Free Roped by SJD Peterson Page B

much,” Cole admitted. “We lost our inside guy. Jester got ninety in county on a parole violation.”
    “Shit,” Rocco cursed. He ran a hand over the gray scruff on his chin.
    Rocco looked tired. Ever since the shit went down in the warehouse, Tek’s mom had been riding Rocco’s ass hard for putting her boy in danger like that. It seemed ridiculous to Tek since Carla had been helping to cultivate him into a leader of the MC. She’d been part of Crimson VIII since she was eighteen, knew the dark and ugly side of it. But in her own twisted way was still a mom, and in her eyes, any threat to her son was a direct threat to her—something Carla Cain-Lundy didn’t take lightly. She was one tough chick and didn’t take shit from anyone, including her husband.
    “I don’t know why we don’t just go in and take the dopers out,” Sully put in. “We have the manpower.”
    “That would be a clusterfuck of stupid,” Smokey retorted. “Feds are all over our asses. They know we had something to do with the warehouse explosion and are just looking for an excuse to bring us down.”
    Jamie shot a questioning look at Tek, who just shrugged. Tek had nothing to add, no plan, and he just wanted to forget the whole ugliness of what happened in that warehouse. The only time he could do that was when he was alone with Jamie; the rest of the time, what he did, what he’d been forced to do haunted him.
    Tek pulled his pack of smokes from his pocket and tapped one out. He slid one between his teeth and lit it, pulling a deep drag into his lungs and letting it out slowly. The nicotine helped to calm his nervousness, but not much.
    He’d never questioned the dealings of the club before, blindly following every order without hesitation, but something shifted inside him in that warehouse. The dark place he could go to, the coldness, scared him. The fact that he could put a gun to an unarmed man’s head and squeeze the trigger so easily, without thought or an ounce of care for another human being, not only scared Tek, but horrified him.
    “Gunner!” Rocco yelled, snapping Tek out of his musings.
    “Huh….” He scanned the faces around the table, all eyes on him. “What?”
    “I said you need to hook up with that little blonde you were with the other night,” Rocco informed him. “What was her name?” Rocco snapped his fingers repeatedly as if it would help him remember.
    “Donna,” Cole reminded him.
    “That’s it! Donna. She used to run with one of the Bangers. See what you can get from her. Fuck it out of her if you have to,” Rocco ordered.
    Tek felt Jamie stiffen next to him, and he stole a glance to see Jamie scowl. Tek placed the cigarette back between his teeth and nodded at Rocco, knowing full well he wouldn’t break his promise to Jamie. But Tek could tell from the way Jamie stayed tense at his side, he had his doubts. The idea that Jamie didn’t trust his word both hurt Tek’s heart and pissed him off in equal measures. They would need to talk about that later.
    “Buck, Junior, I want you two to scope out the Bangers clubhouse. I need numbers, see if they have hooked up with another club, pulled in rogue members.”
    Buck—whose real name was Eugene Buckler, one of the best hog mechanics in the club—and Jamie both nodded.
    “You think that’s a good idea?” Tek questioned. “The guy you sent back with the knife in his nuts will be able to recognize Junior here,” he said, stabbing a thumb in Jamie’s direction. “Why not send one of the new prospects?”
    “Boy, are you questioning me?” Rocco challenged and slammed his hand down on the table.
    “I just thought—”
    “You don’t think the Bangers already know what each and every one of us look like, including the new prospects? They may be dopers, but you’re a fucking idiot if you underestimate an opponent, especially a greedy one. I guaran-fucking-tee you they are scoping us out.”
    Tek bristled at being chastised like a child in front