He sets the pad down, goes to his liquor cabinet to pour a shot, and returns to his seat after he downs it.
“I have been through a place far worse than hell in my life. I deserve happy, and I want that happy to be with you. So what I am saying is that if you are serious, and you want to see where we can end up, I’m here. I will always be right here with you, forever and always,” he says quietly as he reads my last words.
He scoots his chair closer to mine, lays down the paper, and gently takes my swollen face into his hands to peer directly into my eyes. “I’m right here, are you?” he says with the most caring tone I have ever heard from him. And when I nod my head, he brings his mouth down to mine, and gives me the most sensual, soft, slow kiss I have ever had in all my life.
When he lifts his lips away from mine, my toes still curl and the butterflies in my stomach still flail about as he leans his forehead with care against mine. “We were looking for love in the wrong places. Wanna bet it was right here all along?” His voice cracks and he gives a nervous laugh. I’ve never seen my best friend so emotional.
I reach a shaky hand up to his face and caress his cheek to force him to look into my eyes again. It may be selfish, but I know this special moment between us is just that, between us. I won’t get this Sniper when others are around, and I will cherish every bit of him when I do get these small glimpses.
“You called me Perseus.” He laughs under his breath. “You, and only you, could ever get away with that. I fuckin’ hate that name.”
I secretly love it. It is a very strong name. The only reason I even know it is because we trade one secret for another, and that is a secret he gave me in return. This is the first time I have used it.
“So we’re gonna do this, Pipe? Huh, darlin’?”
I nod my head and he brings his lips down to mine once more. When our mouths touch, we both sigh. It is as though our hearts are meshed together as one, and we have finally found what we have been looking for all along.
Each other.
***
Chapter Twenty Four
Sniper
My brother calls me to tell me that him, ZZ, and Storm are on their way and that I will get the start to extract my revenge. Can’t say I am not beyond fucking thrilled, but I don’t want to leave Piper just yet. I know she can take care of herself and she doesn’t need me, but I want to spend every moment I can with her. I want to explore what we have and I can’t do that when I need to fucking kill motherfuckers for hurting my best friend. This is a perfect example of a rock and a hard place. But if I don’t take this opportunity for revenge, my brothers will, and it is not their fucking job. Protecting Piper is my job, no one else’s. She is my girl, not theirs.
“Storm is on her way. She’s gonna stay with you while I go shoot some lead,” I say to her as I sit next to her on my sofa. She is watching reruns of some girly show. I gaze at her, and even with her bruises, wrapped up face, and slow movements, she is still the most beautiful woman in this fucking world and I am goddamn lucky we are going to try this out. She reaches for her notepad, scribbles quickly, and hands it over to me.
Piper can talk, but we both don’t want her to risk her jaw to the point where she might need to have surgery. The Doc says she only has a week or two left until the swelling should be down enough to where she can talk a little each day. Not a lot, but enough to where I can hear her sweet voice and giggle.
God, I can’t wait for that fucking day.
I take the notepad from her and read it out loud. She likes when I do that. She says my voice sends shivers down her spine. And being the man that I am, I love making a woman happy, especially when that woman is mine.
“Shoot some lead, my ass. You’re gonna go kill some people,” I read and laugh so loud, it echoes around my living room. “Shoot some lead is killin’ people, darlin’. You know that.”
She does her best to smile at me and takes the notepad from me to write something else. I tap my fingers on my knee while I wait. I have learned to be patient because for her, it counts. It matters. Waiting for her means everything.
“Kiss a bullet for me?” I read. God, I fucking love this chick. “Of course I will, darlin’. Do you even need to ask?”
I taught her that phrase. Kissing a bullet means marking it with a name to exact revenge for the one that was harmed.
I read the rest of her note. “My gun, where is it?”
That right there breaks my heart, because no matter my love for guns, or my obsession with them, it sucks she feels she needs it all the time. And my woman should not feel that way at all, at any fucking moment. “The shotgun is loaded next to the door, and the handgun I gave you is in the drawer in the bedroom beside our bed.”
The smile that spreads should look ridiculous, what with the white gaze wrapped around her head, but it doesn’t. She has doe eyes and love shines through them while her mouth sings to me.
“What?” I ask.
She hasn’t smiled this big since before she was kidnapped.
She jerks the paper away playful like, writes something underneath the part I haven’t finished reading, and hands it back.
“You said our bed.” I read.
Silly woman, I have her now. If she thinks she is going anywhere while we see if this connection of ours is the forever kind, she is fucking wrong. I finish reading what she wrote above that line before I answer her. “I have another gun with the safety off in the drawer beside this couch. Do you not know me at all, darlin’?”
A small giggle escapes her and she groans. I hate her sweet giggle causes her pain, but deep down, I am fucking thrilled to know it is still in there.
“And yes, it is our bed. Baby, I wouldn’t risk you and me if I weren’t serious, yeah?”
Piper once again takes the paper from me and scribbles so fast my eyes cross.
“I’ll be okay,” I read over her shoulder as I wrap my arm around her. “Continue to write, darlin’. I’m quite comfy.” I chuckle in her ear and sniff her hair. Fuck, I love the way she smells.
“I know you’ll be okay. You’re Piper.”
She huffs and writes some more. “I want them all dead,” I read with a growl to my words. “I don’t want them to do to anyone else what they did to me and Jinx. Kill them. Kill all of them,” I seethe out.
I unwrap my arm and turn her to look at me. When her green eyes are staring back at me, I speak. “They’re all gonna be six feet under, yeah? They hurt you, the woman who has been my best friend for over a year and now the woman that I’m pretty fuckin’ sure I’m in love with. So yeah, baby, they’re fuckin’ dead,” I say a tad louder than I should.
Piper gasps and tries to write, but with a gentle ease, I move her face back towards mine. “Yes, I think I’m in love with you. I’ve never been in love, but I’m fuckin’ damn sure this is what it feels like. I want to kill every last motherfucker that has put a hand on you, and I know I for damn sure don’t want any other man havin’ what’s mine. So yeah, darlin’, I think I’m in love with you.”
I watch a single tear slide down her face, and this time when she reaches for the paper, she stops herself and holds up the I love you sign. And for the first time in all my years, I say those three words to a woman besides my mother, and mean it with every fiber of my being. “I love you, too, darlin’.”
I kiss her on the forehead because, now that she is mine, I want her healed quickly, and I don’t want to fuck that up. When I lift my mouth from her, she pens something and I look down to read it. “Sniper, my heart is happy.”
God, how can five words cause my heart to speed up and my palms to sweat in a good way?
“I’m glad, darlin’. You deserve all the happy in the world,” I respond and wrap her in my arms.
I can’t believe I waited this long to make her mine. Hell, I can’t believe it took me this fucking long to figure it all out, but now that I have, I am not letting her go. I’ll have to stop breathing before that happens.
***
/> I am a nervous fucking wreck when I leave Piper alone with Storm and Phish. Phish replaced Rap when he was patched in. And, Phish passed Russian Roulette so I know he will put his life on the line for the club and whomever we tell him. It still does not ease my nerves in the least. But it is what it is, and if I want my revenge, I have no choice but to leave my girl. I have discovered it is one of the hardest fucking things I have ever had to do in my life.
“Sucks, doesn’t it, brother,” Braxxon says as we straddle our ladies.
“What?” I ask, as I throttle upwards and kick my kickstand up.
“Bein’ in love,” he replies, and ZZ laughs from beside us.
Does my own brother not know me at all? He knows I have been looking for love, and I think I have fucking found it. My leather clad ass is sitting on cloud nine.
“Maybe for you,” I snort. “But… this feelin’, fuck this feelin’ I got is somethin’ else.”
ZZ chuckles again and we all pull out. A row of us travel down the desert highway to the location our pop gave us. We have me, ZZ, Lucy, Pyro, Braxxon, Smokey, and Rap. All of us are deadly as a motherfucker with our guns, but more so, me and Lucy are ready to fucking lay some lead. I think deep down Lucy begged to be here because she feels like shit for the things she said to my girl. And she should. It was some fucked up shit. She had no right to interfere with mine and Piper’s friendship.
I would have told Braxxon no when he told me she was coming, but the girl can work her metal and lead, and even though I am fucking deadly as sin with my guns, the more the fucking merrier in these situations.
When we reach our destination, we stop around the corner and throttle down our bikes. The element of surprise will cost them their lives, but they forfeited their right to breathe when they took my girl.
“You ready, Sniper?” Lucy asks as we climb off of our bikes.
I pull her to me in a bear hug and squeeze. I do this to let her know all is forgiven so she will have a clear head when we go in. She may have fucked up, but she is doing her best to fix it, and hell if I want her getting killed over the thought of me still being pissed.
I’m an asshole but not that big of one.
“I’m ready, Luce. Cock your pipe, babe.” I chuckle as I do the same.
“All right ZZ, lets round ‘em up,” my brother says, while he holds his gun in the air with his finger on the trigger.
ZZ goes in front of the door, motions for us to line the concrete wall of the old, beaten down building, and when he kicks the door open, I move in first. In seconds, bullets are zooming in our direction, and my arm flies behind me to shove my brother against the wall of the entryway. “Stay the fuck there,” I growl. He is not getting wounded on my watch. When I am sure my brother is against the wall, I reach for Lucy and grab her wrist to jerk her behind me. “Stay on him,” I order and start moving towards the fuckers trying to kill us. ZZ, Pyro, Smokey, and Rap are on my ass and firing around me. I’m not wasting bullets until I can see these motherfuckers. And, besides, I don’t waste. I aim to kill. I never miss, and I don’t plan on missing this time around either.
These fuckers are dead. The rat fucking bastards.
Again, I curse myself for not knowing Spanish. It would come in handy right about now. These fuckers are yammering in a language we don’t understand, but then I realize something. Lucy’s dad is Hispanic.
“What the fuck are they sayin’?” I yell over the gun fire.
She laughs. “They are tryin’ to figure out how the hell we found them. Stupid fuckers.”
All of us roar with belly laughter as the gunfire continues. I still have not fired my metal. I am waiting until I get closer. My stealth towards them will be my reckoning.
But as our fucked up luck has it, we run out of wall to walk along, and now we are in an open room with nothing but pillars all around. We run towards them and duck behind them. Lucy is on my brother’s ass, and I am cursing him silently for trying to get away from her. He knows better than that. I helped train the bitch. She will take a bullet for him.
My brother can be the dumbest fuck ever.
My prepay rings, and on instinct, I dig for it because of Piper being at the house, and of course I have a fear that something else might happen. When I look at the number, I see it belongs to my pop. I hit the on button and chin it with my shoulder blade.
“Kinda busy, Pop,” I roar over the gunfire.
“The drug lord isn’t there. He’s with about eleven or so men back at Petra’s place. Kill them fuckers and rest up while I keep an eye on these fuckers.”
I don’t say anything as I hang up, and I don’t let my brothers know what is up because these assholes might call and warn their boss man we know he is back at Petra’s.
A bullet wings by my head, and I curse under my breath for letting my pop sidetrack me. I never get distracted from a gun war. Dammit!
“Luce, shoot that one over in the right corner. He keeps wingin’ at me when I peek around,” I roar.
Lucy shoves Braxxon against the pillar and moves around the side of it, takes aim, and fires. When I hear a body slump, I look around and see the fucker bleeding from his forehead. “Thanks, doll,” I holler.
“I learned from the best.” She giggles an evil laugh.
I chuckle. She sure the fuck did.
“Dammit, call off your girl. She ain’t lettin’ me fire,” my brother screams.
One, she isn’t my girl. My girl is laid up at home, waiting for me. Two, he is fucked up if he thinks we are letting him fire. He ain’t shooting off his gun until we have at least half of these fuckers out.
“Shit! I’m hit,” Pyro roars. “My leg, again! Goddammit!”
This pisses me off. He was shot in the leg last year, and now he has another gunshot wound. Oh, hell no, these fucking Mexicans are pissing me off. Another reason my brother better follow Lucy’s fucking orders.
“Dammit, Lucy!” Braxxon roars.
I’d be ten times worse than her and he knows it. “Would you rather have me on your six?” I holler.
As expected, he says nothing in return, just as I thought. She is going easy on him. He would still be back by the door where we entered if he were with me.
I am over this shit.
I signal to Lucy, who by instinct looks in my direction. She nods and takes aim to cover me. When she is in place, I fling myself against the concrete floor and slide across it while my bullets fly through the air. I nail four guys as I skid, and Lucy takes a few more out. When I am safely behind another column, I stand to reload, peer around the corner, and with accurate precision, wound two guys. I want to torture someone, and I can’t do that unless they are alive.
“Let ‘em go, Lucy,” I yell over the sound of fireworks. It is time to let my brother have a little fun as well.
“Go check on, Pyro, ZZ,” Braxxon orders as he finally takes his first aim. “Smokey, Rap, you good?”
“Prez,” ZZ says in acknowledgment, and Smokey and Rap grunt to let us know they are fine and not hit.
When all guys are dead but the two I wounded, we come out from behind the posts and my brothers stand back. They know these bastards are mine, but first.
“Pyro, you want a hand at these fuckers for shootin’ ya,” I holler over my shoulder as I stop in front of them, bend at my knees, and fling their guns away from where they have fallen.
He grunts. “Jokes on them bastards. I got two hot lesbians back home to take care of my ass. Have at it,” he responds.
One tries to kick at me and fails miserably. It would almost be sad if I wasn’t so goddamn furious.
“Luce, bring me your huntin’ knife,” I order, snapping my fingers for her to hurry with quickness. Lucy never goes anywhere without that fucking thing.
“Here ya go,” she says as she putters over to me and hands me the ‘gutter’. We all name our weapons. It is a part of who we are. “Kiss it first for Piper,” she growls.
Thank fuck I ain’t the only one angry over what happene
d to my girl. Lucy and Piper may never get along, but females stick up for other females when one of them is raped. Shit isn’t right.
I stick the long jagged blade up to my mouth to kiss it for my girl, and when I lower it, one man tries to scurry away. Lucy steps on his stomach with her riding boots and presses down onto his wound. I grin the biggest fucking grin as I take one hand and press it against the other’s forehead and push his body down on the ground. When his body is flat and he is writhing underneath my hands, I take the knife, jam it into his cut, and tear upwards. Blood curdling screams reverberate from his garbled throat. He coughs and sputters up tons of crimson before passing out.
“Well, ain’t he a pussy?” Lucy giggles and lifts her foot off the other guy so I can gut him like the nasty ass fucking fish that he is.
When she kicks him towards me and he grunts, I snort. The fucker is dying. He should be begging me for mercy, but he doesn’t. This one, I want to have a little more fun with. I am about to pull a Winter and watch this motherfucker bleed out a little bit before I ice him.
“Luce, be a doll and step on his right hand,” I order.
She does as I ask, and I laugh when the guy’s eyes widen to the size of the Grand Canyon. He should be fucking scared. I’m about to let him bleed out for a few seconds, let him feel his body weakening and know death is coming for his fucking nasty ass. When Lucy places her boot on his hand, I take the blade of her knife and slice from his wrist up to his elbow. Red flows freely from his arm, and Lucy, knowing how I roll, removes her boot and maneuvers herself to his other side for a repeat performance.
“Pop says to wait for his call,” my brother hollers, and I give a slight nod that I heard him. This means I can go clean up and spend some time with my girl for a few days, I hope.
When I cut his other arm, I watch as the crimson red pours from his open wounds, and blood gushes from his nose and mouth. Good, the motherfucker is bleeding out.
Discovering Me (Breakneck #4) Page 13
