A little regret surged through my body.
I shouldn’t have fucked Winter. I mean, realistically it did no good for anyone in any situation. Except it felt really good. And she really liked it. She begged for it.
The biggest problem?
I wanted to do it again. And again. And again.
Stoney sat next to me, smoking a cigar and drinking a bottle of whiskey. He offered it to me and I shook my head. I had to drive. I had to protect Winter. Christ, what was I thinking? I could barely protect her from myself.
Even if she had been the one to burst into the bathroom and come after me. I should have kept her at arm’s length. Shit, I could have just touched her again. Gotten her off and kept her away from me.
“Hope there’s no hard feelings,” Stoney finally spoke. “I mean, what happened there.”
“Your guys holding me and letting Harlan get a couple shots. It’s good. I get it. Pride.”
“Yeah.”
“My guys are rattled,” Stoney said. “Hard times for the MC. I don’t want to send them out there starting wars. Then you show up and have control. We don’t share kindly.”
I looked at Stoney. “Winter?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “She should have been kept close to the club. I thought Aldo was going to send down some thugs to guard her door. Nothing else. Give me a chance to regroup. You have to be careful where you’re stepping now, Tripp. You’re in deep water.”
“I know how to swim,” I said.
Stoney laughed. “You’d do great in a leather cut, my friend.”
“I’m nobody’s bitch.”
“Except Aldo’s.”
I gritted my teeth. “Yeah. I guess.”
“Look, I’m going to tell you something. Do what you want with it.”
“Okay.”
“There’s a crew up north called Skull X. They’re real bad guys.”
“There’s bad guys everywhere.”
“No,” Stoney said. “These are… bad guys. Take anything you think about bad people and double it, easily. They can’t be controlled, just contained.”
“You’re telling me this why?”
Stoney sucked on his cigar. He blew out smoke. “They took down Rocky.”
“You know this?”
“Yeah.”
“How long have you known this?”
“Since it happened,” Stoney said.
“And you don’t have your boys up there tearing them apart?”
“That’s not how they work,” Stoney said. “If we rolled up, they’d destroy us. They’re powerful. They’re not as much of a MC as they are an underground fighting ring. They see everything. They know everything. Far beyond anything I could imagine.”
“So you’re afraid of these guys,” I said.
“Not a thing I like to admit, Tripp. I’m telling you because I appreciate your guts. You’ve got some serious balls. And if you know what you’re against… I don’t know, maybe Aldo…”
I stood up and turned to face Stoney. “You expect me to ask Aldo to help you? Fuck you, Stoney. You want help, then ask. If you know who did this, then why am I here? If they wanted Rocky, they got him. Why bother with Winter?”
Stoney took his cigar out of his mouth and rolled it between his fingers. “You know what they’d do to her? I mean, I have no love for Winter. She’s an old lady. A dime a dozen, Tripp. But if Skull X got her.” He shook his head. “I thought if Aldo sent some muscle, it could end a little easier. But one guy? That won’t cut it.”
I backed up a little. “Try me then. I’m here to protect her and that’s what I’m going to do. You waited until now to tell me this? After her car was rigged with a bomb?”
“It wasn’t Skull X,” Stoney said. “And it wasn’t anything that would have killed her.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I had my guys do it,” Stoney admitted. “Thought if I rattled you enough, Aldo would send more help.”
“You fucking put her life in danger…”
I moved at Stoney and he pulled out a gun. “Deep water, Tripp. Deep fucking water. I’m the President of the Red Aces MC. That might not mean much to you, but just know, in this clubhouse, this compound, there are eyes watching. You raise a fist at me, you’ll eat a bullet.”
I faced Stoney and his gun. I wasn’t afraid of dying. But I was afraid of leaving Winter alone. With Stoney. With the Red Aces. And with whatever the hell the Skull X guys were.
“Think about what you just said to me,” I said.
“You think about what I just said to you,” Stoney said. He stood up and tucked his gun away. He stuck his cigar in his mouth and said in a choppy voice, “Now take Winter and get the fuck out of here. I’ve said more than enough.”
I turned and started to walk away.
“Tripp,” Stoney’s voice yelled.
I looked back. “Yeah?”
“Not many people get to walk out of here twice standing. Consider yourself lucky.”
The truth of it?
I only considered myself lucky when I looked at Winter.
16.
(Winter)
I was sick of the hideout motel life.
Of course, Tripp slept on the floor again. After all we’d been through he still chose the floor over the bed. Wild bathroom sex aside, it didn’t make sense that he wouldn’t climb into bed with me.