Then he stands, brushing off his hands like he’s finished with paperwork.
“Prepare them,” he tells his men. “We leave in thirty.” I don’t know who they are or where he got them from.
Tiffany swears under her breath. “Holley,” she says urgently when they move away. “Holley. Look at me.”
I do.
Her eyes burn with fury and something else—fear, yes, but also iron.
“We’re not dying today,” she says fiercely. “We’re not disappearing. We’re not letting that psychopath win.”
“Tiff, we’re tied, we’re outnumbered, we’re?—”
“Holley.” Her voice sharpens. “My dad is going to burn the world down to find us. Do you understand me? He’s coming. The Hellions are coming. We just have to hang on.”
A sob shakes my chest.
Because I believe her.
I really do.
“He’ll find us,” she says again. “He always does.”
But even as she whispers it, I hear Eric laughing in the next room.
And I know—Tony is running out of time.
Eighteen
Stud
Smoke shows up at the wrong damn time.
Not that there’s ever a right time for him to show up, but today? Today is a special kind of hell.
I’m in the garage, elbow-deep in an engine that stopped cooperating three hours ago, when I hear the crunch of gravel under slow, deliberate boots. Hellions don’t walk like that. Strangers don’t walk onto our property like that. Only one man alive moves like a man who’s already decided everyone in sight is beneath him.
Smoke.
I don’t bother turning around. “I told you last time—if you step foot in my shop again, I’m ripping your face off.”
“Good to see the vacation softened you,” he drawls.
My fist curls so tight the wrench bites into my palm.
Reluctantly—very reluctantly—I rotate my head enough to glare at him.
Same old Smoke. Tall as hell, stocky and cocky, beard trimmed to corporate length even though he pretends he’s an outlaw. Blue eyes sharp, calculating. Looks like he bathes more than he should for a biker.
What pisses me off most?
He looks like trouble that knows its own worth.
I stand slowly. “What do you want?”
“Not your friendly welcome, apparently.”
“My friendly welcome is a bullet,” I say. “Try again.”
