Chaos Bound (Sinner's Tribe Motorcycle Club #4)(56)
“Tank.” Jagger cut him off with a bark. “Slow it down. This could be a trap. If it was T-Rex, and he got out, why isn’t he here? Why is he driving around Missoula dressed in a sweatshirt picking up hookers instead of giving you a call?” He lifted the girl’s chin with his finger. “Isn’t that right, sugar?”
Tank startled when tears spilled down her cheeks. “I didn’t want that life,” she sobbed. “He got me out. He said Benson and the Sinners would help me.”
Jagger gave her a sympathetic look. “Benson’s not in a position to help you any more. It’s me who decides what happens to you, and I’ll be needing a lot more information about your meeting with that guy on the bike before I make any decision.” He stared pointedly at Tank as he emphasized the word “any.”
Tank felt the refusal like a punch to the gut. “But—”
Jagger shook his head. “I’m not saying we don’t go check this out. If T-Rex is out there, I want to find him as much as you, but we need to know what we’re up against. My job is to keep my brothers safe. There are pieces to this puzzle that make sense and pieces that don’t. Snake said he was dead. Now I got a girl who met a guy who knows your name, rides a fancy bike, got long hair and a beaver shirt. Maybe she’s making it up. Maybe she’s a Black Jack rat. I’m not sending anyone out on the road until I know for sure what’s going on.”
“Let me go,” Tank begged. “Just me. I’ll take the risk. If it’s a lie, I’ll find out. If it’s a trap, I’ll spring it. If he’s lost, I’ll find him and bring him home. If someone’s gonna die, let it be me.”
He couldn’t go against Jagger or the club. But how the hell could he stay here when T-Rex was out there? Needing him. Just the thought of T-Rex alone and hurting made him feel sick inside.
“Christ.” Jagger scrubbed his hand over his face. “If you feel that strongly about it, then go. But you’re not gonna find him in the dark. Wait until morning, so I can talk to this girl and make some calls so you got some support clubs behind you if things go wrong. And I’ll want your word that if anything feels off, or you see any Jacks about, you turn around and come home.”
Tank let out a relieved breath. This is why he respected and admired Jagger, would follow him no matter what. He listened, not just to a brother’s words, but also to his heart. He was firm but fair. And he cared about his brothers.
Tank’s phone buzzed, and he pulled it out and checked the message from the unidentified number.
Watch the ten o’clock news. See you at midnight. Ella.
Ella? He hadn’t given her his number. Damn bitch must have been in his phone while he was asleep. How did she get past his security? He scrubbed his hand over his face. What else had she seen? And what the f*ck was going to be on the ten o’clock news?
FIFTEEN
“I’ve never stayed in a place like this.”
Naiya toyed with the ring on her finger as Holt pushed open the door to the penthouse suite of the Conundrum Park Lane Hotel. For a man who professed to hate planning, he’d thought of everything. From ditching the bike to hiding the money and weapons, and from paying off the bus driver to make a pit stop outside of town so he could pick up their bags, to paying him again to drop them off in Conundrum.
“Me neither, but no one was complaining when I paid in cash.” He closed and bolted the door behind them, and Naiya drank it all in. Blending an Art Deco–inspired interior with modern luxury style, the room contained a massive, dark-wood four-poster bed, white-and-cream furnishings, period furniture, and a marble bathroom as big as her living room. Floor-to-ceiling windows took up an entire wall, framing the bright lights of Conundrum spread out below them.
“You can barely see the Bridger Mountains in the dark,” she said. “It looks like the lights just end, and then there’s nothing.”
“The Sinners’ clubhouse is right at the base of the mountains,” Tank said coming up behind her. “If you look real close, you might be able to see a light or two behind the trees. There’s nothing else out there except us, which makes it easy to catch anyone who comes near the clubhouse.”
Us. Unconsciously, he still thought of himself as a Sinner. What would happen to him if he went through with his plan for revenge? Naiya’s life had always been about survival. No one had ever needed her the way Holt needed her. He was lost, alone, confused, and in pain. He was, at heart, a good man, and his plan for revenge—the crutch that had helped him survive in the dungeon—was now tearing him apart. He needed to hear the truth from someone he trusted because if he was wrong about Tank and the Sinners, he would never be able to live with himself. A protector who went against his nature would be destroyed.
“So the Sinners are based outside Conundrum?”
“Technically, we’re still in the border, and everyone understands that it’s our town,” he said, again unconsciously including himself when he referred to his club. “We’ve got a lot of businesses operating within the town limits—strip clubs, night clubs, restaurants, garages, bars…” He pointed to a collection of buildings near the center of town. “That’s Rider’s Bar. It’s a Sinner bar, and when the brothers aren’t at the clubhouse, that’s where they’ll be. Tank and I had our own table at the back. You only get that when you get appointed to the board. Tank called it a chick magnet. The girls were always hanging around those tables.”