Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
“You know that’s not happening, Sting. He’s Grim Road. We don’t give up one of our own.” I knew from my experience with Rocket he had as little give to him as Sting did. Which was to say, none.
“Are you fully aware of the situation, Rocket? Do you know what’s going on?”
Rocket shrugged. “I got one side of it. That’s the reason we’re here talking instead of us wiping your entire club off the map.”
Sting gave the man a humorless bark of laughter. “That sure of yourselves? I get it. And yeah. I know at least some of what your club is. Not all, but enough to know you’re true badasses. So, yeah. You might be able to take us all. But you’d betray every fuckin’ thing you stood for and that’s not the Grim Road I’ve been told about.”
Rocket grinned. “Guess we need to hear the other side then, huh? That why you let your women tag along? Or you plannin’ on hiding behind them?”
Surprisingly, Iris was the one who spoke up. She stood at Sting’s side, though the president put himself slightly in front of her in a protective stance. “Their women are here to support Scarlet.” She spoke in as hard a voice as Sting could. She might be young, but Iris was definitely an MC president’s old lady. “She’s one of us and we’ll lay down our lives to protect her. Same as the rest of the club will. You were quick to declare Hammer one of you. Of your family. One would think you’d give your vice president’s daughter the same fucking respect.”
“And no one let us do anything.” The voice came from behind me. “We do what we want and we choose to stand with Scarlet, you bitchass motherfucker.” I thought I heard Wylde groan behind me. Probably because the woman who spoke now was Lemon. Who most decidedly shouldn’t be here.
“Bloody hell,” Wylde muttered. “The day’s goin’ to shit now.”
Rocket and Claw’s attention both swung to the girl in question. Rocket looked amused. Claw, annoyed.
“You lettin’ kids dictate the way Iron Tzars does things, Sting?” Rocket delivered the words like a rebuke, but Sting just shrugged it off.
“I know my people, Rocket. No one corrals Lemon if she doesn’t want to be corralled. By the way, Claw, you owe Scarlet’s life to that little spitfire. If it hadn’t been for her, Scarlet would be dead.”
That got more than one of the Grim Road men shifting uneasily. It didn’t escape my notice that more than one of them looked Hammer’s way.
“How’s that?” Claw snapped. “She pull your man off her?” He indicated me. “Seems like a little thing to be doin’ something like that.”
“Fuuuuuck…” Wylde groaned and dropped his head. “You done it now, hoss.”
He had barely started speaking when Lemon broke ranks and marched straight up to Claw. He gave her an amused smirk as she approached.
“Motherfucker.” Lemon delivered a kick to Claw’s balls that had him giving a startled yelp before clutching his privates and sinking to his knees. Which gave Lemon the opening she was looking for, apparently, because she snapped out a folding baton and got in three good licks to Hammer -- who stood beside Claw -- before Deacon and Wylde were able to pull her off the man. Rocket snagged the baton from her hand but didn’t otherwise touch her. He did eye her with new respect, though.
“Stand down, Lemon!” Brick snarled. Lemon just hissed at him.
“Why? They’re the ones who put her in Hammer’s tender care!” She put as much contempt into her voice as anyone I’d ever heard. “They’re the ones who abandoned her!”
“Those are some serious accusations, girl.” Rocket gave Lemon his full attention. “You got proof to back it up?”
“I know she’s his daughter,” Lemon pointed to Claw. “And I know Scarlet said he gave her to Hammer, then gave his approval for him to take her away from the safety of her club. And before you say she’s not a member of Grim Road, that don’t matter. I’m not a ‘member’” -- she made air quotes --”of Iron Tzars. But it’s still my club. They have my back and I have theirs. We’re a family! You should be a fuckin’ family!”
The more she spoke, the louder Lemon got. It was clear to everyone she was more than just blustering or being a brat. Lemon was ready to go on a killing rampage and damn the consequences. All for Scarlet.
“We are a family, girl.” Rocket said softly. He looked down at Claw who was trying to catch his breath. He was still down on one knee, but trying to push up. Just didn’t look like he could quite manage it yet. “Claw did what he did to keep Scarlet safe. He put her in the hands of a trusted member and sent them out of our territory for her safety.”