Page 89 of The Devil's Reward
Panic grips me instantly. “What’s wrong? What happened? Why do we need to go with you?” The words rush out of me rapid-fire as I scramble out of bed and turn on the light.
Shadow sighs, and it’s like the weight of the world is in that one breath. “One of our brothers was killed and left at the gate of the clubhouse,” he says finally.
“Oh my God,” I gasp, horror filling me. “Why did they kill him? Was it something random?”
“I’ll explain everything when we get there,” Shadow says with a shake of his head.
“No, you’ll explain it to me now,” I snap, fear choking me. “Especially when you’re coming here in the middle of the night and trying to get me to pack up my daughter and go to your clubhouse. Where you just told me that someone dumped a body. Abody, Shadow.” My voice is rising with each word as my panic rises with it.
Shadow walks towards me and puts his hands on my shoulders, looking down at me. “It’s just a precaution, Quinn,” he tries to soothe.
“If it was just a precaution, you wouldn’t look so damned panicked,” I return. “So tell me what the hell is going on, or we’re not going anywhere.”
Frustration flits over his face. “Quinn, I’m not trying to scare you,” he starts.
“You’re doing a damn good job of it anyway,” I snap, pulling away from him. “I don’t need to be a cop or a shrink to know that something bad is going on. First, it was someone trying to run you off the road, and now someone ends up dead. I don’t know what your club is involved in, Shadow, but I’m not going to be a part of it. I’m not going to let Macy be a part of it. So tell me what is going on or get out of my house.”
He runs a hand through his hair. “Fuck,” he hisses. He paces, and I cross my arms over my chest as I wait. Finally, he stops and looks at me. “If I tell you this shit you’re going to panic, but you have no reason to because I’m going to protect you.”
I stare at him. “You need to work on your convincing tactics, Shadow,” I say sarcastically. “You’re supposed to be trying to tell me everything is all good, not making me think that I have something to worry about.”
He sighs. “Fine, but this can’t be repeated, alright? This is club business, and I shouldn’t even mention it to you, but I know if I don’t you won't come with me.” I give him a curt nod. “For the past few months, we’ve become aware that someone in our club has been feeding information to the local branch of the Russian mafia so they can operate in our town without us or the cops knowing.”
My mouth drops open. “The Russian mafia?” I choke out. “You’re involved with the Russian mafia? Oh my God. Oh my God. What have I done? And I’ve brought you around Macy. No, no this is not okay. You have to go. You have to forget that you ever saw her. We don’t exist. We don’t—”
“Quinn!” Shadow snaps, stopping my tirade and grabbing me by the arms to hold me still. “You need to calm down. Let me finish, okay?” I just stare at him, refusing to answer. “Yes, whoever this bastard is, he went to the mafia with information we had nothing to do with. Hell, we didn’t know the information existed until only a couple of days ago. But we’ve been searching, and we’ve been trying to track down the local mafia guys so we can get them out of town. And now, they seem to be fighting back. Hammer is their first actual kill, and it will be their last. On that, you have my word. I will never allow another one of my brothers to be killed, nor one of our women. And that includes you and Macy. I will fight to the death for both of you. To keep you safe.”
“But would we be safe?” I ask quietly. “You said yourself, you have a mole. Who’s to say this mole won’t sell us out and bring the wrath of the Russian mafia down on your clubhouse with us inside? I’d rather go to my parents than take that gamble with my child’s safety.”
“And if you go to your parents, you could be leading them right to their door and making yourselves easy targets,” he says harshly. “They might not even wait for you to get all the way there. They could attack you on your way to the airport. You are safer here with me. I promise you that Macy will be safe, Quinn. I would never let anything happen to her. She will be under constant watch by the people we trust. We are going to find this mole, and we are going to deal with Dmitri and his band of goons. But I need you to trust me.”
“Why have you never said anything about this? I asked you about your club earlier tonight and you never said a thing.”
“Because it falls under the category of club business,” he answers, letting me go and stepping back. “Until we got the news about Hammer, I’d have gladly left you in the dark about it and handled it. But now, we know that they aren’t playing around and I need to make sure that you’re safe. Please, Quinn, I am asking you to trust me. Trust me to keep you safe. You and Macy.”
“Are you giving me a choice?” I demand, angry and in shock. How is this happening? “Either go with you into a clubhouse that I don’t know, with a bunch of strangers, one of whom might be in league with the mafia, or stay here and possibly bring danger to my doorstep. How is either of those options a good one?”
“I’m not saying they’re good ones,” he sighs. “I’m saying this mole is the least of our worries. If he feeds information that you are with us, protected, then it will take any heat off you or Macy. When we know it’s safe, you’ll be able to come home and act like nothing happened.”
I gape at him incredulously. “Like nothing happened? Are you kidding me, Shadow? Really? This is supposed to make me want to trust you? I barely know you, and now this? I’m getting dragged into the middle of a turf war.”
Shadow straightens, and his gaze is unreadable. “I want you to trust me because you know that I care about you and know that yours and Macy’s safety is the most important thing to me.”
I give him a cool look. “You think because I’ve slept with you that it means I should trust you on that alone?”
His eyes go hard. “Sleeping with me has nothing to do with this.”
“Then tell me why I should trust you,” I holler at him, pushed past my limit.
“Because you and my family are the only things that matter right now,” he says harshly. “You, Macy, and the club that I call a family. I told you earlier that I want us to be in a relationship and I meant every damn word. In any normal circumstance, our club is nothing more than charity work, our businesses, and the occasional party. None of us wants this, but we will not sit by while these assholes peddle their poison through our town. Especially when the reason they can do that is based on some information given to them from someone unworthy to wear our patch.
“You think I like this, Quinn? I told myself so many times over the past few days that I needed to walk away from you. To forget you. But I can’t. I keep getting pushed back to you, and I know there’s a reason. I fought for freedom on foreign soil, and now I’m going to do the same here. Do you realize that there’s a bigger chance for war the longer the mafia stays in town? Not from us, but from other groups that want to dig their claws in? The Italians, the Cartel, the Yakuza, and any number of small gangs will walk through the door the Russians have opened.
“They will pillage this town. Crime will run rampant, and Macy will never be able to walk home from school without worrying that someone will try to hurt her. Maybe even snatch her and pimp her out to some sick pervert. That is what we are fighting against, Quinn. We didn’t ask for it, but we will damn well fight it. Most of us in the club have some ties to Uncle Sam, which makes us some of the most deadly people in this city. We are trained to fight this, and we won’t let it go. I will never let it go. I will never allow you to be hurt. I will never let Macy lose her childhood or her freedom.
“So, yes, I am asking you to trust me, and you can be as angry as you like with me, but eventually this would have touched your world, even if I wasn’t in the picture. This sped things up, but you have a whole bunch of people at your back who will stand up for you. For your child. For me. That is what my club is. What it means. If I didn’t care about you, about Macy, do you think I would be disturbing your life this way? Scaring you? You are mine, Quinn. You told me you were mine, just like I’m yours,” he says quietly, his words like a punch to the heart at the bubbling emotion in them. “And I am going to keep you safe. So I need you to trust me. Trust my club. Because you are important, and I will never survive losing you.”
I swallow hard around the thickness in my throat. My mind is spinning in a dozen different directions, and I’m conflicted. I know he’s right. Deep down I know he’s right. It was only a matter of time, but is it so wrong of me to wish I was oblivious for a little longer? I look away from him, staring at the closed bedroom door. Knowing Macy is asleep just down the hall, I can’t pretend that Shadow didn’t just tell me all that.
