Chapter 5

Jax

Being at Ryder’s house was a bit odd. I’d been around his place before, sure, but that was usually for a family barbecue or something like that. Being in his place for business purposes gave the small ranch a different vibe.

It was almost intimidating.

We were gathered in Ryder’s living room. Dani had just passed out a can of Bud to everyone and was taking a seat on Ryder’s knee. He promptly cracked open his can, lifted it to his lips, and grabbed hold of Dani’s ass with his other hand. Some might call it crude. I saw a man living the dream.

Ryder gave Dani’s ass a small pat and cleared his throat. “All right. You all know why we’re here. Dani has the floor. Questions after.”

Sabian, Axel, and I all nodded our understanding. Darek and Hyde were off somewhere fucking around. We respected Dani enough to let her speak without us interrupting, but Ryder always seemed to think he needed to put us in our places just to be safe. I caught the corner of Dani’s lips curl into a smile that she worked to disguise quickly by slapping on her serious cop face.

I wondered if she ever used it in bed with Ryder.

“As you all know, there were seven corpses found at the mansion early Monday morning. The murder weapon, a machete, was not a rumor. The place was an absolute mess, and many of my peers now have to go to therapy to sort their shit out. It was a bloodbath.”

She paused for dramatic effect, and the three of us kept our mouths firmly shut and our eyes on her.

“A lot of my coworkers suspect that it was simply another gang hit, a rivalry gone badly or something. But we haven’t seen violence of this magnitude in ages. This isn’t something another gang does to each other, especially without there being a long history of previous relations that the police would most definitely be aware of. I think this was incredibly personal.”

Dani stood up and squared her shoulders like she was addressing a room full of crew cut cops. I contained my smirk with more effort than it should have taken and listened as she continued.

“I personally interviewed the Black Hearts staff who arrived at the mansion to trade shifts with the boys on the clock. None were overly surprised to learn that seven of their buddies had been maliciously slaughtered. In fact, they seemed rather nonchalant about the whole thing. So, gentlemen, in your opinion, who’s behind all this fuckery?”

Accepting her invitation to speak, I cleared my throat. “I’ve had an itch that it might have been an inside job.”

“Same,” Dani nodded.

Ryder leaned forward in his chair and rested his elbows on his knees. “No one’s surprised that seven of their boys were hacked up with a fucking machete? I call bullshit.”

“But even if we think it’s an inside job, nothing really changes, right?” Sabian asked, his eyes flicking back and forth between all of us. “I mean, that’s still only a few people out of a crew of nearly a hundred guys.”

“Ninety-three,” Axel said, sipping his beer.

I snorted.

Ryder scowled.

I shrugged a shoulder and tried to blow off the ill-landed joke. “There’s a lot of motive within a gang if there’s a power struggle. They just lost their leader. Maybe someone is making a mad dash to the throne. And I mean mad quite literally.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Dani said, pointing at me like I was the smartest kid in class. Coaxing myself out of asking for a gold star was difficult.

“Fuck the Black Hearts.” Sabian leaned back in the corner of the sofa and draped his arm across the back cushions. Axel, sitting in the opposite corner, shot him a look that demanded space. “If they want to kill each other over who is boss, let them. I mean, it works in our favor in the end, right?”

“Not necessarily.” Ryder got to his feet and stood beside Dani. “Dani says she hasn’t seen something of this magnitude take place within a gang like the Black Hearts in her entire career. It’s rattled her whole department. We’d be fools not to take this seriously.”

“Not to mention,” I said, “what if the person who arranged this hit is the guy who ends up being in charge? What if they let him take over? You seriously think he’s going to be okay with our operation? A guy who uses a machete doesn’t strike me as the kind of man who’d be willing to share his sandbox, and I doubt a truce will mean jack shit to him either.”

Sabian rubbed his temple. “Fuck.”

“Yup,” Axel agreed.

“And what if this new leader wants to rebuild the Black Hearts?” Dani proposed, looking around the room at all of us. “This could be bad news for all of us. MC and cops alike.”

“So what’s our game plan, then, boss?” Axel asked, getting to his feet and tucking his hands into his pockets. “We gonna lie in wait or make a move?”

I swung my head around to look at Ryder, who was wrapping an arm around Dani’s waist. A couple of years ago, I would have known what Ryder’s answer was going to be, maybe even before the president himself knew it.

He’d have told us to get our shit together, and we would have gotten on our bikes and rode for the mansion with a thirst for blood.

But now, with Dani on his arm, I was sure we would do the exact opposite.

“For now, I want to wait. We need more information. This event could have settled their internal debate, and things might calm down over there. As of this moment, we still have a truce with the Black Hearts, and we sure as shit won’t be the ones to break it. But, if they go back on their word, we’ll bring them hell.”

Feeling like I was out of the party still sitting on the sofa, I stood and nodded. Sabian rose as well, and all of us agreed to keep it low to the belt.

“Keep your eyes and ears open,” Ryder directed. “If they do come for us, I don’t want anyone caught with their dicks hanging out. You see something weird, you pass it along to me. Got it?”

We all nodded again, and the topic of the Black Hearts was pushed aside for the rest of the night as we fell into camaraderie and sat around drinking beer in Ryder’s living room.

It was pleasant, which was more unnerving than it was enjoyable. I feared I was losing my edge as I found myself laughing easily with my friends and doing everything in my power to think of anything but the mess the Black Hearts were in.

I was going to have nightmares about this shit show, I was certain of it. Images like a movie reel of walking into Ryder’s living room to find my friends murdered was playing on a loop in the back of my mind while my consciousness focused on the conversations at hand.

“I hear Jamie is working out well in the shop.” Ryder nudged me in the shoulder and offered me another beer.

I shook my head to decline his offer, and Ryder popped the can and drank it for himself. “I’m glad she’s fitting in. It’s always a bit of a worry bringing someone into the fold. But she holds her own, and she’s a quick learner.”

“She’s cute too.” Sabian grinned at me from his spot on the sofa.

“Watch it,” I growled.

Sabian chuckled, and to my surprise, so did Dani as she slipped herself under Ryder’s arm. She fixed me with her bright gaze and gave me a pretty lopsided smile. “You men and your women. She might be your cousin, Jax, but you don’t own her. She’s a big girl. And she’s clever. She wouldn’t be caught dead with Sabian, so don’t let it get to you.”

Ryder burst out laughing and applauded Dani for her jab at Sabian. Axel whistled from his spot on the sofa to show his agreement in the matter. I imagined he felt similar to me because we all knew Sabian had always had a thing for Axel’s baby sister.

Having the hots for a family member of one of the MC was always dangerous territory.

Axel slapped his knee and got to his feet. “You know, all this talk reminds me. I ran into someone I think you’d be happy to see again, Jax.”

“Oh?” I arched my eyebrows.

Axel nodded as he pressed his hands to his lower back and stretched. “Yeah. Holly Whitton.”

“Holly?” Fuck. I hadn’t seen or heard from Holly in ages. Six years, to be exact. “Where did you see her?”

“I went to dinner at The Roost with Ellie and Hanna before meeting you bastards here. She’s working there as a waitress. It’s a new gig, at least that’s what she said. She just moved back from Philadelphia. She looks good, man.”

Sabian was looking back and forth between the two of us. “Who the hell is Holly?”

“Doesn’t matter,” I said quickly.

Ryder chuckled and shook his head. He wasn’t going to let me get away with it. “Holly was Jax’s crush back in his youth. Did a number on him. And, if you ask me, he did a number on her too.”

“No,” I said. “It was pretty one-sided. She went off with Kent, remember? She never looked back.”

“She left his ass, bro,” Axel said, tilting his face to the ceiling as he drained the remnants of his beer. “And we all know what a waste of space that loser was. When I brought up your name, Holly went bright red. Ellie gave me shit for it after, but it was worth it to see her look just as flustered as she used to when we were kids.”

“Did she now?” I rocked back on my heels, unable to help but feel bemused by what Axel was saying.

Holly had always held a special place in my heart, but when she made her choice to leave New York City with Kent, her high school sweetheart, I did everything I could to put her behind me. It didn’t do well to dwell on a girl who wasn’t ever going to choose you.

Besides, I had been part of the MC even then, and she wasn’t interested in that sort of lifestyle. I also was never keen on bringing her into it.

But six years had passed, and a lot had changed. Maybe it would be worth popping into her restaurant to see what all that time had done to her. She would be a woman now. It was impossible not to wonder what womanhood would look like on her.

“You going to go see her or what?” Axel asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

“Probably.”

Axel slapped my shoulder. “That’s a good man. Throw yourself to the wolves again. The only woman who ever made your head spin is back and single. This is almost more exciting than the Black Hearts drama. Almost.” He winked.

“All right, all right. Enough of this shit. I’m out of here. Thanks for sharing the intel, Dani. And Ryder, if I see or hear anything, I’ll be in touch. Stay safe, boys.”

As I left, they all called after me to ride safely because they knew I never did. I was powerless to the horsepower and the winding roads, and as soon as my ass hit the seat, I was tearing out of Ryder’s driveway and hitting the pavement going twenty miles over the speed limit. It was late. No one was around to bust me.

As I rode, I thought of Holly.

The last time I’d seen her had been the day she told me she was moving to Philadelphia with Kent. The fucking asshole. I could still feel the tingle on my lips from where she had kissed me goodbye. It had been a risky move. If Kent ever knew about the kiss—or kisses—we had shared, I was sure he would have let his anger loose on her.

I had done everything I could to change her mind, but she had been unshakeable in her resolve to leave the city with her boyfriend. I knew there had been some unspoken reason she wasn’t willing to tell me.

Maybe if I asked her now, she would finally come clean with me, and I could stop asking myself why she ever left in the first place.