Sinner's Steel (Sinner's Tribe Motorcycle Club #3)(67)
“Leave him out of this.” Evie shuddered under a wave of anger. She wanted to ask how he had found out about Zane, but the question would just confirm what he said was true, and she couldn’t take the risk he was fishing for information. “This is between you and me.”
“It was between you and me.” He took another drag of his cigarette, leaned against the wall, all casual as if he hadn’t just blown up a building and was now trying to blackmail her into his bed. “But then the Sinners got involved. Now the game has changed, kitten. I have to address the disrespect done to me and my club, and then I gotta get back what’s mine. We were already at war with the Sinners. This just made it personal.”
“So you’re going to blackmail Zane?”
“If you come nicely, I’ll let him off for your good behavior.”
Ty shivered behind her and she prayed he didn’t understand what was going on. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to finally meet the father he had dreamed about all his life, only to find out the world thought he was a murderer.
“What’s to stop you from making that call even if I come with you?”
A smile tugged at the corners of his cruel lips. “Nothing. It’s a risk you have to take. You have to trust me.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“But you trust him?” Viper took a step forward, into the light. He looked older, tired, but no less formidable in his worn, leather cut, tight black T-shirt and jeans, his muscular arms colorful with tats. “The man who killed your father? The man who shot one of my junior patch in the back in cold blood? Ask him about Wheels. Or the three men he shot in a gunfight up in Whitefish. He kidnapped my old lady, threw her in the Sinner dungeon, probably tortured her for information. She’s there now if you don’t believe me. We aren’t so different, kitten. We’re both one percenters. Think about what that means.”
“I know at heart he’s a good man.” She took a step back, pushing Ty along the sidewalk, putting some distance between them. His offer was no offer at all. He was going to make that call regardless of what she did. Her best option was to find Zane and warn him before the police came to call.
“Are you sure about that? Do you know the truth about what happened to your father?”
Taking a deep breath, Evie spun around, grabbed Ty’s hand and ran into the crowd.
“Wrong choice,” Viper shouted after her. “Wrong f*cking choice.”
*
Zane shoved people out of his way as he searched the crowd. He’d managed to chase away all the staff and customers before the Jacks started shooting, and had barely made it out himself when one of the bullets triggered the explosion. Evie and Ty should have gotten out before him.
So where the f*ck were they?
Fear gripped his belly as he scanned the sea of faces, a gut-wrenching sickness like nothing he’d ever felt before. He wasn’t going to lose them now. Not after he’d only just found her again; not after he’d only just met his son.
He whipped out his phone and punched Jagger’s number. “Jag.” He drew in a shuddering breath. He’d never asked for help before. Never needed it. “The Jacks shot up the Kaufman Kafe on Stock Street. Evie and Ty were inside. I can’t find them.”
“I’m there, brother. Hold on.”
Zane’s tension eased the tiniest bit and he continued the search. But, when one wall of the building caved in with an earsplitting crash, his heart thundered so loud he thought he would break a rib.
The police arrived and cordoned off the area. Fire trucks screeched to a halt, sirens blaring, lights flashing. Ambulance attendants wheeled a gurney to an old lady lying on the sidewalk. Zane vaguely remembered pushing her outside moments before the deafening explosion. He searched the back alley, the SUV, the side streets, and then returned to the crowd out front, now ten people deep. Where were they?
Smoke filled his lungs, singed his nostrils, the scent bringing back the memory of his utter despair outside Evie’s shop when he thought she was gone. Fuck. He couldn’t go through this again. It was going to f*cking kill him.
His heart lifted when he heard the rumble of motorcycles. Moments later, Jagger stalked down the street, six Sinners behind him, drawing the attention of the cops who had little to do but hold the crowd back as the firefighters fought the blaze. Once, that had been him. He’d always been the first one into a building, taking the biggest risks, simply because he had nothing to live for.
Zane met them curbside, briefed them on the layout of the block and then the Sinners dispersed.
“I called Benson. Told him to get his lazy ass down here.” Jagger cut a path through the gawking onlookers with a mighty sweep of his hand. “He’s going to get me copies of the witness reports so we can ID the Jacks involved. Crossing our border, shooting up a café filled with civilians, targeting a brother and his family … They’ve broken every damn code we have. This will bring the ATF down on all of us. National will be involved in this one. But I’m not waiting for the nod from the higher-ups. We’ll find Evie and Ty, and then we’ll hit them hard.”
His family.
Zane had never had a real family. But he didn’t correct Jagger. Evie and Ty were his to protect. He would fight for them. He would die for them. And if that meant they were family, then he’d found something he’d been looking for all his life. But goddammit the MC was no place for them. Not if they were constantly in danger.