Forty-Three
Skye
After many hours of pacing, I was emotionally exhausted. I had not slept, had not had one moment of rest. I wound up pressed against Roy’s side, painfully aware of Miles sitting across from me, watching me intently as I shut my eyes and dozed. He looked just as wrecked and pained; he must have gotten so close to Hunter in my absence because the misery on his face hid the arrogance he oozed.
No longer pressed against Roy, I stirred awake to sudden commotion. Glancing around the waiting room, I searched for Roy and Leo, but neither were here. In fact, as I looked around, there were no bikers, but there were loud shouts. I twisted around just as I caught Roy chasing after Leo as he hurried past me and to the doors.
“What the fuck did he say to you?!” Roy shrieked angrily.
I jumped to my feet suddenly and hurried after them. What the hell was going on? Jesse came up from behind me, chasing after them. “What’s happening?” I demanded, panicked.
Jesse looked equally enraged. “That bastard got to Hunter before we did. Hunter said something to him, but we don’t know what, and he’s fallen back under since. We think he told him who did this to him.”
What?
Leo strolled with a purpose across the road and to the parking lot with Roy on his tail. Shane was already in the car, waiting for Leo. I stopped in my tracks, turning back for a moment to look at the entrance doors. Indecision flickered through me. I should be in there, at Hunter’s side, but when I turned back to look at Leo slipping into the car, I knew something bad was going to happen.
My worries came true when Roy stood at the back of the car, blocking it from reversing out and pulled out a gun from his waistband.Oh, God.He aimed it at the car and fired at the back wheels, hollering, “TELL ME WHAT HE SAID!” over and over again.
The gunshots were so loud, echoing across the parking lot. Jesse stopped next to Roy, looking equally possessed as he pulled out another gun and aimed it at the back window, screaming, “GET THE FUCK OUT!”
Fuck!
The doors of the car burst open, and Leo jumped out with Shane, both armed with guns I didn’t even know they’d had on them. Leo’s gun was raised at Roy, and he looked eerily calm as he said, “This kill is mine—”
“NO!” Roy shouted back, voice cracking as his gun wavered. “Don’t do this to me, Itani! Tell me what he fucking said!”
But Leo didn’t answer. He glanced at Shane and then at Jesse, and then at the other bikers already forming a wall around them. I was petrified in that moment that they were going to kill him.
I hurried to him, having to shove aside a few bodies in the process. I stopped next to Shane, raising my arms, pleading, “Not like this, guys, okay? Please! Leo, please!”
But Leo had shut off. He wasn’t even looking at me. Something dark had come over him as he peered at Roy intently, demanding, “This isn’t a war you’ll win. You hurt me, and you’ll have the High Table to answer to. Think of the contracts they’ll send out for your head. Think of what they’ll do to your family—”
“WHAT FAMILY?!” Roy cut in, veins popping from his throat. “I got ONE boy, and he’s in that fucking hospital bed, hanging on by a thread. Whoever did this took his mother—MY WOMAN! SHE WASMY FUCKING WOMAN!”
“And he’s my brother,” Leo retorted sharply. “And they nearly killed him.”
Now Roy’s voice broke, and suddenly there wasn’t enough air to breathe as his face contorted to pain. “Please, Itani.Please.”
Tears streamed down my face because he wasn’t the strong president of a biker gang right now. He was a broken man pleading for answers. Leo’s gun wavered as he stared at Roy with that steely expression. His teeth clenched as he dropped the gun to his side, huffing out a harsh breath. Shane watched him intently, keeping his gun raised. “Leo?” he prodded in question.
Leo’s eyes remained hard on Roy as he demanded, “We do this together.”
Roy dropped his arms, nodding quickly. “Together.”
“I don’t want your men after me. Don’t fucking do anything, Roy!”
“This isn’t about that!”
“You do anything, and I swear to fuck—”
“We won’t do a thing, goddammit, Itani, just fucking tell me.”
Leo glared at the wall of men around the car, his eyes briefly settling on me—cold, cold, cold—before he tore them away and said, “It was the Walker brothers. I don’t know why—I just know they did it.”
Walker.
I felt my blood run cold at the familiar name.