Chapter Two

As always when he thought about Ace, Spider’s heart juddered to a halt in his chest, then started up again, jerky and too-fast. Because no matter how hard or how long or how much he hated that man, he also loved him, and missed him, desperately. Like he’d miss the sun if he never saw it again, or if the wind just stopped blowing one day. Not being with Ace felt totally wrong to Spider; it was an unnatural state of being for them to be separate. It was one of those things that time just didn’t help or heal, not in the slightest. After all, how would losing the warmth of the sun, or the caress of the wind, ever become something natural or normal or remotely-OK, even with the passing of time?

“So where can we talk?” The blond guy’s voice cut through Spider’s longing for Ace, bringing him up short. “Privately, man.”

“Oh.” Spider shook his dark head a bit. “Yeah. My office.”

“Let’s go.”

And so off they trooped, one after the other, Spider leading and the small blonde woman bringing up the rear. Once they were all in, the man locked the door, then turned to face Spider, who had backed up again and was now perched on the very edge of his desk.

“Tex,” the man said now, pointing at his own massive chest. He nodded at the woman. “Honey.”

Spider nodded, privately thinking that these special ops types always had the sexiest, most-appropriate nicknames going. Tex was – clearly – from Texas, and while tiny little Honey was as golden and sweet-looking as the liquid itself, Spider was absolutely positive that the woman was nothing but kick-ass and lethal. If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t be part of King’s crew. Hell, she could probably snap Spider in half with her perfectly-manicured baby finger.

“Liam,” he said, his voice shaky even to his own ears. “But everyone calls me Spider.” He took a deep breath, bracing himself for impact, trying to forget the one and only man who’d ever called him Liam, knowing that that man was impossible to forget, and even more impossible to avoid talking about here and now. “OK, guys. Hit me with it, whatever it is.”

Tex gave him a slow, lazy grin. “You’re a fan of the bandaid approach, huh, Spider? Just rip it on off in one go?”

“Yep.”

“You got it.” Tex stopped smiling, shifted his weight on his cowboy boots. “Ace killed Kirk Jensen, and now we have reason to think that The Fallen Angels will be coming after you.”

Spider blinked. He knew his mouth was hanging open, but he couldn’t seem to close it. Whatever he’d thought they were there for, that hadn’t been it.

“Uh,” he managed, then stuttered to a stop. What part of the clusterfuck to begin with? “Uh… Ace did what?”

“Killed Kirk Jensen,” Tex repeated slowly, like he was humoring a slow toddler. “Blew him away in cold blood.”

“Why?” Spider asked, stupefied at this news. God, he’d thought that Kirk Jensen had been indestructible, untouchable, immortal. “Why did he, knowing how dangerous it was to so much as touch one hair on that fucker’s greasy head?”

“He was protecting someone,” Honey said. “That’s all you need to know, alright? Ace didn’t have any choice. It was these other people or it was Jensen.”

“So – so Ace saved someone?” Spider said.

“Yes,” Tex replied. “He did. At great personal risk to himself, I need to add.”

“Oh.” Spider wrestled with himself for a second, trying hard not to feel a bit of pride about Ace’s good call. “OK… well. Uh. So if Ace killed that piece of shit, why would the Angels come after me? I didn’t have anything to do with it.” He paused, remembering just how involved he was with King’s Men, and he suddenly wasn’t sure that he hadn’t done something wrong, even inadvertently. “Did I?”

“Well…” Tex looked a bit uncomfortable. “Well… uh… this part’s a bit… it’s not… ummmm…”

“It seems that your ex held onto a USB drive with some very intimate pictures of you two,” Honey interrupted, clearly not the type to mince words or shy away from anything touchy. “Stupidly, he hid it somewhere in his apartment and before Jensen died, he told Ace that his former MC brothers were in the process of tearing up his place with crowbars.”

“They – what?” Spider stammered. “But – why?”

“Because Jensen already knew that Ace was the one ratting him out.”

“Is that why Ace really killed him?” Spider said slowly. “To protect himself from being found out as an informant for King’s Men?”

“No,” Honey said. “No. What I said was the truth: he killed Kirk so someone else could live.” She thought about Warren Kane and Shay Alcott with fondness, wished them godspeed and good luck as they fled to their new life together. “Two someone else’s actually. I swear to you, I didn’t lie about that.”

“OK.” Spider sighed, feeling the wild urge to down a shot of vodka. Maybe two. Then have a nap. “OK. So… Kirk Jensen figured out that Ace was working with you guys, and he told the MC?”

“Yep.”

“And they turned on Ace.” It wasn’t a question. “On their own President.”