“Who knows?” He shrugged. “At least I got her hand away from my dick. That was worth the Benjamin.”
“Motherfucker, you better back off.” Rider stood to his feet, his chair falling to the floor as the one who had taken Willa’s card came to his feet.
“You’re the one who needs to fuck off.” A fist flew out, which Rider dodged while his own nailed the man in the jaw.
Viper cocked a brow at Cash. “You up for this?”
“Hell, yeah.” He had been dying to blow off some steam, and this was the perfect opportunity. “The one in the red shirt is mine.” He slipped his brass knuckles out of his pocket.
When the bar became engulfed in fighting, Cash made sure he was the one to take on the guy who had come on to Rachel, using the brute force he had been steadily regaining during the months of rehab. He managed to beat the asshole so that his own mother wouldn’t recognize him. His body was weak, drenched in sweat and he was shaking when the cops came through the door. Cash didn’t put up a fight as he was handcuffed, but he did manage to land a last solid kick against the ribs of the man lying on the floor.
They were taken to jail. Cash, Viper, Lucky, and Train were in one cell while the three other cells were filled with the remaining Last Riders.
“Notice anything funny?” Viper’s voice was muffled by the t-shirt he had removed to stem the blood flowing from his nose.
“We’re the only ones arrested,” Cash confirmed.
“We wanted to know how far they had taken over this town; our question just got answered.”
“Stud’s not going to be happy.”
“I’m not, either. I think they were scouting Treepoint to see how easy it would be to take over.” Viper lowered the now-bloody shirt.
“They’ll control the main road through the mountain,” Cash surmised.
Viper nodded. “And all the side roads that lead through both towns.”
“Fuck, Viper. If they pulled something really big, it would take an army to get to them.”
“I think that’s what they’re planning on.”
The men stared at each other grimly.
Cash got sick to his stomach. To want a getaway of this magnitude, they were planning on doing a job that would have massive fatalities, and then even more lives would be lost trying to get them off the land that provided them plenty of cover from attack.
“I’ll make some calls.” Cash was already thinking of several buddies in Homeland Security.
“I will, too,” Lucky chimed in, flexing his hand with the bruised knuckles. “But I’m not becoming a minister again.”
“How about a nun?” Cash joked.
“Fuck you.” Lucky leaned his head back against the grey wall.
The men started coming up with ideas for Lucky’s next undercover assignment, but when Train’s idea landed him face down on the floor, they quit laughing. Lucky, satisfied he had shut everyone down, sat back down.
“Motherfuckers, if you don’t shut up, I’ll tell the women those yahoos beat your asses.”
The cell went quiet. Lucky never made promises he didn’t keep.
*
Cash let himself in his grandmother’s house. It was two in the morning before Diamond had been able to get them out of jail. He was tired while at the same time wired. He knew his brothers were going back to the clubhouse with beds that would have women waiting for them while the one waiting here for him was cold and empty.
He stumbled over a table leg as he walked through the living room. “Shit!”
His grandmother was constantly getting new furniture from flea markets. How she maneuvered her wheelchair through the cramped space boggled his mind; he couldn’t walk through it without constantly bumping into something.
“Who’s there?” a feminine voice sounded from the hallway along with the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked.
“Who the fuck do you think it is?” Cash grunted, bumping into a chair.
“Cash?”
He was standing in front of her, seeing the gun in her hand.
“Put the gun up, Rachel.”
“What are you doing coming in so late?”
Cash could see her in the dim light coming from her opened bedroom door. She was wearing a thin nightgown that came to the tops of her thighs, the low neckline showing the pale flesh of her breasts.
“I went for a ride.”
“So I smell.” She wrinkled her nose, taking a step away from him. “It’s so late I’m surprised you didn’t stay the night at the clubhouse or at least take a shower.”
Cash couldn’t help but grin, not missing the dart she threw at him for staying last night at the clubhouse.
“I wasn’t out fucking. The brothers and I took a ride to Jamestown.” He reached out, running a finger across the tops of her breasts. The gun, which she had lowered, rose again, pointing at his chest.
“You don’t have permission to touch me. Do it again, and I’ll blow your left nut off,” Rachel threatened.