Free Heart of Steel (Demon Riders MC Book 2) by Evelyn Glass Page A

came to see you.  I didn’t want to rat him out to you if he was just bluffing.”  She looks between the three of them, shivering in the cold despite Dane’s leather jacket that he’s draped around her shoulders.  “But I checked with the editor’s secretary…she’s an old friend of my mom’s.  She told me that Lance had been assigned to the article about the same time as I had.  Seems like my editor didn’t really believe that I could get the job done.”  She shakes her head to get rid of the self-pity that knowledge seems to inspire.  “She told me Lance is scheduled to deliver a first draft the middle of next week.  She doesn’t much like Lance, so she didn’t have any qualms about handing over the information.”  Elyse shrugs, as Rick gives her an impressed look.
     
    “And I’m guessing we’re all still in agreement that we don’t mention this to the rest of the club?”  Suzi looks between the two men who nod solemnly.  They all know what kind of a reaction the bikers would have if they knew that Elyse had been sent by the enemy.  It was something she had been actively trying not to think about.
     
    “You did good, kid.”  Rick gives her an approving nod.
     
    Elyse smiles weakly under his praise.  She’s secretly pleased that she’s made Rick proud, but she also knows that what she’s doing is something that she can never go back from.  Telling them about the article and Lance’s intention is crossing a line that she can never uncross.  She has aligned herself with the Demon Riders, with an outlaw motorcycle gang, with criminals.  What did that mean for her life, for her future?  She couldn’t dwell on those questions right now though; there were more pressing matters to deal with.  There would be plenty of time to figure out her place in this new world—once the Lance issue has been resolved.
     
    “We still don’t know how much Lance knows about the Riders, how much proof he’ll have.”  Elyse looks between them.  “The Gazette won’t let him print something unless he has either hard evidence or word from more than one source.”
     
    “None of the Riders would agree to speak to a reporter.”  Dane almost spits the last word out.
     
    “Agreed.  But if he’s spent any time at all around Shooters, he’ll have seen plenty.  He could try to blackmail one of the guys into being a source for him in exchange for not mentioning his name in an article.”  Suzi shrugs, as if it were a no-brainer and Elyse is struck again by how sharp she is.  When she’d first met Suzi, she’d judged her as a bimbo; she was anything but.
     
    “How can you say that, Suze?”  Dane looks at her as if she’s committed sacrilege.  “The guys would die for the club. You know that.”
     
    Rick makes a calming gesture with his hands.  “She’s not wrong, Dane.”
     
    Dane looks at him as if he’d gone mad.  “What are you saying?”  His voice is cold and hard as steel.
     
    “I’m saying that not all the Riders are necessarily as dedicated as you.”  Rick shrugs his shoulders, his voice and body language deceptively casual, and Elyse wonders if this little act is just to keep Dane from going all ‘black cloud’ on them.  “There are a couple that we’ve been keeping an eye on. If Lance has figured out how to separate the sheep from the lions, then we could have a problem.”
     
    Dane shakes his head, like he can’t believe what Rick is telling him.  He drops Elyse’s hand, raking his fingers through his hair.  Elyse settles a hand on his arm, longing to comfort him, knowing that she’s never seen him look so lost.  The Demons were his family—to find out that perhaps they weren’t the perfect brotherhood that he had thought they were—was clearly a blow.
     
    “If that article goes to print, the Feds will have probable cause, enough for a warrant.  It won’t take them long to go through the books, credit check the bar, The Shop, the other