Ciaran

I didn’t make it out the door, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Doc, Mitch, and Patrick were trailing after me, ranting about how rash I was being, how utterly stupid. And maybe they were right, but I wasn’t in the mood to listen. Not in the least.

“Damnit, boss, you’re fucking injured!” This was Doc, and if I was being honest, he had the most reasonable argument for me staying put. But it was only a temporary one, and in the end I wasn’t as inclined to listen to reason as maybe I should have been.

Who cared if I was injured? Elle could be injured, could be scared or tied up or God knew what else. And that made more of an impact on me than anything else. “I’ll heal,” I retorted, not pausing as I made my way to the door.

But the other men, those who weren’t dead or too badly injured to stand, had noticed me on the warpath. They’d gotten up and now gathered around me, murmuring between each other to try to figure out what in the hell was going on. I reached for the door, but Danny, a big man with a softy, squishy inside, stood in my way. He folded his big arms across his chest and said, “I saw you go down, boss. You ain’t fit to be doing no fighting.”

I scowled at him in irritation. “The hell I’m not.” But the man didn’t move. I saw a bloody scrape across his forehead and wondered what had happened to him during the battle, but I didn’t have the time to ask just then. He was clearly okay enough to be blocking my way out of the safe house.

Before I did anything a little risky, like pick a fight with Danny, who I may or may not have been able to take, Patrick came up to me and put his hand on my arm. “Boss, you’re injured, like Doc says. But more than that, they’ve got twice our numbers. We don’t stand a chance against them.”

I shook him off, not interested in the slightest about things like numbers and my chances for success just then. Maybe I’d go down tonight, but I’d already decided that was something I was going to have to risk. I needed to get to Elle, and while I didn’t exactly want to die for her, I’d do it if I had to. It was my fault she was in this mess. And damnit, the woman had saved my life.

Both of which were good reasons, but they weren’t the only ones. They weren’t even the most convincing ones. The real reason I needed desperately to get out that door and save Elle was because I would never be able to forgive myself if anything happened to her.

It would hurt me in the worst kind of way.

I wasn’t ready to talk about the reasons behind that, not even with myself, but I couldn’t ignore the emotion stirring in my chest. It was more noticeable than the pain in my shoulder and it spurred my anger on to intensity.

“No one’s asking any of you assholes to go with me,” I bit out for the second time that night. “I know my odds and I’m rolling with them. Y’all want to get the hell out of here? Do it. I won’t stop you. Patrick’s as good a leader as any and he’ll keep you straight. But I’m doing this.”

Danny’s face contorted as he made a torn face. He was Patrick’s little brother—ironic considering the size difference—and wasn’t opposed to him leading, but he’d been a strong supporter in my corner since the beginning. He was loyal to me as long as I was boss, which was why I was trying to ease him into the possibility that change might be coming. And fast.

After a moment, Danny let his arms drop. “Why you interested in running off to face ’em anyway? Won’t solve anything that happened tonight.”

He was of course talking about the complete and total beating we’d taken. In that respect, there was no denying he was right. I couldn’t take down the whole of the Irish Hounds alone, but that wasn’t really what I was after anyway. Not that he or anyone else knew it. With a sigh, I realized I would have to explain.

“It’s not about evening the score,” I told him, and everyone in the room listening. My tone was even and my gaze was steady. “It’s about the fact that an innocent Goddamned woman was taken tonight and I’d promised her she’d be safe. My word is good. And even if it weren’t, I owe this woman. I owe her my life. If she hadn’t found me on that damn road that night, Shane wouldn’t have been telling lies. I would have been dead. She saved me. I owe her that much of a return on the favor.”

All of it was true. Every last word. And they were decent enough reasons. I even meant them. But the boys didn’t need to know about what was going on inside me, about how much she was really starting to mean to me. No one needed to understand that, especially when I wasn’t even sure I could keep her in the end.

But they needed to know this was important. They needed to know I wasn’t willing to write her off as a casualty. They needed to know I would fight anyone who stood in front of that fucking door and tried to stop me.

I saw Danny’s eyes flicker to his brother’s. A silent conversation seemed to go on between them before Patrick again spoke up. “Alright, boss, but there is a problem that even you can’t argue with.”

I narrowed my eyes at the older of the brothers. “What’s that?”

He shrugged, for once looking apologetic as opposed to like a desperate man trying to talk reason to a crazy one. “We haven’t the fucking foggiest about where they’ve got her.”

Those words sunk in and I realized that they were right. Where the hell was I going off to guns blazing? Sure, I could get the word out to Shane and set up a meeting and under normal circumstances I could even find him for the most part. But that was when we were on even footing. That was when our numbers were just about right to be fair game between the two of us. This was entirely different, especially if Shane didn’t want to be found. I didn’t know where the Irish Hounds called their home. Hell, since the move, I didn’t even know where he called home.

“Fuck,” I cursed, realizing this last reason was the only honest thing stopping me. If I couldn’t find them, I couldn’t save Elle. “We don’t have any leads?” I ran a hand through my hair, panic beginning to work its way through my system. I didn’t want the guys to see it, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep it under wraps for very long.

Patrick looked around the room as though gleaning information from each one of them after only a look. He was intuitive like that, and while maybe he didn’t know what everyone knew from that look, not exactly, he could guess which, if any, knew about Shane. And when his gaze returned to me, he gave a quick shake of his head. “Sorry, boss,” he said, and it sounded sincere.

I cursed again.

I started barking orders. Half the guys were ordered to continue the cleanup. This included getting rid of the bodies, moving them to another location, and making sure the evidence of the brawl was gone. I didn’t trust Shane to not call in his dirty cops to make sure we were tagged for this kind of violence and I wanted to make sure they didn’t have anything to pin on us. Who was left, I split in half again. One group was to head into town and see if they could spot the Irish Hounds. No leathers, no identifiers, and no motorcycles. I didn’t want the Hounds to know they were Skulls, and I made sure the boys knew if something went sour, they were to get the hell out of there. It was risky, but none of my guys made even a peep of a complaint.

With the remaining men, I ordered them to search what few Irish Hound bodies were lying around. I wanted to know if any of them had identifying information. Anything that might lead to a location. Hell, if they had cellphones, I wanted them.

After orders had been given, I finally sat heavily on a coffee table and let Doc patch me up proper. He ended up sewing me up—not my favorite thing in the fucking world, but it was a better shot at keeping the blood from flowing steadily and making me pass out. A bandage would have helped some, but on its own it wouldn’t have been sufficient if I wanted to go fighting. Which I did.

“Not that the stitches are going to make this go easy,” Doc muttered in irritation. He wasn’t happy about me insisting on going after Elle while injured, but he seemed resigned to the fact that I would. I was pretty sure he silently hoped we wouldn’t find anything to lead me to her.

I was beginning to think he was right in the end when I heard a cellphone ringing. I frowned when I realized it was one of the Irish Hounds. One of my guys hurried over, carrying it. He looked at me with wild eyes, so young that I wondered how he wasn’t in fucking shock over everything that had happened tonight. I made a mental snapshot of his face and promised myself I would do better at looking out for him after this.

I took the phone and looked at the caller ID. All it said was Boss. Taking a steadying breath, I motioned for everyone to be silent. They all froze as I answered the phone.

“Ciaran.” I sucked in a quick breath. It was Shane, and he clearly knew it was me. “Expecting me to be picking up your boy’s phones, were you?” I asked, grinding my teeth to stop myself from jumping the gun and demanding to know where Elle was. There was no guarantee that he knew how important she was to me, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to tip my hat about that yet. I wasn’t sure if that would make him more or less likely to kill her.

I heard him chuckle on the other end. “I was. After all, I do have something of yours that you want back. Something that I think is a lot more important to you than you’ve been letting on.”

Clenching my eyes shut tightly, I counted to ten, then released the breath I hadn’t realized that I’d been holding. It took everything I had not to scream at him through the phone and verbally tear him limb from limb. Fighting him over the phone wouldn’t get Elle back to me. I needed calm for this endeavor. “Where is she?” I ground out.

I could almost hear the sneering smile in his face as he answered me. “She is very pretty. I’m surprised she got caught up with an asshole like you. What sort of lies did you have to tell her to get into her pants?”

“It wasn’t like that,” I countered before I could stop myself. He wasn’t my brother anymore and I had to remember that while I was dealing with him. This wasn’t some family spat; this was war. “Where the fuck is she? Or are you too scared to face me?”

He let out another laugh, but it was forced. I could hear the underlying tension and the amount of hatred that oozed from him was unreal. It was palpable, even through the phone. “Scared? Correct me if I’m wrong, but my guys just kicked the shit out of your guys.”

I snorted, though he hadn’t said anything funny—or anything wrong. His guys had kicked the shit out of us. Numbers and an ambush would give you an edge. “Sure, your guys. Poor Shane. Always too little, too scared to fight his own battles. It was always about numbers with you. Maybe that was the real reason Pa never cared for you, eh?”

I could almost hear the grinding of his teeth at the insult. I knew that wasn’t the truth about Pa. Although Shane had been a conniving, sneaky son of a bitch, that hadn’t been what turned Pa off to him so much. It was that undercurrent of cruel that Pa had been able to sense in people. It had always been strong in Shane, and despite Ma’s best attempts, she hadn’t been able to soothe it out of him.

Thinking of her hurt, but I had to focus. Elle needed me to focus.

“I’ve never been afraid of you, Ciaran,” Shane snarled at me. “You’ve always been weak and that was why Pa picked you. You were weak just like him.”

I did my best to keep his words from stinging me. I wasn’t weak and Pa hadn’t been either, but you couldn’t make people like Shane understand that. All they understood was violence and their own inadequacies. I understood things like forgiveness and second chances.

For anyone but him. Shane had used up all his chances.

“You saying you’re afraid of a weak man?” I asked, teasing him, mocking him.

I heard the frustration in his voice as he said, “I’m not afraid. Never have been. I’ve been waiting for the chance to face you head on.”

I actually laughed at this, though it was humorless. “Oh, really? Is that why you snuck up on me in the cold when I came for a peace talk and aimed a tire iron at my skull? Yeah, you’re really eager for a fair fight, I can see.”

There was a long pause and for a second I panicked, thinking the line had gone dead. But then Shane spoke again, this time his tone cold and flat. “Meet me. If you want to save your girl, meet me at my house, other side of town.” He rattled off the address to me and I just barely got a pen to jot it down with before he finished. “If you don’t get here by midnight, I’m going to take it out on that pretty little girl of yours. Don’t be late, asshole. I don’t think she’s interested in playing the same games I am.”

He hung up before I could roar in fury, leaving it to boil inside of me. My whole body trembled with it. If he touched her, I would kill him. If he laid a single finger on her, I would rip him apart with my bare hands. She was an innocent in all of this, but more to the point, she was mine. He couldn’t have her, and I’d kill anyone who tried to take her.

I threw the phone at the wall, unable to hold it inside. I was breathing heavily and other than that sound, the room was silent. Everyone stood around me motionless, waiting for me to deliver orders whatever they might be.

It took me several minutes, but I managed to calm down enough to think. Not an easy task when thinking of all of the things Shane might do to Elle if I didn’t save her. And there was no guarantee that he was as good as his word and wouldn’t touch her before midnight.

Taking a deep, slow breath, I let it out and finally turned to my men. “I’ve got an address and a half-assed plan. I don’t expect any of you to follow me. I wouldn’t ask a soul to walk into the lion’s den like that, but I’m going. Those of you who don’t want to follow, walk out that door with Patrick. He’ll lead you to those greener pastures.” I shot him a quick look, not one that was condemning or even teasing, but rather one that was encouraging. I wouldn’t hold it against him or any of the others for leaving and at least with Patrick in the lead, I knew they’d be in good hands.

But Patrick smirked at me and shook his head. “Sorry, boys. If you want to ride off into the sunset, you’ll have to follow another cowboy. I’m going to follow Billy the Kid here into the wild, wild west.” He gestured to me, his eyes telling me just how serious he was.

A sense of camaraderie filled me. The knowledge that he would go against his own better judgment and follow me into danger told me just how loyal he was to me, how loyal he had always been. I gave him a quick nod of appreciation.

I turned back to the group, but before I got the chance to say anything more about them leaving, I had people step forward and speak up. They asked me what the plan was. They told me they were ready to go to war. They told me they were ready for some payback.

They told me that they weren’t afraid to die.

It reminded me these were men, not boys, and that they were warriors to boot. They weren’t afraid of a fight and they weren’t afraid to go down in a blaze of glory. I was proud to call them my men.

Even so, I knew our numbers were not great. Half the guys were still off cleaning up the mess. Several were also still scouting out locations. That’s going to be the first order of business.

“Danny, get on the phone. I want you getting ahold of every Lucky Skull who isn’t here,” I ordered, getting into military mode. I had a plan, but it wasn’t by any means a guarantee, and the more men we had, the better chances for success were. And we could use all the luck we could get. “Give them the address and the deadline. If they can make it, great, but we won’t count on them. No telling if they’re close enough to make it in time or not.”

Turning, I focused on Doc. “I want you to look everyone here over. If they’re good to go, great, but I don’t want to be worrying about taking care of dragging soldiers, got it?”

Doc looked annoyed and asked, “Does that include our fearless leader?”

A couple of guys snickered at that, and I smirked. “No,” I said plainly.

Doc rolled his eyes, but didn’t argue with me. He just muttered under his breath and shook his head, then began to quickly look people over. He might not have liked the idea of us running into a battle we probably couldn’t win, but he was loyal like the rest of them. We were going and he’d get us there as best he could.

“You got a plan, boss?” Danny asked, looking both worried and determined to see this through.

I nodded my head. It wasn’t a great plan, but I had one. I pulled the brothers aside. “We’re going to have to get a few things in the works here, and it means not all of us are going to be at the fight.”

The brothers shared a grim look, understanding that this wasn’t going to make the fight in our favor by any extent. “What do we need to do, boss?”

“I need you to go to the cops.”

The expression on both of their faces was identical and almost comical in their level of surprise. Not that I could blame them. I wasn’t exactly keen on inviting the cops to this kind of party either, but I knew we wouldn’t have enough men on our own to win against the Hounds. And maybe I could kill Shane, but there was no guarantee that cutting off the head of the snake would be enough to kill the whole damn horde of them. Which meant we needed numbers.

I didn’t exactly have the time for a recruitment drive to boost numbers, so I was going to have to play a little dirty.

I explained to the boys my plan. If we could get the police to raid the place and find some incriminating evidence against Shane and his men, then they’d have to arrest them. Get them off the streets. Our streets, to be specific. It might be enough to save the lives of my men.

“But doesn’t Shane have guys on the inside?” Danny asked, scratching his head like he was confused as to how I thought this plan was going to work.

Not that I could blame him. I knew the risks of this plan going sour. “Yeah, he does. Which is what we gotta tell the police, and why I need you two to go in person. I need you to pick out the right people and enough of them that if you catch a couple of the wrong ones there might still be a shot of doing this right.”

Patrick frowned, then shook his head. “How the hell are we going to do that? It could be anyone working for him.”

I nodded. I’d thought of that, too. Glancing at the phone I’d tossed at the wall, I realized there might be a way to get around that. “We need to find another phone belonging to a Hound.”

Danny frowned, not getting it, but a light sparked on in Patrick’s eyes. He’d caught on. “We’re going to call the police pretending we’re one of the Irish Hounds. We tell whoever is there that there’s been a shootout over here and we need ’em to cover it up. Make it look like the Lucky Skulls are responsible. Whoever shows up, we nail.”

I grinned and nodded. It wasn’t a foolproof plan, but I had hopes for its success. Maybe they would get a clean cop when they made the call, in which case they could just tell them what was going down at Shane’s place. But if they got a dirty cop, he’d believe them and come to cover the whole thing up, giving the boys a good chance to figure out a couple of the dirty cops, at least.

I sent the brothers off to find a phone off of one of the bodies, hoping I hadn’t just smashed the only one. I didn’t think so, but it would be just my luck. As they did so, I went to the others and gave them the second half of the plan. The part that would incriminate the Irish Hounds enough to get all of them thrown into the slammer with any luck.

I gave them the rundown, explaining how I needed all the bodies of the Lucky Skulls moved. That got some surprised looks, too, but no one questioned me. It would take time, and maybe we didn’t have enough, maybe this was all a lost cause, but it was all I had and I had to risk it.

Finally, when all the orders had been given and my men had scattered, I realized I was the last one who would be headed to the address Shane had given me. Maybe I would get lucky and my men were close enough to help me. Maybe my crazy plan would work smoothly and I’d have reinforcements.

But I wouldn’t hold my breath. No, I was going in there prepared for the very likely possibility that I was going to be facing Shane alone.

And I was ready for that.