I smirk. “Drop the gun,” I order him.
“If I do, you will kill me,” he mumbles.
I shake my head. “Don’t be ridiculous. Now drop the gun.”
He pauses for a moment, clearly thinking of his options. Options he doesn’t have. He drops the gun, and I bend down, holding out my hand. Spider places a piece of rag in my hand, which I use to pick up the gun.
I tut, shaking my head. “You see, we ain’t going to kill you. You are,” I state, forcibly pressing the gun against his temple. He cries, pleads and whimpers, and as Rage steps back, I pull the trigger. His body instantly drops to the ground, and I waste no time in placing the gun in his hand. Stepping away, I dust off my hands with the rag Spider gave me.
“How are you going to explain that one?” Cash asks, pointing to the blood splatter on my T-shirt.
I shrug. “I won’t have to. Club business.”
“Yeah, right.” Hap snorts. “She will wear you down.”
“Make sure the sign says ‘closed’ and no one else comes in. Load up the tree,” I order.
I bend down over Bernard’s corpse and pull my money from his pocket before walking up to their static home. Swinging the door open, I walk inside to find Acid sat at a small table with a mug of tea and a tray of biscuits. His eyes come to me, spotting the blood on my T-shirt.
“Go help them with the tree, would ya?” I ask, nodding in the direction of the door.
“Here we are. I made chocolate brownies, too,” she happily says, walking out of the kitchen. I look back and forth between them. Have I been in a fucking coma? It’s been no more than ten minutes, and she’s bringing him out fucking brownies like they have been friends for years. She pauses when she spots me.
Acid jumps up and takes a brownie before placing a quick kiss on her cheek. “Thank you, ma’am, but I’ve got to go and help my brothers. Ghost here is a good guy, even if he does look like a grumpy shit,” Acid jokes as he walks out. Mother fucker.
I turn my attention back to Bernard’s wife, and as she looks at me, I see no fear in her gaze. She places the brownies on the kitchen table and takes a seat, pouring herself a cup of tea like it’s any normal day. “He dead?” she asks calmly.
I eye her sceptically. “Killed himself. Couldn’t stand what he had done to you. The guilt was too much.”
She looks up at me, her pale grey eyes seeing right through me. Her bottom lip begins to tremble as she stands and walks towards me. I stand there, unsure of what her next move will be. She launches herself at me, wrapping her frail arms around my body and hugging me tight while sobbing.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she chants.
I gently rub her back, trying to be comforting before she steps back and wipes her face. “Er, you’ve got a bit of blood on your cheek,” I point out.
She smiles and wipes her face on the napkin. “Forty years I’ve been trapped in that marriage. Our boys left home, which then meant he didn’t have to hide it so much,” she sighs.
I hand her the cash for the tree, but she tries to refuse it. “No, take it. We are going to go. I would wait ten minutes before calling it in,” I state and turn to leave. Pausing, I stop at the door and turn to face her. “You going to be okay for Christmas?” I ask.
She nods and smiles. “With him gone, my boys will come.”
I nod again. “Merry Christmas,” I add before walking out.
“All good?” Beast asks.
“Yeah, weirdly, I think I just gave her the best Christmas present by killing her old man.” I shrug.
We look back at the house to see her waving at us. “Fuck, this is a weird Christmas,” Beast mutters.
He ain’t fucking wrong.
CHAPTER TEN
STAR
“What happened?”I press as Ghost steps into the shower, admiring his powerfully scarred and tattooed body on display under the hot cascading water. I could just stand here all day and watch him. I will never get enough of this man.
He lathers up some shower gel in his hands and begins to wash his body, my eyes following the movement. “I told you it’s club business. What was that exchange earlier between you and Queenie?” he counters.
