by Brook Wilder
Adjusting the sight, I watched as the door to the bunker opened and one of the Brotherhood stepped out, looking around. Any minute and he would see the approaching horsemen. I had to put him down.
But then, out the corner of my scope, I saw a familiar red blur follow him, my heart pounding against my chest as my body registered who it was. There was only one woman who had that kind of hair, and it was the only one I cared about in this situation.
Rox was there.
The tightness in my chest didn’t ease by much, but at least this had been a good call. Where Rox was, the rest of the women would be as well.
Suddenly, just as soon as the women cleared the door, it opened again, and I immediately returned fire, seeing the Brotherhood pouring out of the space in droves. As much as I wanted to watch Rox get to safety, I had to provide the gun coverage, hitting my marks with each pull of my trigger. Some escaped my fire, and I swore, reloading the gun over and over again until my fingers hurt from the repeated motion.
Gunfire exploded from below, and I grimaced, looking through my scope to pick off those that I could get. I wanted to be down there, I needed to be down there.
The rumble of a truck caught my attention, and I swore as I swung my scope in its direction, noting the driver. It was Richard Baer, with a load of Brotherhood in the bed.
Shit.
Pulling the hammer back, I loaded another bullet and took aim at him, hoping I could waylay them before they reached the fight. I aimed and squeezed, only to not feel the recoil of the gun on my shoulder as a result.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
There was no time to troubleshoot a jammed gun. Throwing it aside, I was already on my feet and running toward the action, pulling my set of Glocks from their holsters at my sides. It was time to get my hands dirty.
The first few Brotherhood members I encountered went down before they could even raise their guns. I shot them clean through the head without flinching as I ran past, focusing my attention on Richard Baer and the men who were surrounding him for protection, spraying bullets. Richard would be the ultimate prize, a reason for the Brotherhood to scatter and for Horsemen to reign supreme overall in Cibolo.
Someone stepped in front of that line of vision, and I slowed in my tracks, another roadblock making himself known.
“Neil.”
“Michael,” I said, acknowledging him with a short nod. “This isn’t a family visit.”
He grinned, pulling out a jagged knife, palming it in his left hand.
“Oh, I know, cuz.”
I knew right then that he had taken Rox.
“Why?”
Michael’s grin faded.
“Hell, I don’t know. Maybe I don’t want the Horsemen telling the Brotherhood what to do anymore. Maybe I want us to be on top for once, and what’s the best way to get your ass here? Kill your best friend, steal your women. You think I don’t know about the tracker?”
I stared at him, the kid with whom I had taken baths and shit when we were kids, as his words sank into my mind.
“You killed Leo.”
“Damn right I did,” he said, looking especially proud of himself while he uttered the words. “That piece of shit was gonna turn all our secrets in to Travis and the rest of you. We couldn’t take that chance. What a waste of talent.”
I should have known. Michael had always been the type of person who wanted to make a name for himself. And by killing a horseman for being a traitor, he would have moved up the ranks quickly in the Brotherhood.
“You’re no family of mine,” I spat, leveling a gun at him. “I will be glad to kill you.”
He didn’t flinch.
“Surely you are going to not take the easy way out, cuz. What? You think you can’t fight me man-to-man?”
He was goading me. I should have just put a hole in his head and moved on.
But he had killed Leo, my best friend. He had kidnapped Rox, the woman I loved. He deserved to feel pain.
Tucking my guns back in their holster, I pulled out my own knife that was strapped to my thigh, the steel glinting in the bright sunlight.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Michael laughed gleefully, beckoning me forward. “Let’s see what you are made of.”
I stepped forward. Michael was decent with a knife, having been trained by me when we were teenagers. But I knew his weaknesses and doubted he had done anything to fix those in his adult life.
Michael struck first, lunging with his knife toward my gut, one that I easily deflected with a spin, driving an elbow into the middle of his back as he stumbled away. I quickly attacked him, using my knife to make small cuts in his arm that were meant to stun and distract.
“You know,” Michael gasped as he danced out of my reach. “Leo didn’t put up near the fight you are. One bullet, right between the eyes. I didn’t even flinch when I pulled the trigger.”
“Leo was your friend,” I growled, thinking of all the times we had been a trio as kids.
“Leo was a traitor,” Michael shouted, his face turning red with anger. “I gave him everything, a chance to truly belong to something that would make him a rich bastard, and he drove the knife in my back! I handled him like I would handle any traitor! You can’t deny you would have done the same.”
He had a point there. A traitor was a traitor, and I had been ordered to hunt Leo down in the same fashion. Us being friends would not have played any role in the final result.
“Maybe, maybe not.”
“Fucking liar,” Michael seethed, charging toward me.
I clenched my knife in my hand, waiting for the moment to stab him in the gut and stop this once and for all.
“This is for Leo!” I heard behind me.
A bullet whizzed by me, striking Michael in the chest and flinging him back into the sand.
I turned to see Rox standing behind me, tears streaming down her face, the gun in her hands smoking from a recent shot.
Hell, she looked like a million bucks.
She barely acknowledged me as she walked past, going to bend over Michael, who was gasping for air. I watched as she pressed the gun to his gut, clicking back the hammer.
“I fucking hate you,” she seethed, firing another round into his gut.
Michael seized and then went still, blood pooling under his body. I knew where the anger was coming from, but I hadn’t anticipated she would have killed Michael.
Rox gasped and dropped the gun, giving me an opportunity to scoop her up and quickly carry her away from the field of fire, wanting her safe so I could think.
“No! No!” she shouted, banging on my chest. “We can’t leave them!”
“Relax Rox,” I said, breathing heavy as I moved quickly through the desert to a safer zone. “Let me get you out of here. Please.”
She still continued to fight me, giving me a look as I handed her off to a waiting club member before turning back toward the gunfire, pulling my own guns.
My heart was both light with relief and heavy with regret at what Rox had to do to close that chapter in her life. I would console her later, but first there was a fight to win and more Teutonic to round up.
Chapter Twenty Five
Rox
I sat huddled under the leather coat, my body feeling cold despite the blazing heat of the sun on my face. The fight was over with, the sand littered with bodies from both sides, with the rest of the Teutonic making an escape. Richard Baer was not amongst the bodies, which meant he had fled as well, something that the men guarding me had grumbled about once the gunfire had died.
I was numb on the inside, my hands still trembling from the feel of the gun as I fired the rounds that had killed Michael. When I had seen him and Neil dueling with knives, my heart had stopped. I couldn’t lose another person I loved, and despite the fact I knew Neil could very well handle himself, I had wanted to end the pain. I had wanted Michael to feel what I had felt all those months, to no longer give him the chance to live a life that Leo had deserved to live.
> I had wanted it over with.
And now it was. Michael was dead, Neil was safe and so were Sydney and Amy. There was a rumor going around that the guy who had gotten us out of the bunker had taken a bullet for her, but I had yet to see either one of my friends, too upset to want to explain why we were there to begin with.
There was only one person I wanted to talk to, and I wasn’t so sure he would be willing to talk with me.
Blowing out a breath, I stood from the rock I had perched on and handed the jacket back to the sympathetic biker with a small smile, looking toward the group of Horsemen that were was walking through the bodies, trying to find survivors from either side. There was a heaviness in the air from the loss of life now, the task of gathering their brothers so that they could be taken back to the families something no one wanted to do. I almost felt at fault for this carnage.
Finally, I recognized Zack and Sydney walking toward me, Zack’s arm protectively around her shoulder as she gave me a wan smile. Neither looked any worse for wear, but the blood-spatter on their clothing told me that they had suffered emotionally if not physically.
“Hey,” Sydney said, pulling me into a hug. “Are you okay?”
“No,” I answered honestly, my voice shaking. “But I’m not hurt, if that is what you are asking.”
She pulled back, her eyes full of concern.
“Neil told us about Michael. I shouldn’t say this, but I am proud of you.”
I let out a strangled sound, backing out of her grasp so I could pull myself together.
“T-thank you.”
Sydney looked up at Zack, a tender smile on her face.
“Let’s go home. I want a hot shower and a cold beer.”
Zack leaned down and briefly touched foreheads with her.
“My kind of woman.”
I smiled at their tenderness, my heart wrenching at the sight. Today we almost lost our loved ones. I couldn’t imagine how it would have been for Syd or even Zack if one of them hadn’t come out of this fight. Syd gave me a little wave and walked on, Zack stuck to her side as if he was scared she would go on and disappear again.
Sighing, I turned to see Neil striding toward me, like a Nordic god with his unbound hair flowing behind him. My heart leaped in my chest as I wondered what he thought about what I had done to Michael. That was his flesh and blood, his cousin, and it couldn’t have been easy for him to see me gun him down in cold blood, something completely out of my character. As much as I wanted to say I was justified, I still didn’t feel happy about taking his life.
Actually, I felt vaguely sick to my stomach, knowing I wouldn’t erase the sight out of my mind for a long, long time.
“Hey,” he said softly, his eyes searching mine. “You ready to go?”
I nodded, swallowing past the lump in my throat, torn between running into his arms and running from him.
“Yeah.”
He nodded and reached for my hand, wrapping his around it tightly. I reveled in his warmth as I fell in step next to him, walking toward his truck in the distance. I honestly wanted a hot shower and a few hours of crying, to expel this pain and anguish that was buried inside me, wanting to break out. I hated the way I felt.
We climbed into Neil’s truck and he started the engine, bracing his hands on the steering wheel before blowing out a breath. I knew he was frustrated, hurting, and probably exhausted by the looks of him, and I wanted nothing more than to just be with him. Neil hadn’t killed Leo, but I had killed his cousin.
Why couldn’t this be a normal relationship?
“We need to talk.”
“Yes,” I forced out, clenching my hands tightly in my lap. “I… we need to talk.”
He nodded and pulled the truck away from the site, while I sat in the passenger seat, not sure where to start. Was it too shallow to apologize for what I had done to Michael? I definitely needed to apologize for accusing him of killing my brother, but he also needed to explain to me why he had admitted to doing so.
There were so many questions and not enough answers to clear the air between us.
It wasn’t long before Neil pulled up in his driveway, shutting off the truck. I made no move to open my door and neither did Neil.
“I-I’m sorry about Michael,” I finally forced out, the emotion evident in my voice. “I-I don’t know what came over me and…”
“Stop,” Neil growled, looking over at me. “You have nothing to apologize for. Michael killed Leo. If you hadn’t shot him, I was going to kill him anyway, cousin or not.”
I felt a certain relief flood through my veins. He wasn’t upset with me.
“I need a beer,” Neil finally said, opening his door.
I followed him into the house, watching as he walked to the fridge and pulled out two beers, opening them both before handing one to me. While I didn’t want to drink it, I forced myself to take a few mouthfuls, hoping the alcohol would dull the pain I was feeling.
“Why did you say you had killed my brother?” I asked softly, my voice filling the air.
Neil let out a breath.
“Because I did. He came to me that night before, and I… hell, I didn’t give him any help. He wanted me to protect him, and I fucking let him walk out of this house.”
“Oh, Neil,” I said, sitting my beer on the table before crossing the distance between the two of us. “You didn’t kill Leo.”
He looked at me, his eyes rimmed with exhaustion and regret.
“But I could have saved him, Rox. I could have protected him.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist at that point, feeling him shudder under my touch, before his arms crushed me to him. I had so many regrets for what had happened between us, but Neil had been carrying this burden, a burden that he didn’t need to bear. He hadn’t killed Leo. My brother was his own man, and I believed he knew the risks when he had decided to take on the Teutonic. Knowing now who had shot him gave me more faith in Neil and the person he was. Pressing my face into his chest, I inhaled his scent.
“I’m sorry I blamed you.”
He chuckled, his hand drifting over my hair.
“You had every right to blame me, Rox. Hell, I hate that Leo is not here with us right now. It’s wrong, but I will take the information to Grant about what Leo had been doing, and we will clear his name. You can count on that.”
The sobs let loose then, and I clung to Neil, grateful that Leo’s name would not leave a bitter taste in those that he loved the most. Neil held me tightly to him, and at some point we ended up on the floor of the kitchen, him holding me in his lap. For a moment I just sat there, letting my sobs subside and feeling the weight of what we had been carrying around for months start to lift off my heart. It was over with. While we hadn’t caught Grayson today, we had caught Leo’s killer, and I could close that chapter in my life.
Neil pressed a kiss in my hair, gently holding me with his massive arms. There was no other place I would rather be than right there, on the kitchen floor, in his arms.
“Well, where do we go from here?”
He chuckled.
“Preferably a shower, with you.”
I sighed, leaning against his chest.
“That sounds great, but that’s not what I am talking about, Neil.”
He pulled back, lightly grabbing my chin so I would be forced to look in his eyes.
“What do you want, Rox? You want me to tell you that I still love you so much it hurts? I do, you know.”
Tears crowded my eyes. Nothing had changed between us. Nothing had ripped this bond away, this tether that kept bringing me back to him. Leaning in, I touched my lips to his, unable to find the words to express how I felt. He growled low in his throat and devoured my lips, eagerly pushing his tongue into my mouth to start the dangerous tango we had developed between each other.
I whimpered against his assault, pulling him closer to taste every inch of his mouth. I loved this man with everything I had.
“I need you,” he whispered against my
lips, his hands finding my jeans and starting to work on the zipper. “So fucking bad.”
I let him, my own hands tugging at his belt. Somehow, we got each other’s pants down far enough, and I sank down on his hard cock, groaning as he filled me to the core.
“Damn,” Neil whispered against my neck, nipping at the sensitive skin. “I’ve missed this.”
I looked at him, my heart overflowing with love and a peace I had been so desperate to find for so long.
“I love you.”
