Rough Justice (Sinner's Tribe Motorcycle Club #1)(54)

Dawn stared down at her hands. “I had a very different life when I was with Jimmy. The stuff we did together … Not something I’m proud of and not something I go out of my way to revisit. But if you’ve got the skills—”

“I can’t believe we’ve been friends for so long and there’s so much about your life you’ve never told me.” Arianne raised her voice over the music. “I would never have asked you to help me if I knew you’d be going back to something you left behind.”

“And right there is the reason I didn’t,” Dawn said in a quiet tone. “Yeah, you grew up in the Black Jack clubhouse, but you got a soft heart. Same as Jeff when he’s not high or tweaking on drugs. That time he came to help you look after my girls when I was stuck at work, and he let them dress him up and pretend to be their daddy—” Her voice caught and she looked away. Dawn’s twin girls were the joy and sorrow of her life, and she rarely talked about them.

Pool cues clacked behind them. Someone laughed. The music segued into AC/DC’s “Overdose.” Arianne inhaled the thick acrid smoke and coughed. “Jeff changed. Viper changed him. I’m not sure I really know him anymore.”

“And I’m not sure I know you anymore.” Dawn fiddled with her watch. “From what you said on the phone, it sounds like you’ve broken all your dating rules with Jagger, and you guys are—”

“Nothing.”

“Seriously?” Dawn raised her eyebrow. “You told me it was the best sex you ever had.”

“It was the most intense sex I’ve ever had. With the most intense man I’ve ever met. He seems to think his ‘blood price’ claim means he owns me body and soul. He said he’d never let me leave Conundrum.”

Dawn twirled a strand of hair around her finger. “Maybe that’s his way of saying he doesn’t want you to leave. Most bikers I know aren’t good with expressing emotion.”

Arianne snorted. “What’s so hard about saying, ‘Hey, we had great sex. I like you. Don’t leave’? Why all the drama and scowling and stomping around growling ‘mine’?”

“I don’t know.” Dawn’s lips curled in a smile. “What’s so hard about saying, ‘Hey, we had great sex. I like you. I’ll stay’?”

“Because I don’t know if I can stay.”

“Do you want to stay?”

“I want the option.” Arianne twisted her mother’s ring around her finger. “Before I arranged to buy the passports, I had no option. I ran because the alternative was unbearable, but I always knew he would find me and bring me back. But once I have the passport, I’ll know that if I leave, it will be forever. I want that choice. A real choice. Then I’ll be able to think clearly. I won’t be afraid to make the wrong choice, because I’ll know I have an out if I do.”

Dawn’s face softened. “You must really like him. A few weeks ago, you wouldn’t even have talked about options. You were going. End of story.”

Arianne’s cheeks flushed. “I feel like I know him, understand him. He’s Viper, but with heart, soul, and the kind of body you just want to lick all over.”

The bartender returned with a pretty, red-headed waitress who promised to keep Wheels and T-Rex entertained and well supplied with drinks. After she reached the prospects’ table, the bartender motioned to them to follow, and they quickly rounded the bar, then walked single file down a narrow hallway to a small room at the end of the corridor.

The infamous Bunny—a pasty-faced, middle-aged man with a good-sized paunch and a receding hairline—gestured them inside from behind a wooden desk. If not for the two burly bodyguards standing on either side of him, the Beretta on the table, and the coldest, darkest eyes Arianne had ever seen outside the Black Jack clubhouse, he could have been anyone’s dad.

Bunny’s gaze flicked from Dawn to Arianne and then back to Dawn. “You.”

“Me.”

“You back in the game?”

Dawn lifted a cool shoulder. “Just helping out a friend. My girl’s looking to buy some guns for a customer of yours. Jeff Wilder.”

Arianne poked Dawn in the side and glared. “You know Bunny? Why didn’t you tell me you knew him?”

Bunny leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms behind his head, his gaze raking over Arianne’s body, leaving a bitter tang in her mouth. “’Cause she doesn’t want to know me. Bad things happen to people who know me. Like that piece of scum, Jeff. How are you involved with him?”

“He’s my brother.”

Dawn hissed a warning a second too late. Bunny’s ears perked up and his brow furrowed. “Viper’s daughter. Interesting. Never knew he had a daughter. I’ve had enough problems dealing with your brother. Not so sure I want to double my risk and deal with you, too. What’s it worth to you?”

“What do you want?”

“You. On your knees. Between my legs to start. Dee can stay and watch. She likes that kind of thing.”

Dawn bristled. “Fuck you, Bunny.”

He cocked his head to the side and leered. “You want in on the action, Dee, just say the word. I’ll take you both at the same time.”

Arianne’s throat burned. “How about we stick with cash?”