have a problem.”
I stroked her cheek. “I’m not doin’ anything dangerous, Parker.”
“You weren’t when you got blown up, either.”
I sighed. She had me there. “I won’t get blown up again.”
“Thank you. Now go so you can come back quicker.”
I kissed her and walked to my bike, heading to the barn where I found Doom waiting for me in the kitchen.
“He downstairs?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“You left him for me, right?”
“Yeah, brother. He’s all yours, but I’m gonna be at your back for insurance.”
I nodded and he followed me into the basement where Joseph Fines was duct taped to a metal chair. I smiled while the kid stared up at me with terrified eyes.
“Hey, Joey,” I said, good-naturedly. “How’s your day been?”
He couldn’t answer me because his mouth was duct taped shut.
“Well, it’s about to get better,” I continued. “For me.”
I reached over and tore the tape off his mouth, eliciting a whimper from him.
Pussy.
“Oh, was that a little rough?” I asked. “I apologize. Oh, wait, no I don’t.” I pulled my arm back and slammed my fist into his face, although, I pulled my punch since I wanted him to stay coherent.
“What the fuck?” Joey screamed. “You can’t do this to me.”
“Who says?”
“Sugar Bear. You better stop, dickhead.”
Sugar Bear was the president of the local chapter of the Spiders and a royal pain in everyone’s ass. Joey was Sugar Bear’s brother-in-law, and had been helped out of a sticky situation with law enforcement by Doom’s woman, Lyric.
Only, Joey was taking that help for granted.
“We’re just gettin’ started, asshole,” I hissed. “There was an agreement. One that was airtight. Are you telling me that Sugar Bear’s reneging on that?”
The club had made a pact—more specifically, Lyric and Sugar Bear’s old lady, Tammy, had made a pact—not to touch women and children, and Sugar Bear had agreed to it. If Joey was doing this, it was on someone else’s orders.
“Fuck you,” Joey spat out.
“Not my type,” I growled, slamming my fist into his face again, then into his belly.
“Brother,” Doom warned.
“What?” I growled, turning to glare at him.
Doom nodded toward Joey. “He’s out.”
“Goddammit!” I roared, dragging my hands through my hair.
“What’s your end goal with this?” Doom asked.
“I want the cancer fuckin’ gone, Doom,” I ground out. “This is bullshit.”
“Killin’ Joey’s not gonna get that done, brother.”
I sighed. “I know.”
“We need to cut the head of the snake off,” Doom continued. “Find out who the fuck this Beast person is and bring them down.”
I crossed my arms. “And how do you propose we do that, brother?”
“You’re the genius, you tell me.”
“Doom—”
“Fists aren’t gonna resolve this one, Rabbit. We need to be smarter than that.”
I dragged my hands over my face and nodded. He was right and he knew it, but I appreciated that he let me get a little aggression out despite that fact. “Did you grab his phone?”
Doom nodded, handing it to me. “What’s the plan?”
I nodded toward Joey. “I’ll tell you later.”
Doom understood my need for discretion as I hacked into Joey’s phone and downloaded spyware on it. I wanted to know where he went, who he talked to, and the details of every conversation he had.
I handed the phone back to Doom.
“You good?” he asked.
“For now.”
“Go take care of your woman, brother,” he suggested. “We’ll take care of Joey. Lyric wants to have a little conversation with him.”
“Well, shit, he’s fucked.”
Doom grinned. “Yeah.”
“I’m gonna head out, then.”
Doom gave me a chin lift. “Later.”
I walked upstairs, stopped to check in with Doc, then headed to Parker’s Petals. As I rode, I couldn’t stop memories from flooding in, but this time, I let them come.
I was standing in the barn kitchen, getting ready to open a beer when my phone buzzed. I pulled it out, and seeing Parker’s name pop up on my screen, I answered. “Hey, Parker.”
She whimpered out, “Rabbit?”
“Pebbles, you okay?”
“No.” Parker sniffed, and my blood ran cold. Parker rarely cried. “I’m not sure.”
“Where are you?”
“My place,” she said. “Can you come over, please?”
“Yeah. Give me ten minutes.”
“Okay,” she whispered, and hung up.
“Hey, buddy,” Jasmine said, waltzing into the room.
“Any clue as to why your girl’s cryin’?”
“Watch your tone,” Alamo warned as he walked in behind Jasmine.
“He’s fine, Mo,” she said, then turned back to me with a frown. “Which girl?”
“Parker,” I said.
“No. Why?”
“She just called, blubbering and asking me to come over.”
“Well, shit,” she hissed. “She had a date.”
I froze. “With?”
“Someone I told her not to go out with,” Jasmine lamented. “Which is probably why she called you and not