“But the agent is at the hotel.” Naiya’s voice rose in pitch. “It can’t be a coincidence. I need to warn Holt. We have to get out of town.”
“This is a Sinner town,” Tank assured her. “And you’re a Sinner’s girl in a Sinner bar. Nothing’s gonna happen to you here.”
She bit her lip, looked away. “I’m not a Sinner’s girl. Holt and I … we kinda parted ways.”
Tank laughed. He’d only spent a few hours with T-Rex since his return, but he knew his best friend inside and out, and he’d never seen him the way he was with Naiya. Intense. Protective. Head over fucking heels. She was his girl. He’d all but claimed her. Tank knew deep inside that T-Rex would do anything to protect her. And that meant when Holt wasn’t around, Tank would look after her as if she were his own.
“He may have gone for a ride to cool off, but he’ll never leave you.” Tank put his arm around her and gave her a reassuring squeeze. “I know him like I know myself. He may have lost a part of himself in that dungeon, and he may need some time to come back to the Sinners, but there is nothing that will keep him away from you.”
“He won’t know where I am.” She leaned against him with a worried sigh. “And what if he goes back to the hotel? He’ll walk right into their arms.”
“I’ll call the clubhouse, get some brothers to keep watch around the hotel for when he comes back. They’ll let him know where you are.”
Shaggy gestured to her bag. “I’ll take that and put it in the back. You can wait at the bar. Banks will take care of you while we get things sorted.”
Naiya handed Shaggy the duffle bag, and he frowned. “Where did you get that ring? Looks like a man’s ring. You got a man? You messing around with our T-Rex? He’s been through enough.”
“Leave her the fuck alone.” Tank said before Naiya could answer. “She’s Holt’s girl. If there is another dude in the picture, he’s as good as dead. And right now finding Holt is our number one priority. Last thing he needs is to wind up in another kind of jail.”
Shaggy stared at Naiya’s ring a second longer and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m gonna check out Sandy Lake. That’s where I’d go if I was hunting Viper ‘cause that’s where Viper will be when the rally is on, and that’s where he’ll be the most vulnerable.”
“Sounds good. I’ll ride local.” Tank gave Naiya a comforting squeeze. “That way I can be nearby to keep an eye on Naiya.”
Shaggy grabbed Naiya’s bag and hustled out the back door. Naiya looked up at Tank who had turned his attention to the local news on the television above the bar. “Why are you doing this when Holt hasn’t really come back to the club? He’s not even wearing his cut.”
“Until he hands that cut to Jagger, he’ll always be a Sinner.” Tank had been carrying T-Rex’s cut with him since last night. It might be a long and rocky road, but T-Rex would find his way back, and when he did, Tank would be the one to put that cut on his shoulders.
“We have to find him,” Naiya begged. “I don’t know what I would do if Holt wound up in jail. I don’t know what he would do. He still has nightmares about being in the dungeon. And he killed Leo to protect me. I couldn’t live with myself.”
Warmth spread through Tank’s chest, as Naiya’s words made her feelings clear. She cared about T-Rex as much as he cared about her, and after what T-Rex had been through, he deserved a little happiness.
“You stay here,” Tank said. “I can’t go looking for him if you’re on the streets unprotected. I’ll check in every half hour, but you’re safe at Rider’s. Don’t worry. I’ll find T-Rex. I’ll bring him home.”
TWENTY-THREE
“What the fuck am I doing?”
Holt lay on the roof of the five-story office building across the street from the Bestway Hotel in Sandy Lake and angled his rifle. Preparations for the weekend rally had already begun. Banners hung from windows, streets had been cordoned off, and the local shops were stuffed with rally souvenirs. In less than forty-eight hours, bikers would descend on the small town and the nearby campground, turning the place into one big party.
Without his cut to identify him as a biker, and falling back on the charm he’d once used to inveigle women into his bed, it hadn’t taken Holt long to find out where Viper was going to be staying during the rally. Although the hotel desk clerk, a former house mama in a Sinner support club, had been willing to give him more than information, he’d felt guilty even kissing her cheek. There was only one girl he wanted. And he couldn’t have her.