Letting Her Lead (Ghost Riders MC #3)(11)

She’s so freaking tiny. I can’t even picture the two of them together, but it’s clear he put a baby inside her.

“I just wanted to check on Casper,” I tell her, hoping she’ll let me be on my way.

“I heard you shot her! Man, I bet she was mad.” She half smiles like it’s funny.

“Ah, yeah. I didn’t mean to. I…“ I stumble over my words, unsure what to make of this whole backwards conversation. “Do you know where I can find her?”

“Probably in her room. Chained to her bed with Vincent’s face between her legs if the moaning I’ve been hearing for the last hour is any indication.” She points to a door down the hallway.

“She really shouldn’t be doing that.”

The blonde starts giggling. “Nothing in this whole world can keep Vincent off Casper. He’d burn this place to the ground if someone tried.”

I just give a wan smile. How else am I supposed to respond to that? Men around here are clearly obsessed with their women. It’s oddly sweet and not something I would have expected from a motorcycle club, but a lot of what I’ve been seeing since I got here hasn’t exactly been expected.

“If you see her or this Vincent guy come up for air, will you let her know I’d like to check on her? Make sure no infection is setting in or anything,” I ask as I start to make my way down the hallway before the little blonde tells me to get back into my room.

“Yeah.” Just as I’m about to pass her, she reaches out and grabs my arm. “He’s a good guy. He won’t hurt you. They’re all bark and no bite when it comes to the women they care about.”

I just nod. Maybe she’s forgotten I’m being held hostage. I haven’t been hurt, but still.

“Vincent works for the FBI. Don’t go trying to escape. He’ll make sure no one believes a word that comes out of your mouth if you try to run to the police,” she says, dropping her hand from around my arm.

“Dirty cop.” I throw back at her, not liking her threat. I get it, but I still don’t like it.

“Vincent would do anything for Casper, and Casper loves this club. That means protecting it. If you call taking care of something you love ‘dirty’ then I guess we all are.” With that, she turns and shuts the door, leaving me alone in the hallway.





10





Lucias





By the time Savage and I get back to the clubhouse, it’s almost dawn and all I want to do is go to my room and crawl into bed with Izzy. It feels good knowing she’s there. Something I’d been wanting for months is finally at my fingertips. We found Pinch held up with some strung-out chick on the outskirts of town. He’d gone there in an attempt to hide when he got out of jail. When Savage and I kicked in the door, the little shit started begging for his life. He knew what was coming. Time was up.

We let his girl go, and she was all too eager to ditch him and make off with their stash of drugs. We let her run thinking this was the end of the line for him. We needed her to spread the word so that things got left alone and I could keep my promise to Izzy. People would think Pinch was dead.

We did manage to get in a few punches without causing too much damage. He needed some kind of retribution for all he’d done to f*ck over the Ghost Riders. He was coming in as a prospect and got just enough information to sell it to the highest bidder. The kid was f*cking smart. And real f*cking stupid.

I crack my knuckles as we walk in, thinking about the beating he took. Cried like a bitch, but I think we got the message across. I made sure he knew that Izzy was mine and that he didn’t need to think about coming back for her anymore. I explained that the club had decided to give him a gift and he could keep his life, but if any of us so much as saw his shadow, he was going underground.

He agreed to get out of town and never come back as long as he knew his sister would be looked after. I guess some part of him deep down may have still cared for her, but not enough to put up much of a protest. Personally, I think he’d been waiting for someone to either take him out or end his situation, and he seemed ready to take the out.

“You talk to Julie?” I ask Savage as we walk into the club house.

“Yeah. She went to her mom and dad’s and got little A.J. I’m going to meet her at home since this shit’s taken care of. You cool if I head out?”

I pat him on the back as I pass him, going to my office. “Yeah, go be with your family. We’ll catch up later.”

Hearing him take off, the exhaustion pulls at me. The sun is coming up, but I’ve been up all night, and all I want to do is go upstairs and find Izzy and fall into bed with her.

I need to go into my office and check in with Scribe before I do that, so I make my way over. When I get to the closed door, I reach for the knob and before I can turn it, I hear Izzy laugh. I know that laugh because she’s given it to Ham before. She loves that damn dog, and it makes me so unreasonably jealous I could spit nails. Suddenly a rage is rolling over me and I jerk open the door, wanting to know who she’s giving her laughs to.

Izzy is on the couch in my office playing on a computer on her lap, Ham next to her. Scribe is sitting in a chair on the other side of the room on his laptop, too. When they hear me enter, they both look up for a split second and then go back to their laptops like I’m not even here.