Page 81 of Chaos Bound
But Tank stared at his phone, his face pale and drawn.
Holt picked up on the tension in Tank’s shoulders and leaned across the table. “What’s wrong, brother?”
“It’s nothing. Just…” His gaze flicked to Naiya and then back to Holt. “Nothing.”
With a discrete nod of understanding, Naiya stood and gestured to Ally. “Next round is on me. I’ll need some help at the bar, and I can introduce you to Banks. You’ll like him. He’s got the whole taciturn mysterious bartender vibe thing going on. I dare you to make him laugh.”
After the girls left, Holt pulled his chair closer to Tank. “Talk to me.”
Tank’s head jerked up and hope flared in his eyes. “You’re still not putting on the cut?”
“Doesn’t feel right,” Holt said. “I don’t know if it ever will.”
“So you’re not a Sinner?”
Holt didn’t know where Tank was going with this, but perversely he seemed to take comfort in the fact Holt wasn’t presently a member of the club, so he ran with it. “I haven’t handed in my cut to Jagger, and he hasn’t taken it from me. But I’m not wearing it, so I’m not bound by the rules.”
Tank let out a ragged breath. “Then I got a problem, brother. And if Jagger finds out…”
“He won’t.” Holt clapped Tank’s shoulder. “Tell me what I can do. I’m here for you. Whatever you need, I’ve got your back. No matter what happens, that will never change.”
TWENTY-FIVE
TANK
Tank wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans, but it didn’t do any good. Ever since he received Ella’s text, his body had been in stress overdrive. Heart-pounding, shirt-soaking, pulse-racing stress. If T-Rex hadn’t been there to keep him calm and take charge of the situation, he didn’t know what he would have done. Even now, in Hacker’s office—a small computer room at the back of the clubhouse, set up for the club’s IT whiz to deal with tech operations—he couldn’t stop his teeth from chattering.
“I’ve got bad news and I’ve got good news,” Hacker said, turning from the massive computer screen in front of him.
Tank glanced over at T-Rex and Naiya standing behind Hacker’s chair. They’d had no choice but to confide in the MC’s computer geek on his word as a Sinner not to share the results of his scan of Tank’s phone with Jagger or the rest of the club. Tank didn’t like putting Hacker in this position, but Hacker owed Tank a favor for the night he’d gotten drunk and knocked over Jagger’s bike. Tank had spent the whole night fixing the damage and now he was calling in his mark for keeping his mouth shut about the whole ordeal.
“Gimme the good news.” Although how much worse could it be? When he’d seen Ella’s email with the gas station video attachment, he’d almost handed in his cut right there. No way would Jagger let him stay in the club after he’d broken the rule about fraternizing with reporters. Add to that, taking the video in the first place without authorization, getting so pissed he forgot basic safety protocols and left his phone unattended and unsecured, and now putting T-Rex, Naiya, and the club at risk, he’d be lucky to be kicked out without some broken bones, maybe even his life.
Hacker, tall and lean with unnaturally bright green eyes, and the kind of face that sent the sweet butts into a swoon, ran a hand through his long hair. “She emailed the video to herself. I can hack into her email account and delete it. I can also find out if she’s sent it to anyone else.”
“And the bad news?”
“If she’s downloaded it, or if she sent it to someone else and they downloaded it, then it’s going to be more difficult, if not impossible, to get rid of it. And if she’s uploaded it to the Internet, then we’re shit out of luck.”
“I say we grab her. Bring her to the clubhouse and let Dax scare her a bit,” T-Rex said. “We’ll find out pretty damn fast who got it.”
“And you’ll find your way to a jail cell pretty damn fast once she goes to the authorities, as if you’re not headed there already.” Naiya snorted her derision. “She could have just put it on the news or sent it to the police, but she didn’t. So why not meet her at the rally like she’s asked. Find out why she took it and what she’s going to do with it. Then make a decision. It might be she’s planning to air it while she’s reporting on the bike rally unless you give her what she wants.”
“I don’t know what she wants.” Tank folded his arms. “And if I see her alone, feeling the way I feel right now, I might lose control. And she’s got this way of twisting words around…”
“You won’t be alone,” T-Rex assured him. “I’ll be with you.”
Emotion welled up in Tank’s chest. “Thought you had your own shit to do at the rally. You can’t be in two places at once.”
“The only place I need to be is at your back, brother. And it might be that the Sinners have a good plan I can go along with. While they’re setting it up, and taking care of my girl, I can be with you.”
It took a moment for T-Rex’s words to sink in, and when they did Tank’s heart seized in his chest. Was T-Rex really going to return to the club for him? Join with the Sinners instead of going after Viper alone?
“You and Naiya.” T-Rex answered his unspoken question. “I trust you more than anyone, but I trust the brothers, too. I want Viper so bad it burns inside me, and for the longest time it was all I lived for. But now I got Naiya and you, and if I lost either of you, it would fucking kill me. I’ll hear Jagger’s plan. And if it’s solid, then I’ll work with them to take Viper down.” A grin spread across his face, a flash of the old T-Rex. “But I’m still gonna be the one who pulls the trigger.”
Tank’s hands clenched and unclenched by his sides, and his throat tightened so hard he could barely breathe. He couldn’t hug T-Rex here. And he couldn’t fucking cry. Christ. Ever since T-Rex had returned, he’d been an emotional mess, and Tank didn’t do emotion. Bikers didn’t do emotion. Men didn’t do emotion. But he was so goddamned grateful to have his best friend back, and even more relieved that T-Rex was going to talk to Jagger. Not just because it meant he had a chance of getting out of this mess without losing everything that mattered—his life, his cut, his club, and his friend—but also because T-Rex stood a better chance of surviving a confrontation with Viper with the Sinners at his back. And he wouldn’t be able to take T-Rex dying all over again.
He forced his words past the lump in his throat. “Appreciated, brother.”
