But not right now.
I push off the wall. Walk into Church. Sit down. Do my job.
Saber lays it out. The diner owner told us what the Crimson Warriors said to him:“Keep your mouth shut about us being here. Don’t cooperate with the Kings.”
The diner owner talked anyway and told us everything. And the Crimson Warriors found out.
Nitro’s guys came through last night. Smashed the windows, destroyed the kitchen, spray-painted a message across the bar:YOU WERE WARNED.
The owner is in the hospital with cracked ribs and a broken jaw.
That’s personal. Shelby worked at that diner before she was Saber’s Old Lady. Nitro picked that target on purpose.
Then the prospect. Jinx has been prospecting for six months. He was running a route on the eastern edge of our territory and stumbled onto a Crimson Warriors gun shipment staged in an old cattle barn. Jinx called it in, but four Warriors found him before he could ride out.
They beat him bloody.
Even though it was four-on-one, Jinx still pulled a knife and stabbed one of the Warriors.
Jinx is in the infirmary now with cracked ribs and one eye swollen shut. He’ll live. The Warrior didn’t.
Saber’s phone buzzes while he’s giving us the rundown. He reads it out loud.
Nitro:A life for a life.
Nitro wants blood for his dead man. Saber isn’t giving it to him.
Joker wants to hit them tonight. Razor is mapping routes.
Saber shuts it down. “Nobody moves tonight. We sit tight, we protect what’s ours, and we figure out how to end this without starting a war.”
We take a vote, and Saber wins.
Church breaks.
The club is on the edge of war. But the only thing on my mind is that I have a son.
I find Shelby before I find Violet.
“I need an hour to talk to Violet,” I tell her. “Can you watch Leo?”
She doesn’t ask why. She nods and heads for my room.
I’m done with these fucking secrets.
CHAPTER 6
VIOLET
Leo is on the floor,running a toy truck along the baseboard and making engine noises. I’ve been sitting on the edge of the bed for twenty minutes, listening to the low rumble of activity in the clubhouse, waiting for Duke to come back from Church.
The door opens. Duke walks in with Shelby behind him. He doesn’t sit. He stands inside the door with his arms at his sides.
“We need to talk,” he says. “Shelby’s going to take Leo for a bit.”
Shelby crouches next to Leo. “Hey, buddy. Want to come color with me? I’ve got the dinosaur book in my room.”
Leo’s head whips up. “Dinosaurs?”