Stoney looked at me, eyebrow raised. “Fuck.”
“Endo is in a coma right now,” Tripp said. “Someone tried killing him. They shot him.”
“What?” Stoney asked.
“If Skull X wants the baby, well, the kid, and is going after who knows… it’s not making sense to me, Stoney. Your hands aren’t as clean as you think, are they?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Stoney asked. “Rocky was my best friend. He was like my brother. He insisted on pushing on them.”
“Why?”
“Personal.”
“I don’t buy it.”
“Before Winter, there was a woman Rocky loved. Skull X took her out, okay? He always wanted revenge.”
“What does that have to do with Endo?”
“Rocky and Endo were close,” Stoney said. He looked at me again. “For obvious reasons. Maybe Rocky tried pulling Endo into something. All I know is that Rocky was on his own at the end there. He wouldn’t listen to me. We got into a fight, he took off, and he never came back again. I should have never let him leave alone. And I knew he was going to go right to them.”
Tripp shook his head. “It’s not adding up. Give me a contact for Skull X. I’ll go up there.”
Stoney laughed. “Are you fucking kidding me? You can’t go near them. They’ll tear you apart.”
“I have fists. I know how to fight. I’ll go up there and challenge them.”
“And say what? You tell them who you are, you’re dead.”
“I’ll stumble across them.”
“Talk sense into him,” Stoney said. He started to move away.
Tripp lunged forward. “Hey, I’m not done with you yet.”
Stoney shook away and turned, a gun in his hand, right between Tripp’s eyes. “I’ll tell you the same damn thing I told Rocky before he left. If you go near them, they will kill you. I won’t be held responsible for any of it.”
“Tripp, come on,” I said. “Don’t…”
“How can call yourself a leader when you’re afraid?” Tripp asked. “All those men in there ride behind you, fight for you, and you can’t even fight for them?”
“I’m protecting them,” Stoney said. “Just like you should be protecting her. If Skull X is going after everyone involved with that kid, Winter is going to be next. Mark my word. She will be next.”
“Is that a threat?”
“No,” Stoney said. “I don’t threaten. I take action.”
Tripp took a step back and turned. It was risky to turn your back on the Red Aces MC President.
I walked alongside him as we walked back to his car. It was a quiet walk. We were both tired from last night, and I knew in both our hearts were desperate to make sense of everything that had gone wrong.
But life was never that easy.
We got into his car and he backed up.
Stoney was no longer in sight.
“This is all wrong,” Tripp said. “I just have a feeling about it. Something is going to happen.”
Before I could open my mouth, a black car pulled up behind us, blocking our way out. The passenger door flew open and a man in a suit came out.
“Ah, fuck,” Tripp growled.
“What is it?”
He looked at me. He grabbed my hand and kissed it. “Darling, listen to me. Take my car back to your place. Park it around back. Go inside, lock the doors, leave all the lights off. Just hang. For as long as you can.”
“Tripp!”
The man opened the door and got out. I turned to watch what was about to happen. Tripp showed his hands and started to say something. The big man in the suit then punched Tripp in the stomach and threw him into the side of the car. Tripp ricocheted back and the guy caught him. He opened the back door and tossed Tripp inside. He slammed the door, got back into his seat, and the car drove away.
What the fuck just happened?
21.
(Tripp)
This was how it was going to go down. Something had gone wrong and my number was called. I shouldn’t have pushed and poked into Winter’s personal life. Now I knew too much or I did something to trigger something and I was a dead man.
I was huddled on the floor of the car, a gun pressed to the back of my head. A foot on my back. I was a bitch right now. There was no way in hell I was going out like this.
I put my hands to the floor of the car and pushed up.
“Hey, motherfucker, stay down!”
I made a quick move, throwing my right arm up and around, grabbing the guy’s ankle. I locked, twisted, and felt a pop sound. The guy let out a scream and the gun dropped, hitting me in the back.
I got up quick, pulling him by his ankle, putting him down on the floor. That’s when I unleashed punch after goddamn punch, gut, chest, face. Gut, chest, face. Gut. Chest. Face.
My body raged with an anger that was fresh, hungry for blood. I put my left hand to his chest and held him down. My right hand came back and punched at him over and over, not giving a damn about anything.
“Jesus Fuck!” someone screamed.
I felt something touch the side of my head.
Another gun.
I turned and saw the guy that had first hit me. “You’re next.”
“Like hell I am. You need to sit down.”
I fell back to the seat, breathing heavily.