Cruz (Dark and Dirty Sinners' MC #5) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,72

she was like an angel. While I was no monster, I was well aware that she deserved a man far better than me. But few would slay her demons like I would, and I had to take comfort in that. Take refuge in the fact that I could give her what few else could.

Sanctuary.

A home.

I held out my hand for her, even as I asked, “Can you grab my chair?”

“Is everything okay?” she queried as she hustled over to it, then pushed it my way.

As I clambered into the wheelchair, I murmured, “Everything’s fine, baby.”

It wasn’t.

A witch hunt had just begun, but I always worked at my best when I was under fire, and with her to protect, as well as Katina, under fire was an understatement.

Cruz

I expected him to smack the shit out of me the second he saw me, and I was prepared for it, even if I didn’t have time to be dealing with a fistfight, not when David was leaking evidence all over Indy’s fucking tiles.

It was my job to get rid of bodies, but this time it was personal.

Indy was going to jail over my dead body, so I needed to get moving.

Maybe Nyx registered my concern, my level of dedication to this particular cause because when he tapped on the back door and slipped inside, he didn’t say shit, just stared straight ahead at the body on the floor.

Donavan Lancaster had been much worse, and I knew, for a fucking fact, what my brother put his victims through was a lot grodier than this, but he still blanched.

Murder was murder, after all.

And with Indy’s past and ties, who the hell knew what could go wrong.

See, for most white folk the cops were a comfort. To others, they weren’t, and while Indy hadn’t done a damn thing wrong in her life, in their eyes, she was still the ‘red-skinned bitch’ who’d be judged and found wanting by those wearing a badge simply because her daddy had been a Sinner and her brothers were too. Throw in the fact that Quin was in fucking prison? That was just another nail in her coffin.

Suddenly empathizing with Steel because Stone had been in a similar situation, and look what had happened there? I knew someone had beaten the shit out of one of the detectives working her case because he’d treated her like crap…

“The sheriff is on our side in this town,” Nyx rumbled, like his thoughts and mine were entangled.

“You trust him with her?”

Our gazes clashed, and he ducked his head, which gave me my fucking answer.

Reaching up, he rubbed his eyes before he muttered, “What went down?”

“As far as I can tell, nothing that would necessitate this level of force.”

He scowled at me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That he didn’t rape her. But he did pull a gun on her.”

That had him snorting. “Then this level of force was exactly right. No one holds a gun on my fucking baby sister.”

“I’d ordinarily agree if it didn’t mean she was under threat. If she’d done this on the compound, I wouldn’t give a shit, but we ain’t on the compound. We’re in the middle of fucking Verona, and while the West Orange sheriff is on our side, who the hell knows if Verona PD is?

“Even with the law in our pocket, Giulia was still slated in the press by the Lancaster family, and I ain’t about to have Indy go through that, not when she’s already—” My words waned, dropping off before they had a chance to tumble on because I realized, then and only goddamn then, that Indy had never told Nyx the truth.

Not about her past. Not about that cunt. Not about anything.

Fuck.

“She’s already what?” he rumbled.

I shook my head. “Nothing. It doesn’t matter. I’m just not willing to let her go through that kind of scrutiny, not after this shit with Stone. Not when we’ve seen what the cops’ll do to our women because of their ties to us.”

There was a malevolent entity in his eyes as he stared me, and I’d swear to fuck, he was possessed as a tidal wave of hate was leveled my way. “Our women?”

I tipped my chin up because I wasn’t scared. Maybe it took one monster to dance with another monster without one of them pissing themselves, but I’d been dealing with cunts since I was born.

Thanks, Mom!

“Yeah, our women.”

“You staking a claim?”

“Not staking shit without her say so.”

“We’re Sinners, we ain’t equal opportunity when it comes