Iron & Bone (Lock & Key #3) (33 page)

Nina twisted her arms further and kicked a leg between Mindy’s.

I rested my hands on my hips. “The men know that it was you. Jump and Boner know. Twist a guy’s dick. He’s going to twist back. They’re coming for you next. Did you take the gun from the case?”

Mindy’s hands tightened into fists.

“Did you give it to someone else?” I pushed.

No answer.

I stepped closer to her, my voice softening. “Catch has a nice circle of hellfire on the front and back of his leather jacket, doesn’t he?”

A choked noise escaped Mindy’s mouth, her eyes flaring, her body jerking in Nina’s hold.

“Ding, ding, we have a winner,” I said.

“Fuck you,” Mindy spit out.

“Really? Well, I tried this the nice way. Now, we’re going to have to do this the
Alicia
way.”

Long icy-blonde hair flew in my vision. With a grunt, Alicia punched Mindy in the face, knocking her out. Blood spattered on the hood of Mindy’s silver car.

“Well, since heavy lifting is out for me,” I said, taking Nina’s car keys from the back pocket of her jeans. “How about I do the driving?”

BUTLER AND I HAD ARRIVED
at the Flames of Hell property about two hours south of Meager, in the vicinity of Elk, Nebraska, south of Chadron. All around the property, the high chain-link fence was trimmed with barbed wire and dotted with cameras. Butler did all the talking and got us in through the heavily guarded gate. I didn’t trust myself to speak just yet.

Catch rolled into the yard as we swung off our bikes, and I knew. I knew he was responsible by the slant of his head and the crooked grin splitting his face as we followed him inside their clubhouse.

He started out by denying it. I let him run his mouth, but then I cut him off and got to the point.

“I get that Jill was your piece of good for a while there, and she gave you the miracle that is your daughter. But you didn’t take care of all that amazing when you had it, and now, Jill is my woman. And nothing about her, except for the kid you share, comes under your jurisdiction. You need to accept that and move on. I didn’t take away anything that was yours. I only claimed what was mine.”

“Fuck Jill.”

My pulse flared. “Say again?”

Catch pulled the Python from his back. “This gun? I like this gun.”

“Do you now?” murmured Butler.

“Oh, yeah. I appreciate a good firearm, especially one with history.”

“Then, you’ll appreciate that you wouldn’t have Becca if it wasn’t for that gun, the man who owned it, and his perfect aim,” I spit out.

“So I’ve heard.”

“Put the gun down, Catch.” Finger stood in the doorway, his distinctive sandpaper voice making Catch do a double take.

Finger folded his arms across his chest. “I’m gone two days, and you managed to bust out your balls again, bro?”

“Did what needed to be done,” muttered Catch.

“Not with that gun,” Finger interjected. “That belongs with the Jacks. You respect the weapon of a good man, a good brother. I don’t take that lightly. I admire your play, but
this
? This isn’t right.” Finger’s eyes rested on me. “It’s disrespect to a man I knew and admired.”

Catch leaned over and raked a hand through his hair, as if that would juggle a few brain cells to help him better grasp the logic of his prez’s argument.

“Catch,” Finger said, his throaty voice low.

Catch stuck out the revolver. The bullying boy in the schoolyard had finally been caught red-handed by the principal.

“Come give it to me,” I said on a snarl.

Catch moved forward, got in my face, eyebrows raised, and dropped the revolver as my hand reached out and caught it.

Little shit.

“Party’s over,” said Catch. “I’d invite y’all to stay, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Ah, no thanks,” I replied. “I’ve heard the beds around here suck.”

“You mother—” Catch lunged at me.

Two Flames dragged him back.

“How we gonna get past this shit now? You wanna tell me?” Butler’s voice thundered.

“I’m gonna need an apology,” I said, eyes going from Catch to Finger. “Then, the Jacks are gonna require a sweet form of payback for this heavy transgression. But first, I wanna know how you did it, Catch. Who’d you use to get it? Are you that much smarter than I took you for?”

“Your woman did it for me. Didn’t take much to convince her either. Heart of flames, that one.”

I saw red. “Son of a bitch!” My hands clamped around his neck and squeezed.

“Boner!” Butler yelled.

Hands shoved me back, my hair flying in my face. “You lying piece of shit! Jill would never—”

Catch choked and coughed, his face different shades of red, his hands shoving at my chest, curling in my shirt. “Yeah, Jill
would never
a hell of a lot of things, but with me, she sure as fuck did. Goes to show you.”

I pounced on him, my fist landing on his jaw, and he fell back, grunting. Another Flame moved toward me, but Finger stopped him with a hand on his chest.

“Catch more than deserved that,” Finger said.

A loud
ting
sliced the air. Butler untucked his phone from a pocket and glanced at it. “Fuck.” He tapped the phone and put it to his ear. “What the hell’s going on?” His eyes flicked up at me. “You and Jill did what?”

I grabbed the phone from him.

“We realized it was Mindy who stole the Python for Catch,” Nina said.

Mindy. Of course. Fucking Mindy.

I tossed the phone back at Butler.

“We’re on our way back. Don’t do anything else.” Butler shut down his phone.

My eyes pinned on Catch. “You been watching me, you knew about me and Mindy and you got her to do your dirty work, you slick scumbag?”

He let out a laugh. “Aw, you thought I was talking about your old lady before, huh? Nah. This other bitch, she was more than willing.”

Teasing, lying piece of shit.

Butler moved next to me. “Let’s get out of here.” He cast a dark glance at Finger. “Compensation needs to hit the table.”

We got on our bikes and waited for the compound gate to open. And that was when I saw him.

Across the street, a dark-suited figure, wearing black sunglasses, leaned against a silver Cadillac Escalade.

His hair, shorter now, was still that shock of shiny black. His round face was more swollen than when I’d last seen him, but that acidic expression etched on his mouth was the same.

He slanted his head.

Butler spoke with the Flame at the gate, but my eyes were riveted on Alejandro Calderone, my hands gripping my handlebars. The edges of his lips curved as his hand went to his temple, and he saluted me with two fingers. Another well-dressed man opened the back door for him. Alejandro climbed in, his eyes never leaving me. He watched me from his window, that twist still on his mouth. His driver started up the Escalade, and they sped off.

My wait was over.

I STRODE INTO THE MAIN HALL
, and those gray-blue eyes flashed up at me from the sofa. With a quirky grin on her face, Jill held a huge margarita glass with a frozen green drink in it. She might as well have been having a cocktail at an upscale beach bar, not stretched out on the faded blue corduroy couch of the One-Eyed Jacks MC clubhouse lounge.

She put down her drink and wiped at the edge of her mouth. I dived at her and took that mouth. Apple and icy vegetables shivered over my tongue.

“What the hell are you drinking?”

“It’s a smoothie I just made. The ladies added vodka to theirs.” Her face was flushed
.
“Do you like it?”

My girl-woman.
I raked my fingers through her hair, tugging her head back. “No, but I’ll take it.”

I kissed her again, our tongues making fresh declarations.

Her arms wrapped around my middle. “You got the gun back?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.” She buried her face in my throat. “Good.”

“You want to tell me what the hell happened around here?”

“Nina and I bumped into Mindy’s gal pal Shelley Anne at the beauty salon in town, and we overheard her bragging about partying with Mindy and Jump at the Full Moon Howl.”

“Jump?”

“Yeah, Jump had himself a good ole time with both lovely ladies. By the way, Alicia came home from her trip to Texas today, too.”

“Ah, fuck.” I leaned back against the sofa.

“Big fuck. She wasn’t too surprised, but that sort of humiliation truly sucks.” She leaned over and took another swallow of that green frozen crap.

“And what did you and Nina do?”

“We had our girl’s back, of course. Old-lady code and all.”

I eyed her. “Old-lady code?”

Jill shrugged. “It’s a minefield out there.”

She went into detail about how Mindy had gotten the gun out of the clubhouse.

I rubbed a hand down my face. “Shit. Have you seen Jump?”

“He’s making himself scarce. Alicia went ballistic, and the three of us headed for the Tingle where we found Mindy. There was a bit of a smackdown in the parking lot.”

“Jill, did you—”

“Not me. I did use my verbal skills to let Mindy know how I felt about what she’d done.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I bet you did.”

She took another swallow of her frothy green cocktail. “Mindy’s downstairs in the cellar. Your woman scorned awaits.”

I wrapped her hand in mine. “You’re all jazzed up now, aren’t you?”

She squeezed my hand. “I got angry, but this time I focused and did something about it. It felt good to stand up, fight back.”

My woman had fought back.

In that fight, do we splinter like bone or stand tall, as if we were hard and made of iron? Our bodies were made of bone, but there was iron to be found within, and each of us had to find it.

I brushed her cheek with a quick kiss. “Standing tall, baby.”

She pursed her lips. “I hate that Catch did this. I really hate it.”

“He tried to make me believe that you had done it for him.”

Her eyes shot up at me.

“I didn’t believe him, not for a second.”

Jill’s hand twisted in mine. “He called me and threatened me, saying he’d take Becca.”

“When?”

“When we were at the burger place.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

She didn’t answer.