Shade motioned The Last Riders into position to protect the women.
“That was a mistake,” Viper said as Winter quickly moved away from him, disappearing in the gathering crowd.
“You need to let the girl go and take a walk with me.” Shade gave the one and only warning he was going to give as he stepped in front of Lily.
“What’s going on?” Lucky hurried toward the group with Beth at his side.
Shade didn’t break eye contact with the punk, letting him see his imminent death. He heard Beth whispering to her sister as the parents came to claim the child Lily was holding.
Winter reappeared, taking the hand of the punk’s girlfriend in hers before tugging her away. Shade read the boy’s intention to stop her so he moved forward an inch, holding his gaze steady, and the little shit stood still, letting his girlfriend be led away.
“Razer, perhaps you should take Beth and Lily home,” Lucky suggested.
Razer led the girls away while Lucky dispersed the crowd, assuring them he had the situation under control.
The little shit tried to hide his fear, yet his eyes darted back and forth between the brothers.
“How old are you?” Shade asked him.
“Why, you want to fuck me?”
Shade gave him a sinister smile. “No, because I don’t kill kids.”
The next thing the punk knew, he was falling to his knees, holding his stomach. Shade reached down, taking a handful of hair in his hand and jerking his head back until he could stare into his face.
“Your dick isn’t old enough to be treating a woman the way you were. Does it get you hard when you mistreat that little girl? She’s too young to know how to deal with you and put up with your disrespect. And you don’t call my girl a cunt. Ever. I’m going to beat the shit out of you, but you’ll be able to crawl away when I’m done. If you go near her again or even look in her direction, you’ll be carried away in a body bag. You got me?”
“Yes…” Shade’s fist didn’t let another word pass his busted lips.
Lucky finally pulled him away when he was barely conscious. “He’s had enough unless you’ve changed your mind about the body bag.”
When Shade backed away, Lucky knelt down to help the kid to his feet until he stood, swaying, Viper knocked him back down on the ground.
“You don’t help that fucker,” Viper ordered when Lucky would have tried to help him again.
“Viper, he’s had enough! Someone is going to call the police,” Lucky warned.
Viper glared at Lucky before walking away. Shade followed, now that Lily was gone there was nothing left for him there.
Chapter 14
Shade carried his coffee to the front door of the clubhouse. He hated supervising the factory yet had drawn the punishment from the bag for beating the brothers at the picnic. He had another month to endure before Viper took it back over. Viper disliked the job as much as him, but Shade was a night owl and the job required early mornings, so it was his idea of Hell.
Opening the door, he stepped onto the front porch then closed the door behind him. He was about to go down the steps when his gaze skimmed across the parking lot. Shade’s foot hovered over the step before backing up onto the porch.
He held his coffee, drinking it as he rested his hip on the banister. Viper had a tire jack in his hand and was smashing his bike to pieces then throwing the separate parts across the parking lot. Shade knew from experience that whatever had caused that rage was bad, and Viper needed to release it.
He saw no need to interrupt Viper until the man went to his knees next to what was left of his bike. Leaving his coffee cup sitting on the banister, he went down the steps, coming to a stop next to his president.
“If you’re done, I’ll clean up the mess,” Shade offered, not asking him why he had trashed his bike.
Viper lifted his head, staring back at him with vacant tear filled eyes until Shade finally saw reason return. Then his president rose to his feet, looking around the parking lot.
“No, I’ll get Rider to do it. I want you to call Cash and meet up with him. He’s searching for whoever nearly beat Winter to death last night at her school. The bastard left her to fucking die.”
“How bad is she?”
“The sheriff doesn’t think she’s going to make it. I’m going to the hospital.” Viper turned toward his bike then stopped, realizing he had destroyed his means of transportation.
Shade pulled his bike keys out of his pocket, handing them to Viper. “Take mine. I’ll take one of Rider’s, and we can switch later. I’ll call Cash and find out where he is, but I want to stop at the high school first and see if I can find anything.”