Cruz (Dark and Dirty Sinners' MC #5) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,95

older Sinners still hooted about how dumb those gangbangers had been during their breach.

But a bombing?

That was new.

And, God help us, that invited the FBI onto our territory.

After what happened in this very studio, I knew the Sinners 'recycled' their dead bodies somewhere on the compound. Would the Feds do a search of the grounds?

Jesus.

David was there.

David... who I hadn't even thought about once. Not even to miss the fact he always made sure I was fed and watered, and who'd bled out on my frickin' workstation floor.

But when I thought of him, I didn't think of the guy who'd drop everything to do what I needed, or to get me what I wanted, I thought of the prick who'd pulled a gun on me.

Who'd tried to control me.

Who'd followed Cruz, who'd surveilled me.

Yesterday, Cruz had gone upstairs while I was working and had come downstairs with a brown paper bag full of something.

Because I trusted that he wasn't stealing my groceries, and because he hadn't mentioned anything to me, I knew what it was.

Equipment David had set up inside my apartment to watch me.

If I was going to cry about anything, it was that. Not that I'd killed David. But now, if the tears were gonna fall, then I was going to weep over the fact that his corpse was somewhere on Sinners' land and there'd be wall-to-wall Feds en route.

And then, I recognized how selfish I was being, how fucking horrible. My only defense was I was in shock, but it wasn't much of an excuse, was it?

For being selfish over asking about the people I loved?

Wanting to punch myself in the gut, I rasped, "Cruz?" I knew Nyx was okay, because he'd called. But Cruz's absence resonated in a way that made me feel queasy.

"He's okay. Broken ribs, couple of burns on his arms, he got knocked out by debris we think. He's unconscious, concussed. We won’t know until he wakes up when he'll be out of here."

"I'll be there in seven." Seven because it took fifteen minutes, and that was as fast as I'd be able to get there.

"Okay. Just head to the ER," she muttered grimly. "We're taking up every fucking bed."

My heart skipped a beat at that. "Giulia, any deaths?" I asked even though I didn't want to know. The last thing I needed was to be driving double the speed limit while crying my eyes out, but... shit, I needed to know.

"Yeah." A shivery breath escaped her, and I knew she was on the brink of tears. "I don't know how we're alive, Indy," she whispered brokenly. "In the clubhouse, anyone near the front was fucked, but toward the back, they were okay. Most of the council, by dumb luck, were over by the bar, getting served according to Nyx.

"It's the people near the window who got torn up some, we lost Jaxson."

I closed my eyes. "He died at his own fucking patch-in party?"

“Y-Yes,” she stuttered.

I hated this fucking world.

All my life, I'd done everything I could to avoid it, and when I'd headed to Nawlins, it had seemed like it was doable. I'd missed Caleb, missed him like a bitch, but to be away from the clubhouse, to be away from the organized crime, had been a sweet kind of bliss.

I often asked myself why I had come back, and the only reason I had was, family.

When Mom had died, Rex offered to help set me up with a studio, and only recently had I regretted it.

This past nine months had been some of the most stressful of my life, because of the Sinners.

And here I was, giving myself to one of them? Falling in love with one of them?

Was I a fucking moron?

Why the fuck was I getting involved when I'd known since I was a kid, that I needed to back the goddamn hell away from the life?

Stone and me had always tried, especially after Steel had treated her like shit. She'd gone to the city for her studies, and until I'd been of age, I'd stuck around New Jersey until I could head for Nawlins where the late, great Laruso had let me apprentice with him.

Only something like a death could haul me back, and with Rex’s offer, I'd just never left. Taking comfort in being one town away when I decided where to set up my tattoo parlor.

But, I recognized, that gradually, I'd been slipping back into the life. What with taking messages into Rikers for Quin from