“What the fuck was that?” Bones growled at his son.

“I don’t know but whoever’s out there is a fucking dead man.” Deke swore. Looking around he noted most if not all his men had their guns in their hands. They were ready to defend their club. “Spread out and find that fucker. Don’t kill him unless you have to. I want to question him.” Then he looked over at Raine. “Is she still alive?”

Raine looked at him confused. “I don’t know.

“Well snap out of whatever funk you’re in and check her. You’re a dammed medic, Raine. We need to know.” Deke snapped.

Raine nodded slowly and laid her down on the floor. Wiping his tears away from his face, he unknowingly smeared her blood on his forehead. Taking a deep breath, he began accessing her injuries. Max tried to huddle up close to her and Raine kept having to push the puppy back.

The bullet went into her upper shoulder and exited her chest. The wound barely missed the vital organs and arteries. Cricket was very lucky indeed. There was some blood loss but nothing major.

“She’ll live,” Raine called out to let them know.

“If this is Bane, we’ll never find him. He’ll be long gone,” Bones pointed out.

“This isn’t Bane,” Deke assured them. “He agreed to give her three days and he wouldn’t go back on his word.”

“Fuck, we got another shooter?” Mountain asked. “Who the fuck is out there?”

“I don’t know. So let’s find this fucker and find out.” Deke growled.

The men stormed the doors and went in search of the shooter.

Before they could get too far, there was another shot followed by a scream. Everyone froze and took cover. Moments later Bane walked out of the woods dragging an injured man behind him. He tossed the man at Deke’s feet.

“I think you might be looking for this guy,” Bane spat. “Is Cricket ok?”

“Do you really care?” Bones sneered.

Bane shrugged. “Not really, just asking.”

“You really are a piece of work aren’t you?” Bones groused.

Bane ignored him and stared at Deke. “Is she dead or alive?”

“She’s wounded but alive.” Deke looked at the shooter. “Who the fuck is he?”

Again, Bane shrugged. “No idea.”

“Why are you still here?” Deke asked.

“I gave her three days, just making sure she’ll be alive when her time is up.” He shrugged.

Deke stared at the man for a long moment. “She is your family! You really are a cold bastard aren’t you?”

“You have no idea,” Bane responded. He turned and walked back to the edge of the woods. He turned and watched the men as they gathered the injured man and dragged his ass over to Bones’ truck.

They threw him in the back and climbed up to keep an eye on him tossing the keys to Iceman.

Deke looked over at Iceman. “Take him out to the woodshed. I’ll be there after I check on Cricket.”

“Hey, you bastards, I need medical attention!” the wounded man complained.

Bones rapped him upside the head. “Shut the fuck up. By the time we’re done with you, you’ll need more than a dammed doctor.”

Iceman took off and most of the others followed the truck. The woodshed was the club’s warehouse for questioning people. It was set away from the clubhouse and houses the families lived in. They had all the privacy they needed to ask their questions and get what they needed from uncooperative guests.

Deke went back inside the clubhouse. The room was empty but there was blood on the floor and the chairs were all over the place. Shattered glass and spilled drinks littered the floor.

He walked over it all and went down the short hall to find Raine and Cricket. He found them in their bedroom where Raine was working on Cricket’s wounds.

Reva and Cassie were helping him and there was a puppy hiding under the bed.

Moving closer to the bed, he saw Cricket was awake now. She was trying like hell not to scream out in pain while Raine cleaned and dressed her wounds. She had a death grip on Cassie’s hand while Raine bent over her.

Cassie glanced up at her husband and grimaced in pain. Deke knelt next to the bed and pulled Cricket’s chin around to look at him. “We got the shooter and it wasn’t your uncle. You have to let Raine do his job. He isn’t going to let anything happen to you, not now.”

“I’m t-trying.” Cricket tried to speak but found it very hard with the amount of pain she was in. She’d never been shot before.

“I know you are sweetheart, but I’d just as soon you didn’t break Cassie’s hand in the meantime,” he told her gently.

Cricket turned her head to look at Cassie. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” She whimpered. She let go of Cassie’s hand immediately.

Cassie flicked her hand to get the feeling back and smiled. “It’s ok honey.”

Deke brought her face back to his. “It’s ok but I do need you to hang in there for me ok? Your uncle is out there watching out for you. I don’t know why or what he hopes to get out of the deal but he’s the one who shot the sniper. Meanwhile, we’re going to talk to the man who shot at you and find out who he is and what he wants.”

“Ok.” Cricket nodded. “Remember Bane doesn’t do anything for no reason at all. He’s looking for a payday out of this. There’s eight million dollars out there somewhere and when he finds out where, he’ll still put a bullet in my head.”

“Not if we stop him first,” Deke vowed.

“You won’t win, not against Bane.” Cricket cried as Raine put the last piece of tape over her wound.

“That’s enough Deke,” Raine told his president. “She needs her rest.” He began cleaning up the mess he’d made now that he was done taking care of the wounds she’d gotten.

---

Deke raised a brow at him, but excused him out of concern for his woman.

“And we need to straighten up the clubhouse.” Cassie nodded at Reva. Cassie and Reva left the room.

Raine continued to clean up and Deke still looked at Cricket. “I need to tell you something. If this guy is a member of the Dragon’s Breath MC, we might not have a choice in the matter of what we do next. I just wanted you to know that.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I mean if he belongs to the MC, this could be a declaration of war.”

Cricket closed her eyes. Tears slipped out from under her lids and ran down her face. “I don’t want this,” she whispered.

“Believe me sweetheart, I don’t want this either. Men are going to die if this goes to war. Stark just plain doesn’t care whether his MC lives or dies and that makes him a dangerous man.”

“What do you want me to do?” Cricket asked.

“I don’t think either of us has any choice anymore.” Deke shook his head. “You just try to rest if you can and to heal.” He turned and headed out.

When Deke walked in the woodshed ten minutes later, he wasn’t surprised to find his men waiting. The man they were about to question was laying on the floor bleeding. He was still bitching about needing medical attention and no one was listening.

“So little man,” Deke stated as he came to the front of his men and stared down at the shooter. “You thought you could come into my clubhouse and shoot somebody?”

“I was outside the fence.” The man glared. “I wasn’t anywhere near the inside of your fucking clubhouse.”

“But your bullet came inside and that means you did too.” Deke reasoned as he raised a dark brow. “Tell me something…”

“What?”

“Are you a Dragon?”

“What the hell difference does that make? I figure I’m a dead whether I answer your questions or not, so I’ll just keep my mouth shut if it’s all the same to you.”

“Well, I know for a fact that Stark wants the money and the diamonds back before Cricket dies and you almost robbed him of that.”

“Boss, I think you’re mistaken about that,” Gator interrupted. “The cost of the contract is the money and the diamonds remember, Stark just wants innocent blood spilt.”

“Like hell she’s innocent,” the man on the floor blustered. “She sent him to prison for four long years.”

“No she didn’t,” Deke informed him. “Her sister Cordy did.”

“Who the fuck is Cordy?” he asked.

“Cordy is Cricket’s sister. She’s the one Stark gave the money too. Cordy stole it and planted diamonds on Stark. She sent Stark to jail for the last four years.”

The man frowned. “If this one is innocent then where is the other bitch?”

“She’s dead.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because she crossed this MC and we took out the trash,” Deke assured him.

The man swallowed hard. “I thought you guys didn’t kill innocent women? I’ve always heard that about this MC, that you don’t hurt women.”

Deke stared hard at him. “Cordy wasn’t innocent and wasn’t what I would consider a woman. She had bitch written all over her. Stark could have told you that much. I know he’s pissed right now but he should at least put the blame on the right person if he wants her dead.”

“Is she dead then? Is the real Cricket dead? ”

“No but your bullet ripped through her body. She’s wounded but lucky for you… she’s not dead,” Deke informed his unwanted guest in a cold , hard voice. “Now you brought a war to our turf, what do you think we’re gonna do about that?”

The man dipped his head and vomited all over the floor. The men standing around him shook their heads in disgust. Deke grabbed his hair and pulled his head up.

When he looked up he still had vomit on his face.

“Are you a Dragon?”

The man nodded. “Stark is really pissed. When he got out of prison, she was all he could talk about. How she fucked not only him over but the club too. The money she cost us would have set us up righteously for years. She was supposed to meet us two days later and when she didn’t show up Stark was pissed. He was caught when he went to look for her. We didn’t know it then but she tipped the cops off and they were waiting for him when he showed up.”

This wasn’t really news to Deke and the rest of the Bastards. Cordy had all but signed Cricket’s name to her own foul deed. Anyway, you looked at things Cordy set her own sister up to die. Now he wished she were still alive so he could send her to hell all over again.

“Stark didn’t want us to do anything about her until he got out. He wanted to be the one to kill her. He was hoping she would turn over the money first but then even that changed, now all he wants is her dead.”

Deke shook his head. “Then why are you here now? And how did you find her?”

“We didn’t know where she was until Hawkeye called Stark. He split us up and had us go in all directions. Me and a couple of others came here and more of the guys went to Bangor where Hawkeye’s MC stays. He’s sent guys to most of the MC’s in several states. All Stark cared about was finding the girl.”

“Doesn’t Stark know he’s declaring war on every MC he runs across by sending his men out like that?” Deke asked.

The man under him shook his head as much as he could while Deke still had his hair in his hand. “I don’t think Stark cares. In fact, I don’t think he cares about us at all. This is just his latest fuckup.”

“And you think for one minute that that excuse will help you in this situation?” Bones asked.

The man on the floor looked up at Bones. “No I don’t think any excuse is going to help. I figured the moment I left home base I was a dead man.” Then he shrugged and admitted, “But when the president of your club gives you an order you follow the fuckin order. It’s the way it is.”

“Even if it kills you in the end?” Deke asked.

“Just because he’s forgotten what the club means, not all of us have.”

“What the fuck is your name?” Bones growled.

“I’m called Scooter.”

“Well Scooter, I gotta tell you something,” Deke admitted. “We didn’t want this war but I’ll be damned if I’m going to ignore it either. Tell me something, have you ever heard of a man named Bane Jessin?”

Scooter went white. “Yeah, I heard of him. I wish to god I hadn’t but that would be a lie. I may be a dumb fucker but I’m no liar, so yeah I heard of the man. Why?”

Deke nodded. “Well, he’s the man that shot you today. He’s the man that dragged you out of the woods and turned you over to us. Cricket is his niece and the real Cordy was his own daughter. Are you getting what I’m saying?”

“Fuck,” he whispered breathlessly. All the blood he had left drained away and the man looked like a ghost sitting there on the floor in a pile of his own puke.

“How many other men are out there?” Deke probed. When Scooter didn’t answer, Deke kicked at him. “How many others came with you?”

“Two, there are two other men watching the compound.”

“Who are they?” Bones demanded.

“Crank and Pound are their names.”

Deke looked over at his men. “Find them and bring them back here if Bane hasn’t already found them. If you find Bane, tell him there are two more men out there watching us.”

“I’d rather not run into Bane if you don’t mind,” Mountain stated.

“Yeah well, I don’t want this war either but it’s here whether we want it or not. Now we just have to deal with it.”

“You know, maybe if you turned the money over to Stark and explained things to him he’d let the girl live,” Scooter told them.

Deke snapped his head around and glared at the man. “I think you know better than that. You said it yourself he wants her dead. We tried to tell him he was looking for the wrong girl and you told us he didn’t care.”

“Hey, it was worth a try man. I really don’t want to die over some fuckin bitch.” Scooter tried to tell them as he shrugged. “Stark is crazy, just plum crazy. He’s got some kind of death wish, he brought it back from the pen with him. He wasn’t like this before he went in.”

“Prison changes a man,” Bones agreed.

“So now what?” Scooter asked fear in his voice.

“Now we do what must be done.” Deke sighed.

Scooter nodded. “Then just do it and get it over with.”

Deke reached down and grabbed the knife in his boot. He wouldn’t ask his men to do the deed. Without hesitation, he drew the blade across Scooter’s neck.

Scooter fell to the floor in a heap.

Deke looked up at his men. “Find those other two fuckers.”