Wirth (Dirty Aces MC Book 5) by Lane Hart (carter reed TXT) 📕

Instead of just messing up the building or the bikes, they nearly killed three men and could’ve easily hurt one of the innocent women during their stupid ass shootout.

But then later on in the night, when the police finally force their way inside to inventory evidence and make everyone sit down until they have a chance to interview us, I overhear two of the former Knights talking about the shooting and how they hoped they hit one of the masked bastards that came into the bar.

I jump up out of my chair so fast it falls over backward, hitting the floor and setting off a loud BOOM that startles everyone, especially the cops.

“Sorry,” I say as I pick the chair back up again while everyone is staring at me. “It’s been an awful night. Can I please leave? I told you I wasn’t even here when the shooting happened.”

The nearest cop gives a nod of approval.

“You need someone to walk you back to your apartment?” Bernard, the bartender, asks.

I inwardly cringe at his consideration since he has no idea I’m to blame for the club’s president getting shot and nearly killed. Hopefully Hunt makes it. He’s wild and a little unhinged when it comes to fucking, but he’s a good man deep down. “Thank you for the sweet offer, but I’m sure I’ll be fine,” I tell him.

As soon as I step out of the bar, I spot a police cruiser riding slowly down the street, keeping an eye out on the area to make sure no other violence goes down.

I let myself into my apartment and hear the television, telling me I’m not alone. It’s a huge relief to know he’s okay since he was going to be the first person I called when I got home, but that doesn’t mean I’m not angry at him.

“How could you?” I yell at my brother with tears filling my eyes before I even find him lounging on my sofa like he lives here and wasn’t just involved in a horrifying shooting.

“Your intel was spot on, sis,” Rian says with a grin when he turns his attention from the television to me fuming with my arms crossed over my chest. “We had no idea that the Dirty Aces were coming to town to patch the Knights over before your tip. Hopefully we got to them before that went down. The last thing we need are the Knights growing bigger, having more protection.”

“You almost killed three people! There were innocent women in there!” I say as I stomp over and slap the shit out of his face, leaving my palm stinging. What I really want to do is punch him hard enough to knock the smugness out of his body, but I know from experience that my brother throws the “no hitting a girl” rule out the window if I attack first.

I hate to see him like this, turning into our father a little more each day.

Instead of getting up to hit me back, Rian simply rubs at his cheek and says, “Almost killed them? Shit, the leaders aren’t dead?”

“I-I don’t know,” I admit as I drop onto the opposite side of the sofa, as far away from him as I can get and bury my face in my hands. “No one at the bar has heard from them yet…” I murmur into my palms.

“So, there’s still hope,” Rian cheerfully responds. “Cormac said that if we take out the leaders, the leftover members may try to plan some sort of retaliation. We’ll be ready for them if they do. All they’ll accomplish is killing enough of their own guys that they’ll be forced to fold up the Wilmington chapter and go back to where they came from.”

Lifting my face from my hands, I yell, “Cormac is a fucking fool! He’s going to get you killed!”

“No, he’s not. I can take care of myself.”

“That’s what you think,” I mutter. “Were you there tonight? Were you one of the shooters?”

“Fuck yeah, I was. I hit the long-haired bastard, the president of the Dirty Aces.”

“You better hope they all live; because if any of them die, they will come after you hard.”

He casually stretches both of his arms across the top of the sofa. “And, like I just said, we’ll be ready.”

“This isn’t you, Rian! You’re better than this – acting like some maniac with a gun attacking people. What will it take for you to finally realize that Cormac is just trying to get you killed? He’s never going to give up power to you!”

“Yes, he will,” Rian responds through gritted teeth. “When I’m twenty-one, I’ll take over and he’ll be my second.”

“Oh my god. You are so delusional,” I say with a shake of my head. “He’ll kill you himself before you ever reach twenty-one!”

“I trust Cormac with my life. Dad trusted him too. He would never betray me.”

“Whatever you say, baby brother,” I sigh as I lean my head back. “Just promise me that if you get even an inkling that he’s coming after you, that you’ll tell me, and we’ll leave. Please? Don’t try and fight him on your own.”

“It’ll never come to that,” he says.

But what he doesn’t know is that Cormac and I have our own deal. He made me a promise, and he can’t back out. I refuse to let him. Once the Knights are out of town, he’ll find a way to run Rian out of the Irish chaos once and for all.

If he doesn’t live up to his promise, then I’ll kill him myself if that’s what it takes to save Rian from certain death.

Wirth

It takes a few minutes to get everyone inside and situated in the small house. Most of us are hanging around in the kitchen out of the way. Fiasco is laid out in Joanna’s bedroom and Hunt is stretched out on her sofa. Nash and Preston assist Joanna as she runs back and forth from one room to the other