“Please, brother …”

“Don’t call me brother when DJ’s blood is smeared all over your boots.”

Penni covered her mouth with both hands when the shot rang out in the bar. Sadly, she didn’t feel any sympathy toward the dead man a few inches from her feet. He would have raped her and probably buried her where she would have never been found. Then the other bikers would have shown up to find their friend dead with no one able to prove the lies Ricky had told.

She stared mutely at the bald-headed president with his diamond earrings glinting at her, which seemed to mock her emotionless response to the killing that had taken place in front of her.

“Get that piece of shit out of here,” Hennessey ordered, not taking his eyes off her.

“What do you want me to do with DJ?” Cruz removed his hand from her shoulder.

“Call Stefan; he’ll take care of him for me.”

Penni pressed her back against the chair as the black president took a step toward her. Penni expected him to strike her; instead, he crouched in front of her.

“You better have been telling me the truth.”

“Why would I lie?”

“You tell me. Maybe you were trying to cause trouble between my men.”

“Maybe you should have figured this out before you killed him.”

“Maybe I should have, but he pissed me off.”

“Do your friends usually end up dead when you get pissed off?”

He shrugged. “Only one of them was considered a friend.”

Penni lowered her eyes to the pistol resting on his thigh. “I’m feeling like I need a friend myself right now.”

“You’re shit out of luck. You’re not black the way I like my women, and you’re definitely not a brother.”

“Maybe not, but I can keep my mouth closed, and I don’t care what deal you and your men have going down. I just need enough gas to get to the nearest gas station, and you never have to see me again.”

“Why would I trust you?” The man’s lip was set in a sinister sneer.

“Because I know how you can find Striker.”

3

Jackal hazily blinked at the light filling his bedroom.

“Turn off the fucking light,” he growled, searching for a pillow on his jumbled bed. Muttering to himself, he managed to find one jammed against Rita’s side. He drunkenly dragged it upward to relieve the headache hammering a hole through his brain.

“Ice wants you.”

Jackal could barely make out Stump’s serious features as he jerked away the pillow providing the only buffer from the daylight that was beginning to lighten the darkening sky outside his window.

“Dammit!” He managed to raise himself to sit on the side of the bed, shrugging off Rita’s clinging arms that twined around his waist as he tried to get to his feet.

Jackal reached down, tempted to break her fingers to make her release him from her greedy clasp.

“Come on, Jackal … You promised me that—”

Jackal leaned over to grab his jeans from the floor, swaying as he tried to slide his clothes up his legs. Maybe the extra bottle of whiskey he had made Rita get him had been a mistake.

“Hurry, Jackal; Ice is getting pissed.” Stump helped him get to his feet, handing him a T-shirt that was sitting on the bed.

Jackal wrenched away from him. “Tell him I’m coming.”

Stump nodded, giving him a warning that Ice wouldn’t be kept waiting much longer.

Jackal took only the time he needed to take a piss and wash his face before heading into the clubroom.

He came to a stop at the sight of the empty room. “I thought you said that Ice is waiting—”

“He is. He’s waiting for us at Penni’s house.” Stump didn’t give him the chance to ask any questions before he left out the door.

Stump had already started his bike and was driving out of the parking lot before Jackal started his. The last person he wanted to see this morning was Penni. It was Grace’s day off, so why would Ice or any of the other Predators be at her house?

As he made the turn onto Penni’s street, he saw the brothers already parked out front. Jackal brought his bike to a stop. She wasn’t going to be happy to see the men gathered around her yard.

As he slid off his bike, he realized Penni’s car wasn’t parked in her usual space. It was early on a Sunday morning, but Jackal saw the barely perceptible movement from more than one window of Penni’s nosy neighbors.

He walked up her path to the door that was already open. Ice had his back turned to him as he spoke into his phone.

“I’ll take care of it. I’ll call you back as soon as I find out something new. I promise,” Ice assured whomever he was speaking to. The Predators’ president didn’t make promises he didn’t intend to keep.

Jackal looked around Penni’s apartment as Ice finished his call. It was what he had imagined her home would look like. It was filled with flowers and the frills that always made him feel uncomfortable. Potted plants rested against the windowsill, and family photos had him sauntering closer to pick up one that caught his attention. His hand circled the picture frame containing the image of the woman who haunted his dreams.

“What’s up?” Jackal asked as he felt Ice move near him.

“Grace called me to check up on Penni to make sure she’s home. She’s worried about her. Seems that she ran out of gas last night, and Grace hasn’t heard from her since. She keeps trying to call her back, but it goes to voice mail.”

Anything that upset Grace made it Ice’s problem, not the club’s.

“And you woke me up because Grace is worried about Penni?”

“Yeah.”

Jackal slammed the photo down. “I’m out of here, brother.”

He tried to sidestep Ice, only to find his path blocked.

“You’re not worried? I thought you had a hard-on for this bitch?”

Jackal’s eyes and hands returned to the photo. Penni’s blue gaze stared at him from the picture. His soul tried to shrink from her scrutiny as if she were really there. Her blonde hair and direct gaze were the direct opposite of her brother Shade, who stood next to her. They were at someone’s wedding. Everyone in the picture seemed happy, especially Penni who was surrounded by several men.

Jackal knew most of them were The Last Riders. As the Predators’ enforcer, he had made sure to know the men Penni had come into contact with when Colton had asked for their help to find a childhood friend of Vida’s. Sawyer and Vida had discovered Lily, Shade’s wife, was their missing childhood friend whom they had assumed died when they were all little.

The Predators had been willing to help Colton, especially when they had realized King was Lily’s father. When one of the brothers had been sent to keep an eye on her and the Last Riders and then subsequently disappeared, Jackal had taken Penni as insurance until they could get him back.

The trip to Treepoint had been more aggravating than he could have dreamed possible. Penni had become a raving bitch, trying to escape despite his assurances that she would be turned over to Shade as soon as Eightball was released. She had nearly crashed his motorcycle twice, bit him hard enough on his back to leave a scar, and it had taken two weeks to heal from the scratches she had made sure hurt like hell. At one point, Jackal had nearly left her stranded at a rest area. Ice’s anger when he had called him to give him the location of the meet with The Last Riders had forced him to turn around to get her back.