Saving Dancer (Savage Brothers MC #2)(8)

“I still don’t understand why the club got involved.”

“Dance, they’re your family, whether you acknowledge it or not. That was why. Still, you haven’t finished looking at the last picture.”

I look back through the folder to find the photo in question. My body breaks out into a cold sweat and my breath stalls.

Fuck me. Why? What would be the point?

I pull it from the rest and look. It is a picture of me covered in the blood of the man I had killed. Carrie is crying and reaching for me as the police pull me away. I remember that night easily. It is engrained in my brain and frozen there in stark clarity.

I remember the feel of the knife in my hand, the breeze in the air, the stink of the dark alley, the way the moon shone down on Carrie’s auburn curls, the lust in the f*cker’s eyes as he ripped the shirt off her shoulders and put his fat, dirty hands on her small, pale breasts. I remember everything. Every. Last. Thing.

Yet, there is one thing I had somehow forgotten. Maybe semi-forgotten, but just the same I didn’t remember it as strongly—until right now. The dim memory of how it felt to have Carrie in my arms when I promised I would protect her. For a moment everything in my life had been…right. It hadn’t lasted long, because minutes later men were tearing me away. I could do nothing but listen to her cry out my name.

I turn the picture over, read the writing on the back and my blood runs cold. My heart freezes.

Vengeance shall be mine. Phoenix.

“Who the f*ck is Phoenix?”

“If you had been around here sooner, that would be one of the answers you would know. Dance, I told you the club needs you. We’ve got crap to take care of since the mess with the traitors.”

Dragon never used Irish’s name. He hadn’t since the day it happened. When he came to the prison to tell me about it, he used the man’s name once and after that it was never used again. I understood it, hell I felt the same. It was bitter shit to know that a brother we trusted as one of our own would do that shit. Twist wasn’t that hard. Neither Dragon nor I had emotions tied up in the man. Irish had been a brother. If I had room for more nightmares, Irish might have been in them.

“I’m here now. Tell me who the f*ck it is that’s been coming after Carrie.”

“I’d watch my tone, Dance.”

“Bullshit, if some f*cker was coming after your woman you’d be worse. Now tell me who the f*ck I’m dealing with.”

“Well don’t that beat all,” Dragon says and leans back in his chair, his eyes raking over me and instantly making me uncomfortable. Dragon sees more than the normal man, it is one of the things that makes him such a good leader.

“Drag…”

He holds up his hand to stop me from going on and then pulls himself close into the table.

“After the shit with Nic and her girl I went after Skull and his men full force. All roads led to them and I was ready for heads to roll. Only, it seems Tiny had just signed on with Skull’s crew a month out. He came recommended by their parent charter.”

I nod because while I figure this shit has nothing to do with me, it will eventually lead me to what I need to know.

“Skull swears he didn’t know about Tiny and what the f*cker did.”

“You believe him?”

Dragon shrugs, but eases back in his chair.

“Skull’s a smarmy son of a bitch, but he has a code and top of that code is no hurting women or children.

“So who is this f*cker?”

“Some ass wipe having a ball toying with me and mine,” Dragon growls.

“So you’re saying we have no idea who this * is?”

“I didn’t say that. Got to wonder though, if you’re so done with the club and you hate Red so much, why you care?”

“Drag, psycho-analyze some other motherf*cker, I’m not playing.”

Dragon gives a half laugh, looks me over once more and rubs his chin and the side of his face, as if he’s deciding something.

“The cop you gutted, turns out his dad has some pretty powerful connections.”

“What’s that mean?”

“This motherf*cker is the father of the man you killed.”

“If that’s true, I could see him coming after me, after Carrie even, but why the club?”

“Because you are the club and it’s not a secret I pulled in every marker I had to try and get your ass out of trouble.”

“So why can’t we just find this guy and put a bullet in him?”

“Damn, why the f*ck didn’t I think of that?” Dragon asks sarcastically and then flips me off. “Because, the man is like a f*cking ghost. I can’t find him. His bank accounts, his house, hell any of his assets haven’t been touched since the shit with Twist and company. We’ve got surveillance in place; we’ve added someone in the bank to watch over things. Fuck, I’ve even had Freak mess around and freeze his account with a fake levy. We’re coming up with nothing.”

“All this over a sniveling piece of shit that didn’t deserve to take his next breath of air.”

“No, motherf*cker. All this and more is because you went off half-cocked. Dance, I got your back man, but you have to be smart this time. This man wants you dead. Fuck, he wants all of us dead. We have to work to make sure at the end we’re standing over the son of a bitch and spitting on his grave. You feel me?”