My eyes widen in response to that, but I shouldn’t be surprised. Using the FBI’s lab not only guarantees the best possible results, but now the feds know the special breed of drug they’re looking for—and who, exactly, is responsible for it.
I would not be surprised if I were to get a visit from the feds, although it’s possible that Death by Daybreak’s pet is keeping my name off the books. Who knows?
“If Cat knows that …” I trail off and swipe my hands down my face. I’m trembling, but there’s nothing to be done about it. Yep, yep, definitely in shock. That, and my face hurts. My goddamn fucking everything hurts. But I imagine it’s mostly bruises; Beast’s body shielded me from the worst of the explosion. I glance back at him, but even though he’s more bloodied than I am, he stands there like an immortal force, something impenetrable and eternal, a pillar of strength. “Okay, so if he knows about the antidote, then he’ll administer it.”
Although it might be too late for some. It’s definitely been longer than a half an hour since people started drinking from the kegs and snorting up coke. Fuck. We’ll have lost people tonight. How many, I’m not sure, but Gaz has done a goddamn number on this club.
What the hell did he hope to gain from that?
I think about that for a second, about the purposes of setting off a bomb in his own clubhouse. Gaz would never actually want to see Death by Daybreak destroyed, but if he were to get rid of my boys, and our dad, maybe a few of the old-timers, then he’d be clearing away his only opposition.
He could’ve, theoretically, taken over things, got himself voted in as president.
Especially if he were to blame the whole thing on me and the officers, if we were the traitors he so gloriously defeated.
But also …
“The families,” I say, feeling my blood go cold. “Anyone who isn’t on the compound is at risk.”
“I already gave the order,” Crown tells me, and the adrenaline in my veins spikes doubly over that. One, because I find his intelligence and capability awe-inspiring and undeniably attractive. Second, it means I’m thinking along the right lines. “We’re rounding everyone up who’s off-compound.”
“Grey then,” I assert, moving onto the next problem as my eyes flick back in the direction of my father’s office. I can see Gaz’s body, the small bloody entry wound on the back of his head, the mess of red and pink around him. “Cat ordered you to clean up the body; I really don’t want Nellie to see.”
“I’m not going to ask you to deal with your brother’s body, Gidge,” Crown tells me, frowning hard. He lets out a sharp sigh. “Why don’t the two of you look for … that boy.” The edge of his lip curls up in disgust. “Take him back to the farmhouse.”
“My farmhouse,” I correct automatically, and Crown gives me this impossible look. I don’t understand any part of it, and I’m in no state to dissect the emotions of one of these assholes. “Thank you.”
“You’re the end and beginning of everything for me, aren’t you, Gidget?” Crown asks with an exasperated sigh.
“It’s Gidge,” I correct him, the reverse correction to the one I’ve used my whole life. At first, nobody was allowed to call me Gidge. Nobody but my sisters and Reba. Now, the boys have to call me Gidge because the sweet, soft familiarity of a nickname is a light in the endless darkness of my world.
I need that, a soft place to land.
Is it possible that four inked outlaw bastards could be that softness for me? Could be my landing strip when I descend from a stormy sky?
Fuck, you’re a maudlin bitch, aren’t you? I think, forcing another exhale to calm myself down.
Crown places his warm hand on the back of my neck and leans down, brushing a fervent kiss across my lips that burns as good as it hurts. I’m in so much pain from Gaz’s punch, but I’d accept that agony for the rest of eternity if it meant that I could keep kissing Calder Reid.
I’ve never kissed anyone that simultaneously tastes like the most loving man I’ve ever met, and also the biggest alpha-hole dickhead. Crown is both of things concurrently; there is no untangling one from the other.
He pulls away, and I see that his own mouth is now glossy with my blood, giving him that edge that Beast and I have, making him look a little more real and a little less perfect. Where were you? I wonder again, but I don’t have time to ask right now.
We’re on a strict time limit.
“Take care of her for me,” Crown breathes, licking my blood from his lips like that isn’t a particularly weird or morbid thing to do. It just makes sense here, in this strange world of ours.
