“I dare you to finish that sentence, Tucker,” a familiar voice said behind me. An all too familiar voice, and as the goosebumps of disbelief rippled across every fucking inch of my skin, I glanced up at Jacob’s bleeding, bust up face and found his eyes. The blood dangled from his nose and mouth as he smirked at me, his arrogance returning.
“Hey, Travis,” Jacob pushed out roughly. “Nice to see you… brother.”
Brother. Travis?
“Travis Gatlin,” Jacob squeaked through a painful, cruel laugh. “My half-brother. Good old TG. Of course... you won’t know him as anything other than Trigger, right? The toughest bastard in all of Texas.” He offered me a paralyzed wink before his head slumped forward and he fell asleep in my grip.
And there I was, with a boy in my hands in front of me.
And one of the most influential Navarro Riflemen behind my back.
Trigger.
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t made the connection before. I closed my eyes and let Jacob’s body fall, not even flinching as he landed across my feet, heavy and unmoving while Trigger pushed the cold metal to my head with the sole intention of firing his first bullet into my skull.
The president of The Navarro Rifles was in Babylon, and I’d just beat his little brother to within an inch of his life.
I was a dead man standing.
Chapter Thirty-Six
AYDA
Ileft Sloane only after she’d calmed down enough to stop sobbing. A few minutes alone to collect herself before rejoining the party was what she’d asked for, so I was giving that to her. Now that Jacob was out of the party, she was safe.
Me? I was mad as hell and had nowhere to direct it. I was pretty sure Drew didn’t need any more ammunition to aim in Jacob’s direction, but he still needed to know that Jacob had inadvertently threatened us with the Navs… because I was certain that was how he planned on bringing down The Hounds, and that scared me. The Navs were dangerous adversaries.
I abandoned my heels for the rhinestone-covered tennis shoes I kept in my locker and headed out into the main room of the diner again. The tempo of the music had risen, and the rockabilly song that was being churned out had the crowd moving fast, generating heat that made beads of sweat prickle my skin as I made my way through the writhing bodies and smiling faces.
The contrast in temperature was a shock to the system when I finally made it to the open doors and the cold night air wrapped itself around me. The frigidness forced me to pull theleather jacket tight around my body as I looked around for any sign of Drew. I saw Deeks leaning against his bike, a beer in his hand as he spoke to Harry. Slater was pacing between the rows of bikes, his eyes flicking to the corner of the building before scanning the lot for signs of something out of place. Jedd was doing the same on the other side of the building.
This told me exactly where I needed to go.
I made my way to the area Slater was scrutinizing and continued farther back to the rear of the building, stopping inches short of the corner as a pained grunt blended with the drum solo mutedly pouring from the diner. I knew better than to rush around into a situation that I wasn’t sure of, so I continued to listen. The grunts were definitely Jacob’s, and I knew from the dull, muted flesh on flesh thuds that he was getting the beating of a lifetime, and I couldn’t find enough empathy to be sorry.
I leaned against the brick of the wall and closed my eyes, trying to find the right moment to step in, but that opportunity never came. It never came because the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked sliced through every other noise and had my instant attention. That wasn’t a sound that you could misinterpret, even as faint as it was for me to hear at a distance.
The conversation didn’t have to go on long for me to figure out what was happening.
“...The toughest bastard in all of Texas,” Jacob finished with a satisfied grunt.
I heard movement, but the lazy thump sounded very much to me like Jacob had taken himself out of the equation… thanks mostly to Drew, who I imagined was now facing off with Travis Gatlin—the Nav he’d just been introduced to as Jacob’s older brother.
I’d made so many promises before the party had started. I’d sworn that I would keep myself safe no matter what, but I think there was a part of me that had been prepared for action if it was needed. Wasn’t that why I was wearing a gun under my leather jacket? And why I had my phone pretty much attached to me?
It felt like walking through quicksand in my brain as I tried to come up with some kind of plan. I had two objectives here. Get some of the MC back here, to be at Drew’s disposal, and make sure he had time to gain control of the situation.
In order to assure the second, I couldn’t leave him alone, which left me only one way to obtain the first, and that would require my phone. I didn’t pull my punches on my message to Slater. He was closest. He would get there fastest. He would surely bring the others.
Nav here. Gun to Drew. Back of Diner. Now!
I hit send and replaced the phone in my pocket, sliding my hand to the gun and pulling it from the holster. I was trying my very best to quiet the loud voice in the back of my head screaming,Drew is gonna kill me if we get out of this alive.
Slipping the safety off, I held the gun with my index finger, running the length of the gun as I mentally followed every lesson Drew had given me before stepping to the corner. I shot up a quick prayer to whoever was listening that they weren’t facing the corner I was hiding behind. That would just fuck everything up, and then I would be leverage for Travis, which was not something I wanted to be.
I edged my way to the corner as quietly as I could and peered around the brick surreptitiously—silently releasing the breath I’d been holding. Jacob was on the ground against thewall, curled in with his head dropped to his chest facing the other direction. Drew was standing over him, and the third figure, who was wearing a Nav’s cut, was standing with his legs shoulder-width apart and one hand on the gun that was only inches from Drew’s skull.
I swallowed compulsively, that salt wash that preceded nausea filling my mouth and leaving me jittery. I stopped breathing completely as I tested a step forward, careful of what was under foot as I moved. Travis didn’t so much as twitch as I moved. He just stared at the back of Drew’s head and then down at his brother as though he expected him to do something, while I moved as silently as I could, heel to toe then pausing on every step.
