Page 38 of Two Tricks

The bastard used the shock collar on me.

As my body was shifted and picked up, I let out a loud groan of protest. Every muscle in my body was pissed that I’d been fucking electrocuted, and now I was practically helpless.

Void’s icy blue eyes looked down at me with something I might count as concern. He carried me over to the couch, but instead of setting me on it, he held me in his lap like a baby, shifting me so my head rested against his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around my hips. It took me a moment to figure out that the pounding in my head was getting worse because of the shouting happening.

“What the fuck were you thinking?!” Eagle bellowed.

“There is no way in hell I was willing to let her get away with that! No one disrespects you like that, Eagle, I don’t care who they are,” Picasso shot back.

“So that whole thing about not torturing her because that’s not what we do was bullshit? Because to me that looked like you just took her ass out to be a dick,” Sprocket chimed in.

“Ah! Fuck you all, being blinded by some piece of ass,” Picasso yelled, followed by the sound of something smashing. “I was against this plan from the beginning. We never should have brought her back with us. Now we have two of Two Tricks’ people to hold hostage—he’s got to do something about that, right?!”

“That just shows you know fuck all about Two Tricks,” Wes bit out. “You think after this many years he’s going to cave just because you have his enforcer and her business partner?”

“Nice try, asshole, but we both know that you are more than just her business partner. She wouldn’t go to bat like that for just anyone. Besides, there’s no way that you could have pulled that shit if you weren’t in Two Tricks’ inner circle yourself,” Picasso challenged.

“Regardless, my point still stands. Tricks isn’t going to give in because of this.”

“Fine then. Seems with this new development, we just need to kill them both and send back their bodies to get our message across,” Picasso snapped.

The sound of someone getting punched and crashing into something made me try to see what was going on. As I lifted my head from Void’s shoulder, I saw Sprocket standing over Picasso, who had been laid out. To say that I was shocked that they were fighting amongst themselves over me was an understatement. It threw me for a loop.

“Picasso, go take a walk, and when you can be more reasonable, feel free to come back and apologize to Dax for your shit attitude,” Sprocket growled.

Picasso picked himself up off the ground and looked at Eagle like he was waiting for him to tell Sprocket to back down, but Eagle just crossed his arms. I watched as Picasso stormed out of the cabin, slamming the door behind him. Eagle walked over to me and squatted down so we were eye level and reached out, grasping my ankle gently.

“I’m sorry he did that, hellcat. Don’t get me wrong, you needed a good punishment for lashing out at me like that, but this was overkill,” Eagle said, pinning me with a stern look.

I huffed, squirming in Void’s hold even though my body screamed at me to stop moving. Void just grunted and maneuvered me so I was sitting up with my back flush with his chest but still locked in his hold.

“If I didn’t have this fucking thing on me, none of this would have been an issue. Just so we’re clear, this isn’t all on me—if you hadn’t all pulled your guns on Wes, I wouldn’t have reacted so badly,” I muttered, trying to pry Void’s hands loose.

A hand cupped my chin and forced me to look Eagle in the eyes. “Don’t run away from us with some other guy and I won’t be so unreasonable.”

“Okay, do you hear yourself right now? How is this my fault? I’m the one who was kidnapped and held against my will in your compound. Wes came to get me free, and we just happened to need Cognac to come with for insurance. I could’ve killed him and left him for you to find as you tried to come after me. Really, you should be thanking me right now,” I said, slapping his hand away and glaring at him.

Eagle looked over at Cognac, who was sitting on the arm of the couch, twirling his gun like it was a toy.

“Nah, I don’t think you could’ve killed him, little hellcat. I mean, look at that face—he’s much too pretty to kill.” Eagle grinned, and Cognac turned to wink at me.

Heaving a heavy sigh, I leaned back into Void, giving into the fact I wasn’t going anywhere. “Let’s move on since we are getting nowhere with that topic. I’m finally ready to listen to your proposal.”

Eagle stood and settled next to Void while Sprocket and Wes pulled over chairs from the kitchen.

“Can we expect loverboy to behave himself?” Void asked as he dipped his chin to rest it on my shoulder.

Wes slammed his chair down hard on the floor, drawing our attention. “I am perfectly capable of answering for myself, Cujo.”

Not helping his case, Void growled at Wes, moving to pass me over to Eagle. “What did you just call me, etch-a-sketch?”

“Hey!” I yelled elbowing Void in the gut. “I did almost all of his tattoos, insulting them is insulting me!”

Void paused and looked down at me, then back at Wes, before settling back on the couch with a pout on his lips, pulling me back to him.

“Look at that—our little rebel has learned to tame the beast,” Sprocket said, winking at me with a grin on his lips.

I stuck my tongue out at him, but he just shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that—you never know what could happen to it, little rebel.”