Chapter Nineteen

Cullen

“Jesus,” I muttered, shouldering Drake in the ribs. “Take it easy.”

I’d had Drake patch up countless injuries in the past, but I couldn’t remember one hurting quite so much. I sat there, holding my hair out of the way, as he dug the needle into my scalp again. “What, you got ants in your pants? Stop jiggling around like that.”

I let out a hard breath and checked my phone. It was after nine. The fire had burned out fast and the emergency vehicles had been on their way in within the hour. Most of the guys had gotten to Lucky Leaf early, since after the explosion, they were too wired to do anything else. There were rumors flying all over the place. I’d need to settle them down, and quick.

Lucky Leaf was Hart’s father’s place, and where most of the guys in the Cobras worked in some form or another. Hart had never been a mechanic but Nix, Jet, and Drake were. They’d gotten to know each other through the garage before they’d become officers in the club.

The garage was small, with no waiting room, just three bays, two of them occupied by cars up on lifts. We’d all crammed into the third bay for church, by the shithole business office. The place was choked with smoke, but I wasn’t going to open a garage door and risk the chance of a Fury seeing us. With our clubhouse destroyed, there weren’t too many other places to hold our meetings.

“Done?” I asked Drake as he stuck the needle into my skin once again.

He yanked on it, then leaned forward, biting the ends of the suture and freeing the needle. He ran a finger over it. “Aw, that looks pretty.”

I shoved him away, messing a hand through my hair to get it to fall over the stitching. My hair was sticky with blood. I needed a shower almost as much as I needed a drink. I lit another cigarette as Drake sat down next to Nix and Jet, then I boosted myself up onto the workbench. “Okay, guys. Let’s get this party started.”

The room silenced.

“First of all. Is everyone okay?”

There were nods, and Zain and Hart said yes. “What happened?” Nix asked.

“A package arrived at the clubhouse . . .” I looked at Hart. “When?”

Hart shrugged. “This morning, I think. It wasn’t there last night but it was there when I got there after lunch.”

“So, sometime this morning. I went over to the clubhouse to open it. I thought it could be parts but it was unmarked. I lifted it and it started beeping. At that point I told everyone to get the fuck out, and here we are.”

“Fuck,” Nix said. “Do we know it’s Fury?”

I nodded. “A few minutes after the explosion I received a call from the Fury’s leader, Slade, who confirmed that it was their bomb.”

“What are we fuckin’ around here for?” Jet asked. “We should go over there and end this, once and for all!”

Nix put a hand on his shoulder. “Easy.” He looked at me. “But we should do something. Enough playing nice. You have to see that, now?”

The guys studied me, waiting for my next words.

“Yeah. Like I told Slade. He’s declared war.”

Jet pumped his fist, the cowboy. He’d probably take them all on himself if we gave him the chance . . . and get his ass shot off in the process.

I held up a hand, my voice rising. “But we can’t just go in there without our heads on straight just because we’re angry and want revenge. We’ve got to have a plan. I don’t want to put any of you at risk if I don’t got to. You understand?”

I said this specifically to Jet, who slumped in his seat and frowned. “Okay, so let’s make a plan. Let’s do this.”

Nix shoved him and told him to chill out.

“All right. First,” I said, lighting a cigarette and setting it in an ashtray. I clapped my hands together. “What do we got as far as firepower? Did we lose anything in the explosion?”

Nix shook his head. “We haven’t been keeping our weapons there. We each have our own stash.”

I looked around. “Everyone got their weapons? Ammo?”

Around the room, they nodded.

“All right. So we find out where they are and when they’ll be together, and we hit them there.”

“Hey,” Hart said, lifting his laptop off his knees and turning it to us. “We already know when they’ll all be together.”

“There was some chatter on one of the phone lines. Something about a surprise birthday party. It was a girl talking to one of Hell’s Fury.”

“Who and how do you know it was the Fury talking?”

“Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?” Hart put his hands out and smiled a cheeky assed grin. “I hacked in to their phones and I know it was Slade’s girl. Roxanne, I think is her name.”

“Yeah, Roxanne’s definitely Slade’s old lady,” Zain said.

“It’s Slade’s birthday,” Hart said. “His girl is having a party for him out at the Fury’s clubhouse. Tonight.”

“Tonight?” I repeated.

“Yeah,” Jet said. “Bitch probably doesn’t even know what they did. We can hit them when they’re drunk and least expecting it.”

I’d normally be all in for this kind of retaliation, but something was holding me back. “Well if it’s a surprise party, won’t their women be there? Innocent people?”

Jet scoffed. “So? We’re not after the innocents. And those bitches are far from innocent.”

Who are these guys? Was I the only one in the club who thought women and children should be spared from the bullshit that went down between our clubs?

From the looks on their faces, I saw that I was. I’d never noticed before. Never had a reason to, up until now. Before, I probably would’ve been right with them, with my bloodthirst.

Then Zain looked at me. “You forget what they did to your ex and that little girl?”

I scowled at him. Like I could forget that for a second. And that was the problem, I couldn’t.

“It’s a good opportunity. When will we get a chance to have them all together like that, where we know where they are?” Ire blazed in my veins as Hart went on, “You know they have church at surprise locations all over the bay. We never know when or where they’re going to have it. This could be our best chance.”

I went back to the bench, and took a last drag of my cigarette, trying to settle my nerves. Something about this just felt wrong. Too dangerous. Could’ve been because I’d seen the look in Grace’s eyes, heard Ella screaming . . . and now I finally felt like I had something big to lose.

Fuck. A president couldn’t feel like this. Once I had something valuable, the whole club was vulnerable. But, I’d almost lost her. And I’d be fucked if I let that happen again. Yeah, I wanted to be careful, safe. But above all, I had to think of my girls.

The men were all looking at me. Eyes thirsty for blood.

And if I didn’t fight now, this could go on and on.

If we retaliated now, we could end it, and Grace and Ella would be safe.

“All right,” I said, stubbing out the cigarette and nodding. “Grab your weapons, and let’s meet here at midnight. And get this done.”

Jet and some of the other guys let out a hoot of excitement. I couldn’t share it. It’d be nice if this war would end the night it started. But I didn’t think that was the case. And these days, I had a lot more to worry about than a few broken windows and a shot-out living room.

As the men filed out, I fisted my hands in my hair but pain sliced through my skull. I wound up tracing my finger over Drake’s handiwork. Nix saw me and said, “You okay?”

I nodded, and then frowned. “I don’t know. Something feels wrong about this.”

“What?” he asked, leaning against the wall. “You know we should’ve taken them out while we had the chance.”

“Yeah.” I let out a breath of air and scrubbed my hands over my face. “But you know that once it starts, it ain’t gonna end so easy. There will be back and forth. We might just end up wiping each other out.”

Nix shrugged. “Yeah. But what’s right is right. They started this when they kidnapped an innocent girl.”

“And they won’t stop. You know they don’t play fair. Don’t you worry about them getting their hands on Olivia again?” I asked. “She has a target on her back. Yeah, we protect her, but we can only do so much.”

Nix gave me a surprised look. “When did you start worrying about that, man? You know our protection’s good. And Livvie’s all for it. She asks me every day when I get home whether I ripped any new Fury assholes. She’s more bloodthirsty than I am.”

I let out a low laugh, but it came out broken and uneasy. Grace wasn’t bloodthirsty. And I didn’t want her to be. I wanted her to have everything she wanted: A normal life.

And I fucking couldn’t give it to her.