Allegiance - Chiah Wilder Page 0,35
until he’s put all of his guys in leadership positions and we’re dealing drugs, running hookers, and fighting dogs again. It won’t stop at that, and it’ll get worse before it gets better. I know your son’s real sick and it tears you up. Hell, I don’t know how you and Lynda are handling it, but you haven’t lost your mind, have you? You’re acting like you’ve got shit for brains. You can’t believe the horseshit Hammer’s feeding you.”
Raptor’s eyes flashed, and he ran a slow hand through his hair. “I understand what we’re dealing with, Tank. I get it. Nothing’s clearer to me than the situation, but I’m out of options. My son comes first, and that’s just the fuckin’ way it is.”
Clenching his jaw, he shoved his hands into his pockets. “Got it.”
Silence stretched between them, leaving Tank to struggle with surprised sadness, as well as the slow burn of anger building inside of him. He swallowed past the emotions, trying to come to terms with what the club’s future would be now that Raptor was out for the long haul—maybe forever. One thing was for sure: Raptor would never get the power back once Hammer took control.
“You know this means war—brother against brother. You do fuckin’ understand that, right? The club will be torn in half between you and Hammer.”
“It’s been like that for a long while now. It’s nothing new.”
“So that’s where we are with it, then?” Tank sighed and rubbed a hand down his face.
“That’s how it is.” Raptor took one last drag and snubbed out the butt. He took a step back and put both hands on either side of his head, looking through the bay window into his house.
Tank saw shadows behind the curtains.
Raptor looked over at him. “Look, I gotta go. Something could be happening.”
“Yeah, go. Don’t let me hold you up.”
Raptor nodded but hung back, his hand on the doorknob. When he spoke, his voice was gruff and hard. “Have a good night, brother.”
“Yeah, right.”
Before Tank could turn around, Raptor walked inside the house and closed the door. He’d made his choice, and in doing so, he’d sealed the club’s fate, forever closing the door between the past and the present.
There was no denying or putting it off anymore: shit was going to go down.
With a heavy heart, Tank started his Harley, pulled away from the curb, and blended into the traffic.
Lena
Lena’s nerves had been rattled all day long, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. While she did the preliminary paperwork for a new hire, she kept glancing over her shoulder, convinced that the two thugs were lurking about. I’ve got to get a hold of myself. Those bastards haven’t made an appearance since that first night. Besides, Sheriff Windsor promised he’d get to the bottom of it. She’d told him the date the thugs were supposed to come to the restaurant, and she had every reason to believe that the sheriff and his deputies would catch them in the act, making the whole extortion BS stop.
The previous night, after work, Lena had stopped at the grocery store on her way home. She saw a couple of men in the meat department wearing the same vests as the bastards who’d come into the bistro ten day before. Fear seized her, but when she’d realized they weren’t the same assholes, she took out a pen to jot down the name on the back of their vests, when one of the guys turned to look at her. He said something to the other man, who also turned around. Scared out of her mind, Lena picked up a package of boneless pork chops and hightailed it out of there.
After she’d come home from the store, the only thing she’d remembered on the vest were the initials MC. A quick search on the computer made her blood run cold. The thugs who’d come into her store that night were part of a motorcycle club.
A knock on the bistro’s front door startled Lena out of her thoughts. The shop had closed at eight, and it was now nine o’clock. When she’d locked the door at closing, there hadn’t been very many people on Main Street. Since the assholes’ visit, Lena had made sure that the restaurant’s front door was always locked behind the last customer.
She picked up the yellow highlighter and continued going through her paperwork when a thunderous pounding on the front window made her jump. All the hairs on the