Page 57 of Banshee
“We aren’t sure, but he fell off his horse. We don’t know if it’s related. But King wants you both back at the clubhouse.”
“Of course, it’s related. He knows I’m here.” He was coming for me. I had to leave. There were innocent lives at theclubhouse. Women and children who didn’t deserve to have their families targeted because of me.
“Baby girl, calm down. If he’d known you were here, he would have come after you, not Grayson.”
“That isn’t how Skinner works. He doesn’t go after his enemies directly. He plays with them. He thinks he’s a mastermind. But really, he’s just a psychopath who gets off on hurting innocent people.”
Banshee grabbed my arms and held me still in front of him. “You aren’t fucking running. Promise me.”
I stared into his eyes. The eyes of the man who loved me, who wanted to protect me. A man I loved more than myself. And I lied.
“I promise.”
Chapter Nineteen
Banshee
The ride to Pine Bluffs gave me just enough time to think about Aspen and worry that I wasn’t there to watch over her. She’d been on the verge of running since the moment we moved back to the clubhouse.
It started when I moved her into my room. There was no way in hell I was going back to sleeping alone. She’d fought me on it for days, until I pointed out that not one single person cared where she slept.
Then it became more about her fucking husband and the shit the Death Dogs were doing. Aside from the prospect we lost, Indigo Cambridge, one of Gunner’s employees at the tattoo shop had been attacked by Skinner’s nephew Sting. Then he tried to abduct her twice.
The second time was his mistake. He’d done it in public, and she’d knocked him out. The girl had secrets. Secrets that probably matched Mimic’s. It made sense that he was drawn to her.
With every attack against us, Aspen took the blame. She couldn’t seem to understand that she was the only one blaming herself. The club now knew who she was and who her husband was. Not one person believed any of this shit was because of her.
So here we were, at a tiny little diner in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, meeting with Skinner to attempt a truce. None of us believed it would work, but like King said, he had to try. Whenthe Federation asked, he could say he’d done everything in his power to stop the war before it started.
Winchester had left us to set himself up where he had a clear view of the diner in case things went bad. He’d take out as many as he could from his vantage point.
King was a cocky motherfucker, bringing all of his officers to the meet. Normally, half would stay at the clubhouse in the event of an ambush. But Skinner was bringing his officers as well. They were the targets. If he took out ours, we’d take out his as well. At the very least, maybe whoever took over from him would be smarter than he was.
“I don’t want no trouble here.”
The man who spoke was in his fifties. Not much older than me, but his potbelly told me he ate a little too much of his own cooking. His arms were covered with tattoos, and his grizzled face told me he’d seen a few things in his life.
“Not here for trouble, but we are meeting another club. How much to close for the day?” King asked.
“Ten thousand.”
“Colt, pay the man. Sir, I suggest you send your staff home. We can lock up when we leave. If anything were to get damaged during our meet, we’ll cover it. We aren’t here to make your life harder, just hoping to make ours a little easier.”
“If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to call the sheriff and put him on alert,” the man rebutted.
King looked around at us, then back to the old man. He nodded, adding, “As long as the sheriff understands we won’t start any shit, but we will defend ourselves if we have to.”
“Sheriff McCoy is a reasonable man. My name’s Mel.” He held his hand out to King, who took it without hesitation.
Mel cleared out the diner and called the sheriff, allowing King to speak with him for a few minutes. King agreed to let hisdeputies surround the diner, where they couldn’t be seen, but he kept his mouth shut about Winchester.
We picked at the food Mel made for us as we waited for Skinner to show. The tension in the room was thicker than the milkshakes I’d seen on the menu.
The rumble of the bikes shook the windows, and we knew Skinner hadn’t abided by the rules set in place. He’d been told to bring only six men besides his officers. But when the door swung open and Skinner strutted in, he was followed by his VP and twenty of his men.
“You forget how to count?” King asked.
Skinner looked at his men before giving King a leering smile. “You said six men besides my officers. That’s what I brought.” He walked forward, stopping at the table and sitting in the chair across from King. “You see, when you have as many men as I have, you need a few more enforcers to keep the peace.”
