His face softened. “What about Arianne?”
Damn. Caught out. Her bestie was the daughter of Viper, president of the Sinners’ biggest rival MC, the Black Jacks. And although Arianne had spent a lifetime trying to get out of Conundrum and away from her father, she’d fallen in love with the Sinner president, Jagger, and returned to her outlaw biker roots. “I guess there a few exceptions.”
The rumble of a motorcycle pulled her attention away from Cade and his gentle touch. Turning, she caught a glimpse of a Harley Classic motorcycle pulling to a stop beside Shelly-Ann’s car.
No.
No way.
Dawn sucked in a sharp breath. What was Jimmy doing here? And by here, she didn’t just mean in Conundrum or in front of a Sinner who, by all rights, could shoot him dead on sight for daring to enter the town, but here near her girls.
Jimmy hated his children. He blamed them for everything that had gone wrong in their relationship—in other words, Dawn had finally mustered the courage to leave after he took out his anger on Tia. Malicious and bitter, he had waged the custody battle not because he wanted their girls, but simply because he didn’t want Dawn to have them.
“Jimmy! Get away from them.” Heedless of the danger, she pushed past Cade and stepped into the street. Jimmy’s presence here was nothing short of brazen, and tantamount to suicide. But then he’d always been an adrenaline junkie, a quality she’d admired until she discovered he got his kicks by listening to her scream.
Jimmy scowled when he spotted her, and she felt the familiar surge of adrenaline that accompanied the fear of knowing she’d displeased him. Once that scowl would have sent her running in the other direction. But she wasn’t going to let him near her children ever again.
And besides, for the first time ever, she had backup. Not that she expected Cade to intervene in what was essentially a marital dispute, but Jimmy was a member of the Devil’s Brethren, and he was on Sinner’s Tribe territory. There was no way Cade would let that pass.
“What the fuck?” Clearly audible over the dwindling traffic, Cade’s angry shout chilled Dawn’s blood. She held her breath in anticipation of the moment Jimmy heeded the outraged biker only a few steps behind her and ran for cover.
Unfortunately, Jimmy didn’t oblige. Instead he crooked his finger and motioned her forward, sending a shiver down her spine with a simple gesture that carried with it the memory of years of pain.
Dark where Cade was fair, slender where Cade was broad, Jimmy had a lean, wolfish face with razor-sharp cheekbones and a cruel slash of a mouth framed in a prickly goatee. When she first met him she’d thought him darkly handsome, but now, knowing just how vicious and brutal he could be, his cruel features were the stuff of nightmares, not dreams.
“That’s your Jimmy?” Cade’s voice dropped to a low, threatening growl. “Mad Dog, VP of the Devil’s Brethren MC? What the hell is he doing in Conundrum?”
“Yep. That’s Jimmy.” Dawn’s pulse kicked up a notch as she took full advantage of the opportunity that had presented itself in the form of a Brethren’s mortal enemy, with absolutely no qualms about what she was about to unleash. If Cade were even half as passionate about the club as he was about sex, Jimmy would soon sport as many bruises as she had on the many occasions he’d raised his fists to her. “He’s never dared come into Conundrum before. Looks like he’s decided to stick to the Sinners.”
“Jesus. Fucking. Christ.”
Dawn’s mouth watered in anticipation. Oh yeah. Jimmy was about to pay for his crimes. His presence was a challenge to Sinner dominance in Conundrum, and no one challenged the Sinners without paying a price.
“You were an old lady in the Devil’s Brethren?”
“Biggest mistake of my life.” She hadn’t realized just how big until she’d become pregnant with the twins at the age of nineteen. Only then did the blinders come off. Although the Brethren were hard, ruthless, violent men, they had bylaws and a constitution, rules and a creed. Jimmy followed the rules only to the extent he was forced to do so, and he lacked the fierce protectiveness most bikers had toward their property: bikes, weapons, clubhouse, women, and children—born or unborn.
Jimmy’s dark eyes finally flicked from Dawn to Cade and back to Dawn. She trembled under his silent censure, wondering if he’d seen Cade’s hand on her cheek and just how bad her punishment would be if he had. Jimmy’s justice was swift and brutal, and she’d quickly learned that the price for breaking his rules was not worth even the smallest amount of defiance.
Cade took a small step forward, interposing his body between her and Jimmy. He seemed unaware of his subtly protective gesture, but Jimmy had seen it, and from the ferocity of his scowl he wasn’t pleased. Of course, his displeasure was only the tip of the iceberg. She’d been caught breaking the deal. Now she would have to pay.