Black Dogs Motorcycle Club: Full Series Box Set by Sienna Valentine

police barricade let him
pass without a hassle, and in a few minutes he was parking at the clubhouse.
The den buzzed with activity, as expected. Henry and Beck were both on phone
calls, and Drake pounded away at his own touch screen in the corner. Other
members looked over papers, maps, and had their own talks. Jase didn’t bother
to interrupt anyone. Truth told, he didn’t want anyone knowing he was here.
     
    Jase carefully checked the bedrooms one at
a time, knocking softly, before cracking the door open for a small peek. Julie
and Maggie were set up in the second one he tried, the one with a larger
queen-sized bed. Both of them had fallen asleep. He left them where they lay
and took up residence in the full-sized bed in the room next door. The full
weight of the last few days began to hit him as soon as he sat down and he
almost didn’t have the energy to even get his boots off.
     
    As he lay staring at the ceiling, the
imagined image of Maggie ’ s
lifeless body kept popping up in the back of his mind, keeping sleep at bay. He
told himself over and over that she was right here. She was right next door.
She ’ s right here. She ’ s
right here.
     
    He didn’t remember falling asleep.
     

 
     
     
     
    ~ NINE ~
     
    Jase
woke to find the last hours of daylight slowly melting down the bedroom window.
His sleep had been a deep dive into the abyss of exhaustion, and he surfaced
from it feeling better, and grateful that he felt better. Some of his muscle
aches still remained, but now they were minor nuisances instead of nagging
distraction. He could hear the quiet talk of a few people in the den. They must
not have uncovered anything earth-shattering while he was napping or someone
would have woken him up.
     
    Jase took a few moments to stretch and use
the small half-bath to splash some cold water on his face. He ran a big hand
through the wild black mane that was his hair, screwed up from sleep, and
decided he didn’t care. He just smoothed it down a bit before heading out into
the hallway.
     
    Warm light spilled from the direction of
the den, but Jase turned right instead, towards the other bedrooms. He put an
ear to the door he knew Maggie was behind, listening. When he heard nothing, he
raised a fist to knock, but the door swung open in front of him before he
could.
     
    Maggie started, clearly not expecting the
doorway obstruction. She was still blinking sleep out of her eyes when she
looked up at him, squinting. “Oh. Hi.”
     
    “Are you okay?” he
said. His voice came out dry and cracked.
     
    “Huh?” said Maggie. “ Oh,
yeah. Yeah we ’ re okay. Julie
wants to go home. ”
     
    Shit, thought Jase. An
unexpected concern. He leaned an arm on the doorway and spoke quietly. “ We
have to check with Henry before she goes anywhere. ”
     
    Maggie gave him a fed-up look. “She’s a grown woman, Jase. I’ve explained the risks to her. I ’ m
not letting the MC keep her prisoner. It ’ s
me they want. ” Her eyes focused on
something distant. “ Away from me is
the safest place she could go. ”
     
     “ If she’s a danger to this
operation, she ’ s not going
anywhere, ” said Jase, standing up
straight.
     
    Maggie glared at him, very obviously
loading up the gun in her mouth to fire off a shot straight between his eyes.
Her jaw clenched a few times. She gave a little shake of her head and turned
back towards the room. “ Go, ask your king.
Pass the rule onto us peasants if it ’ s
not too much trouble. ” Then
she closed the door in his face.
     
    Jase rolled his eyes, instantly
infuriated. He couldn’t understand how he could be so worried about the life of
a woman who, half the time, he wanted to strangle himself. It ’ s
not that he didn’t understand where she was coming from, but did she understand
his world? Did she understand the things she asked him to risk? That she had always asked him to risk?
     
    That you always risk for her, regardless
of her understanding.
     
    He