to be cooling off a little—not shirking their duties, but relaxing, thinking that Xavier wouldn’t chance coming for Mal again with the police closing in on proof.
“Pops?” Raven asked. “Everything okay?”
“Where’s Blade?” I stood up. “Blade! Get in here!”
Gunnar’s eyes narrowed. “What happened?”
“It’s Xavier,” I said, low. “I’ve about had enough of this shit.”
Blade, Logan, Rebel, and Coop stepped inside from the backyard. As soon as Blade saw my expression, the smile fell off his face. “Priest? What’s going on?”
“Xavier’s sending me messages now,” I said. “He’s fucking with us.”
“What kind of messages?” Blade asked sharply.
“Videos,” I said, angrily. “Of him and Mal.”
“He recorded videos?” Raven asked. “Secretly?”
“Yeah,” I said, grimacing. The anger was building, growing like a flame inside me. “Fucking violating. And then sending it to me to get under my skin? He’s escalating even when we’ve got our shit on lockdown.”
“That’s fucking disgusting,” Coop said. “What an asshole.”
“More than an asshole,” I said. “This is unconscionable. I’m not going to fucking wait around anymore while he toys with us. He’s winding up to something, and I’m not about to let Mal get caught in the crossfire of it. What the fuck are the cops doing?”
“These things take time,” Rebel said apologetically. “But doing things the right way is the only way to ensure he’s put away for good. The worst outcome would be not having enough evidence, and he walks.”
“I’m sick of waiting!” I barked. We’d done everything the right way: gotten the restraining order, let the cops into the motel, established our enforcement tails, sat on our hands while the cops took their sweet time testing the evidence. And the whole time Xavier was just out there, biding his time. Walking free. “He’s not just sending texts anymore, he’s got video. Who knows what else he has? Who he might send shit to? He’s got to be planning something, and I’m not going to wait to find out what it is. I think we’re overdue for some club justice.”
“Priest,” Blade said. “We agreed that wasn’t the route we were taking here. Mal agreed.”
“I don’t need him to know,” I said. I was impulsive, dizzy with rage. I just wanted to get my hands on this fucker—this asshole who was making Mal’s life hell. He deserved better than that. And I was going to make it happen. “This is personal now.”
“Don’t be crazy,” Gunnar said. “Even if it’s personal, it’s still club business.”
“Pops, you don’t even know where he is,” Raven said.
“Come on,” Rebel pleaded. “The cops are close.”
“I’ll find him,” I said, then turned on my heel and headed toward the door. I didn’t need the guys’ approval, not right now, not when I was being driven ahead purely by anger and disgust and not a small amount of possessiveness.
As I approached my bike, though, a familiar engine rumble cut through the silence. Mal pulled up next to me, cut off the engine, then pulled off his helmet to reveal his easy smile.
“Hoped I’d catch you here,” he said. But then his brow furrowed. “What’s wrong?”
Some of my anger dissipated in the face of his concern. With a sigh, I pulled out my phone and showed him the video message.
“Shit,” he said. His voice was quiet, and his face went slightly pallid as he watched, eyes wide. “This just showed up on your phone?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Unknown number.”
“That fucker,” Mal growled. “I should’ve known he’d have something like this.”
“You didn’t know he was recording?” I asked. I didn’t think so—but I needed to be sure.
“Of course not!” Mal said. “It was a random fling. I don’t need a recording of that. But it makes sense now that he’d do that. And keep it in his back pocket like this. Jesus.” He rubbed his forehead. “This just keeps getting worse and worse.”
My blazing anger faded again, settling into a low burn, like coals. Not so urgent anymore. Seeing Mal’s face fall made it suddenly obvious what was more important right now—supporting him. He didn’t need me to go out and throttle Xavier, no matter how much I wanted to. That was what I wanted to do. But that wasn’t what he needed.
What he needed was a friend.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go to my place. Have a beer. Talk about what to do.”
Blade stepped out onto the porch, looking like he was about to yell after me, but when he saw Mal and me together, he snapped his jaw closed. “Hey, Mal.”