Cruz (Dark and Dirty Sinners' MC #5) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,101
name now. I responded to it much quicker than I did the one I'd been given at birth, but he'd always abbreviated it, and it always tightened the binds between us when he did.
Whether he knew it or not.
With that one comment, he was reminding us both of what we'd been through together, of the friendship we'd had that had lasted for over a decade, of the animosity between us when we fought, of the times we'd fucked, of the times we'd made love.
Whenever he called me Star, he was twisting us back in time, and he didn't even know it.
But then, his regrets were different than mine.
I'd never really gotten over him before I'd been crash-landed into hell. Mav had fallen for Dominic, and when I said fallen, I meant worse than I had tonight.
Mav had come out of that relationship a thousand times more devastated than the mere injuries of a broken leg, ribs, and bruised hips.
I'd thought Nic had broken him all over.
From what I'd heard at the clubhouse, he had.
Until Ghost.
"Is she okay?” I asked, meaning it, caring about her when I cared about few people in this world. I cared that she was well because he needed her to be, and I needed that, because I loved him. But I wasn't good for him, and she was. This little mouse who'd earned her own nickname because of the damage done to her voice when she was held captive by a bunch of sociopathic gazillionaires.
This tiny woman who, somehow, held a brick shithouse’s sanity in her grasp.
"She's fine. Thank fuck," he rasped, peering down at her with a loving smile on his face.
It hurt, but it was good to see too.
I wanted this for him.
I wanted him to be happy.
He deserved it.
Me, not so much.
"I'm glad. No broken bones?"
"No. They were outside, all the Old Ladies were, but—" He shook his head. "I've never seen anything like it on home soil. Was more bang than blast, but still set fire to a ton of shit. Figure that’s the seventies’ building code to blame though.”
Because I could tell he was being cautious on purpose—either to piss me off or because he didn't know the full truth—I muttered, "I'll tell you what I know if you tell me what you know."
His smirk was my first clue to the fact that I'd fallen hook, line, and sinker for his bullshit.
Those goddamn eyes of his.
Jesus.
He should wear sunglasses to protect womanhood of all ages.
Prick.
“First off, where’s Katina?”
“With Lily and Link.” His eyes softened a touch at me though. It always seemed to surprise him that I cared for the kid like she were my own. Which, to me, she was. "Why were you on the roof?" he repeated his earlier question, and I got it.
In the middle of a party neither of us had been bothered about attending, why the hell had I decided to go on the roof? I pursed my lips, deciding not to prevaricate.
"Intel."
"What kind of intel?"
"You know I have a lot of chatter streaming in at all times."
In this instance, it came from an unlikely source. That fucker, aCooooig.
Seeing a photo of Cruz head for the house of a known FBI agent had started me down the rabbit hole, especially after I knew what he'd witnessed me do. Then, I'd done some digging, and what I'd discovered saved his ass from me, because he'd covered up more murders for the club than Ted Bundy, but along the way, I'd learned Rex was using him as a 'double agent.'
Of course, I'd only figured that out thanks to the bug I had in his office and the tracking device on his phone.
Sure as hell couldn't tell Mav that, now could I?
Anyway, looking into Cruz had led me to his mother, who'd led me to what I'd been looking for since I'd taken back my freedom.
The New World Sparrows.
NWS.
AKA, bunch of fuckers.
"I do, and I'm going to be hella pissed if you heard chatter that indicated there was about to be a strike on the compound."
Jarred from my thoughts, I shrugged. "Chatter can be meaningless. I'm sure your brothers would have just loved me if I'd told you to cancel the fucking party because of some bullshit I might have heard on channels that aren't exactly reliable."
He pursed his lips in disapproval. "Since when don't you share intel that might be pertinent, Lodestar?"
I winced. “Ouch. I’m Lodestar again?"
"Yeah. You let my people down. We could have prevented all this."