“Nicole!”
Cade’s cry did nothing to divert the redhead from her intended course of action, and she kept the blade poised as she swiped the air over his face and gritted her teeth. Fearing that he would be caught in the crossfire, such as it was, Dawn kept Cade as close as possible, and she met his eyes when he whirled around to face her.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked.
“Don’t you think that they should sort this out, Cade?”
“Not if it kills him. Or her.”
Shrugging Dawn off, he started to pry the siblings apart when Nicole unexpectedly tossed the knife into the darkness. Cade tried to fall into or at least find the handle of the weapon when Nicole pulled on Reese’s spiky hair. The boy cried out in pain, and Nicole either didn’t hear or didn’t care as she poked her fingers into her brother’s eyes. Reese seemed blinded for a moment, and Nicole seized the chance to knee his ribs and keep him confined under her thighs. In another life, Dawn might have laughed. Just a brother and sister falling into old habits instead of trying to talk it out. However, the old wounds cut too deep.
“Don’t try to put me in my place,” Nicole said. “This is as much mine as it yours.”
“Pop sure didn’t think so,” Reese said. Nicole seethed, and again Cade tried to intervene when Dawn gripped his hand.
“Let her do this,” Dawn whispered.
“Dawn you don’t know what you’re—”
“Some Veep. Like totally pussy whipped!”
Scanning the darkness, Dawn just made out a lean figure pulling on a joint before flicking the flaming tip into the grass. Someone she didn’t recognize. Someone that Michael might.
Someone that Cade did.
His hand left hers and curled into a fist. Dawn could feel him on the attack when Nicole’s shrieks held him place as the girl slapped her brother hard.
“Because he was ashamed of me.”
“And what do you think I am right now?” Reese said.
The Alphas started to step into the light when Cade lifted his palm into the air and narrowed his eyes.
“My word still counts,” he grumbled. “And you will hold your fire and let them settle this. In the family.”
Dawn scanned the crowd for Lenny, but now she couldn’t make him out among the throng. He could easily be hidden behind one or more of the bigger men, and Cade’s word seemed like it was about to bear little to no weight when he stood taller and jutted his chin forward.
“I said no one move!” Cade said. “You want to take me on?”
Even as she felt his muscles, Dawn had to wonder if he was crazy or brave or something that she would never be able to define. It would only take a second for the other Alphas to envelop him and tear him apart. And if she clung to him hard enough, Dawn felt certain that she’d lose her own life or worse in the commotion. Yet, no one made another move when Nicole hissed sharply.
“I think you should just hold the fuck still!”
Nicole growled like a wild animal and started to beat her brother about the head. Reese endured the blows for all of a second before suddenly leaping to attention and pushing his hands into her shoulders. Reese seemed to gain the upper hand as he drove her into the ground, and Nicole whimpered lightly as her brother’s face began to soften.
“Know you’ve been through hell and all,” he said. “And we’ll get you your justice or whatever if you just listen to me.”
“Because you’ve done such a fucking bang up job so far?”
Reese started to answer when she crushed her heel between his legs, and the so-called boss winced as he fell back and worked overtime to catch his breath.
“Think you still know everything about everything, Dawn?” Cade asked. Dawn had no answer as he helped Reese to his wobbly legs, and he smoothed the dirt from the boy’s back. Nicole tumbled into the trees. She disappeared for all of a second before returning with the knife in hand and a look to kill crossing her pale face.
“You want to see the burns?” Nicole asked. “What they really did to me? Maybe that would make you make a man’s move instead of just hiding out like a little bitch?”
“Little… you can’t talk to me like that!”
Reese wriggled away from Cade and pulled on his sister’s auburn locks. Nicole screamed and swiped at the chest that kept curving away from the blade when Cade got between them again and barked for them both to retreat to their mutual corners.
“You’re not in charge!” Reese reminded him.
“And you’re not one of us,” Nicole chimed in. “Not really and—”
“Well look at that,” Cade said. “The kids can finally agree on something.” He started back to Dawn’s side, and she nearly had her hand in his when George caught Reese’s ear.
“Power play, Boss,” George said. “Probably wants to pit you two against each other so he can reap the spoils.”
Dawn’s blood boiled as she charged forward and slapped his surprised face, hard. George looked like he had never felt a blow before, and Dawn couldn’t help but smile at the feel of her own power. Part of her wanted Cade to look to her with pride in his eyes. Wasn’t an old lady, his old lady supposed to know how to old her own? Cade’s stare stayed blank, but Dawn rode the rush forward and got right in George’s face “You really are as dumb as you look,” Dawn spat.
The bearded man rubbed his cheek and grimaced. She was ready to make the move again when George lunged forward and shoved her back to Cade.
“Keep her quiet or I’ll pass her around and think nothing of it!” George threatened.
“Careful,” Cade said. “You shouldn’t offer what isn’t yours.”
George appeared ready to charge again when Nicole ducked her head like a bull and rammed her brother backwards. Reese’s limbs flailed as Nicole fell on top of him and started to strike blow after blow into his chest and head, as she rattled off all the ways that she had been hurt, lifting up the leather vest and revealing her chest to put the point on it.
“Shit,” George muttered. “No wonder she’s mad as hell.”
“Now you’re suddenly smart?” Dawn challenged. The bearded man bared his teeth when all eyes turned to the redhead.
“And what did Daddy do?” Nicole asked. “Put me away like a leper! And it was never my fault.”
Reese relaxed under her fists, and the boy let her land a few more punches when her hair spilled across his chest, and she wept wildly. Not one Alpha moved, the men barely seemed to breathe as Reese extended the one arm that he could get free and wrapped it around her neck. Letting her cry for a few moments, he finally managed to push his fingers under her chin so that he could meet her eyes.
“I know that,” Reese said. “I get it. And so I’m sorry, okay?”
Nicole sighed heavily and helped her brother to sit up. A fresh beam of moonlight hit their faces, and Dawn suddenly took note of the fact that they shared the same face. Every line, every angle was like they were looking into a mirror. If Reese donned a crimson wig or Nicole took the knife to her long hair, the perfect picture would be complete. How could either one of them hate the sight of their own face staring back under the night sky? The air seemed to still with possibilities, as Nicole gingerly curved her fingers around Reese’s hand.
“And I’m here to get back what’s mine,” she said.
“Don’t you mean ours?” Reese asked.
They seemed in sync as Reese helped his sister to her feet, and Dawn started to relax as Reese threw his arms around her heaving back. Reese looked smaller at his sister’s side, and Dawn couldn’t help but think it was best for the girl to be back in the fold. Because if anyone other than Cade was going to get the job done with the right combination of rage and skill, it was the girl who lingered in the shadows. The one that so many had forgotten. Maybe making her the leper was their late father’s final, fatal move. What Alpha wouldn’t go to the mat now that they had seen her damaged flesh?
“Now you say it! Because it’s convenient.”
“Because he wants to put her off!”
The unknown Alpha broke ranks. Pulling her up by her hair, he roughly turned Nicole into the trees, and George followed suit.
“Hey!” Reese screamed. “Hold the fuck up.”
The boy hurried forward and stumbled. Dawn and Cade exchanged a quick glance, and they moved as one to help the redhead as the other Alpha grabbed both sides of her face.
“We all worked and waited too damn long and hard for you to come in here dressed like the whore you are to ruin this now.”
“Brian!” Reese screamed. “Don’t try it! My word is—”
“Need to get your head back on straight,” Brian said. “Old ladies don’t dictate policy. Especially these skirts.”
Reese started to backtrack, and Nicole cringed as she shook her head.
“Don’t listen to it!” the girl screamed. “We… we’re talking. Like after all this time.”
“Talk is cheap,” Brian said.
If Dawn had the blade in her hand, she would have slashed into his back and felt no guilt at the sight of his blood spilling to the grass. As it was she could do nothing but slam her fists into his body in the small hope of getting him away from Nicole.
“Let me take care of this,” Cade said. He pressed Dawn behind his back and nearly had Brian in a headlock when a shot from an unseen gun filled the air.
“What the hell was that?” George asked.
All eyes turned to Lenny with a smoking piece in his hand. As Dawn narrowed her eyes, she thought that he looked taller, and he ignored the grumbling Alphas at his back as he managed to push the barrel of the gun into the back of George’s wide head.
“Leave her alone,” Lenny said. “If… if you wouldn’t mind.”
“If I wouldn’t… what is that?” George asked. “That supposed to make me run scared or something?”
“I---”
“Lousy call,” Brian scoffed. “Should have picked a better champion or whatever. If that’s what you think he’s supposed to be.”
Lenny’s lip quivered, but he fixed his eyes into a hard stare again and started to cock the trigger when Dawn looked between the Alphas’ collective faces. Everyone wanting something, everyone with an agenda. And not one of them, Cade included, had any way of knowing which way the wind would turn when the other shoe dropped. Because the Panthers would come. And the club had nothing close to protection outside of their own ranks. Even Mona would only be able to hold a charge off for so long, and if they kept clawing at one another like rats after the last scrap of food in an almost barren dumpster, they would tear the flesh from each other’s bones before the other crew even had to think about pouncing.
Quite a story. But I don’t want to be the last one standing to tell it…
“Now be quiet!” Dawn cried. “All of you.”
Cade tried to silence her when she swiped her hand across the line of his lips.
“That includes you,” she said. “Since you can’t behave like grownups, I’m taking the floor.”
“Who do you think you are?”
Both George and Nicole seemed surprised by the sound of their voices ringing out in unison, but they appeared to savor the camaraderie for all of a second when Dawn moved to Reese and fought to keep from trembling under his hazel gaze.
“I am…” Dawn started. She found it hard to finish the thought as the spotlight of the moon rained down on her face. Cade slightly shook his head, and she knew in that instant that the truth would do anything but set her free. But there were variations. Ways to the spin the story.
And the best old ladies made their men look good…
“This has nothing to do with Cade” she said. “I know what happens in Plainfield.”
“How is that?” Reese asked. Dawn felt Cade hovering, but she reached behind her back and lightly touched his arm as she plowed forward with her story.
“Live in a place long enough, and you learn the score,” Dawn said. “And the Panthers think they have it all figured out. From what I hear, they even have the cops in their back pocket.”
“Dawn...”
She had already said too much, but Dawn couldn’t take the words back.
“Does that make you a plant or something?” Reese challenged. Cade curled closer, and Dawn finally accepted the feel of his fingers.
“It… it makes me someone who keeps her eyes and ears open,” Dawn continued. “And what’s the big plan now?”
“We’re taking it all in,” George said. “And why do you keep popping up?”
“She’s just a bit of fun or whatever,” Cade said. It stung, and her eyes fluttered shut. Dawn made out Brian’s voice saying that they just needed to take a deep breath, that all was not lost, that the Alphas were still on the verge of getting their own back and then some.
“In pieces?” Dawn asked. “From where I stand, you’re doing the Panthers’ heavy lifting for them. And all they have to do is swoop in and bury the bodies if you boys and girls can’t play nice.”
George laughed uproariously and slapped Reese’s back as he caught his ear.
“Boss, Cade obviously don’t got his priorities straight,” he started. “He brings these bitches here to put us in our place. Or maybe… maybe he’s just going soft.”
“Watch what you say, you fucking—”
“Oh for Christ’s sake, will you just drop it?!” Dawn cried.
Cade stepped back at the force in her voice, and Dawn smiled softly as she reached for Nicole’s hand and pressed it into the palm of her brother.
“What are you doing?” Nicole asked.
“You’ve made a first step” Dawn said. “Let that loom large. Fight to the death for the throne when this is all over if it’s what you think you’re destined to do. But from where I stand—”
“Which is still on the outside trying to cut in,” George sneered.
Cade raised his fist to strike when Lenny lowered the butt of his gun to the back of the man’s head, and George fell to the ground. His moans put Dawn’s mind at ease. This was far from their last night on earth, and she turned to Nicole and gently patted her cheek.
“You… you didn’t work this hard to give it all up with one throw,” Dawn said. “Now be smart. Keep him talking. Divvy it up when it’s all said and done. But don’t blow the play now.”
Nicole arched her eyebrow, and Dawn held her breath. Any of them could turn on a dime and decide that she was nothing but the enemy, and then even Cade might not be enough to protect her. But if they were smart, if they were supposed to be the crew to best their rivals, then maybe they would see some sense in what she was trying to say.
“Never thought Cade would go for a brazen bitch,” Nicole said. “But you do make a kind of sense.”
She spit into the palm of her hand and offered her fingers to her brother.
“So we keep up the peace talks?” she asked. “At least for the night?”
“And after?”
Reese nodded and took her hand. Their fingers melded together, and the siblings shook slowly and agreed to try to talk it out until their birthright was back in place.
“We are gonna revisit this,” Reese started. “But maybe… maybe Cade’s girl has a point.”
George started to protest when Reese waved him off and stepped back towards his men and their bikes.
“Let’s grab a drink first,” Reese said. “Christ knows I need one.”
George snarled as he followed after him, and Dawn watched as Nicole grazed her fingers against Lenny’s cheek and smiled.
“We knew it wouldn’t be easy,” he said with a clumsy shrug of his shoulders. “You okay?”
“Fine,” Nicole said. “I even missed you a little.”
“Just a little?” Lenny teased. “Thought you said that I was your big man.”
“In all the right places,” Nicole said. “Ride back with me.”
All of the other Alphas had pushed away as Nicole settled into the crook of Lenny’s arm. He let her take the lead , and Dawn felt a twinge of jealousy, only accentuated by the sight of Lenny kissing her fingers as he brought his hand close to her face.
“Side by side,” Lenny said. “Feels good to me.”
Nicole was ready to push off with Lenny, when she looked back and narrowed her eyes.
“You two coming?” she asked. “Kind of your show in a way, Dawn.”
Maybe it was; it sounded like something. And Dawn nodded her assent, as her spine stiffened under Cade’s touch.
“Right behind you,” she said. “I want to help.”
“But I only need her,” Lenny said.
Lenny kissed her, and they rode off, seemingly contented. She wished that the unlikely couple could find a way to make it work, no matter what happened. A small part of her thought that they could, and even as she delighted in the idea, her soul sank to the pit of her stomach.
“Wish I had come across you a long time ago.”
Cade tried to take her into his arms, his lips parting in anticipation of her kiss. Dawn nearly met his mouth, longing for the feel of his tongue swirling around hers.
“Dawn, I—”
“No, Cade”
Her voice was weak, and she hated the sound as she held him back and softly shook her head.
“You just made me next to nothing in their eyes,” she said.
“I… I would have beat them to a fucking pulp.”
“But not when I had a plan of action,” she said, cutting him off. “Lenny is… he seems happy to… to just be with Nicole through whatever.”
“Crazy kids,” Cade said. “But kind of cute if you—”
“But you? Not so much. Not like this.”
She tried to turn away from him, once again trying her luck under the force of her feet and nothing else when Cade brought her back to his chest and held her close.
“Don’t,” Dawn protested. “I—”
“You’re really gonna hate on me for looking after you?” he asked. “Nicole’s been planning this show for years. You just—”
“I what, Cade?”
His eyes crinkled as the corners of his lips curled into a small smile, and he touched the small of her back as he breathed into her flushed face.
“Kind of still a new player,” he said. “But I’m happy to ride with you again if you’ll have me.”
Cade seemed in earnest, and Dawn started to forget her anger as she wrapped her arms around his waist and stared up into his eyes.
“I think I… I know I want something else first.”