Page 58 of Chaos Bound
“Looking the way you look, dressed the way you’re dressed, talking sweet the way you talk, that’s tantamount to suicide.” He looked over her shoulder then back to her.
“Tank was here earlier, but I think he’s gone. Jagger’s in the back room. He’s the president of the Sinners. He’ll know where you can find him.”
Naiya sucked in a sharp breath. Now here was a part of the plan she hadn’t thought through. Jagger was with Arianne, and Arianne knew her from the few times her mother had dragged her to the Black Jack clubhouse, and the weekends she’d played with Jeff. In fact, Arianne only knew her as a club brat, and she didn’t want to think about what might happen if Arianne outted her as a Black Jack in a Sinner bar.
Bank stilled, assessing her. “You got a problem with Jagger?”
“No,” she said quickly, thumbing the ring on her finger. “I’ve never met him. It’s just… talking to the Sinner president sounds kind of scary.”
“Who’s scary?” A grizzled biker with a long, unkempt beard joined them at the bar. He had hazel eyes and a face weathered from years of riding.
“You are with that rat’s nest attached to your chin. Fucking thing is a health hazard.” Banks poured a shot of whiskey and shoved it across the bar. “This here’s Shaggy. Oldest member of the Sinner’s Tribe. His claim to fame is that fucking beard he hasn’t cut in twenty years.”
“Twenty-two and counting.” Shaggy stroked his beard, his fingers lost in the tangle.
“Our sweet rose here is looking for Tank.” Bank gave her a wink. “You seen him around?”
“He was out for a bit, but he just came in.” Shaggy nodded to the door, and Naiya turned to see a tall, heavily built biker crossing the floor toward them. He was about the same height and build as Holt, but dark where Holt was fair, his eyes chestnut brown, and his hair thick, but closely cropped to his head, bringing his wide jaw and defined cheekbones into stark relief. Handsome but rough.
“There’s a girl here,” Banks said when Tank joined them at the bar. “Wants to talk to you.”
Tank’s gaze flicked to her, and he frowned. She could almost see the wheels turning in his mind. Who was she? Had he slept with her?
He glanced over at Banks, shook his head. “Another fucking night I don’t remember. You’d better start cutting me off at two.”
Naiya’s mouth opened and closed again. This was Holt’s best friend; the one person in the world he missed most of all; the man whose betrayal hurt him beyond anything Viper had done to him. And now that she was standing in front of him, she didn’t know what to say. What if Holt was right and Tank and the Sinners had abandoned him? What if Tank was the bad guy? What if he used her to find Holt and…
“You’re scaring her,” Shaggy said. “Lookit her eyes turning green. I think I remember a sweet butt whose eyes did that, or maybe it was a waitress…”
Banks snorted a laugh. “Or maybe you looked in the mirror one morning and scared the shit out of yourself ‘cause your beard looks like it’s swallowing your face.”
Shaggy cursed at Banks and the banter continued. For a moment, she felt like she was in the Black Jacks’ clubhouse all over again. But she’d had enough hiding and feeling scared, running away again and again. If she didn’t do something now, Holt would never know the truth and he might kill an innocent man.
She swallowed hard, looked up at Tank. “Could I talk to you outside?”
Tank gave her a curt nod and gestured her toward the door. “After you.”
“Congrats in advance if you’re gonna become a daddy,” Shaggy called after them.
Tank shot him a withering stare, then guided her out of the bar with one hand against her lower back. A gentleman biker. Kinda like Holt.
Once outside, Tank leaned against the brick wall fronting the bar, arms folded, his muscular body casting a large shadow on the sidewalk beneath the streetlight. Cars zipped down the street in front of them, and a biker pulled up beside the row of bikes to Tank’s left and waved.
“What’s this all about?” Tank asked.
Naiya unzipped the backpack and handed him Holt’s cut.
Tank unfolded the leather vest and his face contorted in pain. “Where the fuck did you get this?”
“Viper’s dungeon.”
He fisted the leather, and a shudder ran through his body. “So you came all the way here to bring it back to the Sinners? You some kinda Good Samaritan? Why me?”
She shivered in the cold. “You were his best friend.”
Tank’s face tightened, and he leaned over her, glowering. “How do you know that?”
“He told me.”
