Page 12 of Taming Raptor

“What’s going on out there?” Venom asked as he grabbed his sunglasses from the table.

“No clue.”

“Hmm. Well, we better get on the road.”

We made our way through the dining room and out the door. When we got to the bikes the three men were talking quietly. I read Reaper’s lips when he spoke to Soap. He asked him, “Are you sure that’s what you want to do?”

Soap nodded and dropped his gaze to the asphalt. Snow and Reaper shot each other a look of resignation.

“Hey, Venom!” Snow called out. “Do you have a minute to talk to Soap?”

My president and I shot each other a glance before Venom nodded.

Soap approached and Venom rested his ass sideways on his bike. Arms crossed and shades on, he wasn’t the most approachable guy. He waited for Soap to get close.

“Venom. Raptor,” he greeted.

“What can I do for you, son?”

“I want to pay you to do a job,” he announced. Again, Venom and I shot a quick glance at each other.

“And that job is?” Venom prompted.

Soap took a deep breath and released it. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.

“The guys that shot our clubhouse up… I want to pay you to find them.”

My brows drew down as I frowned. “Dude, we’re gonna look into it. I promise,” I reassured.

“I need you to more than look into it. I know it’s a long shot, but I know you guys are damn good at what you do.” He paused and dug in his pocket. On alert, though I knew these guys and wasn’t completely worried about them going psycho on us, I tilted my head a bit and watched each move he made. “I need you to find out who shot these.”

He held out his hand and in the palm were several spent bullets. Only because I’d seen it before, I recognized the dried blood in the creased spots of the metal pieces. My gaze narrowed and I watched his every move closely.

“Okay, and if by chance we find them?” Venom prompted as he stared at Soap with a narrowed gaze.

“Then I want to be the one to take them out.” The hard set of Soap’s jaw matched his flint-like gaze. By then, I was pretty sure he had lost his mind.

“We don’t exactly work like that,” Venom cautiously replied.

“Venom… I need to,” he argued and the pain in his eyes was nearly palpable.

“This is personal to you—not so much your club,” Venom observed.

“They attacked my club.” He clenched his fists and lifted his chin defiantly. Soap was generally a pretty nice guy and a bit of a jokester, despite his looks. The fact that he was damn near as big as me and possibly rivaled me in tattoos probably scared little old ladies.

Venom cocked a brow.

Jaw set, he practically trembled, his muscles were so tense. “They killed my girl.”

Well, fuck.

Venom promised him we would consider his request and told him we would discuss it with our chapter.

“Bro, we can’t find whoever killed his girl and hand them over to him. He’s not equipped to deal with that. And I’m not just talking about the mess that could be made, and the dead body or bodies to dispose of, I’m talking about the psychological ramifications. He’s a big teddy-bear. The guy is one of the biggest jokesters I’ve ever met, well, next to Squirrel maybe. Okay, Blade’s a little funny, but he’s also a little nuts. Jesus, we’re all a little off our rockers. The difference between us and him is we know it and we’ve been living this life a helluva lot longer than he could even think about,” I rattled on as I paced and ran a hand though my hair.

“Raptor.”

“They aren’t a club like ours. I mean, yeah, I know they’ve done some shit, but there’s a difference between doing some shit and doing some shit.” I kept pacing. I liked Soap, but even I had to admit the guy was nothing like the Soap I remembered.

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