by Jayne Blue
I saw through a cloud of red. Nicole’s hair as it fell over her face when she stumbled. She righted herself. Took another step. He grabbed her, pulling until her back arched and her chin jutted forward.
She didn’t see me. No one did. Joker yelled something behind me but I couldn’t hear him. I couldn’t hear anything. The car door, my trigger, and space. Those were the only things between Nicole and me. They might say later that I could have made a different choice, but I knew better. I saw the look in the eyes of the man holding a gun to her head. I knew that look. Because he was just like me. Hard. An enforcer. And Nicole’s life was a message for Doug’s choices.
I never gave him the chance to send it.
Take a step. Exhale. Squeeze.
The shot hit him dead center in the forehead.
Then nothing else mattered.
Others saw chaos. I saw clarity. Nicole safe. Get her behind me. Throw Doug to the ground. Joker and Sam burst from the car and drew down. Colt and the rest of the club roared around the corner.
They were stupid, the Brigands. Oh, they’d brought guns to a gun fight. But just the three of them . . . well, two now . . . and they weren’t expecting us.
The world buzzed around me. Shots still rang in my ears. Everyone moved in slow motion. Nicole went to her knees. Then she went to her brother. She hugged him, then slapped him hard across the face. Tate pulled her off him and then she turned toward me.
She was calling my name. I could read her lips but no sound reached my ears but buzzing and the echoing ring of the shot I’d taken. But I felt her. Strong and solid as she wrapped her arms around me and tried to kiss me back to reality.
The buzzing gave way to the steady pulse roaring in my ears. I looked down at her. She was safe. Whole. Pure. Good. And she was surrounded by a world of hurt and evil. My world. It touched her. Soiled her. Had almost taken her away from me.
I kissed her forehead as Joker got to me. I pulled Nicole off me and shot a look toward him.
“Get her safe,” I said. Nicole reached for me as Joker pulled her gently away.
We let Corey and Hawthorne live. Now they were the message. And we burned their warehouse and their inventory to the fucking ground. I dug another grave that day. With every shovelful, I saw Nicole’s face. Lifeless. When Sam kicked the Brigands’ body into the hole, I saw her with a bullet in her forehead. God. It had been a hairsbreadth of going down just like that.
“You okay, man?” Sam said. The others stayed back. I had Colt and Kellan drive Nicole to a diner just outside of town. They’d wait there for me.
I turned to look at him. Sam was shaken a little. Sweat dripped from his nose. “I’m fine,” I said, my voice coming out cold and hard.
“You had no choice. I get that. You get that, right?”
I threw the last shovelful of dirt over the grave and turned to him. “There’s always a choice. And it’s always mine. This is going to have consequences. You think you’re ready for them? You’ve picked a hell of a time to ride with us.”
“Yeah,” he said, puffing his chest out. “Fuck, yeah.”
I nodded. He was young, eager. He still had fire in his eyes. I did too, but of a different sort. “They’re going to hit back harder next time. It might be the Brigands or the Hawks or someone else, but we’ll never get to stop fighting. Our income is legit, but nothing else. That might not be what you signed up for.”
Sam put a hand on my shoulder. “I know what I signed up for. And you saved that girl’s life today. That was the coolest fucking thing I’ve ever seen.”
I swallowed hard. The sun was starting to set and it was time to get back.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“How’s she holding up?”
Colt met me right outside the diner. I could see Kellan sitting in a booth with Nicole. She looked young and small and so tired.
Colt raised a brow and held out his hand to shake mine and pull me close for a second. We slapped each other on the back then I leaned against the car door. She couldn’t see me from this angle and that was just as well. I needed to sort some shit with Colt before I could talk to her.
“She’s strong,” Colt said. “She gets it. She’ll be okay.”
I nodded. “You take care of her brother?”
“Tate’s handling it. He’s probably at the Canadian border by now. He’s got a pocketful of cash, fake ID and directions to a safe house in Vancouver. From there he’s got a bed at a rehab facility.”
“You actually think he’s going to go?”
Colt shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. Fifty-fifty shot, maybe. But we’ve done all we can. The rest is up to him. And she gets that too. They said their goodbyes.”
“How?”
I clenched my fist at my side, my trigger finger itching again.
Colt sighed and closed his eyes. “Dirty cop. Davis. He’s disappeared. She said he showed up at her place making her think they’d picked up Doug. Once she figured out he wasn’t on the up and up, he chloroformed her.”
“Jesus.” I dropped my head. Colt put a hand on my shoulder and jerked me hard.
“She’s okay. You hear me? Not a scratch on her. He was a delivery boy. Nothing more.”
Then the rest of it sunk in. A dirty cop on the Lincolnshire P.D. I raised my head and looked at Colt. His eyes flashed and a pit formed in my stomach.
“Jase,” I said.
Colt nodded. “Davis must have known something was up when the heroin disappeared from Nicole’s place. He had to have put it together that Jase got there first.”
“Fuck, man. That could land hard on him. Did Davis do any damage to him before he went to ground?”
Colt’s grim expression told me everything I needed to know. If Jase were lucky, he’d just lose his job. I felt sick.
“Don’t, man. Don’t even. This isn’t on you. If anyone, it’s on me. I should have listened to you from the beginning and gone after the Brigands weeks ago. Jase can take care of himself. But as far as the police are concerned, we’re on our own. We don’t have a friend there anymore.”
I nodded and slapped him on the back again. “Still, I’m sorry.”
“Well, thanks. Now you better go in there and see to your girl. She’s tough, but she’s been through hell today.”
I took a breath and straightened my back. Of all the things I’d seen and done today, this was going to be the hardest.
Kellan gave me a look over Nicole’s shoulder. He reached across the table and touched her hand. Then he got up and walked past me.
God, I loved her. Too much. A thousand times in the last few hours I’d felt what it would be like to lose her. And I vowed I’d never let it happen. She got to her feet and came into my arms. She felt so good. Strong. Sweet. Real.
“You okay?” I kissed her. The tracks of her dried tears ran down her cheeks. Seeing them tore me up. Even though I knew I hadn’t caused them all. I also knew I was about to cause more. But it would be better for her in the long run.
“I’m better now that you’re here.”
“I’m sorry,” I said as I slid into the booth beside her. I held her to me, wanting to feel her pulse beating against my chest. “I should have left someone with you.”
“It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known. He was a cop. I thought it would be okay to go with him. I should have checked with you first.”
“Even if you had, I don’t know if I would have suspected anything wrong.”
“It’s over. I’m okay.”
“It’ll get worse. You’re okay now but you’re in for a rough couple of days once the shock wears off.” I held her hand in mine, tracing the webbed lines of her palm. But she sensed something. My baby already knew me that well.
“Brax, what are you doing?”
I brought her hand up to my lips and kissed her. “I thought I could work this out. But I can’t. What happened today is going to keep happening as long as you’re in my world.”
She shook her head. “What hap
pened today happened because my brother is messed up. You think I blame you for any of that? Brax, you saved my life. If you hadn’t been . . .” She hiccupped and put a hand to her mouth. This was going to hit her so hard once the shock wore off and I hated that I couldn’t be there for her. But the break had to be clean if she was ever going to be safe again.
“Nicole, what happened today is my life. We were lucky. This time. But it’s always going to be something. We’ve got corruption in the police department now. That has to be dealt with. The Brigands are neutralized for now, but they’re going to retaliate at some point. I won’t have you in the crossfire again. Now I’ve made arrangements to have your place cleaned up. In fact, it should already be done by the time you get home. Tate’s outside and he’s going to drive you.”
“Stop it.” She held her hand up and looked toward the window. Something broke inside of her as she looked toward me. Or maybe it was something broken inside of me.
“I love you. And I’m sorry. I really thought things had changed for this club. In some ways they have. But not for me. What you saw today, that’s who I am. Who I’ll always be.”
“Brax, you saved my life.”
“This time. But the blood on my hand doesn’t wash off. I thought it did. I was kidding myself. Not anymore. You deserve to be with someone safe and normal.”
“There is no safe and normal.”
“Yes. There is. And you need to go find it. You’ll never have it with me.”
I reached for her. I mean, to hold her hand and kiss her one last time. But she wouldn’t let me. She didn’t cry. She didn’t beg. Her armor slid back into place and she became the tough girl who came into The Den asking for help.
She stiffened and pulled away from me. “Fuck you,” she said through hot tears. “So this is it then? You’re going to turn your back on me? Just like every other person I’ve ever loved? God, I don’t know why I’m surprised. You’re like all the others. I get it. So don’t bother. I can find my own way home.”
“Nicole . . .”
“Just go, Brax. Leave.”
She’d turned to stone. The tears had left her eyes and she sat rod straight. Her shield was back in place. It tore at me to do it, but I did what she asked. I rose slowly, towering over her. I wanted to tell her I was sorry a thousand more times, but she was no longer listening.
So I gave her what she wanted. Though it tore my insides to shreds, I walked away to keep her safe.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Nicole
Two Months Later
Melinda and I collapsed exhausted into a booth after she locked the door on the last customer to leave. Ridley’s Grand Reopening celebration had brought the whole town out in droves. I’d had my biggest sales day in over a decade.
“You know, adjusted for inflation, I think our take today was bigger than the Reagan visit.”
Mel laughed and put her feet up on the seat next to me. “Halleluiah!” She jangled her apron. I knew she’d switched it out at least twice.
“Well, that ought to pay off some of your books.”
She smiled. “You’d think. Those suckers are expensive!”
I put a hand across the table and covered hers. “I’m going to miss you. Florida? Are you sure?”
“You can come and visit me. I mean, you better come and visit me. The shop can survive without you for a few days. And I’m sick of these brutal winters. Hell, maybe we can even scout property for a Ridley’s South?”
“That would be heaven.”
“You promise you’re going to get out when I’m not around? I mean it. No backsliding. You need to live a little, Nicole. I’ll have my spies checking up on you. I hear about you brooding or not getting out from behind the counter, or any other signs of you turning into a shut-in, I’m coming after you.”
“Promise?”
“On pain of death.”
“Well, then I guess I’d better listen.”
“Seriously, what are your plans for the weekend?”
“Weekend? What’s a weekend?”
Mel lobbed a dish towel at me, which I neatly dodged. Then she leaned over and grabbed the hot pink flyer from the counter. I made a policy of letting local businesses and event planners advertise. She waved the flyer at me then slapped it on the table. It was an advertisement for my fifteen-year class reunion. I’d actually been approached to work on the planning committee but turned them down.
“You going to this? You’d be surprised how many people have asked me.”
I let out a breath. “Those things are pathetic, don’t you think?”
“What? Are you nuts? You go, you see who got fat, who got divorced. It’s a blast.”
“Isn’t that what social media is for?”
“Nah. You want the live show. Plus, you’re still smoking hot. Isn’t there some mean girl whose face you’d like to rub it in?”
“Mmm. Sounds delightful, but no.”
“Oh, that’s right. You were the mean girl, right? Prom Queen or something?”
“Homecoming Queen. And I was delightful.”
“Even worse. Well, it’s tomorrow night. I’ll still be here to ride your ass about it so why don’t you show me what you’re planning on wearing. Then I’ll snort with disdain and loan you something from my closet. Which you’ll look better in than I do. Shit, no, we’ll stick to your closet.”
“When do you leave for Florida again?”
Mel looked around but she’d already thrown the towel at me. She had to satisfy herself with just flipping me off.
“I’ll think about it. How’s that?”
“A step in the right direction.”
I sighed and put my feet up next to her. If I didn’t get up soon, we were both going to fall asleep right there in the booths.
“Have you heard from him?” she asked and my heart stopped for a second. She didn’t ask me often. In fact, this was probably only the second time. I shook my head.
“Well, maybe no news is good news, you know?”
“I hope so.”
I bit my lip and stared out the window. I’d said a furtive goodbye to Doug that last night. He’d made me a promise that he’d turn his life around. Get clean. But I’d let him go. Just one more person in a long line that I’d had to say goodbye to in the last few months.
“Enough of that,” I said, slapping my hands on the table. “No more sad stories. We have a going-away party to plan for you. And then you’re going to hurry up and get your degree. Then maybe you can come back and run this place with me. At some point I’m going to need a new manager.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Are you serious?”
I nodded. “I can’t do this by myself forever. And I have plans.”
Mel steepled her fingers under her chin and her eyes lit up. “Tell me.”
“He went about it the wrong way, but I think my dad’s idea about selling our product in stores was a good one. I’ve got some meetings lined up. I’m going to go forward with it.”
Mel took my hands in hers. “Nic, that’s fantastic. Oh, I’m so happy for you.”
“For us. I wasn’t kidding about what I said. I want you to help me. Think about it?”
She cried. Big, fat, happy tears. Then she shook my hand. Then she launched herself across the booth and hugged me. We stayed up late that night, making plans. Then I swear we ate half of our product before Melinda finally headed home for the night.
As I closed the door to the shop and watched her drive off, I felt hope for the first time in a long time. I could make the business work. It was a good idea. And now I knew I didn’t have to do it alone.
I flipped the lights off and started toward the stairs to my apartment. The class reunion flyer had floated to the ground and I picked it up. Then I crumpled it and tossed it behind the counter.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Brax
The space was better than I could have dreamed. The high rise next to the Great Wolves Gym had gone on the market right when we
needed it to. Colt and I stood in the center of the rundown lobby and lit our cigars.
“You sure this is gonna happen?” I asked. The place was filthy right now. Papers were strewn everywhere. Cobwebs. Broken glass. Eight years ago, it had been an art deco masterpiece. But when the owners abandoned it, the place had gotten the reputation as a crack den. When we started cleaning up the area and put the gym up, we changed all of that. Now the place was ours and I saw past all the mess to what we could make of it.
What I could make of it.
“Great Wolves Security,” Colt said. “And I think you have your first client. The mayor’s given approval for the stadium project on the waterfront. Once construction starts they’re going to want someone to sit on it. It’s not glamorous but the money will be good. Then, once that’s up and running, we’ll have VIPs coming through here. I’m even thinking about approaching some of the promoters to have some title bouts down there.”
“Thank you. I’ve said it a million times. But I’ve never meant it more.”
Colt took a long drag on his cigar and smiled. “You’ve earned it and you know it.”
Still, it felt damn good to hear him say it.
“You heard from Jase?” I asked. We hadn’t talked about him much, but I knew his brother’s fate weighed heavy on Colt’s mind. He’d been sacked over suspicions of evidence tampering in the Ridley’s break-in. Davis the dirty cop had disappeared, but not before making real trouble for Jase. Trouble we couldn’t help him out of. So Jase had been scapegoated and run out of town.
Colt shook his head. “He’s AWOL. Sold his house practically overnight.”
“He’s okay though. You know that.”
Colt nodded. “I know he can take care of himself. He’ll reach out when he wants to.” He looked down and pain etched new lines in his face. Jase and Colt’s relationship hadn’t always been an easy one. For years they’d been on opposite sides of the law. Now, just when they were on the same side more or less, Jase had lost everything because of us.
