Empire of Savages (Savage Hunt MC #1)

11. Alex

Chapter 11

Alex

Saturdays were my busiest day for drop-ins. People with punctures. Unexpected breakdowns. Cars not starting—that sort of thing. I had so many in fact that it left me with work to do on Sunday, too. It was unheard of, but a welcome change since I needed the work—and money. And spending a bit of time with grease beneath my fingernails was the best form of therapy I’d ever had.

I was checking under the hood of a Honda Civic that had been brought in because it didn’t start yesterday morning when I heard someone raise and then lower the rolling door. I’d left the thing halfway up so that I could get a little bit of ventilation through, but the air was still stifling in here.

It must’ve been a customer coming to pick up their car even though I told everyone they wouldn’t be ready until Tuesday at the earliest.

“Just give me a minute,” I called, unhooking the inspection light from where I’d stowed it and holding it closer to the spark plug terminal.

“Take your time,” a familiar voice said, making the blood freeze in my veins. Peering around the side of the hood, I nearly dropped the inspection light, only catching it at the last minute.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, hooking the light back into place.

My father was leaning against the rear quarter panel of the Honda, his bared, heavily tattooed and muscular arms crossed over his chest. He was wearing his cut, because he never went anywhere without it—the black leather worn to gray in some areas.

“Is that any way to greet your dad?”

Frowning, I said, “I may have to share half my DNA with you, but you’re not my dad. You’re a sperm donor as far as I’m concerned.”

The side of his mouth ticked up in annoyance, but he pressed on. “How’s business?”

“Fine.” Okay, so that was a complete lie, but there was no way I was going to tell him anything about my life beyond the fact that I was still alive.

He made a show of looking around the garage before returning his sharp gaze to mine. My brother had had the same pale-gray eyes as him, but I had taken after our mother with eyes that mimicked a warm spring sky. “Look, I need you to not be here for a little while.”

Not be here? “What do you mean?”

“I mean, disappear for a few weeks. Take a fucking vacation or something.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, Talon ,” I sneered. “I have bills that need to get paid, and I can’t do that if I’m not working.”

His jaw tightened. “Look, Alexis, I get that I’m not your favorite person, but you’re in danger here.”

“Why do I find that hard to believe?”

“Because you’re as cynical as your mother used to be,” he snapped. He stared at me for a long moment before gripping the back of his neck. “You have to believe me.”

I folded my arms over my chest, the action serving as a shield. “What makes you think I’m in danger?”

His jaw tightened. “I have enemies, Alexis.”

My gaze shifted behind him, a shadow falling across the pavement outside the shop. I tensed. My already paranoid mind thought for a second that Maddox was here again.

“Relax,” Talon said. “It’s just the Wolf.”

Ben Shaw, aka ‘The Wolf’ was the Devil’s Chaos sergeant at arms, and his nickname was more than accurate. The Wolf cared about nothing more than following the rules and gleefully meting out justice in the most vicious way. He also happened to be the only man my father trusted to have his back.

With my pulse still racing, I put on my metaphoric suit of armor and took a deep breath. “Are you still pissing off Rixon, then?”

“It’s not the Hunt.”

I frowned. “Who, then?”

“Someone I don’t have enough dirt on. Someone I can’t control yet.” Straightening, he walked farther into the workshop, looking over the huge rolling tool chests along the far wall and picking up a four-and-a-half-inch wrench, studying it.

I stepped away from the Honda and perched on the low rolling stool I kept in the corner. “And I bet that lack of control is really fucking getting to you. Why do you need to control them? What have they got that you want?”

“It’s what I have that they want, and they’ll do whatever it takes to get it.” He turned. “They’ve made direct threats against you… if they can ever find you.”

My spine straightened. “Me? How?—”

“You may have escaped the club, or thought you escaped it all those years ago, but people have a long memory. Especially those who want to hurt me.”

My father had never been this forthcoming with information about the club when I was still a part of it, so I probed a little further. “What do they want? Territory? Corridors?”

He shook his head, reaching the end of his sharing quota for the day. “I’m not dragging you into this, knowingly or not. Just know that they’re powerful and they will stop at nothing to make the Devils comply.”

“I’m not going to the clubhouse. I fucking refuse to go there again.”

A small smile flashed onto his face. He thought he had the victory. “You can stay at my place.”

“With your new old lady?” I balked. Talon had taken on a new woman not even six months after my mom had died. He’d claimed that my mom, Evelyn, had been the love of his life, but how could that be true when he shacked up with another woman before Mom’s grave dirt had had time to settle. “No thanks.”

“You’re making this fucking difficult, Alexis,” he growled, his frustration at me finally showing. “You can’t stay unprotected. You’re not safe here,” he reiterated.

“I’m fine.”

“How do you explain the busted office window then?”

With an irritated huff, I stood from the rolling stool and moved to the roller doors. “You’ve had your say. I heard you, but I’m not going anywhere. You can go now.”

He glared at me for a long while before shaking his head. Under his breath, he said, “It’s like talking to your damn mother again.” He moved toward the door. “I’ll have someone watching the garage twenty-four seven.”

“Do whatever you want, Talon. I don’t give a fuck.”

As soon as he ducked under the roller door, I slammed it down the rest of the way.