I turned and headed back out of the room, nodding for Gauge to follow me before locking the door behind us both. He followed me back down the stairs and to the dilapidated kitchen. The only thing that wasn’t broken in there was the small refrigerator in the corner that I’d installed when I’d found the place. I grabbed us two beers and popped the lids before handing one to him.
“You know we need you to keep her alive?” he asked warily. “We need to give her back at some point.” He laughed humorlessly.
I took a long swig of my beer before placing it on the counter. “She’ll be fine.”
“So what’s that all about then?” he asked, looking up at the ceiling, gesturing toward where Penny lay unconscious.
I glared over at him. “She needed to learn when to back down.”
He eyed me like he thought I was talking bullshit, but I wasn’t. She did need to learn to back the fuck down. She needed to learn who her master was. Who controlled her. Who fucking owned her. She had too much fight in her for a woman whose life was controlled so much.
I’d never liked feisty women, but there was something about this one that had gotten under my skin. I wanted to break her. No, Ineededto break her. Had a feeling that things would never be the same after I did though. For her or for me.
“You fuck her yet?” Gauge asked.
“No.”
“You want to?”
My glare turned to a scowl and he chuckled and held his hands up in defense.
“All right, all right, I’m just saying…”
“Well don’t. I don’t wanna hear it. She’s a job, that’s all. I’ll keep her alive, even if I have a little fun with her first. Just tell me when I need to drop her home.”
I finished off my beer and walked into the living room and Gauge followed me.
“You heard anything from Razuuk yet?” I asked.
“No, but we didn’t expect to. He’s keeping this under the radar to save any embarrassment. Makes no difference though—we’ve got shit set up ready to blow apart his world,” he grunted, finishing off his beer and placing the empty bottle down on the floor. “I need to get back before anyone realizes I’m gone. Club’s a fucking mess right now, but hopefully this will sort some of that out.” He planted a heavy hand on my shoulder. “We’ll get Battle back soon enough, brother.”
“Good. Because I’m not the only one getting tired of waiting for Hardy to do something about it. We’re the Highwaymen, and we do whatever it takes to protect our own.” I turned to stare at him. “Brothers for life, and our life for our brothers.”
Gauge nodded at me. “I hear you.”
I hoped he did, because I meant every word.
I’d live and die for those men, for my family. I’d take down anyone who tried to harm them. Man, woman, traitor—they were all the same to me. I’d gut every last one of them and then hang their corpses up at the main gates as a warning not to fuck with us.
It wasn’t a pretty picture, but it was the damned truth all the same.
~ 10 ~
Penny
I woke the next day with a throbbing in my brain that made me wish I’d died in my sleep. The pain was so bad and I knew it had to be a migraine from hell. The only relief from a migraine was pain meds and sleep in a dark room. I squinted against the brightness of the room, the sunlight burning in from the window on the opposite side of the room. A thin piece of material was tacked up against it, but it wasn’t enough to blot out the brightness and I whimpered and squeezed my eyes closed.
The door opened, and I knew he was standing in the doorway watching me. I waited to see if he’d say something to me, but silence only consumed the air around us.
I whimpered and squeezed my eyes tighter.
“What’s wrong?”
“Migraine,” I breathed out.
He grunted something and left the room, and I felt hot tears prickle my closed lids. Tears for the pain and tears for the indifference of him and everyone else in my life.
I changed my mind in that instant: he wasn’t a dark angel, he was a monster.
