No more deception and lies.” He drops his hands to his waist as he stares at the door, a contemplative look on his face. “I also don’t want anyone else dying for it either.”
“I agree.” I turn and leave the warehouse, heading toward my brand-new bike sitting in the lot.
The ride back to the compound takes about half an hour and by the time I show up, the place is thumping with music. I’m hoping a party will amp up the morale because we’ve all been struggling these past few months. Jaeger is about to call war on the March and I need to make sure Genni is out of there when he does. I’m afraid of how badly he wants to get his hands on her and I can’t help but think it’s to silence what happened that night inside his home. In the meantime, it looks like he wants everyone to feel like we’re all back to the way we once were.
