Chaos Bound (Sinner's Tribe Motorcycle Club #4)(79)

“He may never be back,” Jagger said quietly. “I know men in the army who went through what he went through. They never got over it. And if they did, they weren’t the same.”

“What’s your role in all this?” Dark and dangerous looking, Zane scowled. “Why is Viper after you?”

Naiya twisted her ring around her finger. “My mother owed him a debt. He decided to collect it from me. He kidnapped me from my mother’s funeral and took me to his clubhouse. He—” Her throat tightened and she clenched her hand into a fist. “He dragged me to his room and I stabbed him in the chest with a pen knife to fight him off. He threw me in the dungeon to teach me a lesson. At first, I thought if I helped Holt, he would take me to you, and you would owe me a debt and protect me from Viper. I didn’t know he was going to go after you for abandoning him. When I got to know him better though, I realized his heart wasn’t in it. Revenge was a crutch, at least as regards the Sinners. But now that he knows the truth, he’s got only revenge against Viper to keep him going.”

“He can’t go after Viper on his own,” Jagger said. “Viper knows we’ve got a mark on him. He’s tightened his security. He never goes anywhere without at least eight bodyguards. The bike rally coming up is our best chance to get close to him, but we need to work as a team.”

Naiya shook her head. “Holt needs his revenge.”

“He’ll have it, but not alone.” Jagger gave her a measured look. “I don’t want to lose him again, and we’ve put a lot of time and planning into the hit on Viper at the rally. We need you to keep an eye on him. Let us know what he has planned so we can stop him if we need to.”

Betray Holt? After he’d spent three months feeling betrayed? When he felt like he had no one to trust? Take away the one thing he had lived for all those months? The one thing Naiya secretly desired but had never been able to admit, not even to herself?

She stared at Jagger, stiffened her spine. Aside from Viper, he was probably the most intimidating man she’d ever met, and only a few weeks ago she would have agreed to his demands, desperate to get away and hide, afraid to stand up for what or who she believed in.

“I won’t betray him. He needs this. And he needs to do it his way.”

Jagger’s eyes narrowed. “I’m trying to protect him, Naiya.”

“You’re trying to protect your club,” she said. “And he’s not alone. He has me, and I want revenge, too. For both of us.” She felt the truth of her words as they dropped from her lips. She wanted Viper to pay for what he’d done to her and her mother, and locking him away wouldn’t be enough. Most of the Jacks had been in jail at some point in their lives, and except for the fact they couldn’t go beyond the prison walls, life for them continued as it had before: they ran their illicit operations, enforced their dominance, enjoyed their vices, and expanded their territory.

“And you’ll have it,” Holt said from behind her. “By my hand.”

Naiya’s eyes widened as she looked over her shoulder and met his cool, dark gaze. How long had he been there? How much had he heard?

*

It had been a mistake coming back to the club.

Holt reached out and clasped Naiya’s hand, drawing her to his side. Far from being reassured after hearing the efforts his brothers had made to find him, he still thought they hadn’t done enough. Why had no one made an effort to check for identifying marks? What about the tat on his arm? And leaving a body behind? Was that a story Sparky and Gunner made up because they didn’t want anyone to know all they cared about was saving their own skins? He gritted his teeth, squeezed Naiya’s hand.

“You okay?” she whispered.

“We’re outta here.” He’d heard enough. The brothers were set to betray him again. But Naiya—his Naiya—had refused to help them.

Even if he could have accepted that they did everything to find him, he couldn’t accept what happened in Viper’s house in the forest. He’d caught that look between Tank and Jagger. There was something they didn’t want him to hear. But he had a secret, too. He’d heard them from the dungeon. Chained to the wall, his body bruised and broken, hope had flared in his chest, burned so bright he found the strength to bang his fists, rattle the chains, scream and shout, “I’m here. I’m here. Brothers, save me.”

But they didn’t come.

Nothing Viper had done to him had hurt as much as the moment his last hope fizzled and died.

And now, not only had his brothers left him to rot in Viper’s dungeon, but they also planned to take away the only thing that had kept him alive. Revenge.

“We want the same thing, brother.” Jagger and Zane shared a glance, and Zane slid his hand beneath his cut. Holt’s skin prickled in warning. So they thought he was a threat. Well, he’d make sure they understood just how dangerous he could be if they tried to stand in his way.

“Then we’ll do it my way.”

“Come to the meeting and hear us out,” Tank pleaded, shooting a desperate look at Naiya. “We’ve been setting this up for months, paying off the locals, planting bugs in the hotels. We haven’t left anything to chance.”

“Except me,” Holt snapped.

“And we’re glad to have you back.” Jagger leaned against the wall. Outwardly, his posture was casual, relaxed, but Holt could feel the tension rolling off him, see the anger pulse in the veins of his neck. Once, he would have been cowed by Jagger’s anger, but nothing scared him anymore. There wasn’t anything Jagger could do to him that Viper hadn’t already done.