Evil’s Pact by Raven Dark

5

Lies and Masks

Isit astride my ride outside of Pops’ Place, blowing out a long string of smoke, letting the hit of nicotine calm me. I sip my piping hot coffee, and the caffeine jolts my system. Not that I need it. I’m wide awake, and I have been for hours. Since I woke up this morning, I’ve been restless, and nothing I’ve done has taken the edge off.

Lying with Emma in my arms, with her perfect body heating mine and her luscious tits crushed to my chest hadn’t improved matters. She’s gotten too far under my skin. Sleeping next to her all night has only made things worse. I shouldn’t have spent the night with her. Not after that incident with Primer. I rarely drink in the morning, but I’d tossed back a whiskey first thing, and it hadn’t helped. I doubt anything will. Not for this.

I take another puff of my cigarette and blow it out, watching the smoke dissipate into the muggy, sun-drenched air like the vapors of a ghost. It’s late morning, and it’s scorching out here, but I hardly notice.

Pip and one of the White Springs prospects, Soda, come out of the clubhouse, headed for a shady spot on the patio. Pip gives me a nod of respect and continues talking with Soda about the business we’re tending to today. He doesn’t stop to gab, and the nod is almost, but not quite curt.

He’s not happy with me, but Pip has been with the club long enough to know he has to give me due respect.

“You still sore about yesterday, Prospect?”

“Why would I be?” His tone is so casual that I could almost miss the faint tightness in it. “I do what I have to for the club. Gotta earn my patch, right?”

“Good boy.” I take a swig of coffee, licking a bead of the liquid off my lips. “Keep it up.”

Pip looks as if he wants to say something, but he doesn’t get the chance.

“Boys,” Dragon says, stepping out onto the porch. “Get those SUVs gassed up before our little chat with the Minions. I need them ready to go in an hour.”

Pip and Soda both nod, and the two of them go down the stairs, crossing the lot to where the two black SUVs sit waiting.

As per the plan, we’ll be using those two vehicles to make the members of Hades’ Minions think Raf and his bodyguards are showing up to greet him and his crew at the prearranged meeting place. Dread will be expecting Raf to show up with muscle, and they wouldn’t be on bikes, so we need the SUVs ready to go when it’s time to leave.

As soon as the boys are out of earshot, Dragon turns to me. “That little shitshow of yours last night was interesting, but you’d better make sure your fucking head is in the game, Spider.”

I know what he’s getting at. Fuck, Dragon’s always thinking I’m going to lose my edge. After last night, he’s expecting me to be preoccupied with my little thief. He thinks I went white knight on Primer’s ass. He’s warning me not to elevate Emma above the level of thieving pussy.

I keep my face deadpan, showing none of the anger that seethes in me. “You got it, Prez. I’m ready for action.”

Dragon disappears. As soon as he’s gone, my fist clenches, crushing the coffee cup. I don’t even notice the scalding coffee that spills onto my fingers. I toss the cup to the pavement.

After Emma had been taken to Ink so he could tat her up, I’d heard how the situation with Primer had started. How he’d cornered her, drunk and high, and put his moves on her. I’d also heard what Dragon had done—or rather, what he hadn’t. That he’d sat there with Ruby in his lap, watching Emma fighting Primer off without interfering. Jules had been the one to rush out to get me, and just in the nick of time.

The way Jules told it, Dragon had merely been leaving it to me to defend what’s mine. Leaving me to take care of business and dole out justice that was mine alone to deal with. But I know Dragon well enough to know what he’d really been doing. He’d wanted to see the chaos that would ensue when I found out a brother was poaching on my territory. He’d been testing me. My stomach tightens at the thought that he was also probably testing her.

If she’d allowed Primer to have her, Dragon would see it as his being proved right—Emma wasn’t worthy.

The two prospects climb into the SUVs and roll out of the lot. I watch them disappear down the long road toward the gas station, the engines slowly fading to nothing. No one is sitting on the patio, and none of the guys are at the rows of bikes. The silence that prevails out here is rare, even this early in the morning. I don’t like it. It leaves too much room to think.

The guys think my restlessness is because of the business with the Minions. While there is a danger that things could go wrong—there is always a danger on club business—that’s not why I’m on edge.

I put my head back, looking at the cobalt sky, the searing sun muted by the dark shades that cover my eyes like a mask.

I’m used to masks, aren’t I? I know how to wear them well, when to take them off, how to slam them back into place before anyone sees the truth.

Yeah, I got everyone fooled.

A soft clunking on the porch makes me look toward the door. Cap has just stepped out, leaning hard on his cane and rubbing his leg. His leg wound’s got to be mostly healed by now, but it must be aching today. He winces as he takes a seat near the wall.

His eyes bore into me, and he says nothing, but his silence speaks volumes. Cap is one of those guys who can make you feel like a jackass when you fuck up without a word. He calls you out on your shit with a look better than anyone could do with a fist.

Fuck, here we go.

Cap leans forward, but before he can speak, I take out my phone and dial Jules’ number.

“Yeah?” Jules answers on the second ring.

“Jules, it’s me.”

She doesn’t speak.

“Jules,” I repeat gruffly, thinking she’s hung up.

“What do you want, Spider?”

“What, you pissed at me, too?” I smile, blowing out another puff of smoke.

I’m not sure whether to laugh or growl at her. Cap and Jules only met my Wildcat less than two months ago, Jules only a week, and already they’re both Team Emma.

“Why don’t you just come inside and talk to me instead of calling me?” she asks tightly.

Jules is working the tables today, which means she’s just inside the clubhouse.

I shrug, even though she can’t see it. “This is easier.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s easier for you to hide behind a phone than to deal with something face-to-face, isn’t it?”

I sigh. “Jules. Don’t be that way.”

“Don’t be what way? I thought you were a lot of things, Spider. I never thought you were a coward.”

Jesus Christ.

I snort with an amusement that’s easily muted with a stab of guilt. “Shit. You’re lucky I think of you as a sister, woman.”

Jules is the only women I’ve ever allowed to talk to me like that.

“Why’d you do it, Spider?” I hear a clomping noise—her shoes as she stomps off, probably headed out of the barroom to an area in the back where none of the men are close enough to hear her.

“Do what?”

“You know what,” she snaps.

Actually, I don’t. In the last twelve hours, I’ve racked up a long list of things that could earn me the rough side of her tongue, and I’m not sure which one she’s referring to.

“If you’re talking about the tat—” I start.

I think I hear Cap make a growling sound from porch.

“No, I’m not. Although now that we’re on the subject, I’d love to hear your explanation for that, too.”

“You’re talking about what I said to her.” Acid eats at my gut at the memory.

“Score one for you.” I hear a bang that sounds like she’s slammed a door.

I say nothing, waiting her out. Waiting for the anger I know she’s itching to unleash.

“Tell me something, Spider. Do you men sit up at night thinking up these things?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I mean, do you lie awake thinking up the most hurtful things you can say? Honing your comebacks for maximum carnage, so that they score highest on the asshole meter?”

It takes a lot for me to hold in a laugh. Right now, laughing, no matter how amusing her turn of phrase, would be like lighting a fuse on a huge bomb. Half the reason it’s so funny is because, though she doesn’t know it, in this case, she’s right. I had calculated my words to create maximum pain.

“How the fuck could you say that to her?” Jules snaps.

Fuck. I’ve been asking myself the same damn thing since last night.

“I don’t fucking know,” I mumble.

“Yes, you do.”

Do I?

I say nothing.

“What did you want?” she demands, as if realizing she’s not getting anywhere.

Shit. I almost wish she hadn’t given up, hadn’t let me off the hook so easily.

“I need a favor,” I tell her. “Watch over Emma while I’m out.”

“If you want a guard on her, shouldn’t you be asking Pip? He’s the one you get to do your dirty work.”

Damn, she’s got her game on today.

“Jules, just do it, okay? I don’t want her waking up alone. I don’t want her having to deal with this on her own.”

It’s her turn to sigh. She gets it. “Fine,” she says at last. “I’ll look after her.”

“Thank you.”

“I’m not doing it for you, though.”

“Yeah, I get it.”

“I’m doing it for her.”

“I know.”

“You’re an asshole, Spider.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” I say quietly.

“Goodbye.”

The line goes dead. I shake my head as I cut the connection.

Why did I do it? Why did I say something so abysmally stupid?

Jules is pissed about the tat, but it’s interesting that she seems more put off by my blaming Emma for what Primer did.

I’m not sorry about the tat. Hell no. I’d be lying my ass off if I said I did that because it was the only way to keep anyone else’s hands off of her, though that is part of it. My laying claim to her the last time we were here and the collar I put on her should have been enough. They weren’t, not for that druggie piece of shit. But this was more than just about branding her. That tat would keep brothers at bay, but it also serves as a lock on the cage in which I have her. I’d said I’d ruin her for other men, and now I have. I put my brand on her for the same reason I gave her the collar. Because I want the whole world to know who owns her.

But putting what Primer did on her? That was just fucked up.

It would be easy to chalk my actions to my childhood, to blame them on my father. That sort of idiocy is exactly what dear old dad would have done. Hell, he did it to my mother. But that’s not it.

Just as easy, perhaps, to say that I did it because Dragon was standing there at the time, because my president still views her as a thief and I had to prove I feel nothing for her. On some level, that’s true. But that’s a peripheral motive, a base I was covering while achieving a larger objective.

The true reason starts to hover into view in my head and I smash it down, squashing it under my fist before it threatens to undo me.

I can’t take that mask off. No fucking way.

“Read you the riot act, did she?” Cap says as I pocket my phone.

He’s talking about Jules.

I look at him without answering.

“Take a seat.” He gestures to the chair across the table from him.

It’s not a request.

I’m not sure when Cap managed to obtain the permanent free pass that allows him to give me orders like that despite his much lower rank. I suppose it happened when he started teaching me how to fight after dad died. He became like the father I never had, and somehow his role as a parent manages to trump club rank at the worst times. Usually, his ability to do that is amusing and I like indulging him. Right now, it pisses me the fuck off.

“Now is not a good time, Cap.” I toss my cig down and crush it under my boot.

“Too bad. Sit.”

I raise my brows at him.

He meets my stare with an unwavering one-eyed gaze.

I do something I haven’t done with Cap since I was a boy. I swing off my bike and stalk toward the other side of the lot without a word.

Behind me, I hear him curse and then hiss in pain as he stands up. His cane thumps down the steps.

“You’d better stay off that leg, old man,” I tell him over my shoulder. “Don’t fuck it up any more than you already have over her.”

He makes a derisive sound. Feet shuffle, and then, amazingly, the next instant he’s in front of me.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, boy?”

Wow. He hasn’t called me that since I was eighteen, when I mouthed off to Bones during an argument about cutting school. I give a mocking recoil. “She’s got you wrapped around her fucking finger, too, then. Are you sweet on her?”

He shakes his head. “Oh, come on. You’re better than that, Spider.”

He’s right, I am. It’s a cheap barb. Cap and I are too close. He would never do that. It’s just that I’d hoped it would sting enough to make him back off. I should have known he’d see through it.

“Get out of my way, Cap,” I say, allowing the kind of warning to enter my voice that makes most men slink off.

“Not gonna happen.”

Fuck. There’s no point in threatening to knock his head off. The only way he’s likely to drop it is if I knock him down, and he knows I won’t. Not as long as he has that damned cane. Bastard.

“What the fuck has gotten into you?” he snaps. “How could you hurt her like that?”

“She’s a thief, Cap. A liar, and a thief. Maybe worse. She deserves what she gets.”

“I call bullshit,” he says. “If you still thought that, you’d have put a bullet in her skull long ago. You wouldn’t have beat Primer to within an inch of his loser life to protect her—”

“Don’t make me sound like a hero, Cap. I wasn’t protecting her. Primer was poaching on my territory, and that’s it—”

“Bullshit!” he roars. Cap thumps the top of his cane on my chest and puts his face so that he’s nose to nose with me. “What I want to know is, what in your fucked-up head possessed you to drug her—to have someone you know she trusts roofie her—and then tattoo her like cattle while she’s out fucking cold.”

This makes me blink at him. I’d thought he was talking about what I’d said to her. Obviously, someone had told him about the tat, but he didn’t know about what had happened after I’d taken care of Primer. If he had, he’d have probably led with that. Especially considering that he knows what a bastard my father was.

It’s stupid, but I can’t help the urge to fall back on levity. “I didn’t use GHB. It was a knockout drug.” I smile. “I had to keep anyone from touching her.”

“Sure as shit there was a better way. She deserves better than to be treated like a fucking animal. She’s been nothing but good to you.”

“Shit. She’s worked her goddamned magic on you, too? She can’t be trusted!”

“That’s your dickwad father talking.”

“No,” I growl. “Don’t you dare bring that animal into this. This is not about him. She’s a fucking liability, and I still have no idea how dangerous she might be or what kind of shit she’s mixed up in.”

“You know that’s not true. You’ve known that for a long time. Since the day she saved my life.”

“That absurd story about the Colony is a load of horseshit, designed to gain sympathy and keep us from killing her. She—”

“That’s a fucking lie, and you know it.”

“It is not. Have you heard those outrageous stories she told about that place, about what they do to—”

“Yeah, I have,” he growls. “Rat’s told us, and I did some digging into them myself. I saw the recording of your interrogation of her. She was terrified out of her fucking mind. No one is that convincing. She was more terrified of them than she was of you. She stole those damn tips because she was trying to save herself the only way she knew how.”

“She’s pulled the wool over your goddamned eyes.” I give him a nasty grin. “You watch. She’ll fuck us over. The minute she has all of us in her hand, she’ll show her true colors.”

“You’re just telling yourself she’s a danger because it’s easier than having to admit she’s gotten to you. Because you’re scared and you’re a fucking coward.”

I step toward him, forcing myself to ignore it when he staggers back and rights himself on his cane. “What did you say to me?”

“You heard me. You’re scared, Spider. That little angel up there is the best thing that’s ever happened to you, and that scares the fuck out of you, because you know that if you admit she’s innocent, that means you might have to trust her. And that you’re head over fucking heels for her.”

“Christ. You’re insane.” I jab a finger at him. “I’d die before I let a woman mess me up like that. This club is everything to me. That’s all there is for me. And I like it that way.”

“If that’s true, if she’s such a liability, then kill her. Get it over with.”

I freeze, then shake myself. “No.”

“Why? If you like being alone so much, why can’t you do it? Why can’t you bury her?”

“Because I’m not finished with her. Because she’s tied to this Adamson fuck somehow. We can’t get information out of a fucking corpse.”

Cap sighs and puts his cane-free hand up. “Suit yourself. You want to keep bullshitting yourself, I can’t stop you. But I’ll tell you something, Spider.” He puts his nose an inch from mine again, pressing the end of his cane into my chest. “You’ve got a one in a million girl up there. The kind of once in a lifetime chance most men can only dream of. You need to get your fucking head out of your ass, or you’re gonna lose that chance. It’ll be gone, and then you’ll get exactly what you deserve.”

“And what is that?” I growl.

“You’ll end up like me. Alone. Alone and miserable for the rest of your fucking life.”

Before I can respond, he turns and stumps off, his cane thumping hard on the ground with every step.