Page 11 of Queen of Anarchy (Dirty Broken Savages 2)

I shouldn’t even care.

“Focus,” I snap, cutting through whatever the tension between River and Ash is. “It doesn’t matter who pissed this person off first. If they knew where Ivan’s body was, they probably know we were all involved.”

Like it or not, and I don’t fucking like it, we’re all in this together for the moment.

Priest sets his cup down and taps a finger on the table. “I don’t think the answer is in some old grudge. This is recent. Fresh.”

I nod. “Anyone who wanted to fuck with us before could have done it already. There have been plenty of bodies to choose from over the years, and no one could have known we were coming for Ivan.”

“You know who we have fucked over recently?” Ash asks. “The Diamond Devils.”

“Hey, they fucked with us first,” Knox shoots back.

“I’m not saying they didn’t deserve it. I’m saying they have motive. And it’s recent.”

River frowns, running a finger absently over a little chip in her nail polish. “How would they have found out about Ivan though?”

No one has an answer for that.

“It’s worth a shot, anyway,” Knox says. “We sent Reggie back to them pretty fucked up. And River helped me do that to him. They’re the only ones with any overlap with all of us.”

Everyone looks to me, waiting for my verdict, and I turn it over in my head for a moment. The Diamond Devils are a motorcycle gang, mostly involved in smuggling and petty shit. They wanted to smuggle guns through our club, but we didn’t go for their deal. We’re picky about who we do business with, and they didn’t fit the criteria. So wedohave a connection to them, a history with them—but it still doesn’t seem all that likely that they’re the ones who dredged up Ivan’s body.

At this point, though, we can’t really afford to ignore anything that might lead us to an answer. And it wouldn’t hurt to follow up with them anyway and make sure they got the message Knox delivered when he tortured their man.

“Yeah. We should pay them a little visit,” I say finally. “See if we can dig anything up.”

“I’m coming too.” River nods decisively, finishing her coffee and getting up from the table.

“No.” The word is out of my mouth before I even realize I said it, but it stands.

“Gage is right,” Priest says. “You should stay here.”

River shoots him a betrayed look and then looks to Ash for back up. Usually, he would be in her corner, wanting her to tag along with us like a puppy he wants to play with. He’s been into her from the moment we brought her into this house. From the moment the two of them got into a knock-down, drag-out fight on the stairs.

This time, he just snorts and looks away.

“I say let her come,” Knox says with a shrug. Because of course he does. He’s almost as bad as Ash is—orwas, anyway. She’s got him wrapped around her little finger somehow, and he wants her to come everywhere with us. He’s the one who went after her after she left our place and invited her to the gala with us.

I press my lips together and try to keep my face blank. I’m not as good at it as Priest, so I know I probably just look angry. It was a reflex to tell her no. To tell her to stay here. At least here, I know she’ll be safe. The Diamond Devils have never really seemed like a major threat, but if they really did have something to do with Ivan’s body turning up, then they might be.

Before, I didn’t want her tagging along because our business isn’t hers. Now, it’s all tangled up. I hate that, and I hate that my reason for telling her no is also out of some protective urge I can’t seem to control. Some impulse that makes me want to keep her safe and take care of her now that I’ve seen how broken and vulnerable she can be.

It’s why I demanded she come stay with us again, why I didn’t let up until she was back here. And that impulse is at war with the part of me that says she doesn’t belong here and is screaming warnings about letting her get too close.

But it’s too late now.

We’re in this together, whether any of us like it or not.

I know it’s probably pointless to try to stop her from coming with us. She’s already shown she can be just as stubborn as I am, and if I tell her no and try to enforce it, she’ll just follow us in her car or something and probably bring the damn dog along too.

“Fine,” I relent, biting the word out through clenched teeth. “Do what you want.”

She shoots me a look that clearly says ‘I always do,’ and I look away from her, getting up and dumping the rest of my coffee in the sink.

We pile into the car half an hour later, dressed and ready for a meeting with the Diamond Devils.

Their base is across the city, not all that far from Sin and Salvation. It’s a squat little clubhouse with bikes parked out front and a shady atmosphere that small-time gangs like this seem to give off in waves.

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