he stopped with his hand at the small of her back and pulled her to him.
“I gotta go anyway, babe. Slept in. Need to get home, shower, get to the meeting.”
She glared up at him a second, then lost the glare and nodded.
After she did that, she rolled up on the toes of her bare feet and touched her lips to his.
When she rolled back, she muttered, “I’ll make you a travel mug of coffee.”
She went off and did that.
He went to the box of donuts and selected a cinnamon roll.
He ate it while she made his coffee. Rebel then wrapped up a chocolate-covered in a napkin for his second course and followed him to the front door where they made out too briefly before he lifted his head.
“Talk to them,” he ordered.
“I will. Be careful,” she ordered.
“I will.”
She smiled up at him, pressed close a second then pulled away.
He took the donut, he already had the coffee, and he walked the much shorter path to Essence’s back drive to get to his truck.
He ate his second donut and drank Rebel’s kickass coffee as he drove home.
Rush wasn’t thinking good thoughts as he rode his bike into the forecourt of Ride, heading toward the Compound and seeing Mitch Lawson and Slim Lucas standing with his dad, Hop, Shy, Snap and Hound.
He parked and swung off his bike, getting stiff chin jerks from a pissed-off-looking Mitch and a grim-looking Slim before they got in their unmarked cop car, started it up and pulled out.
He made his way to their huddle and stopped at his brothers, seeing their faces looked grim too as they watched Mitch and Slim pull away while High rode in.
“What’s goin’ on?” he asked.
Tack turned to him. “Cops got an anonymous phone call yesterday identifying those skulls as Crank’s, the other one Tyrone Spader, the man the police suspected of killing Black.”
Rush could not believe this shit.
“Valenzuela?” he asked.
Tack shook his head. “This stinks more like Chew.”
Rush glanced back to the forecourt before turning his attention again at his dad.
“Mitch and Slim didn’t look happy,” Rush noted.
“That’s more about the fact they know we took those two out, and they’re not fans of that,” Tack said. “But both of them were done before DNA matching was prevalent, so they don’t have any on file to confirm the IDs. Neither had kids. Crank’s ex hated him almost more than we did, think she burned everything that was his after he was taken out. But both have relatives. They could find them, take some DNA, make IDs that way. The issue with that is, even if they do, and they can tie them both to the Club with motive, there’s nothing else they got and nothing else to get. They can’t even know who to press charges against. The only brothers out are the brothers who weren’t in back then. They now know who’s dead. But it ends there.”
“That’s it? It ends there?” Rush asked.
“Mitch and Slim say we can expect to have search warrants served, Ride, Compound, probably our homes,” Tack replied.
“Shit,” Rush muttered.
“Nothin’ to find, Rush. A waste of everyone’s time,” his father assured.
“In other words, Chew did this to be a nuisance,” Rush remarked.
“In other words, yeah,” Tack replied. “That.”
“What a tool,” Rush muttered.
“Lawson and Slim gonna get over it?” High asked, having been briefed through murmurs while Tack and Rush were talking.
“Not thinkin’ this is a huge surprise for them. Havin’ it confirmed doesn’t make them happy, but they know what they’re dealing with.” He looked around his brothers. “Now let’s not give Chew what he wants from this. Wasting our time. We got a meet. Everyone’s got their job. We need to roll out.”
Rush turned in order to do that, but he stopped when Hop caught him by the shoulder.
He looked into his brother’s eyes.
He got a squeeze, and that was it.
Hop moved away.
But the minute he did, Hound moved in to do the same thing.
That was when the heat started to drift through Rush.
Hound let go, High moved in.
The old guard done, Shy moved in.
Then Snap.
The same weight landing on his shoulder, the same eye contact.
They knew he was sitting that meet with his father, they knew why, and they were all in.
Rush felt that heat remain, warming him through along with a weird sensation in his throat as he moved to his bike.