The tread on my wheels were nearly gone by the time I tore up turf outside the dilapidated diner. Its sign was hanging on by only one or two screws, looking like it was about to fall off at any moment. I pulled up under it anyway, seeing the other bikes already parked up outside the building, and hauled my ass around the side of the diner where I saw my men gathered.

Blue and red lights painted them with stern faces as they talked to some of the officers. I moved over to where Lamb stood, more than likely having finished gathering the information. He leaned up against one of the walls where you’d usually see a man smoking a cigarette. Lamb didn’t smoke, however, and instead, his eyes were going over everything and anything.

I looked down to the black body bag on the ground and the red bloodstains dried on the concrete. Lamb frowned, and when he saw me coming up to him, his frown only deepened.

Before I said anything, though, Lamb just pointed his gaze over to an ambulance in the midst of the cop cars. It had its back doors open and police and a paramedic surrounded the girl sitting on the steps. She had a blanket wrapped around her, keeping it draped loosely over her shoulders. Her head perked up in my direction, and when her eyes met mine, they only held them for a second before looking down and away.

“Fuck this shit,” I growled, looking back to Lamb. “Is everything covered?”

“It’s already sorted. They didn’t find a weapon on Anna and there are other witnesses placing the van and the gunfire on the street during the time of the attack. They’re ruling it a mugging. Anna has no guilt to bear in this.”

“At least we don’t have blues on our tail. What I’m more concerned about is whose fucking territory this is,” I growled, running a hand through my hair.

“I think we’re about to see to that,” Lamb said just as I heard the roar of bike engines race up the street. I stood with my shoulders squared and watched carefully as the Hell’s Runners’ bikes pulled up outside the diner. The blues looked up from what they were doing, but upon seeing the Runner’s cuts, they quickly went back to their business.

I felt the presence of my brothers sweep up behind me. Jax wasn’t among them, but I had an idea where he went as the rest of us faced the arriving club.

I recognized Chains as he pulled up in the front. He pulled off his helmet and glasses, and it still stunned me to this day how much he looked like Noble. He was the spitting image of my old sergeant at arms. The same blond hair and broad build. His hair was cut short, however, almost right to the skin compared to the long mutt that Noble had grown.

I felt Hunter stiffen beside me, a tense air beginning to rise as he looked at his half brother. Noble and Hunter had been full brothers by blood, and in the aftermath of Noble’s death, Chains had been revealed as his half brother. Hunter still couldn’t stand Chains, but I, on the other hand, had once worked with him in order to help him cut loose a few troublesome brothers from his club. Despite that, he had chosen to go to the Grim Reapers instead and was now under their thumb.

“Wolf,” Chains greeted, his voice a deep baritone as he walked up to me. By the sound of it, he had been smoking more. Fucking over your club would do that to you.

“Chains,” I returned. “You look like shit.”

“I’m not here for small talk, Wolf,” he responded, his two sidekicks coming up at his rear. Neither of them wore the V.P. badge, which was all I needed to confirm that he still hadn’t chosen one. The boy was leaving himself open without one. “What’s your club lawyer doing causing shit on our territory?”

“She wasn’t causing shit,” I responded. “Shit just happened. It was a mugging.”

“Don’t try to bullshit me, Wolf,” Chains growled, obviously not liking my ignorant attitude. He’d best be careful where he put his boots because I was on a fine line with what just happened, and with every passing second, it was getting slimmer and slimmer.

Chains looked past me to where the body was lying in the middle of the alley. “A mugging where your lawyer happened to be standing next to Lizard? One of the Grim’s informants? Seems highly unlikely, if you ask me.”

“It’s unlikely to be hit by lightning. That shit still happens.” I was fed up with this tedious argument before Chains and his goons showed up and couldn’t be bothered to parry with a baby-face president-in-name-only like Chains. “If you’re here because your big boss’s informant got killed, then go deal with that shit yourselves, since it wasn’t our girl who did it. Now, I’m fucking fed up with this shit, and I don’t have any more time to deal with you. We done here?”

“I ain’t going to start a turf war with this bastard lurking around the west coast. I know Charon keeps approaching you, but this area isn’t run by the Grim Reaper’s, Wolf. It’s run by me. I get the final say on shit,” Chains said, his hands unconsciously pulling on the jacket that held his presidential patch. “I worked too hard for this club to have it destroyed by a turf war. That’s the reason I’m letting you go. Got it?”

I looked him up and down and heard the will in his voice. I’d figured it would have died out after being unmanned by the Grim’s takeover, but it seemed to have survived. Whatever plans Chain’s had, they didn’t end with ridding his club of troublesome members, nor taking the pseudo president’s seat. I had a feeling the Grims were going to have their hands full with him.

With one last glance at the man, I turned without answering and walked away, the action a symbol in itself.

My men fell in line behind me, Hunter being the fastest to turn away without looking back, and we made our way back over to the bikes.

The Runner’s watched as our boys saddled up and Jax walked back over with Anna. She stood quietly beside him, tucked under his arm. Her face was looking up, but it was cold and distant as she looked at the boys. They all made soft gestures toward her, but that was all.

Jax brought her to me, and I slid off my jacket and pulled it around her. Blood was evident on her clothes, but we didn’t talk about it as she slid her arms into the sleeves and waited as I sat down on my bike before she slid on behind me. Her arms came around my waist and held tight as I fired up the engine and turned out of the old diner’s parking lot before hitting the road out of town.

I hit the gas and left Chain’s town behind as we made our way back to Fellpeak.

* * *

I felt the wind whip across my face, the humid air cool and moist as my tires raced across the pavement. The only protection was the heat wrapped around my back and the arms tight across my wide chest as they failed to meet around my width.

Anna was silent behind me, and despite our speed and the loud rush of the wind beside us, she’d usually be giving me as much mouth and sass as she had the day I met her. My mind struggled to think too far beyond anything except her silence, too worried to let my emotions take off during a ride back with my brothers behind me and Anna on my back.

Instead, the memory of the day I met Anna resurfaced, and my thoughts were subdued by the sound of girls, brothers, and music from over three years ago.

“Oi, asshole.”

My hands had paused on Soul’s hips, her white hair flipping over her shoulder as she’d turned to the sound of the voice.

I’d almost looked straight at her, the small, only just five-foot woman with the full rack that stood behind me. Baby blue eyes narrowed in a harsh glare, short, spiky blonde hair styled in a way that clashed hard with the two-piece dress suit she was wearing. She looked familiar somehow, but then again, I’d fucked a lot of girls.

“I think you’re in the wrong place, myshka,” I growled, wanting to get back to the skinny, twenty-something girl practically whining to take my dick.

“I don’t think so,” she growled back, undeterred by my cold welcome, her eyebrow rising as she jabbed her finger over her shoulder to where the door was. “You’re the new president, right? I heard you’re looking for a lawyer.”

“Yeah?” I sighed, my once appreciative gaze of her curvy figure now turning into a flat glare. “You here to give a suggestion.”

“Yep,” she popped, her red lips raking over each other. “You’re looking at her.”

I scoffed, my flat mouth turning into a smirk as I looked at the confidence radiating from her baby blue eyes. She was serious. “Babe,” I chuckled, pushing Soul off my lap as I rose from my seat. My height dwarfed her tiny size, even more so than I’d thought, and as my shadow loomed over her, I only saw her glare harden on me. Her reaction to what I said next made sure her eyes weren’t the only thing to harden. “Ain’t no woman going to be a club lawyer, babe. If you wanna play with the big boys, then try parking that ass on my lap, and we’ll play.”

The girl's hand lunged faster and higher than her reach, wrapping around the collar of my shirt and dragging my tall height down to her level as she shoved her lips against mine. Her red lips forced mine open, her tongue tangling with mine, doing a thing with her tongue that sent shivers down to my dick, making it rise to attention. Heat stirred inside me as I decided it was my turn, but I never got a chance. A sharp sting radiated down my lip as my mouth swelled with the metallic taste of blood.

The blonde pulled back, her tongue running along her lips as, without letting her eyes leave mine, she said, “I play dirty, you fat bastard, and I let no man tell me what to do. So you’re going to hire me as your lawyer, and you're going to take it with a bucket of salt before I unman you in front of all your boys.”

I had no idea what she meant until I felt the thin prick of the tiny blade against the bulge of my jeans. “You’re playing a dangerous game here, girl,” I growled.

“It’s Anna.” She smirked. “Remember it this time.”

With that, she tucked the little blade back into whatever crevice it came from, turned, and began to sashay away, leaving me standing there, curious bastards staring at me from all around, listening to the sound of those red boots clicking to the throb of my dick as I watched her round ass walk toward the door.

“Hey, bitch,” I yelled, a little annoyance rising as my brain caught up, causing her to stop in the doorway. “I haven’t accepted your deal yet.”

She turned so slowly that her saccharine smile and lethal baby blue eyes stayed long on my face when she purred, “You’ll come to me soon enough, big boy.”

Then she’d left.

And come I had.

We pulled into the compound; Anna seemed to have sobered up during the ride. Her wind-torn hair was all over the place, and she was trying to smooth it down as she slid off my bike. She took off my jacket and handed it back to me. I put it on, realizing it now smelled like her. She looked down at her clothes and frowned.

“I need new clothes,” she said, turning to look at the lot before she stopped. “I left my car,” she added on a soft note, her eyes focused on the concrete.

I turned off the engine before rising from my bike and taking Anna’s wrist in my hand. She didn’t fight me as I guided her in through the club doors and into the bar. I stopped at the edge of the bar, reaching to pluck a spare set of keys for one of the cages we kept in the parking lot from behind it. I threw them at the next unlucky bastard to walk through the door.

Mint caught them out of the air with fast reflexes and looked in the direction they came from, then glancing at the keys before giving me a curious look.

I turned back to Anna, pulled her keys out of her hand, and threw them to Mint as well. “Go get Anna’s car,” I commanded.

Mint nodded, looking for the second unlucky bugger to come with him. He looked at Jax first but quickly settled on Pipe instead, who didn’t bother to bitch as he got up and went with him. Prospects didn’t get to give a shit, after all.

I headed back toward my room, the only one on the ground floor next to my office, and pushed Anna inside. She stood with a frown as she looked around the room. Her eyes narrowed on the pack of cigarettes and a couple of empty whiskey bottles on the bedside table. She didn’t say anything, though. Her eyes just proceeded to look everywhere and anywhere.

I leaned up against the door, folding my arms against my chest.

“I told you not to look into it,” I said. My voice was hard and rough, and I watched as Anna stilled with uncharacteristic caution. “But you did it anyway. You disobeyed me. And your informant got killed and you almost along with him.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Anna bit back, her voice a conflict of annoyance and resignation.

“No, I don’t think you do,” I growled, shoving myself off the door with force. I had held off on this shit while we were at the diner on another club’s territory, but now we were back under my roof. I had shit to say, and Anna was sure as fuck going to listen to it. “I think if you knew the danger you were putting yourself in, you wouldn’t have gone and fucking done it.”

“I had it under control,” she argued but still didn’t dare look at me.

I walked toward her until I stood within reaching distance. I leaned down close to her face, and with a snarl, I growled, “If you had everything under fucking control, he wouldn’t have died.”

“You know what?” Anna snapped, spinning so fast her face almost crashed into mine. “I don’t give two shits what you think, Wolf. Shit happened that was out of my control. His death isn’t on my hands, so stop making me out to be the bad guy!”

She shoved at my chest, forcing me to take a step back. She marched her way to the door, grabbing the handle and pulling the door back.

I slammed it shut with enough force to make the wall shake. My palms lay next to her head, my arms caging her in. I leaned in close again, letting my lips come near to her ear. “Don’t you fucking run away from me,” I growled.

“I can do whatever the fuck I like,” Anna hissed, moving her head away from me.

I scoffed. “Yeah, and look where that got you.”

She screamed in frustration, shoving at me again and again as she tried and failed to break out of my hold. “What do you want, Wolf?” she yelled, her nails digging hard into my skin. “What do I have to do for you to get the fuck off my back?”

“Don’t pretend it didn’t happen,” I snapped.

Anna’s fight stuttered and died, her grip relaxing. Her eyes fell to my chest, distant. A look washed over her face, and I didn’t like what it did to her. Her shoulders drooped, but her hands still held on to my arms, as if my body anchored her to the here and now.

I dropped my head, letting it fall to the side of hers, my cheek touching her cool skin. “Don’t pretend like it doesn’t affect you; I can see it’s got to you, so don’t pretend it hasn’t. Don’t put that shadow on you,” I whispered.

“I was the last thing he saw, Wolf,” she whispered, her voice so very soft and injured. “I was the last thing he saw as he died. He was just a kid. Barely older than twenty, and it was my fault he died. It shouldn’t have been me he saw... not me.” Her head fell forward against my shoulder. She wasn’t crying, but her breathing caught every few seconds. She was quiet for a long time. I felt her head shift on my shoulder every now and then as if moving to free her mouth to speak. But then she’d think twice and her mouth would close. I didn’t think she would ever say it, but I didn’t move, and only after another minute or so, she pulled her head back.

“I didn’t cry,” she confessed on a desperate and soft note. Her blue eyes looked up to mine as if I could give her an explanation, or some kind of reassurance, but I had no idea what she was asking of me. “You’re supposed to cry,” she added. “When someone dies in your arms, you’re supposed to cry. But I didn’t.”

Anna shook her head, her eyes becoming absorbed with despair. “I can’t even cry now...What's wrong with me?” The question was spoken into the air; she expected it to be rhetorical, but I didn’t let it.

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” I answered. “Not everybody cries. Just because you didn’t cry, it doesn’t mean you didn’t care, and it’s not your fault, Anna. I know that when shit like this happens, it may feel like it, but it wasn’t your fault. Lizard made his own choices that got him that far. In the end...” I paused, feeling the words hit close to home. “In the end,” I started again, “it was his decision to meet you. His alone.”

Anna’s eyes lowered once again, and I hated the defeat that was still buried under her skin. She didn’t believe me.

I opened my mouth to speak again when a knock sounded on the door. Anna flinched in surprise and her eyes jumped up to mine.

“Prez,” Hunter’s voice came from the other side of the door.

“What is it?” I asked, hoping it was something I could put off until later.

“Church is ready,” he said, followed by the sound of his footsteps walking away.

“Fuck,” I groaned, knowing it was something I had to deal with immediately. This shit couldn’t wait.

I dropped my arms from the door and stepped back away from her. Anna’s body shivered as my warmth left her, and as much as I wanted to bring her back into my chest, I fought it. I reached my hand out to brush down the side of her cheek and said, “Stay here,” before letting her step away from the door so I could exit through it.

I hesitated as I left, and as much as I hated myself for it, I turned to look back. Anna’s eyes were pinned on me, watching me go. Fuck, she looked so vulnerable and open. It was the first time I’d seen her like this, and it tore at me to let her go, but I had no other choice.

My club needed me.

So did she.

But club always came first. That’s what being president meant.

I closed the door behind me and headed to Church.

* * *

I sat at the head of my table for the second time this week, pissed that we had to hold a second meeting when we weren’t even halfway through the week. We normally only had one or two meetings a week. Everyone’s club workload was divided in a way that meant they could handle their shit on their own, and even if they had an issue, Lamb could normally sort it on his own. Everybody was always busy doing something, so we weren’t thinking of expanding our investments at the moment, which meant fewer club decisions to be made; it was supposed to mean less Church.

“Somebody better tell me quickly how the fuck Anna almost ended up with her head blown off while we were none the wiser,” I growled, my hand clasped tightly around the handle of my gavel, ready to throw it at something at just the thought of what shit could have gone down.

“They followed Lizard, the kid who got killed,” Hunter explained. “He was sprouting shit on the guy who’s got his eye on us, and that’s the information Anna got her hands on.”

“What did he manage to tell her?” Pretty asked, looking at me. But it wasn’t me who knew.

“Nothing you’re gonna like,” Jax answered, his eyes also on me. I felt my hands squeeze the little wooden handle. “Anna said Lizard had found out that the bastard’s been buying up real estate left, right, and center, all in our surrounding areas—including the empty factories in the industrial area north of Fellpeak. Been getting as many clubs under his wing as he can. Most of them refused offers from him because the west is still under Charon’s influence, though he’s turned a few. Got himself some dirty politicians, too.”

“Fuck,” I growled. It was worse than I thought. “How the hell has this guy been moving around like this without us knowing about it? Somebody buys up a shit-ton of property, some fuck’s got to notice, especially when it’s on our territory.”

“It’s because he’s been flying low under Charon’s radar, basically hiding behind him. People just figured it was the Grims buying up more investments. It’s not uncommon for them to buy shit under false names. Nobody put the dots together until Lizard did.”

“But what the fuck has it got to do with our club? The fuck did we do to have this pain-in-the-ass bastard on our backs?” I pried my fingers from the gavel and threw it aside on the table, concerned I was going to start throwing it at my brothers’ heads. I would have if I didn’t have just as much a part in not noticing as the rest of them.

“He’s looking for something,” Jax informed the room, his eyes narrowing. “Apparently, we’ve got the key that’ll lead him to it.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I snapped. “A fucking key? This isn’t some kind of treasure hunt shit.”

“I don’t think he means a literal key,” Lamb interrupted. “Whatever it is, it’s the means to getting what he wants. Be it a person or information.”

I looked around the room at my brothers. Neither the old ones nor the young ones looked like they had a fucking clue what he was talking about. “Anyone got anything they want to confess?” I turned and looked at them all one by one. “Someone hiding some secret stash of gold or some shit we need to know about.”

Nobody moved, and I thought we were going to remain in silence until I saw Jax open his mouth, and I just knew some bullshit was about to come out of it. “Not unless he’s after my Italian underwear collection.” It got worse as his expression turned into genuine concern. “That shit cost me a fortune.”

“Wait.” I saw Pretty look up from his seat, his eyes dancing with light as he turned to Jax. “What about my stamp collection?”

“You have a stamp collection?” Jax scoffed, looking like his eyes were about to pop out of his head.

“No,” Pretty scoffed. “I was kidding, you dick. Do I look like some pussy to you?”

“Hey,” Polo snapped from across the table. “Ain’t nothing wrong with collecting stamps.”

“There ain’t nothing wrong with it,” Jax returned. “If this were still the 1950s.”

“You bastard—”

The gavel slammed down on the glass table and sliced through the noise like the crack of a whip. Silence fell upon the whole room as their gazes traveled to me.

“I run a fucking motorcycle club,” I growled, looking at each and every one of them. “Not a goddam fucking nursery!”

“Sorry, Prez.” Jax raised his hands in surrender. Pretty apologized in a similar suit, and Polo gave a huff and looked away. I’d known the old man my entire time in the MC; he’d been a hardass from the very beginning, and getting a full apology from him was like trying to get blood out of a stone. Not to mention, I didn’t have time to grill him, so I let it be and got on with this shit before I managed to blow my cap and smack one of them into a wall.

“We’re going into lockdown. We don’t have a fuckin’ clue what this bastard is after. With what happened with Anna today, I’m not taking any chances. I don’t like this shit happening so close to our turf, so I want everyone in. Part-timers, weekenders, the whole lot. I don’t give a shit if we don’t have enough room; you bastards are going to have to share. And if you even think about bitching about it, I’m gonna knock you into next week. Am I clear?”

“Yes, Prez,” echoed throughout the room, some of the bastards grumbling under their breath but conceding to my authority nonetheless. There wasn’t much more to argue on, since none of us had a clue as to what the bastard wanted, nor who he was.

With everyone in agreement, I told Jax to fill Mint in when he got back, and I slammed the gavel down once more, getting the fuck out of that room as fast as I could.