What Doesn't Destroy Us (The Devil's Dust #1)(28)

“This...“ Bull pauses, trying to choose his words carefully, “what happened tonight... she’s going to go through the roof,” he finishes, exasperated. No doubt Dani's mom will freak out; who knows what she'll do. I don’t trust the bitch, I know that.

“She doesn’t need to know,” Dani says, with such force that it shocks me. “We can make up a reason we need to be here, instead of the safe house.” Maybe she has a little more fire under her ass than we take her for.

Bull laughs; hell, we all laugh. “My daughter. I think there is some Devil's Dust in there after all. Lying to your momma, making me proud and shit.” Bull has the biggest, goofy-assed grin I have ever seen on his ugly face. I swear if that shit smile widened anymore his face would crack.

Truth is, as angelic as Dani looks, I can see the darkness that runs through her veins swimming around like meat-eating sharks, waiting to be released. If I can see it, I'm sure her mother can too. Explains a lot about why her mother sheltered her from the rogue life for so long, but even I know you can only trap a darkness, a beast for so long. Of course, the darkness that swims in Dani's DNA pool seems like a minnow compared to the rest of us, to me.

“Go get some sleep. You're safe here, Darlin'. We will figure out who those *s are.” Bull treads lightly, giving Dani a kiss on her forehead. I want to put my lips on that angelic face, too. I can think of a couple of places where I want to put my lips on that knock-out body of hers. I sigh heavily in defeat; the attraction I have for Dani is exhausting.

“What then? I mean after you find out who is responsible?” she asks, snapping me from my daze. Bull stands there with his back to us, rubbing his face again.

“Then we kill the f*ckers.” Bull just throws it to her straight. Dani nods her head in knowing and takes off to her room; my room. I wonder what is going on in that mind of hers; wonder if she thinks we really are the beasts her mother has been crying to her about. We are; I am.

“Shadow, Doc is on the way; 'til then, fill me in.” We sit around the wooden table where we handle club business. My arm is on fire, making it hard to focus.

“We were sitting around watching T. V.; Dani went up for the night; next thing...” Bobby throws his hands up in the air, “bullets came f*cking flying into the side of the house. I grabbed my pistol and went toward the shit storm-“ Bobby stops short.

Bull points at me. “Where were you?”

“After I realized we were under attack, I went to make sure Dani hadn’t been hit. Must have caught the bullet when Bobby threw the door open.” I eyed Bobby. Fucker never feared death; always went running toward the bullets instead of away from them. Bull nods and looks back at Bobby to continue.

“They were shooting with pistols; I think five gunmen on bikes. That’s all I could make of 'em.” Bobby shakes his head, ashamed he can't ID who it was. He hated when he couldn’t deliver 100% to the club. He'll be drowning himself in cheap booze and worn out * for the next twenty-four hours.

“Pistols,” Bull repeats, astounded. “For a drive-by?” Usually, a drive-by is handled with fully-automatics; more damage and half the time. To use pistols seems amateur.

“Tell me more about the call you got from your mom.” Bull points at me again. I hate when he calls her my mom; bitch is not my mother, just a f*cking junkie who carried me for nine months.

“Called me this morning saying she wants a kilo in coke or twenty thousand... if I didn’t deliver she was, uh...” I pause. She said she was going to take my new little girlfriend, but I'm not about to f*cking tell Bull that. I’m not even sure how the junkie knows about Dani. She must have followed me around to insinuate that Dani is mine to even take; and that will raise questions about Dani and me. Her threatening me pisses me off to a whole other level; makes me see black .Throwing Dani into the threat, though, makes me feel something I can't even put a name on. All I know is Dani’s safety has become my number one priority.

“She was going to take something else, like the girl,” I finish, avoiding eye contact with Bull. I hate f*cking lying to his face, but if he thinks I am after Dani in any way, he’ll kill me. Bobby eyes me suspiciously, he knows I’m lying. I hate that he knows me so well, no doubt I will be hearing it from him later. He’s worse than a bitch sometimes, always nagging me.

“Said she needed the money badly. Haven’t heard from the bitch in years; not since she put me down as an emergency contact after her junkie boyfriend and drug dealer,“ I scoff. I remember getting the call; the nurse said my mother was incoherent from a drug overdose and they needed to know if they could treat her. She was too f*cked up to sign herself in, or some bull shit. I don’t know, as soon as the nurse said her name I told her to take me off the damn emergency contact list. I could care less if the bitch died in a f*cking ditch; putting me on the list seemed asinine.

“What about Lady’s ex-boyfriend?” Bobby asks, to no one in particular.

“Could be. Might have found out she ran back here. Maybe thought he would put a club in his pocket, have them take out his witnesses.” Bull rubs his scruffy jaw again; that shit irritates me. “Hawk, we good on shipments and dues?”

Hawk gruffs under his breath before answering; bastard's mean as a snake.

“Have I told you we were off? We are still on for the drop in two days, supposed to call us tomorrow with the drop location,” he huffs under his breath again. Bull raises his eyebrows waiting for Hawk to answer his question. ”Yes, Princess, we are good on dues. See, that’s the problem with this club today, you get these pretty boys in here to do your-”