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Dex opened his mouth to ask how I could be sure of this, but I carried on before he could.

“Ryan walked up behind one and shattered his nose on the table before holding a gun to his head and threatening the others. Then, in her special office, she shot their sergeant at arms in the knee, blowing out his calf,” I said evenly, placing my arms along the top of the sofa and giving my words a minute to sink in. I left out that I had cut off a finger because I didn’t like the way he’d spoken to her.

“Fuck,” Dex said, dragging out the u sound in a way he knew I hated.

I rolled my eyes before continuing. “Pretty positive she knew it would need to be amputated since the Reapers would have to go to an actual hospital to have any hope of saving it. But with all the shit they’re involved in, I doubt they would take that risk.”

A thick silence sat between us as Dex digested what I had just dropped in his lap.

“You watched her fucking shoot a man in the kneecap…” Dex sounded like he had just fallen in love, and it fucking irked me. So I opted to nod my head in response. Of course that would be his reaction to this situation. I would be lying, though, if I didn’t admit that the sight of her in that room, bloodlust running through her veins, wasn’t a fucking turn-on.

Sometimes late at night, I would lie awake and wonder if the darkness that now surrounded my soul was always there or if I’d tarnished myself over the last few years. But tonight, when I saw Ryan in that room, exacting vengeance for what they did to Nikki and asserting her authority for trespassing on her territory. I realized that darkness didn’t equal evil. Good intentions often needed to be accomplished with what someone had determined were sins.

“So why the fuck were they there? Why risk getting fucking shot?” he asked incredulously.

I shrugged my shoulders. I had wondered the same thing.

“I think they thought they would find Mario there tonight. They had no clue who Ryan was,” I answered thoughtfully, running my hand through my hair. “But it’s hard to know if that means anything because up until recently, we didn’t know anything about Ryan either. Sergio and Mario may let her do the grunt work for them, but neither was talking about her to the rest of the underground circuits.”

Across from me, Dex was rubbing his hands down his face. Like if he scrubbed hard enough, answers would appear. But we were missing too many pieces of the puzzle to finally finish it. He looked up, making eye contact. The seriousness of his gaze put me on edge.

“She’s a good source for intel. You said yourself; she does a lot of grunt work for Mario and Sergio. She’s in the inner circle, Gunner. Ryan will know shit, whether she’s supposed to or not. She will have information.”

I ground my teeth at the implications of what Dex was saying. He saw the resistance in my face and pushed on before I shut him down.

“Listen, man, I know you think she’s hot and shit; hell, I like her too. But we have a job to do. She’s the in we’ve needed to get a foot in the door. Make a connection with her, use her as a resource, and we’ll be able to do what we need to do. Keep this partnership going and successful. But brother, to do that, you can’t stick your dick in this. And you sure as shit can’t stick your feelings in this.”

Now I was scrubbing my face, hoping for another solution or a flaw in Dex’s words. But he was right. I had to get close to Ryan to use her for information and insight. This partnership wasn’t a long-term promise. We were being given a trial run here, and if it got fucked up. If I fucked it up—bye-bye all that we had worked for.

I let out a defeated sigh when no other solution came to me.

“Fuck, you’re right,” I mumbled.

Dex nodded his head in approval, glad I agreed with him on this.

“In the meantime, we need to figure out why the Reapers needed to talk to Mario. They risked a lot showing up there tonight, and I want to know why. It was all real cloak and dagger shit. Spinner didn’t think Ryan was in charge, so he played his cards real close to the vest. And Ryan was a bit trigger-happy after she saw that they’d hurt Nikki’s wrist.”

I barely got those last words out before Dex was sitting at attention. The killer in him coming to the forefront. It’s how he’d gotten his road name. Dex, short for Dexter, because the man was fucking scary when he turned on this side of him. Cold and calculated; able to extract information and inflict pain without batting an eye. Our time in the MC had irrevocably changed both of us, or maybe it just allowed us to be our true selves.

“What the fuck did they do to Nikki?” he asked, his voice harsh.

That question got me to raise my eyebrow. I wasn’t surprised that Dex knew Nikki’s name; he knew a lot of women’s names. I was surprised he knew which woman the name belonged to and gave a fuck that she’d been injured. Dex may have come across as fun-loving, but feelings and caring for people weren’t his thing. He kept that shit locked up tight. It’s why his “Dexter” side would come out so quickly when provoked. He kept his feelings off to begin with.

But pointing out his reaction would be like throwing rocks from a glass house, so I kept my mouth shut and just answered his question.

“When we showed up, Nikki ran up to Ryan to let her know what was going down. She didn’t account for how observant her boss was and made the mistake of rubbing her wrist. Ryan caught the movement. Pretty sure it’s what got the men sent to her special office and not the one upstairs. I’m guessing one of them just got too handsy. I didn’t exactly get the chance to ask Nikki about it.”

Dex looked like he was about to hop out of his seat and take off, so I raised my hands to signal him to chill. “Before you go all psycho killer in ways you’re not allowed to, Ryan took care of the punishment.”

Dex relaxed his shoulders slightly, but I still wasn’t positive he wouldn’t try to go fuck up some reapers. I thought he and Nikki barely knew one another, but his reaction suggested otherwise.

“Dex.” My voice came out commanding; it was the tone I used when he knew I meant business. “Remember what you just told me. We have a job to do. We can’t go fucking up all we’ve worked for by starting a war with the Reapers. Besides, I have this gut feeling one is coming anyway.”

That seemed to snap him out of whatever he was wrestling with.

“You’re right. Just don’t like to hear about women getting hurt, you know.” He locked eyes with me, conveying the message that we weren’t going to talk about the shit with Nikki anymore. “I’ll reach out to some contacts and see if there has been any unusual movement. Do you think the Reapers will retaliate?” he asked.

I had been thinking about that the whole ride back to the clubhouse. Technically, they had gone into someone else’s territory without an invitation. And not just anyone’s; the goddamned cartel’s territory. But the Reapers didn’t abide by many unwritten rules criminals go by. They probably wouldn’t give a damn that Ryan was within her rights to do what she did. What worried me was that they would retaliate because she was a woman. The Reapers probably felt that Los Muertos letting a woman fuck them up was more disrespectful than trespassing.