“You and Naiya.” T-Rex answered his unspoken question. “I trust you more than anyone, but I trust the brothers, too. I want Viper so bad it burns inside me, and for the longest time it was all I lived for. But now I got Naiya and you, and if I lost either of you, it would fucking kill me. I’ll hear Jagger’s plan. And if it’s solid, then I’ll work with them to take Viper down.” A grin spread across his face, a flash of the old T-Rex. “But I’m still gonna be the one who pulls the trigger.”
Tank’s hands clenched and unclenched by his sides, and his throat tightened so hard he could barely breathe. He couldn’t hug T-Rex here. And he couldn’t fucking cry. Christ. Ever since T-Rex had returned, he’d been an emotional mess, and Tank didn’t do emotion. Bikers didn’t do emotion. Men didn’t do emotion. But he was so goddamned grateful to have his best friend back, and even more relieved that T-Rex was going to talk to Jagger. Not just because it meant he had a chance of getting out of this mess without losing everything that mattered—his life, his cut, his club, and his friend—but also because T-Rex stood a better chance of surviving a confrontation with Viper with the Sinners at his back. And he wouldn’t be able to take T-Rex dying all over again.
He forced his words past the lump in his throat. “Appreciated, brother.”
“I got your back, Tank, like you always had mine.”
Tank shot a look at Naiya to see what she thought of the new plan. Clearly, not much, given how tightly her lips were pressed together and how she was shooting daggers at T-Rex with her eyes. He figured that might have something to do with the fact T-Rex still wasn’t backing down about her going with him when he went after Viper. Tank gave an inward chuckle, wondering if T-Rex had planned it out this way. Once the Sinners were involved, it didn’t matter how much Naiya protested; she would be staying behind. Women were not allowed to participate in club business. Not even Arianne. And it wasn’t that way with just the Sinners, but with all outlaw MCs.
“Holt,” she said. “Could I speak to you outside?”
Tank shuddered on his friend’s behalf at Naiya’s icy tone. But he had T-Rex’s back, whether it was in a gunfight, a revenge quest, or an angry girlfriend. “Actually, the board meeting is in fifteen minutes, so we gotta split if you want to talk to Jagger before it starts. He won’t let you sit in without a cut, but I’m sure he’ll talk to you in his office.”
Hacker squinted at his screen. “I thought it started in—”
“Fifteen minutes.” Tank cut him off, biting back a smile when T-Rex gave him a grateful nod. “Hacker, can you take Naiya out back when we’re done? Shaggy’s meeting her at the shooting range to show her the basics.”
“You’re learning how to shoot?” Hacker asked Naiya.
“Gotta defend my man.” Naiya lifted an eyebrow. “Or maybe I’ll shoot him. I’m not sure which.”
If Tank hadn’t been so damned stressed out, he would have laughed. He never would have picked Naiya as a match for T-Rex, but the man who stood beside him now was not the same man he had known. The new T-Rex was confident, determined, and decisive. He didn’t joke around or try to smooth things over. He took control. Made things happen. Didn’t second guess himself or try to find a middle road. He led rather than followed, and Naiya, with her quiet confidence and inner strength was a good match for him. One day maybe he would meet a woman like her.
Or, at least, he would have liked her not to run away.
“C’mon, T-Rex.” He gestured to the door. “We’d better get going.”
“Call me Holt, brother. T-Rex is dead.” Holt brushed a kiss over Naiya’s cheek, and Tank followed him out into the hallway.
T-Rex is dead.
Tank’s lungs seized up and he struggled for breath, even as he acknowledged the truth of the words that hung between them, even as his heart broke all over again. That night. In the alley. When they had cried in each other’s arms. If he’d known that was the last time he would be with T-Rex, the man who had been closer to him than anyone on the earth, he would have said the words that he had always wanted to say.
But the man who walked away from the alley that night was not the man who had walked in. Tank had seen it in the way Holt stood a little straighter, talked a little louder, laughed a whole lot less. He had seen it in his buddy’s confidence and determination, his ability to take charge, and his fierce protectiveness over a woman who burned with the kind of inner strength and fire that once would have scared Holt away.
“T-Rex” needed Tank. In the alley, he needed Tank’s arms around him, Tank’s strength to hold him, Tank’s friendship to endure. Before the dungeon T-Rex needed Tank and Tank needed T-Rex.
Did Holt need Tank, too?