Warlord (Anathema Book 1) (36 page)

“She called
Keep,” he said.

Son of a bitch.

Rose didn’t apologize
for it, but before the end of the night I’d break her goddamned cell phone. And
take the keys to her car. Probably just tie her up and leave her in the corner
of Pixie where she wouldn’t make my life a fucking nightmare. I pushed Brew
into the club’s door instead of knocking. Rose gasped.

And I actually
fucking apologized.

Lyn waited for
us, but she didn’t know why. Her questions answered as soon as she opened the door,
but that wouldn’t stop her from asking a shit ton more.

She coiled to
strike. I had enough to worry about without getting bit with her venom too.

“Jesus Christ.
What the hell did you do, Brew?” She swung the door wide for us. “
Rose is
here
?”

Rose didn’t
answer. Probably the smartest thing she did all day.

“Need a room,
Lyn.” I couldn’t handle the stares of both the bunny and the blonde. “Now.”

“Then why the
hell are you here?”

“Neutral
ground.”

“You bastard. My
club is anything but
neutral
thanks to you.”

“Hasn’t burned
down yet, has it?”

Lyn swore as I
pushed past her. She edged Rose out of her way and took one step too close to
me.

“Get out of my
club.”

“Get me a room,”
I said.

“Take your vengeance
somewhere else.”

“You wanted
protection from Ex.” I didn’t wait for her to show me to the basement. “Consider
this insurance.”

“I asked for a
guard, not to be a material witness.”

“You keep
talking, and you’ll be the second body they find.”

Rose took Lyn’s
arm. At least Lyn didn’t whip her into the wall.

“I wasn’t here,”
Rose whispered. “No matter
who
asks, I wasn’t here.”

Lyn had been
dancing. Her blonde hair swept into a pony-tail, and she tugged a thick sweat
shirt over the black mini-skirt molded to her ass. She peeled Rose from her arm
and glanced down the corridor toward the bar.

“Anyone see you
come in?” She asked. Rose shook her head. “Go downstairs. Give me your keys. I’ll
store your car. Need anything else?”

“I’m thirsty,” Rose
said.

Fucking hell. She
wasn’t thirsty. She was stalling. Lyn nodded.

“I’ll get the
whiskey.”

Why didn’t we order
some Chinese and have a picnic too?  I grunted for Brew to move and forced him
down the stairs to Lyn’s storage room. The place looked like Keep organized it
during a high. Boxes alphabetized by contents. Files tucked into cabinets. Costumes
arranged and labeled. Meticulous. Not a place for a murder. I shoved Brew into
a chair and left his hands bound.

Rose sat on the
stairs. She didn’t look at either of us.

I never lost
control, but every second she curled on the stairs was another jolt to the
heart. Shit was getting out of hand, but the solution wasn’t any clearer.

Brew wasn’t a
stranger. Christ, I was more family to him than Rose. I nominated him to be my
Sergeant at Arms. My muscle. A weapon I counted on, and a man who’d do anything
for the club.

Anything.

I wasn’t a
forgiving man. But even if I could forget his betrayal with Exorcist, Rose
huddled against the wall. The backpack set at her feet. I couldn’t forgive
anyone that placed her in danger.

Not even her big
brother. The one who promised to protect her.

The one who
needed to protect her from me.

Lyn returned after
a minute. She guarded her steps on the stairs. Afraid of what she might find or
afraid of what she’d witness. I left Brew bound in the chair. She tensed.

“Luke called
already.” Lyn took a swig from the bottle before handing it to Rose. “I never
saw you.” Her nails clipped the railing. “What the hell have you done?”

“Nothing I can’t
fix,” I said.

“There’s not
enough whiskey in the world to fix this.” Lyn waved a hand toward the chaos
that was my next ten minutes. “You want me to take the kid out of here?”

“Don’t you
dare.” Rose was in no position to make demands. I let her pretend anyway. She
knelt before Brew, offering the bottle. “Do you want a drink?”

Brew stared only
at me. “Not sure it’ll do a lot of good, Bud.”

“Please?”

“I’m fine.”

The bottle shook
in her hand. “Let me help. I…I can pour it for you.”

“Jesus Christ. Let
me die with some dignity.”

She flinched. I
debated taking a drink too, if only to down the bottle, shatter it, then slice
my wrists on the glass. Lyn called to her.

“Let’s go,” she
said. “You don’t want to be here for this.”

“I’m not
leaving.”

“If you
ever
want out.” Lyn’s words cracked like a whip. “Then you’ll come with me right now.
Leave this behind. Forget it.”

Rose’s eyes met
mine. The gentle chestnut wasn’t the lethal bite of Lyn’s gaze. It didn’t
poison with threat or lash with a strike. It just revealed the venom already
there. The darkness. The desecrated shade of violence that might have reduced
me to my knees and begged her for forgiveness if there was one shot in hell
she’d offer it.

“There is no out
for me,” she said. “Only dying, and I’d rather not do that today.”

The basement
door flew open. The final Darnell stomped down the stairs, raging and ready to
make his own equally bad decision. I was starting to think their family didn’t
survive on blood. Liquid mistakes surged through their veins. I snapped the
safety off my gun.

Only one way to
find out.

I grabbed Rose,
pinned her against my chest, and pointed the gun at her head. Her little
fingers dug into my arm, but she stayed quiet. Lyn didn’t.

“Don’t be an
idiot,” Lyn groaned.

Keep slowed his
steps. His pupils dilated, but it wasn’t a drug confusing him into choppy
laughter.

“Yeah, right,”
he said. “Maybe if you weren’t fucking her.”

Brew swore. Rose
tugged harder at my arm. I snorted her apple sweet confusion from my head and
let her go. My gun found a new target. Keep’s gaze followed it to his bound
brother.

“That I’ll
believe,” he said. He held his hands up and sat as I directed him. “What
snapped in your fucking head?”

“Go upstairs,
Lyn,” I said. “Consider next month’s payment received in full.”

“What a goddamned
relief.” Lyn’s heels might have punctured holes in her stairs. “By all means
then, carry the fuck on.”

The door slammed.
Keep pulled Rose close. I lowered the gun, but I didn’t put it away.

“Show Keep
what’s in the bag,” I said. “Then you can tell him what you’ve been up to.”

Rose didn’t
answer. She pushed the bag into her brother’s lap and looked away. Keep
whistled as he peeled the zipper.

“I’m a fucking
junkie, and this is too much meth for anyone, let alone my goddamned sister.” Keep
tossed the bag aside and stared at the gun in my hand. “What the hell is going
on here?”

“Recognize it?”
I asked.

“Recognize
what
?”

“I found the same
drugs in your sock drawer,” Rose whispered.

Keep rubbed his
face. His hand wove over his shaved head. “I had porn on my laptop. You go
through that too?”

I didn’t like
the way he talked to his sister. She didn’t like how I threatened her brothers.
We were even.

“Where’d you get
Temple’s meth?” I asked.

“Must have found
it.”

“Found it.”

Keep shrugged. “All
the junk is messing with my memory. I don’t remember.”

“Jesus Christ.”
Brew tested the bindings on his wrists. He might have broken out of the wires
with a bit of effort and blood, but neither of us wanted the mess or the
panicked kid. “I gave him the drugs.”

“You did
what
?”
Rose squealed. “I
knew
you were enabling him! How could you?”

Brew ground his
jaw. “Bigger fucking picture, Bud.”

“He was able to
score it for me,” Keep said. “Christ, if this is your idea of an intervention,
I’ll take rehab instead.”

Brew lost his
temper and swore again. “I’m running the drugs, you idiot. Temple and Exorcist
made a deal. Temple is fighting with the Haitians. Lots of bad blood there. They
were willing to distribute in the valley again, and I bought from them as a
show of good-faith.” He stared his brother down. “They didn’t trust anyone but
a Darnell.”

Keep slammed a
hand on the stair. The threat of the gun parked him next to his sister.

“You betrayed
Anathema,” I said. “And you got Rose involved.”

Brew frowned. “Rose
wasn’t supposed to be there. Temple wanted me, but Ex wanted her. Ex got it in
his head that someone neutral should be at the meet. He was just using her.”

I wanted nothing
more than to fire the gun. “And now he’ll kill her.”

“Looks like it.”

Keep sobered up
quick. He stared at Rose. “You got in this mess?”

Her voice lost
the sweet tone and dropped to a terrified, breathy whisper. “Ex made me do it. I…told
them I’d only give the bag to my brother. I didn’t…I thought…”

Keep stood. He
looked from her then to me. His expression broke. Perfectly sober. Like we
ripped the junk from his veins just to stuff it with glass instead.

“Holy fuck. You
knew
there was a rat.” His voice lowered. “You thought it was
me
.”

Rose sniffled. Like
nails on a chalkboard. I didn’t want to add offending her brother to her list
of horrors. The bill for a decent shrink when all this was done would bankrupt
the club.

“I don’t believe
this.” Keep’s hands started shaking. He didn’t hide it. “Why the fuck are you working
for Exorcist?”

Brew swore.

“You think I’m
doing favors for that
cocksucker
?” Brew stood. I slammed him down into
the chair. “Get your goddamned facts straight, Thorne. I got nothing to do with
Exorcist.”

“Don’t lie in
front of your little sister,” I said. “Sets a bad example.”

“I was making a
deal with
Temple
. For Anathema!”

I didn’t like
having a rat in my club. I didn’t like second-guessing my brothers and covering
my steps like a damned pussy. But someone lying to me?

That was worth
wasting a good bullet in a bad brain.

“Temple dealt
with my father back in the day,” Brew said. “But they don’t trust anyone else. They
wanted into the valley, and Luke worked with me.”

Rose edged
against the wall. “Luke?”

“He made the
arrangement. We needed Temple to trust me enough to do the deal and get them
the money. We planned a way to end this fucking war.”

“How?” My voice
layered with all the violence my straining hands hadn’t delivered.

“Temple needed
the money to get my father out of jail.”

“Oh my God.” Rose
paled. Keep grabbed her before she stumbled. “The fifty grand was for Dad?”

“They have a
judge. Believe me, Temple wants Dad out of jail more than us.”

I doubted that. Rose
fought against Keep until he released her. She held herself. Rocked against the
wall like she did on the picnic table. She didn’t get sick, but her face paled.
Sickly. White. I could practically imagine the bruises on her cheeks that once
haunted her perfect skin.

“He can’t get
out of jail,” she said. “He can’t.”

“Temple needs a
little time and a lot of money.” Brew held my gaze. “Luke doesn’t like how
you’re running things, but he knows Exorcist isn’t the right leader of The Coup
or Anathema.”

“Great, he’s a
fucking traitor to everyone.” My headache cast halos around Rose. Or maybe she
just earned her own. Christ only knew, but I doubted he’d tell me while I aimed
a gun at her brother. “So you wanted to give Luke and The Coup the drugs
they’ll need to resell. Make a profit. Buy guns. Slaughter us all in our
sleep.”

“Temple wants to
deal with Blade Darnell. They don’t care what colors he wears, so long as it
isn’t an orange jumpsuit.”

“And you went to
Exorcist with this information?”

Brew narrowed
his eyes. The gray in his hair fooled everyone. He was thirty-seven, had a couple
years on me, but he wasn’t old yet. Just dangerous.

“If my father
tells Temple MC that Exorcist is a liability, they won’t hesitate to take him
out.” Brew spoke like he held the gun, but he hadn’t pulled the trigger. “You
can’t take out Ex, Thorne. Not without starting a major fucking war. But Temple
can. Get me the fuck out of this chair, give me the drugs, and I’ll fix this. Rose
didn’t make any friends, but we can keep her safe.”