“I wouldn’t have met with her if not for you. Don’t like to get involved in biker business.” He waved a dismissive hand and picked up his pen.
“But … I…” Her throat tightened and she couldn’t say the words out loud. God, she’d been so naive when she was with Jimmy, so goddamn trusting in a world where everyone was ready to stab you in the back.
“You want a favor from me, Dee, you know the price.” He looked up from his desk. “Been a long time since I saw you dance.”
Bile rose in her throat. She couldn’t do this again. She wouldn’t pay for favors with her body even for the slim chance of getting back her girls. This was a line she wouldn’t cross. There had to be another way, something Bunny might want from her … or from the Sinners.
“I’m not Dee anymore. I’m Dawn and I’m a Sinner old lady.” She spun around to show him her cut. “I don’t dance anymore, but I’m sure the value of having a mark with the Sinners would far outweigh any pleasure my dancing might give.”
“A Sinner mark?” Bunny sat back and stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. “I heard you ran away from the Brethren. Didn’t think you’d ever come back into the game.”
“Neither did I, but I discovered a strength I never knew I had.”
“Sinner strength?” He gestured at her cut.
“My strength.”
Bunny smiled. “I got dealings with the Jacks. Don’t want to get on their bad side.”
“That’s nothing compared with what will happen if you get on the Sinners’ bad side. You got a taste of that last year.” She tapped her throat in the same place Bunny sported a scar from Jagger’s knife. “My old man has a protective streak, same as Jagger’s, and he won’t be happy if he finds out you asked me to dance.”
He raised an appreciative eyebrow. “Maybe the Jacks won’t hear about it.”
“Maybe they won’t.”
“Maybe I’ll look at the tape. Sinners can owe me a favor.” He held out his hand, and Dawn gave him the USB stick she’d picked up from her lawyer’s office on her way to the pool hall.
“Maybe we will, or maybe we’ll come back and slit your throat and finish the job we started last time.”
“Christ.” Bunny chuckled. “You’re almost as bad as Jagger’s old lady.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” She turned to leave and the door burst open. Chest heaving, Cade stepped over the bodies of the two guards in the hallway and pointed his gun at Bunny. Gunner, Arianne, and Banks tumbled in after him.
“End of the fucking line.”
Dawn sighed and covered the gun with her hand, pressing it down. “Put that away, honey. We’re done here.”
*
“He’s a dead man.” Cade gripped Dawn’s elbow to steer her clear of a drunk on the sidewalk. His body shook with unspent adrenaline and the remnants of the fear and anger that had been pulsing through him since Jagger called to tell him what was going on. Jagger had a sixth sense for when Arianne was doing something he wouldn’t like, and when he’d texted to find out where she was, she told him the truth. The message got passed along. Already at the Conundrum border after dealing with the Demon Spawn scum, Cade had raced to Sticky’s, arriving only minutes too late.
“He’s doing me a favor,” Dawn said. “Why do you want to shoot everyone who makes you angry?”
“I’m a Sinner. That’s what Sinners do.”
“Not always,” she said softly. “That’s not what Arianne does. Or T-Rex. That’s not what the club agreed when Wolf offered an olive branch. And if you’d hurt Bunny, I would never have had a chance to find out who was responsible for that video.”
He winced inwardly as her barb hit home. Every day he held back from going after Mad Dog was a day a piece of him died. That bastard was still on the streets, when by all rights he should be lying in a cold grave. If not for fucking Mad Dog, Dawn wouldn’t have put herself in danger by going to see Bunny. If not for Mad Dog, she wouldn’t be in danger at all.
And she wouldn’t need Cade.
“I told you not to go there.” He tightened his grip on her arm, close to dragging her down the street. Damn. He couldn’t calm down. It was too much … Bunny, the pool hall, all those bastards eyeing her up … the things that could have gone wrong …
“And then you said yes.”
“I didn’t think you were serious.” He growled his frustration. “Or that you would even consider going there without me. And I was … distracted.” Too agitated to continue the conversation in public, he led her into an alley off the street, and drew in a deep, calming breath, his nose wrinkling at the fetid smell of decay and the cloying scents of piss and stale beer.