“You really think that wasn’t my choice?” she asked, leaning around Jedd. “Don’t add me as one of his transgressions, Travis Gatlin. I’m right where I want to be.”
Trigger rolled his eyes in her direction as he came to a stop in front of me again. “And you made the mistake of sticking a ring on her finger and making her believe that it’s actually agoodidea, too.”
The humorless laugh that came from Ayda was full of derision. “What part ofmy choicedon’t you understand?”
“She always was a bit stupid when it came to the men she chose,” he whispered, leaning closer to me and wrinkling his nose.
I took a sharp step toward him. It was instinct, not thought. It knocked him off balance temporarily and made him stumble to the side as he backed away and began to laugh.
“I forgot how quickly you pups could snap your teeth.”
“You’d be wise to remember,” I snarled through gritted teeth. “Real fucking quick. You’d also do well to remember that we’ve been threatened so many times in the past, it’s almost becoming a little boring, so if you’ve got something to do, Trigger, get off the fucking stage, quit performing, and snap to it, because I’m real fucking close to breakingsomeone’s neck… and you’re the nearest guy I can see.”
“Now we’re talking.” He grinned big.
Autumn’s scream was instant as one of the guys beside her swiped the back of his hand across her cheek, using the full force and weight of his arm to stun her and knock her to the side.
“Let’s play.” Trigger snapped his fingers, and the two men pushed Autumn down to her knees, each one producing a gun on either side of her head and pressing it down, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut and cry.
She cried so hard, it felt like her sobs had the power to make the ground shake.
Maybe they did.
Or maybe the ground was really shaking because of the army of my brothers who were now charging around the corner as backup, including Deeks.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
AYDA
Inever imagined that I would be faced with my own mortality again and feel annoyed by it, but faced with Travis Gatlin—or Trigger as Drew called him—that’s exactly how I felt. He was arrogant, dismissive, misogynistic and high on power. The president’s patch on his cut told me exactly why he felt that way, but the way he treated women as though they were second-rate citizens… that just made me mad. Not a good frame of mind to be in, even as our backup came in.
All of the anger and frustration I’d been holding onto died the moment I saw Deeks’ reaction to Autumn and the situation she was in between two of the Navarro Riflemen. Deeks had never been a particularly predisposed to public reactions. Much like Drew, he preferred to hold onto his stoicism and make people guess what he was feeling rather than give anything away. Tonight that was not the case. The moment he saw the bruises blossoming on the side of Autumn’s face, his features contorted with rage, making him unrecognizable. The cry of impotent rage fell from him only moments before the two men at his back grabbed at his arms before he could lunge forward, pulling him away from Autumn and the two men that still had her on her knees between them.
I wanted to do something to stop the look of pain in his normally kind eyes. I wanted to reassure him that everything would all be okay, but if I went to him now, I would just give the Nav’s more ammunition to throw in our faces and eventually use against us. I couldn’t offer to put myself in her position because that would worsen the situation and undermine everything Drew was trying to achieve here. Sacrificing myself wouldn’t earn me any points with any one of the guys, either.
All I could do was stand and watch helplessly as Deeks fought to get to Autumn, and the bastard Travis laughed in glee at the scene he’d created.
“Found out whose old lady this is,” he supplied coldly, his laugh still rolling through his words simply to antagonize Deeks all the more. He nodded at one of the men, and before anyone could stop the order from happening, Autumn was backhanded on the other side of her face, snapping her head to the side nastily.
The sick fuck was enjoying hearing Deeks react to the abuse against the woman he loved. He was also enjoying Autumn’s reluctant cries even as she tried to hide them from Deeks. Trigger, or whatever his fucking name was, was orchestrating all of this to get a reaction from us, but he hadn’t counted on how many of us were slowly filling the small space around us.
“Stop it,” I hissed, aware that Slater was hovering close enough to grab me if I took off. “What is wrong with you?”
Travis didn’t even blink in my direction. For him, it was like I hadn’t spoken at all. Instead, he turned to Drew as a couple more Hounds filtered in behind us.
“Quite the pack of howlers you’ve got here in Babylon,Tucker.”
Drew’s face turned dark, his need for vengeance now shining like slippery oil. “You have no idea,” he said roughly. “And, if I remember rightly, you guys never travel anywhere in big numbers because you prefer to slip into the background and shoot people in the back of the head rather than fight them up front.”
“Less messy,” Trigger said with a wrinkle of his nose. Not many men could stare into Drew’s eyes when he was glaring at them the way he was doing and pretend to be cute.
“So by my reckoning, the four men who have joined you are all you’ve got. Maybe two hiding away with a good sniper rifle somewhere.” Drew’s eyes searched Travis’ wildly, before a small smirk took over, baring a few of his bright teeth. “Or maybe not. Five it is.”
Travis dropped his smile, his face turning to stone. “Be careful who you make a full enemy of, doggy.”
“I’m past caring about my enemies. The world hates us. We’re figuring that out. So give me whatever the hell you think you’ve got.”
It was as though the goading was a signal. Like a pack of wolves hunting together, the Hounds began detaching themselves from the shadows and circling the group. Now we had a head count, and all of Travis’ men were accounted for, they were daring the Navs to make a move. As much as I appreciated our strength in numbers, I had a feeling Travis and his men would fight to the death if they had to.
