Kace (Shattered Souls MC #3) - Heather Dahlgren Page 0,23

hiss.

She sighs and I hear a door close. “Nothing for you to worry about it, it’s club business,” she whispers.

Of course, it is. It’s always going to be club business with them. I need to just get there, tell them, and get back to my peaceful place. I’m sure that’s exactly what Kace is going to want anyway. I close my eyes, fighting back more tears.

“Ivy?” Harper questions.

I clear my throat, sitting up straighter. “Sorry, what?”

“I said what’s really going on?”

“We’ll talk tomorrow, I just wanted to let you know I’m coming home.”

She continues to push, but I tell her a friend is coming over so I need to go. I finish half my grilled cheese while I search for flights to Vegas tomorrow. I find one and book it, hoping that tomorrow at this time I’ll be searching for flights back here.

Chapter 5

Kace

“You guys look like shit,” Zane says, laughing as he sits down. He rests his hands behind his head looking over our various injuries. I’ve got stitches above my eye and some bruising around it. My lip is swollen, which caused me to need to remove my lip ring. I fucking hate not having it in, but I need the swelling to go down so it doesn’t rip. Riley’s nose is broken, so he’s rocking a splint on it and some seriously black and blue eyes. Porter’s lip is swollen with a nice gash from his tooth going into his lip. Alex has some bruised ribs, but nothing visible and Finn came out unscathed.

“Fuck off,” Riley says, flipping it off.

Zane blows out a breath, running his hand through his hair as he looks around at us. “We need this deal to go through.”

“You think it will?” I ask, crossing my muscular arms.

“I honestly don’t know. Harper is doing her best, but the dealer never dealt with anyone but Kingsley or Dom. Without those two, it’s a big uncertainty,” he says, lifting his shoulder.

“If Riley would’ve just kept his fucking mouth shut, maybe we wouldn’t need to have an extra thing to worry about,” Alex hisses.

“No one is going to disrespect me; I don’t give a shit who it is. We are goddamn Shattered Souls, they will fucking respect us all,” Riley growls.

“You don’t get respect from running your mouth, asshole. You earn it from being the bigger person and ignoring juvenile bullshit,” Alex retorts, moving closer to Riley’s face.

“Enough,” Zane yells. “What’s done is done, we can’t change it.”

Alex is right. Riley should’ve just laughed it off or ignored him completely, but that’s not him. He reacts before he thinks, always has. He did make this worse because now Damon is gonna want my blood, not his and no one earned respect. I’m pissed I’ll be looking over my shoulder because of defending him.

“What can we do to help Harper?” I ask, needing to focus on something other than beating the shit out of Riley.

He shakes his head, leaning back in the chair. “We’re gonna need to discuss it all around the table. Brooks wants to hear what everyone thinks.”

“Harper shouldn’t even be involved,” Riley says.

“No shit, but what choice do we have?” Zane growls, leaning over the table.

I grab his arm, pulling his back. “We have no choice. She’s only talking to former Vegas Kings, we’ll handle the dealer,” I say, more for Zane’s sanity.

“She’s meeting with Marco today, so we’ll see what he says,” Zane says, sighing.

“Look, no matter what happens, this shit isn’t about you and Harper. This is about trying to keep those pricks out of our neighborhood. It’s not the same thing, brother. Let that shit go. We won and you are fucking happy,” I say, slapping Zane’s shoulder.

Porter carefully tips his beer back, careful not to hit his lip, as he looks around. “Kace is right. This problem is not focused on one of us, it’s all of us. The Vegas Kings were bad because of the drugs, but we don’t need drugs and psychotic assholes. This plan will work, we just need to convince the dealer what a great opportunity it is. It’s the money they’re after, not making friends. They won’t care how fucking insane and unstable the Raging Devils are, as long as they are selling.”

We all nod agreeing and for the first time since yesterday, I feel a little lighter. Porter made a great point. It’s all about the money and if we can convince the dealer they will sell more than Kingsley ever imagined, he’ll go