My ink is my heart. My cut is my bond. My bike is my soul.
SINNER’S TRIBE CREED
Cade joined Gunner, Zane, and a handful of Demon Spawn brothers crammed into the only strip bar in Whitefish. The dark, scuzzy dive in the center of town contained a small stage with a pole, no more than twenty worn, wooden tables, and enough smoke to conceal a wildfire. But it fitted Cade’s mood to a T. He didn’t want to be here. The Sinners didn’t want to be here. And Demon Spawn definitely didn’t want to be here since they suspected the Sinners hadn’t come for a simple social visit.
And they were right. The Sinners hadn’t just traveled to Whitefish to deal with the Demon Spawn members who attacked Zane and Cade in the alley. Dax had obtained some very disturbing information from Matchstick in the Sinner dungeon, and Cade and Zane intended to find out if it was true.
So now they were all pretending to celebrate, but the only person with a smile was the stripper on the pole.
Gunner slid over in the booth and Cade joined him, falling back against the plush, black velvet cushions. The prospect hovered at his shoulder, and he sent the kid away to find him a drink.
“Nice of you to join us.” Gunner grabbed a beer from the collection in the center of the table. “I wasn’t sure you’d make it tonight.”
“Neither was I,” Cade said, keeping his voice low. “Who woulda thought I’d be spending my honeymoon offing a bunch of betraying Demon Spawn bastards?”
“Whaddya think of our girls?” The Demon Spawn VP, Skid Mark, soon to learn he was the new president, leaned over to shout above Warrant’s “Cherry Pie,” while the dancer spun around the pole. He was clearly drunk, his eyes at half-mast and his words slurred. “I hear you’re the expert.”
“Not anymore. Got an old lady now.”
“That’s right. I heard about that, too. You stole Mad Dog’s old lady.”
Gunner tensed, but Cade played it cool. “Can’t steal something if it didn’t belong to him.”
“You steal his kids, too? They’ll ruin your life, man. Suck your wallet dry.”
Gunner was out of his seat now. And Zane, too. The prospect put down the beer he’d brought for Cade and moved to intercept the bouncer heading their way.
“You got a lot of personal information about Mad Dog’s situation.” Cade sipped his beer and fought for calm. “Kinda curious since Mad Dog lives way down south and you live way up north. But then, he likes to visit up here, doesn’t he? Maybe he’s a big skier, or does he come for the roads? Or maybe he likes disrespecting a brother’s old lady, just like you.”
Theory of a Deadman’s “Bad Girlfriend” blasted through the tinny speakers and a new dancer took the stage, but the audience was now watching the conversation between Cade and Skid Mark. Tension thrummed through the bar, a powder keg ready to explode.
“Hey man, no offense. Just rumors. Congrats on getting hitched.”
“He didn’t mean to offend.” Skid Mark’s companion offered Cade a beer. “Sometimes he runs off at the mouth when he’s had too much to drink.”
Cade pushed the beer away. Disrespect was disrespect and it couldn’t be smoothed over with words. Plus, he’d been itching for this fight since he left Conundrum. According to Matchstick, a handful of Demon Spawn members were Black Jack puppets, bikers who did the Jacks’ dirty work in exchange for the promise of being allowed to form a new Black Jack chapter, or be patched over to the club, and it was time to put them in their place.
Justice for their treason would be swift and fierce, and Cade was leading the charge.
“Not interested in beer, but I am interested in teaching shit-for-brains a lesson in respect.” He grabbed Skid Mark by the hair and smashed his head down on the table. “You can fucking apologize to me outside for disrespecting my old lady.”
The music kept playing.
The dancer kept dancing.
The bikers drew their weapons.
Zane paid off the bouncers.
Cade’s phone buzzed in his cut.
“Gotta take a call.” He thudded Skid Mark’s head on the table again. “You gonna walk outside or I gotta drag you?” He hadn’t expected to have to make a show of the Sinners’ dominance so soon, or in public, but what the hell.
Let’s get the party started.
“Fuck you,” Skid Mark said.
Cade pulled his gun from his cut and held it to Skid Mark’s head. Skid Mark’s Demon Spawn brothers pointed their weapons at Cade. He almost laughed at their lack of resolve.
“Tell your brothers to stand down or someone is gonna get hurt and I promise it will be you.”
“Stand down,” Skid Mark shouted, blood trickling from the side of his head.
The dancer on the pole did a Hands-Free Marley to Mötley Crüe’s “Girls, Girls, Girls” and the dudes in perverts’ row at the front clapped. Clearly there had trouble in the bar before. Cade had never seen a more brazen performance of “the show must go on.”
Once upon a time, Dawn had been that girl on the pole. She’d danced, not because she wanted to dance, but because she had been given no choice. She would have finished her show and then gone down to perverts’ row for the lap dances that were a dancer’s bread and butter. Men would have touched her. Maybe more. And all the while Mad Dog would have watched and done nothing to protect her. Cade clenched his hand by his side, pushing the thoughts away as he tried to focus on the task at hand. As if he weren’t wound up tight already.
His phone buzzed again. Zane, Gunner, and T-Rex disarmed the Demon Spawn brothers and tossed their weapons into the prospect’s backpack. They wouldn’t have been quite as bold if there hadn’t been twenty more Sinners waiting on their bikes outside.
Cade threw a wad of money on the table and forced Skid Mark up at gunpoint. “Let’s go for a walk. I’ll leave your mouth alone so you can apologize and tell me which of your members are Black Jack puppets.”
Skid Mark paled and Cade snorted a laugh. “Yeah, we know about the Jacks, and you’re gonna give us a list of the puppet members. If your list doesn’t match the one we got from Matchstick, you get to make up the difference.” He yanked Matchstick’s cut from his pack and threw it at Skid Mark. “Congrats, by the way. Looks like you got a promotion. Matchstick won’t be needing that anymore. Wear it while you can, ’cause it won’t be for long.”
His phone buzzed again—probably Jagger wanting an update. Damn irritating. He nodded at Gunner and Zane to take his hostage, and then he turned off his phone. Punishment time. Jagger would damn well have to wait.
He headed outside where his Sinner brothers had herded the rest of the Demon Spawn members into a field behind the strip club. The local sheriff and his deputies were hog-tied in the police station, and the roads were blocked. No one was coming to help Demon Spawn now.
Cade handed Skid Mark a piece of paper and a pen. Skid Mark shuffled over to a patch of grass, silver in the moonlight, and wrote down a list of names that matched the one Dax had given to Cade. The traitors, including Skid Mark, were culled from the rest of the herd, and Gunner ushered the remaining Demon Spawn members away. Cade held a gun to Skid Mark’s head.
“Bad fucking decision.”
“Yeah. We should never have listened to Mad Dog, but Matchstick trusted him. They were friends going way back. He told us the Jacks were the stronger club. He said they’d been making up puppet members all over the state, hiding their numbers so they could take you down when you weren’t expecting it. He said we should join the winning team before it was too late.”
Cade didn’t know what Mad Dog had to do with the Black Jack puppets in Demon Spawn, because Matchstick had kicked the bucket before he could share that information. Usually Zane kept Dax under control during torture sessions, but he’d been busy gathering intel on the Jacks and Dax got carried away. He loved his work, but sometimes the sadist in him got a little too greedy.
He kicked the gravel underfoot, struggling between offing the bastard now and pumping him for more information. “Mad Dog didn’t think his own club was the winning team? Demon Spawn and the Devil’s Brethren would have been a good fit.”
Skid Mark cast a worried glance at his brothers and Cade cuffed him on the head. “Don’t look at them. Look at me. I’m the one who chooses whether you live or die. If you’re cooperative, you might wind up in the hospital instead of the grave the brothers are digging just outside of town. I’m interested in Mad Dog and why he’s sniffing around.
“Mad Dog is a Black Jack puppet in the Brethren, like some of his men. The Jacks are backing him to win the Brethren election on the condition he patches the entire club over to the Jacks. He’s been paying off Wolf’s supporters to vote for him ’cause the Jacks made him all sorts of promises if he can get the job done.”
Good information. Cade shared a glance with Zane who nodded in silent agreement. If they’d picked up Skid Mark instead of Matchstick, Dax wouldn’t have had any fun. They hadn’t even had to break a finger. “You shoulda called us.”
Sweat beaded on Skid Mark’s forehead, and he wiped it away with the back of his hand. “Hell … we’re a small club. Most of us have families and we support them mainly by running guns for the bigger clubs. I’m a single dad with two little girls. Mad Dog came here recruiting for the Jacks. He said the Jacks would let us form our own chapter, fully funded, and give us a cut of the arms trade up north. How could we pass that up? You Sinners just came in here, forced us to be a support club, and walked away. We helped Mad Dog empty a warehouse where the Brethren were storing their weapons, and he paid us for our trouble.”
Gunner kicked him in the side. “You pass it up because you’re a Sinner support club. You pass it up out of loyalty, respect, and the fact that if you don’t you fucking die.”
Cade felt a curious stab of conscience. By rights the Sinners could beat the shit out of all the Demon Spawn traitors, trash their bikes, burn down their homes, take their women, and anything else they owned. And yet he couldn’t shake the image of Skid Mark’s little girls and how they would feel if their daddy didn’t come home. What would Maia and Tia do without Dawn?
You don’t have to solve every problem with violence. Dawn’s words filtered through his mind, and yet, his dad had taught him the opposite. His dad used his fists to make a point, regardless of who was on the other side, or whether his little boy was watching.
Still, he couldn’t let it slide. This was the life he’d chosen to lead and if the Sinners didn’t make a show of force, word would spread, and the vultures would start circling. But death wasn’t the only way.
“Destroy their bikes, burn their cuts, then beat the fucking crap out them.”
Gunner frowned. “You don’t want ’em dead?”
“No. I want them punished. Then I want them thrown into a van and driven to the Black Jack clubhouse. Paint ‘em with the Sinner’s Tribe logo and toss ‘em by the back door like the trash they are. They wanna play at being Jacks, they can find out what it’s really all about. And the Jacks will get the message. We’re gonna find their puppets and root them out. And then we’ll be coming for them.”
* * *
“I can’t believe you dragged us here. Jagger is going to go ballistic when he finds out we’re meeting with Bunny.” Arianne followed Dawn through Sticky’s Pool Hall, weaving through the crowds milling around the vast sea of pool tables. Banks followed behind Arianne, growling at anyone who crossed his path. He’d come along as muscle and he was doing a bang-up job at playing the part.
”I can’t believe Cade agreed to this.” He side-stepped a trip of college girls, and fell back in line.
“I didn’t give him a choice,” Dawn said over her shoulder. “And I have a feeling he wasn’t really paying attention. But Bunny knows everyone. He’ll know the private investigator in the video and through him, he may be able to find out who was on the other side of the camera. I can let the Sinners bring the girls home through force or politics, but I’ll always be looking over my shoulder. This way, no one will question my ability to look after my children.”
“Is Bunny gonna drag them to court and make them talk, too?” Banks asked. “Or you got another plan? No way is that PI gonna hold up his hand and say he handed you a bag of crack and then lied to the court for money.”
“I’m working on that part. I might need some help to convince him.” She skirted around a table and headed for the back where it wasn’t as busy. Located in the basement of an ancient brick building on the far edge of Conundrum, Sticky’s was famous for its pristine tables, local beer, and sticky floors. Dawn had never been in the bar when it was less than packed and she couldn’t believe her luck when she’d spotted an empty table at the back when they walked in the door.
“You’ll need a gun, maybe a knife, and a whole load of Sinners to make him show his face in court.”
Dawn staked her claim on an empty pool table, tossing her jacket on the padded bumper. Yeah, she knew her plan had holes, but secretly, she was hoping Bunny might have some dirt on the PI, or his accomplice, that would make the second part of her task that much easier. If not, she would have to deal with her violence issues and ask for Cade’s help because nothing was going to keep her away from her girls.
“Why didn’t you meet with Bunny before?” Arianne ran an expert hand over the pool table. Viper had given her a pool cue for her third birthday, and she was now the best player in the MC. None of the Sinners would play against her because of the shame of possible defeat by a woman, so the lure of a good match at Sticky’s had been enough to convince her to help Dawn out, despite the bad memories she had of Bunny’s dungeon.
“I was just so desperate to be done with this world, I pushed everything away. Even when I brought you here last year, I didn’t really think about how I knew Bunny or what he could do for me. I just thought about helping you.”
“And now I get to return the favor.”
“Don’t like pool,” Banks muttered as he stared at the table. “Don’t like Sticky’s. Don’t like spending my night off playing pool at Sticky’s just to keep you outta trouble.”
“You love pool,” Dawn countered. “I know for a fact you spend hours playing with the bouncers after the bar closes at night. They say you win back all the money you paid them for the night so they have to keep working.”
“Gonna fire them when I get back to the bar.” Banks stared down at the empty table and shook his head. “Crooked. Felt’s not been looked after. Cues are bent. Balls are probably weighted.”
Arianne laughed. “Well then, since you know everything that’s wrong, I guess you won’t mind playing against me. I promise to go easy on you.” She grabbed a cue and a block of chalk. “We’ll have a quick game until Dawn needs us. How much do you want to put down? I’m thinking of buying a new bike and I’m a couple grand short.”
“Don’t like playing against sharks,” Banks said, but he took a cue and the faintest smile curved his lips.
“I’ll go let him know I’m here.” Dawn left them and headed over to the bar. Back when she’d been a dancer, Bunny paid Jimmy a small fortune for Dawn’s exclusive attention at the Pink Cherry dance club, and although Jimmy didn’t allow her to have sex with her clients—that privilege was his alone—he did allow almost anything else. Bunny took full advantage. However, he was always respectful and civil, often chatting with her after a dance despite the extra cost, and they forged an understanding. Sometimes Dawn would break the rules. In return, she earned a mark in Bunny’s book.
Tonight she had come to collect.
She recognized the tall, broad-shouldered bartender from the last time she’d visited Bunny’s pool hall with Arianne and shoved a fifty-dollar bill across the counter. That night she’d left with Cade and wound up in his bed for the second time. He made her come four times in as many hours and then she sneaked out before daybreak, ashamed of herself for breaking her own rules about one-night stands, but more afraid that if she stayed she’d break them again.
“I’m looking for Bunny. Tell him Dee wants to see him.”
The bartender pocketed the bill without looking up. “He knows you’re here.”
Dawn gestured for Banks and Arianne to join her, but when they reached the counter, the bar phone buzzed and the bartender put out a warning hand.
“One second.” He answered the phone, listened, and then hung up without saying a word. “Leave Jagger’s bitch and the muscle outside.”
Banks moved so fast all she caught was a blur at the corner of her eye, before he grabbed the bartender by the throat and yanked him down on the counter. “Don’t much care for your disrespect, beer boy. Maybe you want to rephrase your request.”
The bartender’s face turned red, then purple, and he flailed and struggled in Banks’s powerful grip.
“He can’t talk.” Dawn made no effort to hide her exasperation. “You’re crushing his windpipe. I’m sure he’ll be more polite if you allow him to breathe.”
Banks huffed and released the bartender, shoving him backward from across the bar. “How ’bout you try it from the top?”
The bartender paled and his hand flew to his throat. “Not my rules. No leather. No muscle.”
“Am I the muscle or are you the muscle?” Arianne grinned at Banks. “Since we’re both wearing leather it’s hard to tell.”
“I’ll go in alone,” Dawn said with a bravado she didn’t feel in the least. Cade was in Whitefish, and for once he wouldn’t be around to swoop in and save the day. Tonight was her night, and although she felt apprehensive, she also felt a tingle of anticipation. This was the world she had run from. Now she was back, and this time no one would push her around.
“We’re here if you need us.” Banks folded his arms. “And I’m watching the door.”
The bartender nodded and she followed him down a narrow hallway to a door guarded by two bald, thick-necked bouncers. They moved to let her pass and Dawn stepped into Bunny’s office, a drab room containing only a metal desk, a small window, and three chairs.
Pasty-faced and balding, with rounded shoulders and a visible paunch, the man sitting behind the desk could have blended into any crowd save for his eyes, cold, hard, and obsidian black.
“You.” Bunny leaned back in his chair and folded his arms behind his head. His two security guards, tall and heavily built, shifted on either side of his chair.
“Me.”
“What do you want?”
Dawn twisted her hands together. “I’m calling in my mark. There’s a video out there that shows me supposedly buying crack from a PI. Jimmy set it up to take my kids away. I want to find the PI, and I want to know who was behind the camera. I got a copy of the video from my lawyer.” She put a hand into her purse. The security guards moved forward as one. Bunny shook his head.
“You don’t have a mark with me. And if you did, you used it up when you brought Jagger’s old lady here and his goons almost slit my throat.”
“You and Arianne made a deal. That had nothing to do with me. I just made the introduction.”
“I wouldn’t have met with her if not for you. Don’t like to get involved in biker business.” He waved a dismissive hand and picked up his pen.
“But … I…” Her throat tightened and she couldn’t say the words out loud. God, she’d been so naive when she was with Jimmy, so goddamn trusting in a world where everyone was ready to stab you in the back.
“You want a favor from me, Dee, you know the price.” He looked up from his desk. “Been a long time since I saw you dance.”
Bile rose in her throat. She couldn’t do this again. She wouldn’t pay for favors with her body even for the slim chance of getting back her girls. This was a line she wouldn’t cross. There had to be another way, something Bunny might want from her … or from the Sinners.
“I’m not Dee anymore. I’m Dawn and I’m a Sinner old lady.” She spun around to show him her cut. “I don’t dance anymore, but I’m sure the value of having a mark with the Sinners would far outweigh any pleasure my dancing might give.”
“A Sinner mark?” Bunny sat back and stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. “I heard you ran away from the Brethren. Didn’t think you’d ever come back into the game.”
“Neither did I, but I discovered a strength I never knew I had.”
“Sinner strength?” He gestured at her cut.
“My strength.”
Bunny smiled. “I got dealings with the Jacks. Don’t want to get on their bad side.”
“That’s nothing compared with what will happen if you get on the Sinners’ bad side. You got a taste of that last year.” She tapped her throat in the same place Bunny sported a scar from Jagger’s knife. “My old man has a protective streak, same as Jagger’s, and he won’t be happy if he finds out you asked me to dance.”
He raised an appreciative eyebrow. “Maybe the Jacks won’t hear about it.”
“Maybe they won’t.”
“Maybe I’ll look at the tape. Sinners can owe me a favor.” He held out his hand, and Dawn gave him the USB stick she’d picked up from her lawyer’s office on her way to the pool hall.
“Maybe we will, or maybe we’ll come back and slit your throat and finish the job we started last time.”
“Christ.” Bunny chuckled. “You’re almost as bad as Jagger’s old lady.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” She turned to leave and the door burst open. Chest heaving, Cade stepped over the bodies of the two guards in the hallway and pointed his gun at Bunny. Gunner, Arianne, and Banks tumbled in after him.
“End of the fucking line.”
Dawn sighed and covered the gun with her hand, pressing it down. “Put that away, honey. We’re done here.”
* * *
“He’s a dead man.” Cade gripped Dawn’s elbow to steer her clear of a drunk on the sidewalk. His body shook with unspent adrenaline and the remnants of the fear and anger that had been pulsing through him since Jagger called to tell him what was going on. Jagger had a sixth sense for when Arianne was doing something he wouldn’t like, and when he’d texted to find out where she was, she told him the truth. The message got passed along. Already at the Conundrum border after dealing with the Demon Spawn scum, Cade had raced to Sticky’s, arriving only minutes too late.
“He’s doing me a favor,” Dawn said. “Why do you want to shoot everyone who makes you angry?”
“I’m a Sinner. That’s what Sinners do.”
“Not always,” she said softly. “That’s not what Arianne does. Or T-Rex. That’s not what the club agreed when Wolf offered an olive branch. And if you’d hurt Bunny, I would never have had a chance to find out who was responsible for that video.”
He winced inwardly as her barb hit home. Every day he held back from going after Mad Dog was a day a piece of him died. That bastard was still on the streets, when by all rights he should be lying in a cold grave. If not for fucking Mad Dog, Dawn wouldn’t have put herself in danger by going to see Bunny. If not for Mad Dog, she wouldn’t be in danger at all.
And she wouldn’t need Cade.
“I told you not to go there.” He tightened his grip on her arm, close to dragging her down the street. Damn. He couldn’t calm down. It was too much … Bunny, the pool hall, all those bastards eyeing her up … the things that could have gone wrong …
“And then you said yes.”
“I didn’t think you were serious.” He growled his frustration. “Or that you would even consider going there without me. And I was … distracted.” Too agitated to continue the conversation in public, he led her into an alley off the street, and drew in a deep, calming breath, his nose wrinkling at the fetid smell of decay and the cloying scents of piss and stale beer.
“Nothing happened. He refused my mark and asked me to dance. I changed his mind. I didn’t go there alone. I’m not stupid. He knew Arianne and Banks were outside. He wasn’t going to hurt me.” Dawn folded her arms and leaned against the brick wall. “In the end it worked out well. I don’t always need you to rush to my rescue whenever there is a hint of danger.”
“You’re in danger every fucking minute of every fucking day, and I can’t take it anymore.” He thudded his fist against the brick wall. “I got a need to protect you that I don’t even understand. I thought my heart was gonna explode when Jagger called to tell me where you were. Only reason everyone in that pool hall isn’t dead is ’cause I brought Gun with me and he held me back.” He leaned in, resting his forearm beside her head, caging her with his body.
Startled, she looked up, and he almost drowned in the emerald depths of her eyes.
“I know you can protect me,” she said softly. “I don’t doubt that. But I need to stand on my own feet. It felt good to see Bunny. It felt good to tell him I wouldn’t dance. And it felt damn good to come up with a solution that didn’t involve fists or firearms. I want to stand up to Jimmy the way Arianne stood up to Viper, the way I stood up to that guy in the park. I know you’re planning to go after Jimmy after the election, and I want to be part of that.”
His body shook with emotion. “I get that you want to fight your own fight, but some fights you can’t win. My mom never won her fight with my dad. After years of abuse, she finally moved out, but the week after I was sent overseas, she went back to him. In the end he hit her one too many times, and she died from a subdural hematoma. I never confronted him. Never saw him again. He died in jail. I could never understand why she went back.”
Dawn stroked his jaw, her eyes warm with understanding. “Because that kind of abuse twists your mind. It saps your strength and confidence. You feel worthless and incompetent. You believe the demeaning comments. You don’t think you deserve any better. You think no one cares. Every day is a fight to survive. Every night you hate yourself for not running away. You feel humiliated and alone, and sometimes the abuser can seem like a comfort in the storm, especially on the good days.”
“What did he do to you?” he asked, although he knew. He’d lived through it. And it was all he could do not to jump on his bike and shoot Mad Dog dead, or die trying. Just the thought of Dawn suffering the way his mom had suffered stoked a fury inside him so fierce he thought he might explode.
“He beat me.” Her voice was surprisingly calm and even, a startling contrast with the rage that suffused his veins. “He made me strip and dance for his friends. He treated me like a piece of property and shared me around. He kept me isolated and humiliated me. Sometimes after it was really bad, he would apologize and buy me flowers, and then it would be okay until it started again.”
“I wasn’t there to protect my mom in the end, but I’ll damn well be there for you.” Cade clasped her chin between his thumb and forefinger and turned her head roughly, forcing her to look at him. “I’ll do what has to be done to end this. You may want to face him, but we both know you’ll never pull that trigger. And even if you could, I won’t let you bear that burden.”
“Cade … no.”
Overwhelmed by a tumult of emotion, he stepped away. “You may not want my help and protection, but you will have it. Even if it means going against my club so you never have to face Mad Dog again.”