“Who is it?”
A slow grin spread across Ryder’s face. “Someone I’m damn sure you want to talk to. She got my number from Jackie.”
Swallowing past the lump in his throat, James took the phone and dashed up the stairs to his room. Slamming the door behind him, he pressed Ryder’s cell to his ear.
“Babe…”
“James.” Her relief was almost palpable. “I was so worried. I couldn’t leave until I knew you were safe. But I didn’t know who to call.” Her voice came out in a rush and before James could take a breath, she was talking again.
“I tried the DEU, but they said you didn’t exist. So I called Tony because you said he knew you were undercover. He told me he had some information that made him wary of calling the DEU or the police, but he had a friend in the Coast Guard. So we called them instead. I wanted to go to Kirkland but he wouldn’t let me. He said it was too dangerous.” A raw, guttural sob escaped her lips. “I thought they were going to kill you and I thought…”
He knew what she’d thought. Hell, he’d thought about it too. “It wasn’t a good day to die,” he said softly. “I’d decided to go after you. There was something I’d forgotten to say.”
She drew in a ragged breath. “What?”
His gut clenched as he imagined telling her what he should have said, instead of walking away two years ago. But he couldn’t do it over the phone. He needed to see her, hold her. Show her his feelings went beyond words. “I’ll tell you when I get there. Where are you?”
“I’m at my office.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“I shouldn’t be here much longer. Rex is trying to find out who sent the Coast Guard, but if Tony was involved he’ll hit a dead end pretty fast. Can you wait for me?”
“I’ll wait.”
James sagged against the door as the tension he’d been carrying with him since she’d run from Carpe Noctem eased. She was safe and she was waiting for him. Emotion overwhelmed him and for a moment he couldn’t speak.
“James?”
“Yeah, babe. I’m still here.”
“I need to tell you something.”
Overwhelmed by the sudden urgent need to see her, he grabbed his pack and threw open the door. He was done with the DEU. Done with the assignment. And Rex could fucking go to hell. He was leaving now and no one was going to stop him.
“Tell me when I get there,” he rasped. “I’m on my way.”
“Well, look who’s running away.”
James spun around, only three feet from the front door, to see Bones and Diesel standing behind him, guns leveled at his chest.
“Rex wants to see you.” Diesel jerked a thumb behind him.
Bones smirked. “He wants to see you pretty bad.”
They flanked him through the clubhouse as he made the march down to Rex’s office. The inner circle was seated in a semicircle around the room, faces grim. Bones slammed the door behind him and took up a guard position.
“We’ve got some unfinished business from the beach.” Rex leaned over his desk. “Usually I don’t like to bring shit into the clubhouse, but since we had to break the rule to bring back the drop…” he pointed to the cocaine-filled backpacks lined up against the wall, “…I don’t see why we shouldn’t break the rule about getting rid of rats.”
James’s pulse pounded in his temples, and he pulled up a mental picture of Rex’s office. Thirty-five square feet. Small bathroom at the back. One door now guarded by Bones. Three windows along the side, now guarded by Punch, Dawg and Diesel.
Five against one. Six, depending on which way Ryder would swing. All armed.
Bad odds at the best of times.
His heart stuttered in his chest. He should have told Lana over the phone what he wanted to say. He should have told her he loved her. He should have said goodbye.
“I just called you a rat,” Rex growled. “You got nothing to say? No denial? No defense? No explanation?”
Adrenaline pumped through James’s veins, forcing his body into hyperawareness. He felt his every rasping breath, heard the scrape of every chair and the slide of every weapon leaving a belt or holster. He tasted the bitterness of betrayal on his tongue. He saw Rex’s anger and Ryder’s calm confidence. He smelled the acrid odor of death.
“Jesus Christ, Rex. You don’t crap in your own nest. We can’t off him here.” Ryder leaned against the wall, arms folded, weapon hanging loose between his fingers. “You need to take him off Hades’s property. If the police ever raid, they’ll bring dogs. No matter how much you clean, the dogs will smell the blood. Then they’ll be all over this place with a fine-tooth comb. They’ll find things you didn’t even know were hidden. We’ll all go down, and for what? For a fucking rat?”
“He’s not worth it,” Bones said. “Let’s take him out to Gunn Island, or Williamson. They’re both isolated and restricted to the public. You already took a risk bringing the kilos on site. We gotta dump them before we do anything else. And our guests should be back soon. You don’t want a mess.”
James’s heart hammered in his chest, and he forced himself to look anywhere but at Ryder. His friend was on his side, but even two against five were bad odds in such a tight space.
Rex looked from Ryder to Bones. Then he studied James for a long moment. “You would’ve made a damn good biker, but you’ll make an even better dead rat.”
He leveled his gun and smiled.
Lana paced up and down in front of her office window. She’d called James almost three hours ago. Where was he? With Levi in town she couldn’t wait much longer.
The wind whipped around the building, rattling her windows. He’d better hurry. If it started to rain he wouldn’t be able to ride and they would have to run away in her Jetta.
A half smile curled her lips. Wouldn’t that be the ultimate irony? The car he despised would save yet another life. This time, hers.
She still couldn’t believe he was coming to help her. Even after she’d run away. Nothing she’d done had put him off. He had trusted her with his heart, how could she do any less for him?
A thud sounded at the door and a gasp broke free from her lips. Breathless anticipation ratcheted through her as she ran into the foyer and threw open the deadbolt. Only then did she remember.
James had a key.
The door slammed open. Lana staggered back, her breath catching in her throat as she came face-to-face with her worst nightmare.
“Levi.” Her horrified whisper brought a cruel smile to his thin lips.
“Hello, darling.”
Lana’s stomach clenched violently. She willed her feet to move, but fear and shock had frozen them in place. Even after so many years, she couldn’t look at him without a painful tightening in her chest. His beauty—sharp and sensual—had not diminished with age. Black hair, steel-gray eyes, sharp cheekbones, a narrow jaw and a cruel slash of a mouth. With his pale skin, his incisors shaved to points in tribute to Fang, he resembled a gothic vampire. But he was no comic book villain. Tall and muscular, his corded forearms covered in tats, he’d dished out his strength frequently and always with a side helping of bruises.
“Did you miss me, Roxie?” He struck her across the face, the blow so hard her head snapped to the side.
Lana stumbled away and fell to the ground. Ears ringing, she could just make out Kickstand’s angry shout as he raced into her office and crouched protectively by her side.
“You told me you were friends. You can’t touch her. She’s Ice’s girl.”
“She’s no one’s girl.” Levi kicked her in the ribs with the hard tip of his biker boots, and she instinctively curled up, trying to protect herself from the sharp, familiar pain.
“She’s my wife.”
A hushed murmur swept through the crowded Hades clubhouse as Levi dragged Lana into the center of the empty lounge. The main floor of the clubhouse had been cleared of furniture for the extraordinary visit of the Wolverines. James counted at least twenty Wolverine patches in the crowd. A large contingent for an insignificant city, but a small group in the packed clubhouse.
Every full-patch member, prospect, old lady and Hades affiliate had been called to witness Rex’s biggest triumph. The return of a runaway slave to one of the biggest, most powerful motorcycle clubs on the west coast. The reward was substantial. The accolades impressive. But the goodwill Rex had bought Hades was priceless.
James couldn’t decide whom to kill first.
Hands cuffed behind his back, ankles tied together, flanked by Ryder and Bones, James growled his anger and frustration. Ryder glanced over and frowned, warning him to keep quiet. If not for the timely arrival of the Wolverines, Ryder might not have been able to convince Rex to hold off the execution. He shouldn’t be pressing his luck.
Claw and a sheet-white Kickstand stood beside Ryder. Tears streaked Kickstand’s face. Horrified that Rex had used him to lead Levi to Lana on the pretense of reuniting two old friends, he’d begged Rex to release him from his pledge to the club. Rex had promised him his patch instead.
Rage thrummed through James’s body when Levi forced Lana to her knees and fisted her hair, holding her in place.
“Which one of you is Ice?”
James forced himself to keep his gaze on Levi, and not Lana on the floor, head bowed under the pressure of Levi’s fist.
“I’m Ice.”
“I heard you were fucking my wife.”
Wife?
The word cut James like the sharpest knife. Had she married the bastard? Was he sleeping with another man’s wife? She knew how he felt about marriage and she’d slept with him anyway? Betrayal hit him like a punch to the gut. She’d lied like Christine had lied.
“I didn’t know she was your wife.” His low, cold voice betrayed no emotion as he turned his gaze to Lana. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She didn’t look up. Instead, she moaned softly, and the utter despair and hopelessness in her voice diluted his bitterness to a dull ache.
“Answer him.” The icy tone of Levi’s words stung James’s flesh. “Tell him what a bad wife you were, running away and hiding from me all these years.” Levi yanked Lana’s head back and James looked at her aghast. Eyes swollen, lip split, face covered with cuts and bruises. But what made his heart ache most was the desolation in her eyes, dark without hope and bleak without her fire.
“Answer him, dammit.” Levi struck Lana across the face and her head snapped to the side.
Protectiveness surged through him. How could he condemn her for running away from Levi? He suspected she’d only touched on the abuse she’d suffered during her years with him. Theirs wasn’t a marriage to be saved; it was a marriage that should never have happened. A marriage to be forgotten. Abandoned. Just as she had done. She’d left Levi to start a new life, heal the scars…and James had just added another.
“Fucking bitch.” Levi kicked her thigh. “I’ll make you talk when we get home. Or, better yet, I’ll let the brothers convince you to talk.”
Hot, hard rage suffused every cell in James’s body. Suddenly it didn’t matter that she was married, or that she hadn’t told him the truth. He was done with rules and rigid, meaningless personal codes. He’d been so focused on the past he couldn’t see his future standing in front of him. It was time to leave the path and follow his heart. Follow his fire.
“You’re not looking very apologetic.” Levi turned his gaze on James. “Maybe you don’t understand. Not only did you fuck my wife, you fucked the property of the Wolverines.”
He lifted Lana by the hair and spun her around. She moved like a rag doll, limbs limp, body swaying. Levi yanked up her shirt and shoved her jeans low enough to give James a clear view of her tattoo. The tattoo she hated. The tattoo he had kissed.
“Same mark we use on all Wolverine property,” Levi said. “Equipment, furniture…slaves.” He kicked Lana’s knees and she dropped to the floor.
James’s vision sheeted red. He yanked at the cuffs, pulled against the hands gripping his arms, his body shaking with the effort to get free. Two minutes. That’s all he needed to wrap his fingers around the throat of that soulless bastard and make sure he never hurt Lana again.
“Looking at her now, you wouldn’t believe it took eight guys to hold her down,” Levi said with a smirk. “She fought like a fucking wildcat. Bit a chunk out of one guy’s arm and nearly tore the balls of another one. But they finally got her pinned and I marked her myself. My initiation into the Wolverines.”
Rex motioned Bones over to the side and blood pounded through James’s veins as he sensed an opportunity to escape. Frantic, he looked over his shoulder. He’d never asked for help, but he was asking now. Voice cracking, he rasped, “Ryder.”
“Son of a bitch,” Ryder muttered behind him. James felt a tug on the handcuffs and the soft scrape of metal on metal as Ryder worked the lock, stepping between James and the rest of the inner circle to keep his activity hidden from view.
Levi spun Lana around again and pushed her to her knees. She wilted to the floor, her hair drooping over her shoulders.
She’s lost hope.
Because of me.
Fury poured from James’s heart, his rage directed not just at Rex and Levi, but at himself and his inability to see what really mattered.