She swept her thumb over the inside of his wrist, knowing if she pushed up the cuff of the long-sleeved shirt he wore, even the slightest bit, she’d be able to see his tattoos. The ones he worked so hard to keep hidden from her co-workers.
For her.
He sat next to her at a resort in Lake George for her.
He might risk everything for her.
Her heart thumped heavily in her chest. “I need to tell you something...”
His dark eyes landed on her and held fast and steady. “No, you don’t.”
“Mag— Malcolm,” she began, her voice catching.
“No,” he barked, catching the couple’s attention sitting at the next table. A muscle ticked in his cheek, but he lowered his voice. “You don’t. Not now. Not here.”
With her free hand she swiped at her eyes. “But—”
“Caitie... No.”
His tone had changed slightly, his voice became thicker, and she noticed something flash behind his eyes. Something resembling pain. Or regret, maybe.
The last thing she wanted to do was cause him that. Or distract him from whatever his plan was.
She blinked quickly, trying to relieve the sting, and nodded, her throat tight.
“Okay,” she whispered, turning to him and cupping his cheek. “Not now.”
His lips became nothing but a slash as he pressed them together and she waited for him to respond with, “Not ever.” But he didn’t.
That gave her a tiny sliver of hope.
He broke their locked gazes and turned to look at the bar’s small, low stage, where a few of her co-workers had microphones and trivia questions, and were keeping score on a big whiteboard. “When’s this shit gonna end?”
She knew he meant the trivia contest, but she couldn’t help read into that question deeper.
“Soon,” she murmured and her leg began to bounce uncontrollably once again.
From a distance, Magnum stalked Drew Gallo from the bar over the dimly lit brick path back to a cottage near Nate Gallo’s.
He’d sent Caitie back to their room, told her to lock the door and wait there until he got back. To try to ease her worry, he promised to return to her as soon as he could.
As soon as the older brother had the door unlocked and was twisting the knob, Magnum shoved him inside, hurrying to shut the door behind them.
“Hey!” Gallo exclaimed and spun around, only to stop dead at the sight of Magnum. “Malcolm! What the hell is going on?”
“Need to talk to you in private.”
“You could’ve just asked.”
Enough with the bullshit. Time to set his plan in motion. “Confronted your brother. He’s blamin’ you. Identified you in that video by the marks on your body.”
Gallo’s eyes flashed wide, then narrowed just as quickly. “He’s lying.”
“Is he?” Magnum cocked an eyebrow and took a step closer to Gallo, drawing himself to his full height. “He’s really pissed at you for tryin’ to pin it on him. Talked to him earlier and he said he’s goin’ to the cops once he gets back home. Wants you to go down for not only lyin’ ‘bout him, but for what you did to Cait.”
“What are you talking about? He said nothing to me at dinner or during trivia. He acted completely normal.”
Color was rising into Gallo’s face, which meant he was getting pissed. But Magnum needed to get him raging. Like Mercy said. Enough so that he’d want to take action to stop his brother.
“Right. He’s keepin’ it from you so you don’t stop him or try turnin’ it around on him.”
Gallo tilted his head, his eyebrows pinned together. “Why are you telling me this?”
“’Cause I think he’s lyin’ and it’s him, not you.”
“It is him!”
Fucking lying motherfucker.
Magnum’s fingers flexed with the urge to strangle that asshole.
A true brother didn’t throw another brother under the fucking bus.
He didn’t use a woman as a tool to fuck over that brother.
A true man didn’t drug and rape a woman.
The Gallo before him was a spineless, spoiled motherfucker who was sucking air that could be better used on people who deserved to breathe.
He hurt Cait all because of some petty fucking jealousy. Some sibling rivalry which did not warrant the actions he took. He tried to screw over his own flesh and blood and hurt Cait in the attempt.
It was going to cost him. The man just didn’t know how much yet.
But he would find out. Hopefully soon, if Magnum played this right.
“I need to stop him from going to the police.”
No shit. “Yeah. Could screw up your whole life if you get accused of rapin’ an employee. No one will ever look at you the same again. People at the agency, clients, your parents. People at your country club, your friends. Other women will never trust you. Always wonderin’ if you’re gonna drug them and rape ‘em. Your professional life would be fu— screwed and so would your personal life. Even if you get cleared of those charges, everyone’s still gonna wonder. And you think your daddy loves and favors your brother more now? Just think what’ll happen after. Especially when it involved a friend’s daughter. Makin’ him look bad in front of everyone. Hurtin’ his business.”
Gallo’s face was turning a deeper shade of red as his blood pressure spiked. “I didn’t do it!”
Magnum was getting the result he wanted. Playing him was much easier than he expected. “Even so. It would take a while to clear your name if that’s true. And who’s your dad gonna believe? His golden boy, Nate, or you?”
“What the hell!”
Wind the fucker up, now push him toward a solution... “Need to stop him before he goes to the cops. Stop him before he causes damage you can’t repair.”
“How?”
Magnum shrugged. “Dunno. What d’you think?”
“He raped your girlfriend.”
Magnum’s nostrils flared and his lip curled in a snarl. He forced it back down and grunted out a, “Yeah.”
“What do you want to do about him?”
His fingers curled into his palms. “Want him to get what’s comin’ to him.”
“I know if he raped my girlfriend, I’d want to kill him.”
Bingo. “Yeah.”
“I can help you do that. You’d get revenge for Cait. It’d stop him from falsely accusing me of rape and ruining my life. This lake is perfect to get rid of a body. It has a lot of deep areas. Some close to two hundred feet. We weigh him down and he’d never be found.”
Or make it look like a struggle between two brothers. An unfortunate accident.
But, holy fuck, this guy was fucked in the head. He wanted to accuse his brother of the shit he did, then kill the guy to get rid of him to keep him quiet. The nanny must have dropped him on his goddamn head when he was a baby.
“He’s your brother.”
“And the world would be a better place with one less rapist.”
That was fucking true. Magnum was staring at that rapist.
“He’d never be able to do it again to any woman.”
That was also true. “How you gettin’ him out to one of those deep spots?” Magnum asked.
“We’ll borrow one of the resort’s boats. We can borrow them at any time during the retreat.”
Christ. This shit was easier than he ever expected. The man fell right into Magnum’s plan. He only wished it didn’t have anything to do with a deep lake and a fucking boat. “Know how to drive one?”
“Of course.”
Of fucking course.
“How you gettin’ him on that boat? He’s gettin’ ready to snitch on you, you think he’s takin’ a night cruise with his brother?”
Gallo chewed on his bottom lip while he thought about it. “I’ll roofie him like he did Cait.”
“That what he used on Cait?”
“Of course.”
Of fucking course.
“How do you know that?”
“Because it’d only make sense he’d use a date rape drug to knock Cait unconscious.”
Magnum wanted to roll his eyes at the bullshit spewing from the fucker’s mouth.
“I’ll go over to his cottage, pretend to confess to him, beg him to reconsider going to the police and I’ll slip him the drug. He probably has it in his toiletry bag.”
Or you have it in yours. “Then what?”
“Then we get him onto the boat, use the depth finder to find a perfect spot, drop him overboard and because he’s knocked out, he’ll drown.”
Christ, he was a sick motherfucker. His brother had done nothing to him. Abso-fucking-lutely nothing that Magnum knew of and the man didn’t think twice about taking the guy out.
“How you gonna slip him the drug?”
Gallo’s gaze slid to the side then back. “You let me worry about that. I’ll just need your help getting him into the boat.”
“You want my help, you don’t tell anyone about this. Not a fu— damn word.”
Gallo nodded. “I want to do this now while it’s dark.”
“Yeah,” Magnum grunted, relieved this was all falling into place. Maybe that Shadows shit was easier than he thought.
“Then go now. Gonna hang outside his place while you do it. Once it’s done, gonna get him down to the dock. Need to do it quickly and quietly, you get me?”
“Yes.” Gallo nodded again. “I... I just need to grab something first.”
Of fucking course he did. Because he was the one holding the fucking drug.
“Gonna wait outside.”
And that’s what he did.
Magnum wanted to fucking puke. The movement of the way-too-small boat through the dark water, the sound of that water rushing by, the drone of the outboard, everything about it was churning his stomach.
Somehow, he needed to get both Gallos over the side of the boat once they got to their destination and get himself back to shore without dying.
Right now he was questioning his plan, his decision, the whole fucking thing.
He was gripping the side of the boat with everything he had. He could only imagine the ride would be worse if the water had been choppy. Thank fuck it wasn’t.
Thank fuck Drew Gallo knew how to drive a boat.
Thank fuck Drew Gallo was also a gullible stupid fuck.
Thank fuck Drew Gallo hated his own brother.
Otherwise, Magnum would be yanking on his own dick trying to figure out a better way to get rid of them both.
Gallo had also thrown some fishing equipment into the boat, saying if anyone questioned them as to why they were out there in the middle of the night, that they could claim they were going night fishing.
Night fucking fishing.
He’d shaken his head but was glad the fucker had an evil mind. He never would have come up with that idea since he never fished in his fucking life. He never planned to, either.
He breathed easier when Gallo pulled back on the throttle, slowing down the floating deathtrap and drifting to a stop.
“Where we at?” Magnum asked when the boat’s engine went silent.
Gallo jerked his chin back toward shore. “A spot not too far from the resort.”
He was surprised when he noticed they hadn’t gone very far from the dock. But even a foot was still too far for Magnum. “A deep one?”
“Yes. About seventy feet.”
Seventy feet was not two hundred.
“Gotta make it look like an accident,” Magnum reminded him.
“I’ve been thinking about that.”
Thank fuck the man could think. Right now Magnum couldn’t think about much except how to avoid drowning.
“If we loosely tie the boat’s anchor around his ankles and make it look like he got caught up in it and fell overboard, it will cover our tracks. He tripped, he fell over the side and got dragged under from the anchor. It was dark and even with the spotlight we couldn’t find him. We head back to shore and notify authorities, telling them it was an unfortunate accident during our night fishing. I’ll act upset, even panicked. I’ll even get wet like I went in after him. It could be believable.”
Could be if that story was ever told, which it wouldn’t be.
“Yeah. Sounds like a plan,” Magnum murmured, watching the fucker grab the thick nylon rope attached to the small anchor and loop it loosely a couple times around his unconscious brother’s feet and ankles.
When Gallo was done, he straightened. “Help me dump him over the side.”
Magnum frowned. “This shit don’t bother you? Got no hesitation on offin’ your own brother?”
Gallo pursed his lips and tilted his head. “Do you?”
“He ain’t my brother.”
“And soon he won’t be mine.”
Damn. The fucker was cold. “Hate him that much?”
Gallo said nothing and waved his hand over the limp Nate. “Come on. We need to hurry and get this done.”
Yeah, they did. And did he really fucking care why the older brother hated the younger one? Fuck no. He wasn’t Dr. fucking Phil.
“Grab the anchor.” Magnum squatted down, grabbed the drugged Gallo under his arms, hauling him up and over to the edge of the boat. Drew lifted the anchor and, before Magnum was ready, tossed it over the side.
As the weight dropped quickly into the dark depths of the lake, he released the body and let it follow, causing a loud splash. When drops of cold water hit him, Magnum quickly stepped back to the center of the small boat. Tossing that dead weight over the side had made it rock more than he’d like. If he lost his balance and fell over the side, he’d be following the now drowning Gallo to the bottom of the lake.
But he wasn’t done there. He stared at the Gallo who was still staring at the spot where his younger brother disappeared. Then the man turned his head and smiled at Magnum.
Fucking. Smiled.
Like this shit was all fun and games. Asshole.
“Ready to head back?”
Yeah, he was, but not with him. “Know it was you, fucker.”
Gallo’s eyes widened. “What?”
Magnum took a slow step toward him. If he moved carefully, the small boat wouldn’t rock as much. “Know it was fuckin’ you.”
Gallo took a quick glance back to where Nate disappeared. “No, it was Nate.”
“You took my woman and did that shit to her. You. Goddamn selfish bastard. Hurt a fuckin’ woman to get your way like the spoiled motherfucker you are.” He shook his head. “Not a woman, my woman.”
His chest burned with a hatred he hadn’t felt in a long fucking time. Not since he felt the same for the mother of his children the day he lost them because of her lies. The lies that not only tore him away from his kids but threw him in jail.
That hatred he had been forced to swallow. He wasn’t swallowing the same shit tonight.
Magnum leaned in and got in his face. “You picked the wrong woman, asshole.”
“I didn’t pick anyone, Malcolm. You’ve got it all wrong.”
“Too bad you got into an argument with your brother on this boat.”
Drew’s mouth gaped open. “What are you talking about?”
“The fight you got into. The tussle where you both fell over the side and drowned.”
Gallo tried to rush past him to the helm. Magnum got there before he did by body blocking him, yanked the keys from the ignition and pitched them out into the darkness.
“What are you doing? We can’t get back to shore without that!” Gallo frantically pulled his cell phone from his pocket.
Magnum ripped it from his fingers and whipped that as hard as he could in the opposite direction of the keys. A small splash could be heard in the distance.
“What are you doing?” Gallo screamed, sounding a whole shitload of panicked.
He should.
“Gettin’ revenge for Caitie.”
“We already did!”
“No, motherfucker, I didn’t.”
Magnum grabbed
the man’s hair at the back and with all his power behind it, he slammed the fucker’s forehead into the metal steering wheel.
Gallo groaned then collapsed to his knees, out cold.
Magnum dragged the unconscious man over the side and tossed him in the same spot as his brother, doing his best not to tip the boat.
Because if he did, he was fucked.
Once the rocking stopped, he broke some of the fishing equipment, sent more over the side, then tossed some of the seat cushions into the water. Using his boot, he smashed a few things around the center of the boat. He did whatever he could to make it look like a struggle between the two brothers had occurred.
After he was done, he surveyed the damage to make sure it looked believable, then glanced back toward land.
Now he needed to find a way off the fucking boat and to shore.
Jesus fuck.
He tried to keep his shit together as he dug out whatever life vests he could find from under the seats.
He had to do this. He had no choice but to get into the water, even though his brain was screaming at him not to do it. But he needed to make his way to shore before the sun came up.
He needed to get back to the resort before anyone discovered the Gallos or the boat missing. He needed to get back to Cait and be in bed with her before anyone pounded on their door.
And as soon as the sun rose, they were hitting the road and heading home.
But he still needed to get to shore first.
And that wouldn’t be a small feat.
He tried fitting into one of the life jackets but couldn’t. He dug around more and found an orange vest that would fit around his neck and strap around his torso. It didn’t fit well at all but it might keep his head above water. He strapped it as securely as he could.
When he dug out the rest of the vests and jackets, he also found a beach towel under one of the seats and wiped down every surface he had touched. He doubted the pigs would dust the boat looking for prints if it appeared as an accident due to a struggle, but it was better to be safe than a suspect.
After scattering a couple of the smaller life jackets into the water, the larger ones he stacked and buckled together, hoping he could use them to keep him afloat as he attempted to swim back to shore.
Magnum: A Dark Knights MC/Dirty Angels MC Crossover Page 20
