“Cruz?”
“Got her.”
“Sy, let me know when Striker gets here.”
“No problem.” The biker who answered took a seat on one of the bikes, looking like he was pissed about missing the confrontation brewing between the two bikers.
“He’s already shown up.” The man who had chased after her from inside of the bar glared at her with retribution in his eyes before his face filled with fear at the dark brown man who was unsettled by his answer.
“He showed early?”
Penni found herself handed back over to the stranger who had stopped her panicked flight. He carried her back inside the empty bar.
“Why’d he show?”
The twenty men who followed them in came to a stop at the sight of the body lying on the floor.
“DJ better be sleeping.” Hennessey’s growl had her attempted rapist paling.
“It was an accident …” Ricky stammered.
Penni wanted to place herself as far away from the body as she could. Unfortunately, the man in charge and his men blocked her escape route.
She didn’t flinch when Hennessey pulled out a gun from under his leather vest.
“Why is the only other black brother dead?”
“I caught DJ calling Striker, telling him to show up early. He was going to take the money and disappear before you and the brothers could get here. If I didn’t try to stop him, he would have taken off with our money.”
“He’s lying,” Penni found herself saying then found herself shoved into a chair. Cruz placed a heavy hand on her shoulder.
Ricky had taken a step toward her, but Hennessey blocked him before he could reach her.
“She’s lying.” Ricky’s raised his hand as if he were going to strike her.
“I’m not.” Penni glared back, lifting her chin, prepared to tell the truth, even if it meant taking a hit from the man glaring at her, promising retribution.
Hennessey caught Ricky’s arm in his grip, and Ricky’s expression became a mask of fear.
Penni’s bottom lip curled in contempt. The biker was making a fatal mistake by letting the men see his fear.
“He didn’t have a cell phone in his hand when he was stabbed in the back as I came in through the door. Ricky would have had time to call you if he wanted to,” Penni explained.
“She’s lying!” Ricky screamed as Hennessey aimed his gun.
A pool of blood appeared on his thigh.
“Dammit, listen to me.”
Another pool of blood appeared on his other leg.
Ricky fell to the floor with Hennessey standing over him.
“Dumbass, DJ would have never betrayed me. He knew the price for betraying me.” The gun was pointed at Ricky’s temple.
“Please, brother …”
“Don’t call me brother when DJ’s blood is smeared all over your boots.”
Penni covered her mouth with both hands when the shot rang out in the bar. Sadly, she didn’t feel any sympathy toward the dead man a few inches from her feet. He would have raped her and probably buried her where she would have never been found. Then the other bikers would have shown up to find their friend dead with no one able to prove the lies Ricky had told.
She stared mutely at the bald-headed president with his diamond earrings glinting at her, which seemed to mock her emotionless response to the killing that had taken place in front of her.
“Get that piece of shit out of here,” Hennessey ordered, not taking his eyes off her.
“What do you want me to do with DJ?” Cruz removed his hand from her shoulder.
“Call Stefan; he’ll take care of him for me.”
Penni pressed her back against the chair as the black president took a step toward her. Penni expected him to strike her; instead, he crouched in front of her.
“You better have been telling me the truth.”
“Why would I lie?”
“You tell me. Maybe you were trying to cause trouble between my men.”
“Maybe you should have figured this out before you killed him.”
“Maybe I should have, but he pissed me off.”
“Do your friends usually end up dead when you get pissed off?”
He shrugged. “Only one of them was considered a friend.”
Penni lowered her eyes to the pistol resting on his thigh. “I’m feeling like I need a friend myself right now.”
“You’re shit out of luck. You’re not black the way I like my women, and you’re definitely not a brother.”
“Maybe not, but I can keep my mouth closed, and I don’t care what deal you and your men have going down. I just need enough gas to get to the nearest gas station, and you never have to see me again.”
“Why would I trust you?” The man’s lip was set in a sinister sneer.
“Because I know how you can find Striker.”
3
Jackal hazily blinked at the light filling his bedroom.
“Turn off the fucking light,” he growled, searching for a pillow on his jumbled bed. Muttering to himself, he managed to find one jammed against Rita’s side. He drunkenly dragged it upward to relieve the headache hammering a hole through his brain.
“Ice wants you.”
Jackal could barely make out Stump’s serious features as he jerked away the pillow providing the only buffer from the daylight that was beginning to lighten the darkening sky outside his window.
“Dammit!” He managed to raise himself to sit on the side of the bed, shrugging off Rita’s clinging arms that twined around his waist as he tried to get to his feet.
Jackal reached down, tempted to break her fingers to make her release him from her greedy clasp.
“Come on, Jackal … You promised me that—”
Jackal leaned over to grab his jeans from the floor, swaying as he tried to slide his clothes up his legs. Maybe the extra bottle of whiskey he had made Rita get him had been a mistake.
“Hurry, Jackal; Ice is getting pissed.” Stump helped him get to his feet, handing him a T-shirt that was sitting on the bed.
Jackal wrenched away from him. “Tell him I’m coming.”
Stump nodded, giving him a warning that Ice wouldn’t be kept waiting much longer.
Jackal took only the time he needed to take a piss and wash his face before heading into the clubroom.
He came to a stop at the sight of the empty room. “I thought you said that Ice is waiting—”
“He is. He’s waiting for us at Penni’s house.” Stump didn’t give him the chance to ask any questions before he left out the door.
Stump had already started his bike and was driving out of the parking lot before Jackal started his. The last person he wanted to see this morning was Penni. It was Grace’s day off, so why would Ice or any of the other Predators be at her house?
As he made the turn onto Penni’s street, he saw the brothers already parked out front. Jackal brought his bike to a stop. She wasn’t going to be happy to see the men gathered around her yard.
As he slid off his bike, he realized Penni’s car wasn’t parked in her usual space. It was early on a Sunday morning, but Jackal saw the barely perceptible movement from more than one window of Penni’s nosy neighbors.
He walked up her path to the door that was already open. Ice had his back turned to him as he spoke into his phone.
“I’ll take care of it. I’ll call you back as soon as I find out something new. I promise,” Ice assured whomever he was speaking to. The Predators’ president didn’t make promises he didn’t intend to keep.
Jackal looked around Penni’s apartment as Ice finished his call. It was what he had imagined her home would look like. It was filled with flowers and the frills that always made him feel uncomfortable. Potted plants rested against the windowsill, and family photos had him sauntering closer to pick up one that caught his attention. His hand circled the picture frame containing the image of the woman who haunted his dreams.
“What’s up?” Jackal as
ked as he felt Ice move near him.
“Grace called me to check up on Penni to make sure she’s home. She’s worried about her. Seems that she ran out of gas last night, and Grace hasn’t heard from her since. She keeps trying to call her back, but it goes to voice mail.”
Anything that upset Grace made it Ice’s problem, not the club’s.
“And you woke me up because Grace is worried about Penni?”
“Yeah.”
Jackal slammed the photo down. “I’m out of here, brother.”
He tried to sidestep Ice, only to find his path blocked.
“You’re not worried? I thought you had a hard-on for this bitch?”
Jackal’s eyes and hands returned to the photo. Penni’s blue gaze stared at him from the picture. His soul tried to shrink from her scrutiny as if she were really there. Her blonde hair and direct gaze were the direct opposite of her brother Shade, who stood next to her. They were at someone’s wedding. Everyone in the picture seemed happy, especially Penni who was surrounded by several men.
Jackal knew most of them were The Last Riders. As the Predators’ enforcer, he had made sure to know the men Penni had come into contact with when Colton had asked for their help to find a childhood friend of Vida’s. Sawyer and Vida had discovered Lily, Shade’s wife, was their missing childhood friend whom they had assumed died when they were all little.
The Predators had been willing to help Colton, especially when they had realized King was Lily’s father. When one of the brothers had been sent to keep an eye on her and the Last Riders and then subsequently disappeared, Jackal had taken Penni as insurance until they could get him back.
The trip to Treepoint had been more aggravating than he could have dreamed possible. Penni had become a raving bitch, trying to escape despite his assurances that she would be turned over to Shade as soon as Eightball was released. She had nearly crashed his motorcycle twice, bit him hard enough on his back to leave a scar, and it had taken two weeks to heal from the scratches she had made sure hurt like hell. At one point, Jackal had nearly left her stranded at a rest area. Ice’s anger when he had called him to give him the location of the meet with The Last Riders had forced him to turn around to get her back.
Jackal had never met a woman who wasn’t afraid of him. When he had pulled into the meeting place, he almost hadn’t stopped. Only keeping his word to Ice had kept her safe as he’d forced himself to let her climb off his bike. She had spat at him before sedately walking away.
Jackal wasn’t sure why he had let Penni go. He was a hard-ass and didn’t care what any of the Predators thought of him. Fuck, that was why he was the enforcer. They preyed on the weak. They took what they wanted, when they wanted. The only reason the Predators were involved with Lily in the first play was because King had made it worth their time.
When Penni had walked away from him, his eyes had met with Shade’s. Her brother was as ice cold as his half-sister was volatile. Jackal had felt the chill coming from halfway across the parking lot. He was smart enough to recognize Shade for what he was—a killer. Jackal knew because he was one, as well.
The men gathered on the parking lot had vowed their loyalty to their respective clubs. With one glance, Jackal could tell the difference between the men facing off against each other. The Last Riders held a loyalty to the club that the Predators were missing. All The Last Riders had bonded together to protect Lily, while the Predators were monsters no one could control. They were willing to help King for a price, whereas Eightball had been returned at any price because no one took what belonged to the club.
Jackal stared down at the picture, wondering if Penni knew how dangerous Shade was, how dangerous he was.
“Not since she nearly killed me.” Jackal didn’t try to keep the irritation out of his voice.
Ice stopped him again. “I didn’t think there was a woman you couldn’t handle.”
Jackal studied Penni’s living room. Something was missing, but he couldn’t place his finger on what.
“Sometimes, the work isn’t worth the effort.” His hand went to his scarred cheek. “I learned a long time ago from Camy that you’re not going to steal a woman’s heart when she doesn’t have one.”
Camy had been his old lady. He had been nineteen and stupid, believing in forever. He had gone for lunch one day and found her fucking his father, who had stopped by to tell him he was out on parole. The two men had fought, and the cops had been called. When the cops had tried to stop the fight, his father had pulled a blade, cutting him from his brow to the corner of his bottom lip. He had been arrested, still trying to get away from the vicious attack.
“All the women like Penni.” Ice braced his legs apart as he leaned over to look out the window.
Jackal set the photo back down. Jackal was right; Penni had dozens of friends. Many were captured in the pictures placed around her living room. Her smile displayed evident humor as she grew older in her photos. The only thing missing from family and friends were boyfriends. None of the pictures seemed to show old love interests. Maybe he had been wrong. Maybe women didn’t want be reminded of old boyfriends.
When he had pressured Ice to find out whom Penni was dating, Grace would only tell him that she had seen several men, but she didn’t believe Penni was in an intimate relationship.
Jackal had been shocked. His jealously had fueled his imagination, picturing her with numerous one-night stands, some of them with the members of the Mouth2Mouth band she managed. According to Grace, though, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Penni would get all gung-ho about meeting particular men, looking forward to getting to know them, only to never see them again after the initial date.
“The women at the strip club all like her, too. Even her fucking neighbors like her. They think she’s sweet.”
Jackal snorted as he leaned next to Ice. “I bet they’ve already called the cops.” Jackal nodded his head toward where the neighbors could be seen as more of the Predators filed into the house.
None of the neighbors would think of confronting them. Hell, they’d probably have nightmares later. When Penni got home, she was going to be furious with Grace for letting the Predators inside her house.
Ice’s contemptuous gaze caught his. “I’ll get Colton to talk to them. Penni’s had him and Vida over to dinner a couple of times.”
Jackal made damn sure he stayed as far away as possible from the cops. The only ones he came into contact with were the ones he paid to turn a blind eye to the Predators’ activities.
Jackal heard Max and Stump enter the room from the flight of steps.
“She’s not upstairs.”
“No shit, Sherlock.”
Max clenched his jaw at Jackal’s sarcastic words. “Her car isn’t outside, and I didn’t see her car parked in front of her office.”
“How do you know she wasn’t parked at her office?”
Ice shook his head at Max when he took an angry step toward Jackal at his jeering comment.
Jackal shrugged, and Stump went up the stairs. He knew Stump was going to go through her things. Ice wouldn’t stop him. Despite his denials, he didn’t want the brothers snooping through Penni’s belongings.
He heard the sound of boots upstairs then the sound of opening and closing drawers. Then Max opened the refrigerator, helping himself to a beer and making himself at home.
Jackal couldn’t understand why the brothers were getting on his last nerve. He had once imagined he would be the only one to step foot into her house. He’d had it all planned out the night she had stood him up.
Jackal had planned to take her out to dinner and had even paid for a fancy bottle of wine that had been chilling, waiting for them to arrive. He had worn his best jeans, the ones he was now going to throw away, and even splurged on a haircut. The whole night had been one fuck up after another, all because Penni had decided to deceive him on a whim. Because of this, he shouldn’t care that the brothers were making themselves at home in her place.
Thank
God none of the brothers could hear the thoughts going through his mind. They would laugh their heads off to know he was still pissed off for being stood up.
Jackal moved away from the window, leaned on the back of the couch, and crossed his arms against his chest to keep himself from punching out at his aggravating friends.
“I’m going back to bed. You and Grace can deal with Penni. I don’t know why we would even give a rat’s ass about wherever she is.”
“Grace is out of town, visiting her parents. If she doesn’t show up soon, Grace will catch the next flight into Queen City.”
“What’s wrong with that? I’m surprised you’re not booking her flight for her. She’s visiting her parents a lot lately.”
Ice’s eye’s shifted away from him.
Jackal had assumed Ice’s marriage seemed to be going well; had he been mistaken?
Jackal knew better than to stick his nose into any of Ice’s business. After all, when Ice wasn’t with Grace, the club President became a man to fear. However, it was becoming more and more obvious something was going on with Grace.
“Grace’s mother is sick.”
That bombshell had all the brothers staring at Ice in shock.
Jackal straightened from the couch. “How bad is she?”
“Bad.”
Jackal didn’t know Oceane personally, only from the snide comments Ice said his mother-in-law constantly slipped in during conversations when she visited. To keep them from fighting, Grace would occasionally fly to visit her parents.
Jackal buried his hands in his pockets. He was going to have to help. Jackal considered himself a hard-ass, but he did have a soft spot that had gotten him in trouble a time or two.
“When’s the last time Grace heard from Penni? She sure she just didn’t forget to call?”
“She’s sure. Penni and Grace have grown close since they’ve been working together.”
Stump came down the steps with a mocking smile. Jackal nearly wasn’t able to stop himself from planting a fist on his smirking face.
“She sure Penni didn’t go see her brother or his friends this weekend?”
“Penni would have mentioned it to her. Why?”