Reign

by Jessica Gadziala

  “I have to ask,” V went on, like I wasn't holding a gun on her. A gun I had just used without flinching. My finger still on the trigger. “If you've had a gun this whole time, why has it taken you so long to use it?”

  I couldn't tell you why. But the truth came out.

  “I wasn't going to use it on any of you.”

  Her head cocked to the side. “No?”

  “No,” I answered, my mouth tight. “I was going to use it on myself.”

  The second the words were out of my mouth, I wished I could suck them back. Because the air in the room went sharp. It was painful. It hurt to breathe in.

  “You were going to kill yourself?” V asked, her eyes squinting. “What a coward's move.”

  “Yes, how dare I find a way out of being beat and starved and humiliated? How dare I try to save the people I care about from storming in here and getting themselves killed because of me?”

  Okay. The second that was out, I wanted to suck it back too.

  “Summer,” Daniel's voice shocked me by breaking in. His hands were out, palms facing me. “Why don't you put the gun down and let V and Lo finish their meeting?”

  “Fuck their meeting,” I shot back.

  “Summer,” the other woman's voice reached me. Lola. That was her name. Her tone was firm, but soft at the same time. And for some reason, it got through. “We need to finish our meeting so we can settle things.” When I didn't move to put the gun down, she added softly... “Reign?”

  And then an arm was around my waist. Firm. Familiar. His other arm reached out, pressing down the top of mine until the gun lowered to point at the floor. “Keep your finger on the trigger,” he whispered into my ear and it took everything in me to not fall back against him, to melt, to finally give up fighting.

  V turned back to Lola. “Well, now, what kind of offer do you have on the table for me?”

  “I could turn over Richard Lyon,” Lola said, shrugging.

  “What? No,” I found myself objecting, my body going tight again.

  “Even trade. Him for the girl. She's useless to you anyway,” Lola went on.

  “N...”

  “Sh,” Reign said in my ear, effectively shutting up my objections.

  V pursed her lips, taking a breath. “Can I trust you not to trick me anymore, Lo? I mean, you did bring Henchmen into my house.”

  “V you know I have associates from many different organizations. I saw a chance to settle a problem for both sides before there was any bloodshed. Well,” she said, glancing down at Martin's dead body (a body I was trying my best not to look at) and smiling slightly before her eyes went back to V, “any more bloodshed. No one needs a war around here. Things are peaceful with the cops. No one needs them involved. So let's settle this.”

  “I won't hand her over until I have Rich.”

  Shit.

  If I survived that long.

  Without my gun.

  No way would they let me keep my gun.

  Martin was gone.

  But the new guy at the door might be angry about that fact.

  What would that mean for me?

  Reign would never allow that, would he?

  “That's fair,” Lo agreed and I felt my heart plummet. Sink.

  “When?” V asked, sounding excited.

  I couldn't even imagine the kinds of things she would do to my father if she got her hands on him. It would make the torture I endured look like summer camp.

  They couldn't get him.

  There had to be another way.

  Lo turned to Reign, her gaze skipping over me and I saw something there. Something I wasn't familiar with because I didn't know her, but I felt like it was something that should comfort me. “When can you have him here?”

  “If Janie can pick him up, Repo will bring him to her as soon as she gets there.”

  Repo.

  Repo was alright.

  I exhaled a shaky breath and Reign's arm tightened around my belly.

  V nodded at Lo and then Reign. “Make the calls.”

  Reign's arm slid from the gun and reached into his pocket. So did Lo's.

  Then they were both speaking at once.

  “Repo, I need you to get Lyon out of the front gates. A woman named Janie is going to come and pick him up. What? Yeah, I guess that's fine.” There was a pause, Repo talking, and I could swear I heard something about 'weapons'. To which, Reign said tightly, “Definitely.”

  “Janie, get over to the Henchmen compound. A man named Repo is going to bring Lyon out and you are to bring him here. Yep. Out.”

  “Alright, so we wait,” V said, looking satisfied. Almost giddy. “Does anyone want some coffee?” she asked, waving a hand toward the pot as if they were having a normal social call.

  “Sure,” Lo agree, walking over and (no lie) going directly to the cabinet with the mugs. Like she had done so a dozen times before.

  Who the hell was she?

  “So since we have some time,” V said, turning in the direction of me and Reign and I swear my belly dropped to my feet, “why don't we talk about you two?”

  “No,” I answered, surprised when my word came out firm.

  “I think I have a right to get to know the man my only daughter is in love with.”

  Oh

  my

  god.

  She did not just say that.

  I felt my cheeks flame.

  “I think you lost the right to ask me about my life the day you handed me over in trade for the right to be a human trafficker,” I shot back. What can I say? My mother brought out the rebellious teenager in me. And I was still the only one in the room with a gun. Or with a drawn gun at least. I felt almost untouchable. Almost.

  “Oh don't be bitter. You'll get wrinkles,” she said, waving a hand at my attitude. “Who you have sex with is really none of my concern. Though I'm sure your father would have an issue with a man who runs an outlaw biker gang. With the way he raised you?” she laughed, rolling her eyes. “What was the last guy you dated? A stock broker? He was, right?”

  I swallowed hard, feeling Reign's arm around me, his body tense behind me. “Yes,” I answered honestly.

  “And even he wasn't good enough for your father.”

  That was true.

  I'd been lectured mercilessly about it.

  “I'm only curious because if you leave here and align yourself with someone who might, at one time, be my enemy... well...”

  Well, I was her enemy too.

  How she thought I was going to be anything other than her enemy no matter who I dated was completely beyond me. But, I guess, you can't expect rationality from irrational people.

  “So how long have you been together?”

  Oh my god.

  We were not having that conversation. That was a bad enough conversation to have over dinner when you finally brought your significant other over to meet your parents. It was a whole new level of uncomfortable to have that conversation over a dead body, with a gun drawn, while awaiting the delivery of a new hostage.

  Like, seriously.

  Who had to deal with that kind of situation?

  Hell, I wasn't even sure Reign and I were together. Like together together. We had never had a talk about what we were. We just kinda... did our thing.

  “Three weeks,” Reign answered, surprising me, making my body jerk.

  “Three weeks,” she mused, pursing her lips. “So right when you ran away from here.”

  Escaped.

  I escaped from there.

  “Found her that night,” Reign agreed.

  “And you just... claimed her? Just like that?”

  “Just like that,” he agreed.

  Were they really having that conversation? With me standing between them? It was a whole new level of weird that I didn't have a word for it.

  “When she walks out of here...” V started.

  “She's mine,” Reign said, his tone firm.

  I was his?

  The words settled with
a swirling in my belly.

  I was his.

  The thought made me so happy, I had to fight to keep a smile off my face.

  V nodded. “She's not the kind of girl for your lifestyle.”

  To this, Reign laughed. “V, no disrespect but you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.” I tensed, waiting for V to get angry, but she didn't. Her head tilted, her hand made a swirling motion that said 'go on'. “When we caught your boy and asked her to come down and just give us a nod if he was one of yours? She beat the shit out of him. Told me to have fun killing him. Then was so turned on by it that we fucked against the building.”

  Oh

  my

  god.

  No.

  He did not just say that.

  To my mother.

  Granted, she was a freaking psychopath who had me tortured for months. But she was still my mother. You don't talk about fucking someone's daughter to them.

  V laughed, looking at me. “Maybe there's more of me in you than I thought.”

  Oh lordy.

  I was really, really hoping that wasn't true.

  If I had to choose to be more like one of my parents: the psychotic, torturing, murdering skin trader or the control freak, cold, calculating cocaine dealer. Well, I'd pick the cold, calculating, control freak every time. But even as I said it, I knew that wasn't who I was. I was hot tempered. Once out from under my father's thumb, I had a sharp tongue. I went from zero to ninety on the anger scale in two point seven seconds. I was impulsive.

  Oh, god.

  I was like my mother.

  I was like my mother!

  “Relax,” Reign said in my ear, his tone bossy, not sweet.

  Lo's phone buzzed and she reached for it, looking down, and shooting off a quick text.

  “They'll be here in five,” she announced, tucking her phone away.

  “Summer dear,” V said, looking at me, “I'm afraid you're going to have to hand Daniel your gun before your father gets here.”

  “No,” I said automatically. It was the only leverage I had. I couldn't just hand it over.

  But Daniel was already moving toward me, palms still out. “Take your finger off the trigger,” he said, his tone softer.

  “Babe, give him the gun,” Reign demanded. Not soft. Again.

  I sighed, sliding my hand off the trigger and turning the gun to hand to Daniel. He took it slowly, his eyes finding mine, the gaze heavy. Like he was trying to impart something silently, but I couldn't get it.

  Behind me, Reign went tense, like he didn't trust Daniel looking at me. Probably thinking that he was one of the men who tortured me.

  Daniel stuck the gun in the waistband of his jeans and moved to his spot, standing near the back door, facing us.

  “V!” one of her men called from the front door.

  “Let them in,” she called back casually.

  “V!” he called again. Louder. More hysterical.

  And then all hell broke loose.

  Twenty-nine

  Summer

  One minute, I was just standing in the kitchen in the middle of the weirdest hostage negotiation in the history of bad guys, Reign holding my belly, everyone just standing around.

  The next, I was thrown onto the ground and all I heard was gunshots. And, I kid you not, explosions. Actual explosions. Not close. But close enough that the ground shook, the world roared, glass shattered.

  I twisted my head, trying to suck in a deep breath, and that's when I saw Repo walking in, a huge automatic-type gun pointed outward, my father next to him, holding a handgun, and a woman beside him with guns everywhere, walk in.

  The girl, Janie, I think they called her... tossed guns around and there was yelling and gunshots and I couldn't even think clearly enough to realize I should have gotten up and found something to defend myself with.

  But all I could think of was the gunfire. And Reign. Who wasn't beside me. He wasn't on top of me. And I couldn't find him.

  I whirled my head around desperately, seeing Wolf engaged in some kind of battle with one of V's men. Cash had just taken off out the back door. But Reign was gone.

  Then there was a hand sliding around my stomach and I felt a flood of relief. “Shut up, stay down, and don't fight me,” Daniel's voice found me instead. “I'm getting you out of here alive if you do what I say,” he said.

  My options were to lay underneath a hail of gunfire, unarmed. Or to go with Daniel and do what he said.

  I nodded.

  And then we were moving.

  Crawling across the kitchen toward a door at the far side.

  I heard my name called but couldn't register who said it.

  My head twisted, seeing my father round on my mother, gun drawn.

  The next moment, I was behind a closed door. The shouts and shots were muffled as I looked around to find myself in a garage. A car in the center. Various plastic containers of what looked like clothing on the sides. Daniel let go of me, standing and throwing some huge cabinet in front of the door, blocking it.

  I pushed myself up onto my feet, feeling shaky inside as Daniel turned to look at me, pulling the gun out of his waistband.

  My heart froze in my chest, my mouth falling open.

  No.

  He wasn't trying to get me out of there alive. He wanted to get me alone so he could kill me. Jesus Christ. How could I be so stupid? I should have stayed in the kitchen. My father and Cash and Wolf would have protected me. I would have gotten out of there just fine. No. I had to go and be stupid and follow one of the bad guys. What the hell was wrong with me?

  “Summer, relax,” he said, his tone urgent but gentle. When I looked up, the gun was pointed at me. But not the barrel. The butt. “I need you to make this look good.”

  “Make it look good?” I asked, my brows drawing together.

  “Are you a good shot?”

  Well. I mean... I had shot Martin. Right in the forehead. But he was close. I was pretty sure that didn't take much skill. “I don't know. That was the only time I've ever used a gun,” I admitted.

  At this, he nodded. “Okay. Take the gun, Summer,” he said, moving forward and pressing it into my hand. “I need you to shoot me.”

  What?

  No.

  I was pretty sure I was at my shooting quota for the day. Or year. Or lifetime.

  “No,” I said, my tone almost hysterical.

  “Not to kill me. I just need to be shot by you, okay? I can't explain why. We don't have time. You need to shoot me. Shoulder would be good. Close range so it goes straight through.”

  “What are you talking about? I can't shoot you!”

  “You have to shoot me,” he said, calm. He was really way too calm for someone who was asking to be shot. “You shoot me then you get in this car,” he gestured. “Get in the car. The keys are inside. You hit the button on the visor. The door will open and you pull out. The windows are resistant but nothing is bulletproof so try to keep your head low. And get the fuck out of here. Do you understand me?”

  He was saving me.

  He was giving me a way out.

  And all I had to do was shoot him. He even told me where.

  “Yes,” I agreed, swallowing hard.

  “Okay,” he said, walking close to me. “Raise the gun, Summer,” he instructed and my arms went up automatically. He walked forward until the muzzle was pressed up against where he wanted it- right side of his chest, right below the collarbone.

  “Daniel...” I said, looking up at his face, shaking my head. I couldn't. I just couldn't. He had been trying to help me. Granted, he had given V's orders to the men in the past. But he had also tried to defend me. Freaking out when I was bleeding and he thought Deke had raped me. Trying to stop Martin from visiting me at night. He saved me.

  “Don't think about it,” he told me, his eyes watching me. “I will live through this. You will live through this. That's all you need to think about. But your finger on the trigger,” he instructed and my finger slipped t
o follow instructions. “Pull,” he said, eyes still on mine.

  I heard a weird whimper escape my lips, wincing, as I did what I was told.

  I pulled.

  His body jerked. His eyes winced. His face contorted in pain. He stumbled back, hand on his shoulder.

  “Go,” he growled at me.

  My heart skipping into overdrive, I let arm with the gun drop to my side and ripped the car door open, throwing myself into the driver's seat. The gun dropped into my lap and I pulled my seatbelt, turned over the ignition, hit the garage door button, and backed out fast. Once outside, I swung the wheel, ducking down low as I could and still see as I got the car facing the right direction and started down the driveway.

  There were people everywhere. Guns raised or going to physical blows with one another. I was praying there was no one on the driveway as I drove down.

  It was then that I saw him.

  Finally.

  And he wasn't hurt.

  Or if he was hurt, it wasn't bad.

  He was just outside the blasted open gate (I guessed that was one of the explosions I heard) beside a van. And he was yelling, trying to shove past Wolf who looked like he was bleeding down the side of his thigh. Reign's arm shot out, pointing back toward the house, screaming something, moving to charge past Wolf who grabbed him and threw him into the van. He climbed in himself, slamming the door, and the van peeled off.

  I swallowed hard, trying to go faster so I could keep an eye on the van.

  He wanted to go back for me.

  That was why he was freaking out.

  He knew I was still inside.

  My heart tightened in my chest.

  I pushed the thought away, needing to focus. Needing to try to follow them. Because I didn't know where the hell the compound was. If that was where they were going. I needed to get to him. I needed him to know I was okay. That I got out.

  There were no windows on the sides of the van so I couldn't even catch his eye as we all weaved in and out of traffic.

  The compound came into view, the gates already thrown open and the van flew through. I followed, slamming the car into park, not bothering to turn off the engine, as I tore out of the car as the van door opened.

  And then I threw myself against Reign, who was so surprised that he lost his footing and we went crashing.