Free Consume: A Standalone Romance by Lauren Hunt

out and blew the Mexicans away myself. Thank god, Jasper has a cool head.”
     
    “So what's the plan?”
     
    “Jasper reached out to Miguel of the Los Diablos. He said he had no part in the attempt on your life.”
     
    Of course they would say that. “And you believe him?”
     
    Hammer pointed to all the guns on the table. “Does it look like I believe him?”
     
    I laughed. “Guess not.”
     
    “But Jasper believes him—and I believe in Jasper. But there's no reason we can't go into this being a little cautious.”
     
    I picked up one of the semi-automatics. The weight felt heavy in my hands. I could do a lot of damage with this.
     
    Hammer took the gun from me and set it back down on the table. “The plan is still the same. We meet the Los Diablos this afternoon.”
     
    “What for? They already know that we're cutting them off from drugs.”
     
    “It's all about politics, Axe. We need to explain to Miguel in person. He also needs to apologize to us in person. It's how we keep the club intact. It's how it's been done for years.”
     
    I pulled out my pistol and replaced the clip with a full one from the table. “I'm ready.”
     
    Hammer put his hand on my shoulder. “I don't think you should be coming with us, Axe.”
     
    I shrugged his hand off. “What the fuck are you talking about, Hammer?”
     
    “You're invested in this too much, Axe. I don't want this going south if you can't control yourself.”
     
    “I have my emotions in check. I need to be there in case something goes wrong. You know you can't do this without me. We need all the manpower we can get.”
     
    Hammer sighed. “I wish you were wrong. Round up the other guys and let's get the vans loaded up.”
     
     
    —
     
     
     
    The Dark Steel MC arrived at the abandoned warehouse on the eastern side of town in full force. The Mexicans had ruled the east since before I was born. Dark Steel owned the rest except a small sliver in the middle that went to the blacks.
     
    We parked our bikes and vans into the warehouse and they closed the large steel door behind us. The entire Los Diablos crew was there sitting on their bikes. They looked mad as hell but their weapons were holstered. After doing meets like this for so long, you knew that mayhem could explode at any moment so you had to be on your toes.
     
    I stayed back a ways to observe like Hammer wanted. Even though I wanted to blow them all to hell, I couldn't put my brothers in harm's way.
     
    Jasper got off his bike and met Miguel in the center. They shook hands and embraced. Miguel wore his leather cut and the only hair on his head was a gray-colored goatee. From what I knew, Jasper and Miguel grew up together. But their friendship didn't last when they joined different MC's.
     
    Miguel spoke first, looking past Jasper, right to me. “First of all, I want to apologize for what happened last night to one of your members. When we got the word that you were taking drugs from us, some of my boys went off on their own. The ones involved have been punished severely.”
     
    I looked over the crowd of Mexicans and realized that a few of them were bruised and beaten in the face. A flash of Winter's beautiful hair crossed my mind and my grip on my bike's handlebars tightened. Whatever punishment they got wasn't enough.
     
    Miguel continued, “I hope that the death of one of my men satisfies your desire for revenge.”
     
    Not mine, asshole.
     
    Jasper nodded. “Dark Steel will take no revenge.” They shook hands again. “We set up this meeting so we could tell you in person that we're getting out of drugs. We know that this will affect you greatly but Dark Steel needs to get out.”
     
    Jasper was handling everything very well. I always wondered why he passed up the president's seat to Hammer. Jasper would have done a great job.
     
    Miguel grinned. “Los Diablos understands. No hard feelings between us.”
     
    “We can help the transition by finding you another