Page 26 of Zeke

Goddamn it. It was stupid to go out alone, but I did it anyway. Now I have to face the consequences in Church, where I’m probably about to get reamed out for disobeying orders. Not a great look for the club VP, but I made my choices, and now I’d deal with them.

I trudge inside, grabbing a beer from the fridge on my way to the room we hold Church in. I crack it open and down half before I make it to the door, needing something to calm my nerves, since it certainly wasn’t going to be the sight of—

Zeke is already inside, sitting at Eden’s side. The chair on the other side, the VP chair, is for me, and I make my way there past everyone else. It seems like they were waiting on me. No wonder I got caught. No one else was out that I could have been riding with.

Eden stands in front of everyone, and I look up at her. I feel a clench in my gut. She looks completely exhausted. The last time she looked this tired was when Torque escaped and she had to figure that out while determining which of our connections were good.

I wonder why she’s so worn out this time. She gets right down to business, cutting off the thoughts.

“By this point,” she says, putting her hands on the table in front of her to lean on it. She’s more tired than she looks. “You know Justice and I had an incident of being followed by a truck this morning.” A murmur of assent goes through the room. “Well, thanks to Country and Pony, we have a little more to go on. Country, you want to share first?”

He stands and clears his throat. “Thanks, Prez. Uh, well, the truck was abandoned not too far from here. I called in a favor at the sheriff’s office and found out that the plates came back as being a rental. Whoever was following us earlier used a fake ID to rent it, which is why they had no problem leaving it on the side of the road. Not exactly good news, but it tells us this is someone who doesn’t want to be found. Not yet.”

Eden nods and Country sits down. She glances at Pony with a pointed look and a wave to indicate he should stand, and he does. He’s still young, still new, and his voice shakes a little as he talks.

“Well,” he says, “I did a little asking around, and there’s not a whole lot I could find. But there is a biker bar just out of town where a lot of nomad bikers hang out. A couple of them said they saw a guy, sort of older, with an eagle tattoo on his neck. He was asking about Savage and Julia.”

Julia, I notice at this point, isn’t here. She must be at the bakery, where I’d seen her working earlier. But Country is, and he stands up, furious.

“That’s it?” he demands.

Pony seems shaken at the response. “That was all I could—”

“Well, it’s not fucking enough!” Country shouts, slamming his fist on the table.

“Country,” Eden says in a warning voice. “He did what he was asked to, and we have more information now than we did before. Whoever this is, he wants something with Julia and Savage. Savage?” She turns to her ol’ man, who I expect to look unnerved at the very least, but he almost looks… bored.

“Doubt it’s anything to worry about,” he says. The way he seems distinctly unbothered sets me at ease. Especially once I see him exchange a look with Eden that means they’ll be talking about this when they’re alone.

I hate not being in on conversations like that. It’s my job as VP to know everything that’s going down and help the Prez deal with it. Not be in the dark while she makes secret plans with her man. If Savage knows whoever this person is, we should all have the information so we can be ready. Not sitting with thumbs up our asses while we wait for him to find us, especially with Julia working at the bakery.

There’s almost nothing left to say, and everyone seems to realize it. Everyone gets to their feet when Eden calls out, “One more thing.”

The room goes quiet again, with everyone sitting or standing perfectly still where they’d frozen in place.

“While Savage says it’s nothing to worry about, that doesn’t mean there’s not a threat. We’d be stupid to think everything that happened with Torque and Garrotte and Krickett was a one-off. Other people will come for us because they don’t like change.”

Fuck.

I know what’s coming next, especially when she looks directly at me, like she hadn’t done the exact same thing the day before. Like I was the loose cannon, which everyone knew wasn’t the case. I was the level-headed one, the one least likely to cause trouble.

Those things don’t matter when I’ve disobeyed a command.

She looks me dead in the eyes, leaving no doubt about the severity of what she is about to say. A second infraction won’t go unpunished.

“No. Riding. Alone. Period.”

Double fuck.

CHAPTERTHIRTEEN

Savage

Eden is pissed as hell at Eli for going off alone, and I can’t blame her. If Julia had done that, I probably would lock her up in the basement until we knew the threat had passed.

I’m just leaving Church when I catch sight of Country, and I make up my mind about something. He has a thing for Julia. I’ve seen the way he is around her, and I could pick way worse for my sister. Not that it’s my job to choose for her. She’d sooner shoot my dick off than give me—or anyone—control over her.

After what happened last month, with Julia getting taken by those fucking psychos, I’m not feeling inclined to take any chances.

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