“I like her.” Zane pushed himself out of his chair and paced the room. “The way she took down Leo, what she did at the ice house, and the work she does with Sparky … Hell, I almost wish there were two of her. But what if this was all a setup? She knows our men, our security systems, and our operating procedures. She’s got her hands on everyone’s bike and her pussy wrapped around your cock so tight, you can’t even think straight. Could be you’re not seeing clearly and there’s nothing she won’t do for the Jacks.”
Jagger’s gut clenched. He knew Zane was trying to protect him. “Club first” to Zane had always meant Jagger first. He had already expressed his concerns that Jagger had let Arianne get too close, and if she were betraying him, his leadership would be compromised. With the official elections still two years away, taking down a president meant taking him out—something Zane would never allow to happen.
Still, he couldn’t ignore a potential threat to his club. “Club first” meant he had to put the club before anything else. Never had Jagger regretted the code more than he did now.
“She wants to meet her brother tomorrow to get her fake passport…” His voice trailed off as regret slid through his heart. Arianne hadn’t told him what she was planning to do after she got the passport, which saved him from making a difficult decision. Did he keep her because he’d claimed her even if she didn’t want to be with him, or did he let her go and risk never seeing her again? But if she was a suspect, and they took her brother, the decision would be made for him.
“Where’s she going?”
“She wants to start a new life in Canada.” Jagger steeled himself to hide the emotion balled up in his chest. “Since we know where Jeff will be, we could bring him in for a little fireside chat. If he’s the one who torched the clubhouse and killed Cole, then we’ll have him right where we want him, and we’ll find out how Arianne is involved.”
“I don’t envy you, brother.” Zane snapped his laptop closed. “Never understood why Axle wanted your position so bad. If I had to choose between our friendship and the club, I’d choose you and suffer the consequences. But you don’t get that choice. You got the safety of all the brothers riding on your decisions. You always have to be a president. You never get to just be a man.”
Jagger’s throat tightened and it took several long seconds before he could speak. He’d tried to have a personal life with Christel, and look how that had turned out. Arianne had made him forget that painful lesson and now it was coming back to bite him in the ass.
But he hadn’t become president by letting desire conflict with duty. “We’ll let her go to draw out her brother. Wheels and T-Rex can guard the exits and bring a cage to escort Jeff to the clubhouse. The meet is at that East Side strip joint, Peelers. Cade knows it so well. He’s got his own VIP table which he says is very private, so he’ll be with me. We’ll keep a low profile until Jeff arrives.”
A pained expression crossed Zane’s face. “So you’re gonna let her go to the meet, thinking she’s finally getting her ticket out of Conundrum, and then—”
“We’ll bring them back here.” Jagger rubbed his temples as his head throbbed in protest. “She knows she’s been claimed. She understands what that means. If she leaves, she leaves only because I will it. I haven’t talked to her about what she thinks will happen when she meets her brother, but if she’s involved in the attack, then she’s not going anywhere, and neither is Jeff.”
“Fuck.” Zane stood, tucking his laptop under his arm. “It’s the right thing to do for the club, but if she’s innocent, she’ll never forgive you.”
“I don’t need her forgiveness.” He needed her acceptance and her trust. He needed her to stay.
Zane took a few steps toward the door and then turned back. “If it comes to that … I know what it’s like. I had a girl.… She was—” His voice cracked, broke. “I had to leave her. Give her up. She said she’d wait forever, but as soon as I left, she betrayed me. Fucking ripped out my heart. Never found it again.”
Jagger thudded his fist on the desk after the door closed behind Zane. He didn’t want to hear his thoughts on Zane’s lips. He didn’t want to think about how much he would hurt Arianne and how he would just reinforce in her mind that all bikers were like the Black Jacks, all presidents like the man she hated most in the world. He didn’t want to think that tomorrow he was going to lose the best thing that had ever happened to him, the woman who had made him feel again, given him hope that he wouldn’t always be alone.
With a frustrated roar, he swept all the papers off his desk. In the end, he would rather have her here and pissed at him than gone forever. As long as she was in Conundrum, he would have a chance to win her back.
So long as she hadn’t betrayed him.
*
“Where’s your gun?”
“I have a .22 in my purse.” Arianne slid off Jagger’s seat and stepped into the shadows of the parking lot behind Peelers strip club. Trust Jeff to set up a meet in a place like this. Not for the first time, she wondered if the boy she’d known while they were growing up was truly gone.