Leave a Trail (41 page)

Adrienne knew—or at least knew part of it—so she stepped up to the ropes, still cradling Joey in her arms. “She left when you went into the Keep.”

“Alone?”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck!” He dug into his pocket and came up empty. “I need my phone!” Double A ran out to toward the Hall.

Then Cory was pulling on Adrienne’s arm. Adrienne turned and saw that she had Millie. Where was Shannon? Adrienne looked around and saw her climbing into the ring.

Cory pulled again. “Come on back to the Hall with me, Adrienne. Let’s make some way. We don’t all need to stand around and watch.”

“But they’re okay, right? They didn’t just
kill
each other while we watched, right? Right?”

“Come on. I’m sure they’re okay, but we need to get out of the way.” When she pulled again, Adrienne came. As they approached the double doors, Lilli came through, her expression drawn and even angrier. Kellen was right behind her, looking freaked out.

~oOo~

Isaac and Show were okay. Swollen, badly beaten, and concussed, but okay. Once Tasha got back to the clubhouse and tended to them, putting them both immediately to bed, the clubhouse cleared out. Badger left to trade his Harley for his truck so he could take both Adrienne and Hector home. They first went with him to the B&B while he did some work.

While he worked, Adrienne watched Hector and Weasel get acquainted. Weasel was not impressed. Hector very much was. It was cute to watch.

Then Badger drove them home. They showered and got in bed, where they stayed, except to tend to Hector’s biological needs and their own, for the rest of the day.

It was dusk, and they were eating popcorn in bed, naked, watching a DVD on Adrienne’s new laptop. Despite its rocky start, once it was clear that Isaac and Show hadn’t beaten each other to death, it had been a good day.

But they had yet to talk.

Adrienne paused the movie and closed her laptop. Turning to face him, she sat cross-legged. “Badge. Tell me what’s going on. Why did Isaac and Show do that? Aren’t they best friends? Why was Lilli so mad? And Tasha, too. What’s going on?”

Badger dumped back into the bowl the handful of popcorn he’d just grabbed and set the bowl aside.

“I haven’t figured out where the line should be with what you know, babe. I want you safe, and I don’t want you too freaked out.”

“Fuck that.”

His eyes got huge. “What?”

“I’m not a hothouse flower. I’m in this life. I want to know. I want to know how to shoot and how to protect myself. I want to know exactly what it is I’m worried about when you go away. That’s how you keep me safe. By not keeping me ignorant. And if I freak out, I’ll get over it.”

He smiled then, and it was full of love and pride. “Okay. Okay. I told you we’re going to fight the guys that hurt us last year. It’s a drug cartel.”

She couldn’t catch the gasp before it got away, but she didn’t react otherwise. She held his eyes and waited for him to go on.

“Turns out the Feds have a guy inside the cartel. He’s going to help us…take care of the man who ordered Hav’s death and what happened to us all that day.”

“’Take care.’ You mean…” She couldn’t say it out loud.

Badger didn’t answer, but he cocked his head and lifted his brows, and she understood that, yes, he meant ‘kill.’

“He’s been in the cartel for a long time. He has the whole club on charges that could put as all in prison until we die.”

“Badge, God. No!”

“Easy. He offered us a deal. It’s involved, and I’m not gonna give you those details. But it boils down this way: if we come out of the fight we’re heading to, he’s going to help us collect on that debt, and he’s not gonna take the club down. His price is Isaac and Len are going inside. For a pretty long time. Six years, at least.”

“Oh, my God. Oh, my God. But—Gia and Bo! I don’t—oh my God!”

“Yeah. It sucks. But what Isaac had planned before this deal was sure to get him killed. This is the best plan. It gets us free of the cartel, it gets justice for Hav, and it gets Isaac and Len home someday.”

“This is the kind of crap you’ve had stuffed in your head all this time? Badge, you have to tell me—for
you
, you have to tell me. You should be able to unload that.”

“You’ve already been through so much because of me, Adrienne. I lean hard on you already.”

“We lean on each other. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to go?”

He picked up her hand. “Yeah. I guess it is. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She lifted his hand and kissed it. “Is all this why Isaac and Show fought like that? I still don’t understand that.”

“Isaac is giving up the gavel. It makes sense—he’ll be locked up for years, and he won’t be close enough to lead from inside. But Show threatened to turn in his patch when Isaac and Len go in. Leave the club. Isaac winning that fight means that Show stays and takes the gavel officially. He doesn’t want it, but he’s the right one to take it.”

“They fought so hard over that? I don’t understand.”

“Isaac and Show are a team. They just are. They finish each other’s sentences. I don’t think Show knows what the Horde is without Isaac. I don’t think any of us do. When he was hurt before, we just sort of spun our wheels until he came back. But Isaac thinks the Horde will fold if Show’s gone, too, and he’s right.”

“Wait—is Isaac leaving the club?”

“No. He’ll die Horde. Len, too. They bleed Horde blood. But they’ll be away so long, the club will have to go on without them until they come back. We’ll have to figure it out.”

Adrienne started to cry. She was sobbing before she recognized that her sadness was so acute it required tears.

Badger pulled her close, burying his face in her hair. “Fuck, babe. I’m sorry. I knew I shouldn’t have told you so much. I’m sorry. Please.”

She shook her head and sniffed, getting control of her rampaging emotions. “No—I’m glad you told me. I’m just so sad for everyone. It’s so sad.” The tenuous hold she’d claimed slipped, and she wept again.

This time, Badger just held her, rocking her slowly, his lips on her temple.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Badger held Adrienne as close to his body as he could, tucked into his kutte, her feet off the ground, his face snug in the crook of her shoulder. He breathed her in, feeling the gossamer floss of her hair caress his face. She had him in the same grip, with her slender arms fastened around his neck, her face tucked likewise into his shoulder.

He pursed his lips and kissed the sweet flesh of her throat. “I love you,” he murmured, letting her feel his words.

“I love you, too. You have to come home. You have to.”

He leaned back a little, so that he could see her face, her deep blue eyes rimmed with long, amber lashes, the light spray of freckles that kissed her skin. “I will. I promise. I’ll come home, and we’ll get married, and things will be better. They’ll be good. I promise.”

She nodded, her eyes going wet. When he set her feet back on the gravel lot, she grabbed the placket of his kutte in both hands and gave it a shake. “You just made me a promise. No take-backs.”

He laughed and kissed her nose. “No take-backs. I’m coming back.” She stepped into him again and laid her cheek on his chest.

Holding her to him again, Badger looked over her head at the scene around the clubhouse parking lot. The Horde had been forthcoming enough with family that they all knew the men were leaving today for big trouble. Isaac, Show, and Len were all wrapped around their women the way he was wrapped around his. He’d made Adrienne a promise, and he meant to keep it, but there was no guarantee he would. To come out of what they were about to do—even with the Feds in their corner somehow—would require a kind of luck the Horde hadn’t had in years, if ever.

They were leaving Double A, Dom, and the Prospects home to take care of the town, in case their plan blew back on their loved ones again. It made them fewer in the fight they were headed to, but they couldn’t leave their home vulnerable. There was only so much Lilli could do on her own. The old ladies were locking down with the kids again—and the puppies, too. Isaac and Show had said goodbye to their children already; they were in the clubhouse playing innocently with the pups, being watched over by club girls while the Horde said goodbye to their women.

Badger had given Adrienne the most rudimentary shooting lesson, not having time to do more. But she knew how to make a handgun fire—and how to make sure it didn’t, unless she wanted it to. It was the best he could do, and he hoped with everything he had that she wouldn’t need to try out her scant skill while he was away.

“Okay, brothers. We need to be on the road.” Isaac stood with his arm still tight around Lilli’s shoulder. He kissed her temple, whispered something into her ear, and then stepped away from her. That was the sign for them all. Badger gave Adrienne a last, long squeeze and then lifted her chin up and kissed her, taking from her soft lips and tongue as much of their love as he could. His hand slid around her neck and down her spine to lightly brush her fresh ink. His ink. A badger pawprint, high between her shoulder blades. Still new, it was tender, and she winced subtly at his touch.

“Sorry, babe. Can’t keep my hands off it.” He spoke with his lips still on hers.

She pulled away a little and smiled up at him. “It’s okay. I love that you love it. I love it, too.”

Show’s shadow moved over them, and Badger stepped back. “I’m ready.”

Show nodded, then turned to Adrienne and cupped her cheek in his hand. “Love you, little one. You be strong. I’ll keep him safe for you.” Like Isaac, Show still bore the marks of their battle in the ring.

She wrapped her arms around his waist. “Thank you. Keep you safe, too.”

Show hugged her and kissed the top of her head. Then, looking at Badger, he nodded toward the bikes, and they headed over together.

Cory and Nolan were outside with the families. As the men headed to their bikes, they followed Isaac’s lead, each stopping to hug Havoc’s old lady and eldest son.

As the Horde rolled out of the lot, away from their home, Badger looked back to see all the women standing in a line, holding hands. Nolan was not with them.

~oOo~

Today was not the day that they would face the Perros, so Badger was able to relax a little on the ride. He used the time to think through the club’s situation and its immediate future.

They were riding to Tulsa, to meet with the full Brazen Bulls club and to finalize some details of their plan. They were staying the night in the Bulls clubhouse. Tomorrow, they would rise early and ride to Amarillo, where they would meet up with the Scorpions LA—such as they were, with their whole club in disarray. All told, there would be twenty men facing down a Perros crew in Amarillo. They would likely outnumber that crew and win the first skirmish. But Amarillo was Perros turf outright. And they were not turning back after taking out the Perros at the pick. They were riding deeper in. Going for Santaveria himself.

David Vega had, so far, come through in every way he’d said he would. The Horde’s lawyer had gone through the paperwork and told Isaac and Len that it was a good deal, and that what Vega had told them—six to twelve years, at Marion, housed together—was what he’d delivered. He’d even added the bonus of an early January intake date, giving them the holidays with their family before they went in. Isaac had signed his deal as soon as the lawyer had cleared it. Len had signed his, too, over Isaac’s vehement protests. Seaver had not yet left office, though Vega still promised it would happen. Len wouldn’t wait, though; he did not want there to be any chance that Isaac would go in alone. Now, it was left to Vega’s sense of honor whether Seaver would be forced out.

Shortly after Isaac had signed his deal, Vega let him know that Santaveria would be in Amarillo. He’d convinced the Perro boss that, with the pipelines all in trouble, he needed to meet with his men and shore up morale. Vega had also told Isaac how many men they could expect between Santaveria and the Horde. Amarillo was a Perro Blanco hub, a nexus for several pipelines, where product brought up from Baja circled back into Perro hands for repackaging and distribution. They had a large plant, a repurposed factory, where workers who were essentially enslaved—probably delivered to the Perros in trucks with false walls—packaged drugs into decoys ranging from electronics to stuffed bears.

Over all that industry, inside and out, fifty men armed with high-caliber assault weapons kept watch.

Fifty. Against their twenty—assuming that everyone in the Horde, Bulls, and Scorps survived the first fight, and assuming that the Bulls and the Scorps stayed with them for the inward push.

Inside the factory, the Horde would find Santaveria and his four personal guards. If they could get that far. Luckily, one of those guards would be Vega himself. If they could dispatch that last line of defense between Santaveria and the Horde, then he would be at their mercy. Badger had no idea what Isaac had planned. But he wanted it to be slow, painful, and bloody.

Badger knew it was still basically a suicide mission they were on. So much had to go just right for them to have any chance at success, and nothing yet had gone right for them where the cartel was concerned. But it didn’t matter. If they didn’t get free of Santaveria’s claws, then they might as well be dead. And their women and children would never be safe.

Their children. Since a few nights ago, when Adrienne had not let him go and he’d come inside her, the thought that they might be making a child together danced always at the edges of his consciousness. Sometimes it took the spotlight. When he watched her with Millie and Joey, for instance. He’d seen it before, that innate mothering she seemed to have, the obvious bond she had with the twins. It was seriously hot. The thought the he—
he
—could be a father rang his bell.

He had to get home. He had to. The Horde was due for some luck. They had paid, were paying, for their mistakes and transgressions. They were not the bad guys. They had to win this time.