“No, Donovan,” he says as he stalks towards him. “Only one who gets a gun tonight is me.” In one motion, Allen raises his foot and boot fucks Axe in the side of the head.
The Sinner prez goes down with a grunt and then stays down.
“Hey!” Grace pushes up to her knees. “You do that again, I’ll fucking kill you.”
Allen only laughs as he picks up the gun and pulls the magazine. “And how are you gonna do that? Looks like you’re a little tied up.”
He clears the chamber, drops the last bullet to the ground, and tosses the empty gun across the hangar. Then he’s got a knife in his hand. Without meaning to, I step in front of Grace, my hand still wrapped tight around her switchblade.
“Relax, Decker. I’m not interested in your little biker whore.”
“Fuck. You,” Grace snarls.
“Don’t much care for her mouth, though.” He circles around me,tsking as he forces the blade from my fingers. “You won’t beneeding that yet.” He brings his knife to the ropes binding my wrists. Then with a quick cut, I’m free. He steps back.
“You have any idea what you’re doing?” Grace says. “The Sinners will come for us. And then you’re fucking dead.”
Sighing, Allen hands me a rag. “God, I hate mouthy women. Shut her up for me, will you?”
I glare at him. He’s keeping his distance. Like he knows that if he stands too close, I could get him down. It’d only take a quick jab of my elbow or a hard punch to the face. That’s the problem. He thinks like me.Bothsides of me. The cop, who’d understand how much space to keep from an assailant, who’d know how to manage multiple threats. And then that other part. The outlaw. The man who makes his own rules. Turns out, Allen’s just as dirty as I am. Maybe worse. Or maybe we’re the same, and I only see him as the enemy because we’re not on the same team.
The gun holstered at his side is suddenly pointing at Grace. “Do what I say, Decker. Shut up the She-Donovan, or I’ll put a bullet in her fucking head.”
He doesn’t have to ask me twice.
Slowly, I tilt up Grace’s chin, eyes on hers, hoping like hell she can read the apology in my expression as I shove the rag into her mouth.I’ll fix this, I silently tell her. There’s always a way out. Despite the gun on her, the fallen Sinner prez at my back, the threat of Allen and those two other Raider fucks still skulking around. There’s a way out. There has to be. Grace doesn’t die here today.
“You really let Donovan take out our backup?” Allen eyes the asshole with the broken neck on the ground. “The guy’s tied up, for fuck’s sake. How the hell do you let that happen?”
Of course he wouldn’t assume it was me. I’m just a shitty cop who got himself in too deep with the wrong people. I’m not a killer.
“If you didn’t notice,” I grit out, “I was also fucking tied up. I told you hiring these assholes was a bad idea. They turned on me the first chance they got.”
He smirks. “Actually, they did exactly what I asked them to do. Deliver Donovan, with your help, of course, and then deliver you. I told you. You have a big role to play in this. I couldn’t have you running off with your whore before I got what I wanted.”
I clench my fists, rage bubbling in my veins. Allen needs to die.
Myrolewas simple. Call Axe. Tell him I could fix things. Tell him I could get his old lady out of jail, maybe even his VP. Arrange a meet-up on his turf and then send those Raider pricks in my place. They deliver Axe, and I’m cleared. Allen forgets what he knows about me. The evidence he says he has on me disappears. The only threat left is the one Axe has been holding over my head for a decade. The boot I haven’t quite figured out how to push off my neck. And now the threat hanging over Grace.
“Not my problem they got a little rough with you,” he says. “But based on that little movie I got of you, you like it a little rough, don’t you? Iknowyour girl does.”
Yeah. Okay. Hereallyneeds to fucking die. I’m gonna cut out this guy’s tongue and feed it to him.
Deep. Fucking. Breaths.
I tamp down the fury raging in my chest, my temper poking at my last nerve, threatening to detonate. “What’s your game here?” I ask. “This isn’t just about cleaning up South Bay’s biker problem. And it sure as hell isn’t about justice. This is personal for you. What aren’t you telling me?”
The smug smile on his face vanishes, the muscles in his neck tightening. For the first time since I met him, that arrogance drops. It’s replaced quickly with a vile, rage-filled sort of anger.
“The big reveal,” he says, voice dropping low. “Always my favourite part.”
Still keeping that wide berth, he toes around me and grabs for Axe, who’s still half unconscious. With a big yank on his collar, he hauls the Sinner prez across the floor. Axe stumbles, tripping over his feet as he’s dragged outside.
“Bring your slut,” Allen calls out as he tosses Axe to the ground just outside the doors. Axe is a limp heap under the bright spotlights.
As Allen commanded, I tug Grace towards her brother. I keep a thumb on the bare skin just above her waistband, tracing small, grounding swirls.
It’ll be okay. We’ll be okay. I can fix this.
