I didn’t feel hopeful exactly. I didn’t think Sutton was magically fixed, and I didn’t believe one vulnerable moment erased the years of damage she’d caused. But I didn’t feel quite as heartbroken either.
And for now, that was enough.
16
CENTURY
We took the driver first. He’d been trying to disappear into the noise of the track near the back side of the lot, like he knew he was being hunted. Nitro stepped out of the dark in front of him, while Gauge closed the angle from the left and Fury came in from behind with all the patience of a man who ran a bar and had removed plenty of problems without flinching.
The driver looked past them and found me standing with my feet spread wide and arms crossed over my chest. Whatever excuse he’d been about to make died in his throat.
“Going somewhere?” I asked.
His gaze jerked toward the exit. “Race is over.”
“Yeah.” I started toward him, my boots grinding over loose gravel. “But we’ve still got business to handle.”
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing under the track lights. “I don’t know what you think?—”
“You don’t want to finish that sentence,” I warned, my voice low and wrapped in steel.
Fury’s mouth twitched. “Let him finish. I’m curious how stupid it gets.”
Nitro grunted. “I’m not. Heard enough stupid tonight.”
The driver tried to step back, but Gauge caught his arm and twisted him just enough to convince him the movement had been a bad idea. He wasn’t an officer in their club, and neither were the three brothers we collected after him, but that didn’t matter. They were low enough to be disposable, high enough to carry a message, and unlucky enough to still be breathing when the Redline Kings decided how that message would be delivered.
We took them to The Pit.
To the level two floors down, past reinforced doors and locking systems most federal buildings would envy. The air turned cold, the walls were thick concrete, and the floors tiled for easy cleaning. No cell signals reached the space, no sound crawled out of it, and nobody ended up there unless the club had already decided normal consequences weren’t enough.
The four Diesel Serpents understood that as soon as we brought them through the steel door.
Once they were secure in a cell, Edge and Drift joined us.
“You cheated.”
The driver’s lip was already split from the fight it took to get him loaded into the van at the track, and his breathing came shallow through his nose. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Edge sighed. “I hate when they start boring.”
Drift looked at him. “You say that every time.”
“Because every time, some asshole thinks lying is a strategy.” Edge pushed off the wall, the knife vanishing into his hand like it had never been there. “It’s not. It’s just foreplay for consequences.”
The driver’s gaze swung back to me, panic starting to bleed through the arrogance. “We raced. You won. Deal’s done.”
“The race was done when I crossed the line.” I stepped closer. “The deal is done when your club honors it. But as for the debtfor putting slick down on my track and trying to make me wreck? That’s separate.”
His face went gray beneath the bruising.
“You threatened my woman. You used her sister. Came into Redline Kings territory and tried to cheat on our track. So I’m gonna explain this once, and you’re gonna remember every word because tomorrow morning, you’re taking it home.”
He licked blood off his lower lip, saying nothing.
“Your club stays away from Saylor Everett. Your club stays away from Sutton Everett. Your club clears whatever debt or offense Sutton owed, pulls every asset out of our territory, and doesn’t so much as whisper around a race we control unless Kane gives permission. You understand?”
“I’m not the president.”
