Ash (Dragon Riders MC #3) - Savannah Rylan Page 0,1

just when I thought the issue would resolve itself, the sensations would come back harder and more fervent for another round of torture.

Needless to say, I was thrilled to get to the bar.

I shoved my way into the bar, my jacket dripping wet with rain. I knew I’d have to take it back to the dry cleaners to treat and salvage it after getting it so damn wet. But I was here, and that was all that mattered.

“Hey! Ash!”

Link’s voice yelled for me and I whipped around.

“Yep?” I asked.

He motioned with his hand. “Back here. Come on. We need to start.”

There was an urgency in his voice that put me on edge. Link had never been one to panic. But ever since that little lawyer girl of his had come into the picture, he’d gone soft. I mean, most women and children made men go soft. Good men, at least. However, this wasn’t a time in the life of our crew when we needed to be soft. Or paranoid. Or anything else that had cropped up that put us in this fucking position in the first damn place.

“All right, we all here?” Link asked.

I took a head count before I gave our president a thumbs up.

“Wonderful. Okay. We need to talk about what happened in Hillridge Springs.”

Sly nodded. “We got fucked is what happened.”

Link paused. “Maybe in a bit more descriptive tone, yes?”

Bowser sighed. “How the hell did our recon not tell us that the Pythons were working with the Golden Jags?”

Knuckles raised his hand. “I want to know how the fuck those women could work with them in the first place.”

Link nodded. “Do we believe there’s a chance they don’t fully understand what they’re wrapped up in?”

Sly shook his head. “Not a fucking chance in hell. Not after what Bowser and I ended up seeing. They were fighting. I mean, full-on guns kind of fighting in that damn abandoned campground. And with the way they were all friendly with one another, it gave me the feeling that they’ve been working together for a while.”

I licked my lips. “Drugs and trafficking.”

Everyone slowly looked my way as my voice boomed over their heads even though I tried to keep it softer than usual.

“Do you know something?” Link asked.

I shrugged. “Been doing some research.”

Sly furrowed his brow. “What kind of research?”

I leaned against the wall. “The kind I do in the morning with my coffee.”

Knuckles blinked. “You find anything during this research of yours that we know nothing about?”

“I mean, some things. Not a lot, though.”

Link turned to face me. “Fill us in on what you’ve found, then.”

I cleared my throat. “I mean, just blogs and shit. You know how everyone’s got a blog now, online. People write about anything and everything just to get a few clicks on their Google ads.”

“What’s he talking about?” Bowser murmured.

“What I’m talking about, old man, is that I’ve found a few things buried deep in some weird-ass blogs that talk about the Pythons and the Golden Jags.”

Link nodded. “How weird are we talking?”

I shrugged. “Less ‘weird’ and more ‘they stopped posting two years ago probably because they’re dead.’”

Knuckles snickered. “We don’t actually believe what he’s saying, right?”

Sly sighed. “For shits and giggles, what did the blog say?”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “That the Golden Jags have a drug side and a trafficking side.”

Link shook his head. “We already knew that. They also launder money.”

I nodded. “Yep. But the blog also says the Pythons are helping the Golden Jags with their trafficking efforts. Taking a cut off the top.”

Bowser stared at me. “Oh, come on now. Some stupid ass blog somewhere can’t possibly know all that shit.”

Link walked toward me. “You said they stopped posting a couple of years ago?”

“April 8th, 2018 was their last post on the blog.”

“Why does that date sound so familiar?”

The room fell silent before Sly put it together.

“Shit,” he murmured.

I nodded. “Yep.”

“What?” Bowser asked.

Knuckles pushed himself off the wall. “What are we missing?”

Link rolled his eyes. “Can you send me the link to that blog? Those posts, specifically?”

Sly held out his arms. “Anyone gonna fill us in!?”

I looked over at him. “April 8th of 2018 was around the time the Golden Jags came into town and shacked up in that shitty motel of theirs.”

Sly shook his head. “It could just be a coincidence.”

“Yeah, well, us thinking shit was nothing but coincidences put us in this position in the first place. So, I think we should run with it.”

Knuckles held