three riders cut their engines, climbed off, removed their helmets, and turned to make their way toward the gates.
The other bikes all cut off at the same time, making my ears ring with the sudden silence.
Nodding toward Huck and Cash at my sides, we moved forward as a unit as the rest of the men scanned the riders, fingers close to triggers should it become necessary to use them.
My own stayed just to the side of the trigger as I made my way to the gate, Lo's people pulling them open just far enough for me to see who I was facing up to without the wires between us.
Two men to the sides—tall, strong, tattoos, young like some of my newer guys, but not as young as my son.
But there in the center of those two, looking very much like the person in charge, was someone of the same age.
A woman.
With long, straight blonde hair, keen blue eyes, and a leather cut with a one-percent badge right below the one that said she, this woman young enough to be my daughter, was the president.
"Reign," she said, giving me a cool smile. "Looking like you're getting around just fine. Did you happen to get my care package?" she asked, keeping almost unnerving eye-contact.
"Shit," Huck hissed under his breath at my side.
"So, that was you," I said.
"It was. It was the least we could do, considering."
"Considering what?" I asked, feeling my spine stiffen.
"Well, considering I was the one who hired those idiots to grab you," she admitted, and I could hear someone cocking their gun behind me.
At the woman's sides, her men's hands went to their waistbands before she held up her hands to both of them, making them drop their arms.
"I'm confused why you would kill one of them when they were doing what you ordered."
"See, that's the thing about outsourcing," she said, waving a hand in the air. "They take the job and run with it like it was theirs to begin with. For the record, you were meant to be taken. And held onto. My orders were never to have you tortured. I mean, I love a little torture just as much as the next girl, but this was purely a snatch and grab job. They took matters into their own hands. They had to pay for that. You got to the rest of them before I could. But I felt it was our job to personally deliver Miguel. Make amends."
"If the job wasn't to torture or kill me, what did you want me grabbed for?"
"For a diversion, of course," she said, shrugging. "You were onto me. I needed you and your club to focus on something else for a while. So I could finalize my plans."
"You're the one fucking with our supply chain," I said, shaking my head.
"You weren't supposed to figure it out until we were all set up."
"Set up?" I repeated, jaw getting tight, having a feeling I knew where this was heading.
"Of course. I mean, this little town is big enough for two outlaw biker clubs, don't you think?" the woman asked, giving me a victorious smile.
It was right then that something came back to me. Something I had heard in the garage while I was strung up.
I'd heard bikes rumbling to life and pulling out.
At the time, I thought they were my men going to look for me.
But it never struck me until right that moment that the sounds of the bikes had been coming from the wrong direction.
Those bikes I heard had belonged to the members of this MC, led by the first female outlaw biker president I had ever seen.
Fuck.
Just when I thought things were calming back down.
"Anyway, we just wanted to stop by and introduce ourselves. That's what new neighbors do, right?"
"Depends on what kind of neighbors they are going to be," Huck chimed in.
"Careful," she said, her gaze cutting to Huck. "Or I will get all kinds of ideas about opening up a new chapter in your neck of the woods. Florida is nice and warm all year round. I can think of some men who would like it down there. And I don't think you want that kind of trouble, right? You have so much on your hands already."
Shit.
This woman had done her research.
Worse than that, we were completely in the fucking dark.
I had no idea who she was, who her men were, if they were connected to another club somewhere.
"I didn't catch your name, babe," I said, getting