Jagger’s eyes narrowed. “I’m trying to protect him, Naiya.”
“You’re trying to protect your club,” she said. “And he’s not alone. He has me, and I want revenge, too. For both of us.” She felt the truth of her words as they dropped from her lips. She wanted Viper to pay for what he’d done to her and her mother, and locking him away wouldn’t be enough. Most of the Jacks had been in jail at some point in their lives, and except for the fact they couldn’t go beyond the prison walls, life for them continued as it had before: they ran their illicit operations, enforced their dominance, enjoyed their vices, and expanded their territory.
“And you’ll have it,” Holt said from behind her. “By my hand.”
Naiya’s eyes widened as she looked over her shoulder and met his cool, dark gaze. How long had he been there? How much had he heard?
*
It had been a mistake coming back to the club.
Holt reached out and clasped Naiya’s hand, drawing her to his side. Far from being reassured after hearing the efforts his brothers had made to find him, he still thought they hadn’t done enough. Why had no one made an effort to check for identifying marks? What about the tat on his arm? And leaving a body behind? Was that a story Sparky and Gunner made up because they didn’t want anyone to know all they cared about was saving their own skins? He gritted his teeth, squeezed Naiya’s hand.
“You okay?” she whispered.
“We’re outta here.” He’d heard enough. The brothers were set to betray him again. But Naiya—his Naiya—had refused to help them.
Even if he could have accepted that they did everything to find him, he couldn’t accept what happened in Viper’s house in the forest. He’d caught that look between Tank and Jagger. There was something they didn’t want him to hear. But he had a secret, too. He’d heard them from the dungeon. Chained to the wall, his body bruised and broken, hope had flared in his chest, burned so bright he found the strength to bang his fists, rattle the chains, scream and shout, “I’m here. I’m here. Brothers, save me.”
But they didn’t come.
Nothing Viper had done to him had hurt as much as the moment his last hope fizzled and died.
And now, not only had his brothers left him to rot in Viper’s dungeon, but they also planned to take away the only thing that had kept him alive. Revenge.
“We want the same thing, brother.” Jagger and Zane shared a glance, and Zane slid his hand beneath his cut. Holt’s skin prickled in warning. So they thought he was a threat. Well, he’d make sure they understood just how dangerous he could be if they tried to stand in his way.
“Then we’ll do it my way.”
“Come to the meeting and hear us out,” Tank pleaded, shooting a desperate look at Naiya. “We’ve been setting this up for months, paying off the locals, planting bugs in the hotels. We haven’t left anything to chance.”
“Except me,” Holt snapped.
“And we’re glad to have you back.” Jagger leaned against the wall. Outwardly, his posture was casual, relaxed, but Holt could feel the tension rolling off him, see the anger pulse in the veins of his neck. Once, he would have been cowed by Jagger’s anger, but nothing scared him anymore. There wasn’t anything Jagger could do to him that Viper hadn’t already done.
“But we’re not going to let you fuck this operation up or get yourself killed when you’ve only just come back to us,” Jagger continued. “We aim to end this war and Viper is the key. We’ll take him out and you’ll have your revenge.”
Holt bristled. “Viper is mine. No one is going to stop me from going after him. It’s what I lived for in that fucking dungeon when you gave up on me.”
“You heard what we did to find you. We didn’t give up.” Cold and distant, Zane was as intimidating as Jagger in his own way, simply because there was no line Zane wouldn’t cross for the club. And yet when Holt looked at him now, he saw a man, not a monster—a man who had his woman at the cost of Holt’s soul.
“I heard something else.” Holt turned on Zane, letting out his pain and anger in a rush. “I heard the Sinners in Viper’s house. You didn’t want to tell me you were there, but I knew. I thought my brothers would finally come for me. Did you think to look? Did you think to ask? What about Mario? You remember the restaurant owner we planted in the Jacks? Our own Black Jack rat? Did anyone talk to him? He knew I was locked in the basement of Viper’s house because he brought me food.”
The room stilled and then Tank let out a tortured groan. “Oh fuck. Jesus fucking Christ.”