Chapter Twenty
AYDA
I’d changed in the past couple of months. I’d been through so much shit, seen so much crap, and lived through nightmares that the person I had once been no longer existed.
And I didn’t miss her at all.
Standing at those gates, watching Drew with those agents... it became so clear to me.
I wasn’t condemning him for his lies. I wasn’t doubting his tactics, and I wasn’t standing there wondering if he’d lost his mind because Iknewhe hadn’t.
I was standing at those gates thinking:This man is a goddamn genius.
There was no way of following through with this lie of the bike crashing, especially considering there were bullets in the bike, but that didn’t matter. This was a point that needed to be made, and he’d made it. The bike was now on our property—the very property owned by Drew, Eric and The Hounds of Babylon. Conveniently, Texas had what was called the castle law. You were well within your rights to protect your property if you were threatened, and I had no doubt in my mind that The Nav was packing heat.
Drew was also using this opportunity to send a message toanyone willing to take him on now. It was a declaration. He wasn’t fucking around. This wasn’t a game he was playing. All of his pieces were slowly coming together and he was willing to act—to do what he had to do in order to protect what was his.
This was a warning to Trigger and anyone else who thought we were fair game because the ATF happened to be on our doorstep.
We weren’t going to back down now.
Not in the twenty-fifth hour.
Not when it counted the most.
Not when we had this much to lose.
The tactician in Drew was smart, collected, and deadly in ways most people couldn’t conceive. This was beautiful to watch in action, and, though it was probably just my opinion, it was hot, too. Standing with the rest of the club, watching him bullshit his way through an interaction with the cops was just the tip of the iceberg. When I met his eyes, all I could do was offer a small smile of encouragement, and wait for the cavalry to arrive.
It didn’t take long for the agents to realize they would have to be the ones to arrest the guy. Continuing the concerned citizen act, Drew even offered to load the bike and drop it off at Sutton’s office. Once the ATF had driven away with the Nav face first in the back seat, the yard cleared of Hounds quickly. After his quick assessment of the bike, I’d followed Drew back into The Hut.
“You want me to grab the keys to the truck?” I asked, needing something to do before the crash from the short adrenaline rush hit.
Drew turned to look at me, those blue-green eyes of hisnarrowing ever so slightly as a look of concern took over. He opened his mouth to say something, clearly thinking better of it before he swallowed whatever words had been there and offered me a gentle nod. “Sure thing. You want to ride out with me?”
“Hell, yeah.” I started to back away from him, turning on my heel and disappearing into the office before he could respond. I grabbed the keys to the flatbed and met up with him again in the bar, where a few of the guys now lingered, as though waiting for something more to happen. The Nav on our doorstep had managed to put everyone on edge, and for good reason. I’d hated that we’d been the catalyst to his faux pas—that we’d given him an opportunity to stroll up to our door and deliver a bullshit message that hadn’t really needed to be said. We were in the middle of a damn war, and none of us needed reminding of that. Glancing around The Hut, the evidence of its effectiveness was clear. Thankfully, the only person with even a modicum of calm now was Autumn who was chatting with some of the girls while playing cards in the corner.
God bless that woman for being as steady as a rock, I thought as I caught up with Drew. I followed him out of the door and turned to where we normally kept the trucks, aiming the key fob at them to unlock the flatbed we needed. That’s when I found myself blinking stupidly at the empty parking spot, then down again at the keys in my hand.
“Uh, Drew…?”
His gaze followed mine, a slow look of acknowledgment flashing in his eyes before he looked back to where The Nav’s twisted bike should have been. Slater hopped off the porch steps, his boots kicking up dust as Drew turned to him and pointed to where the bike had disappeared from.
“Slate? Where the fuck is the bike?”
Slater frowned. “Eric said he was bringing it into the yard. Didn’t you hear him?”
“Eric?” Drew growled, his face dropping and jaw tensing.
“Yeah. But…” He looked between Drew and me. “Ah, shit.”
Drew turned to look at me, his anger evident. “Eric’s taken the damn bike, hasn’t he?”
“He must have taken the spare key to the flatbed and got the bike on.” I looked at the gate again and shook my head. “But why? Where would he have taken it?”
“If I know Eric—” Slater began.
“He’s gone to deliver it back to The Navs himself,” Drew whispered, cutting Slater off. His eyes glazed over as he looked over my head, his thoughts and theories making him distant. “The bastard has a death wish.”