by Penny Dee
BULL
As I drove, my mind scrambled to put it all together.
A hitman.
A hired gun.
The woman I was in love with was a goddamn assassin.
I had so many unanswered questions, but I couldn’t articulate them, so instead of talking to her, a weird, uneasy calm settled between us.
I told myself to focus. To forget about the heartbreak. The betrayal. And focus on getting Noah back.
Emerald Lake, where the lake house was located, was an hour’s drive out of town, but ten minutes over the county line we were intercepted by Ruger and Cade.
We pulled over on a quiet stretch of road, and bracing myself, I rolled down my window as they walked over.
“What the fuck is going on?” Ruger asked. He glanced over at Taylor, then back to me. “I see you found her.”
“How did you know where to find us?”
He held up his phone. “The app on your phone. The one you made us all download the last time you had a hit on you. After your phone call, I knew something wasn’t right. So now that we’re here, how about you tell me what the fuck is going on.”
The four of us drove to a deserted parcel of land, well-hidden from the road, where I explained everything. It didn’t go down well. There was yelling. There was tension. There was distrust. And there was a moment where I defended the very person I felt betrayed by, just so my brothers would step back and let us do what we needed to do in order to get Noah back safely.
“I’m not asking you as your president. But we could use your help.”
“And what happens to her when this is all done?” Ruger asked, looking at Taylor.
She looked at him, her face tight. “You won’t ever see me again.”
Ruger’s eyes shot to mine. “And you’re okay with that?”
No, I wasn’t fucking okay with it.
I was far from fucking okay with it.
“When we get her brother back, she’s free to leave,” I said, my voice hard.
Ruger thought for a moment, weighing it all up in his head. Finally, he nodded and said, “Okay, what’s the fucking plan?”
Taylor’s godfather was holed up in a palatial lake house on a sprawling five-acre block. The plan was for Ruger and Cade to take care of whatever muscle Alex might have on the property, while Taylor and I went to look for Noah. We didn’t know what we were walking into, but we weren’t going in completely blind. Taylor had lived with him for years. She knew how he operated. What security he would have and what they’d be strapping.
“Alex is crazy private, he won’t have too many bodyguards,” Taylor explained. “Two, maybe three, max.”
“He’ll have CCTV. It’ll be a problem,” Cade said.
“There’s a blind spot coming up from the lake. I was here last night and again this morning, that’s where I was when you came to my apartment. And there’s probably more blind spots. This isn’t his home. It’s a rental. It doesn’t appear to have the type of CCTV system he would usually have.”
“That works in our favor,” Cade said.
“He’s more exposed here than anywhere,” Taylor added. “He won’t be expecting us.”
Ruger and Cade nodded.
“But before we do this…there’s something else we need to take care of?” I walked over to her Honda and opened the trunk.
Jean-Paul was awake and protesting about being restrained. But the gag in his mouth muffled it.
“This is Gimmel Martel’s son,” I said.
“Fucking great,” Cade said, shaking his head.
“What the fuck?” Ruger looked at Taylor. “Boy, you’re just full of surprises.”
I saw Taylor’s temper snap. Saw her eyes sharpen. Felt her anger rise above anything else she was feeling.
Ignoring my brothers, she walked over to the trunk of the car and punched Jean-Paul in the face, breaking his nose. “That’s for putting your hands on me,” she growled. Pain rattled through her knuckles and she shook them. But then she punched him again, this time knocking him out. “And that’s for Jacob, you evil fuck!”
A dumb silence fell over all of us.
When she swung around, she looked unapologetic. “You have to believe me when I say he deserved it,” she said.
I didn’t doubt it. And I hoped one day, I’d find out why.
We dragged the unconscious Jean-Paul and dumped him in one of the gardens surrounding the property. Now that we had Ruger and Cade with us, trading him for Noah seemed like the harder option. The time for negotiations were over. We weren’t going to ask for Noah back. We were going to take him.
“Once we get inside, I’ll find Alex,” Taylor said.
“What happens when you find him?” Ruger asked.
She looked him right in the eye. “I’m going to kill him.”
And I could see by the expression on his face, he believed her.
We split up, and while my brothers disappeared, Taylor and I stealthily made our way through a patch of trees toward the back of the lake house. Just as we were about to make a break for the small alleyway leading up to a side entrance, a man stepped out onto the back deck.
Gimmel Martel.
I saw him but Taylor didn’t, and I had to pull her back to stop her from breaking our cover. As I grabbed her, we both fell back into the cover of the dense tree line, and collapsed onto the damp soil. For a brief moment I was engulfed in the sweet scent of her, and I couldn’t help but breathe her in and lose myself in the perfume that was uniquely her. Brimming with agony, my heart ruptured, and I had to swallow back my pain. She looked up at me, her eyes wide, her lips parted.
I wanted to kiss her. Hold her. Bury my face into the infinite warmth of her smooth throat and clasp her to me so I could feel the gentle beat of her heart.
I wanted to beg her to tell me it wasn’t a lie.
But I didn’t. Instead, I let her go and shifted my focus to the task at hand.
Because our plan had just changed.
Gimmel Martel was here, only yards away.
And once I got inside the lake house, while Taylor located Alex, I was going to put a bullet in Gimmel.
TAYLOR
Even by Alex’s opulent standards, the lake house was over the top. It was a massive brick and wrought-iron monstrosity rising out of the water.
It was impressive.
But it was impractical. It didn’t offer him the security he needed, and it was almost too easy to slip inside undetected.
Once inside, Bull let me know he was going to look for Noah, and signaled for me to find Alex.
I found him in the kitchen. He was standing at the massive granite island, chopping tomatoes and onions, the aroma of garlic and Napolitana sauce heavy in the air.
When he looked up and saw me aiming my gun at him, he smirked. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Little Assassin of the South.”
I gripped my gun tighter, hating his taunt.
“Where is Noah?” My voice bit into the cool air of the gleaming white kitchen.
“No need to fret. He’s safe.”
“He’d better be.”
He put his knife down and made a point of taking his time wiping his hands on a dishtowel. “I’m guessing this means you’re not coming back to work for me?”
“You guessed right.”
“What a shame,” he said.
My eyes shifted to the gun sitting on the countertop.
“Don’t even think about reaching for that firearm.”
His eyes gleamed. “Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it. I know what a good marksman you are.”
I gritted my teeth. I wasn’t going to let him get to me. I wasn’t his kill girl anymore.
“Where is Noah?” I asked again.
“He’s around here somewhere.”
“And Martel? I’m sure he’s lurking about.”
Alex wasn’t about to give up too much information. He waved off the question. “Perhaps.”
“You might want to go get him.”
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He said nothing. Instead, for a moment he was completely still, his black eyes reaching me from across the room. “Why are you doing this, Taylor?”
“Because I am trying to stop a war,” I said. “If you do this, Alex, you’ll be setting things in motion that you can’t possibly stop. You don’t want war with the Kings of Mayhem.”
Alex raised his eyebrows. “Oh, I don’t?”
“No, because it’s a war you can’t possibly win. And what for? Because Gimmel got his panties in a twist over Bull’s refusal to let him run drugs out of Destiny. It’s not even your fight!”
I knew Alex was doing this out of loyalty to his long-time business partner. But it was a loyalty that could destroy him and his business empire if he didn’t see the dangerous waters he was treading.
“Gimmel is like a brother to me!”
“Gimmel is poison!” I snapped. “He lied about Bull. He’s not a monster. He’s nothing like he said he is. He is a decent man.”
He scoffed. “You sound like a teenage girl with a crush.”
Heat flared in my cheeks. And in that moment Alex knew I was in love with Bull, and he started to laugh.
“Well, well, well,” he chuckled. “The hitman has fallen in love with the hit.”
He laughed again, and I had an urge to plant a bullet in his smug mouth sooner rather than later.
But then he stopped laughing, and a menacing darkness swept over his face.
“Does he know who you are?” he asked darkly. “Does he know about the men you lured to their deaths with the promise of pussy, only to put a bullet in their brains before they even got a taste?”
Alex was good at finding his enemy’s Achilles heel, and he’d just used mine against me. His words jabbed into my conscience. Shame. Remorse. Guilt. They spread through me, making me falter, making me weak.
I gritted my teeth. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing his words got to me. But my emotion was too strong to hold back.
“I was just a child when you turned me into a killer. You made me exactly what I became.”
An evil smirk curled on his lips. “It’s so much easier to live with your sins when you can blame someone else for them, isn’t it, Taylor?”
“It’s the truth. You took a broken young woman and made her into a fiend. Made her crave your acceptance and love, only to make her do the unforgivable in order to get it.”
“I gave you the kind of life people could only dream of,” he growled.
“You made me a monster!” I yelled.
For a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of remorse on his face. But then it was gone and I realized I was wrong. Alex wasn’t capable of remorse because he was a psychopath.
“You have nothing to gain from pursuing this, and everything to gain from walking away,” I said.
Alex shook his head. “I should’ve known you wouldn’t understand the concept of loyalty.”
“The Kings of Mayhem will destroy you and everything you’ve built. I’ve seen how big they are, Alex. You’re outnumbered. Don’t do this, don’t risk everything for Gimmel. Walk away.”
Backed into a corner, an evil glint caught the light in his eyes. “You underestimate me”.
“No, you underestimate the Kings of Mayhem.”
His eyes darted to the doorway where Bull suddenly appeared. Without warning, he grabbed his gun off the counter and fired it at Bull.
But I fired mine too.
I was quicker.
I was also a better aim.
And I shot Alex.
Right through the heart.
BULL
Alex was dead.
“Are you okay?” I asked Taylor.
She stared at me, wordlessly, as she tried to process what she’d just done.
I looked down at Alex lying dead on the floor, a red stain spreading across the tiles.
Taylor had hit him right in the heart.
“I’m going to find Martel. You get Noah and meet me back at the car.”
She nodded but said nothing, too stunned by Alex’s death. But as I turned to leave, she stopped me. “Be careful, okay?”
I paused, taking her in, wondering if it was the last time I was going to see her.
She would get Noah to safety. I had no doubt.
But I wasn’t so sure Martel was going to go down without a fight.
I moved quietly through the mansion, stealthily, ready to take out anyone who got in my way.
He was close. I could feel him. And I was like a hunter stalking his prey. Every cell in my body alert. Every nerve and fiber buzzing with anticipation. Every step taking me closer to the end game.
This would all be over soon.
I would have my revenge, and Martel would take his place in hell.
A yelp out of place in the silence of the big house drifted down from the stairs winding up to the second story.
Noah.
I increased my pace up the staircase, but stopped when I rounded the corner and found Gimmel Martel waiting for me. He had Noah. One arm was hooked around his neck. The other held a gun aimed at the kid’s shoulder.
Fuck.
“I’ll shoot him,” he warned, pulling Noah closer.
I put my arms up in surrender. “Let the kid go.”
“I don’t think so.”
“It’s me you want, not him.”
“The kid is staying where he is, now drop it,” he demanded, gesturing to the gun in my hand.
I did as he asked, slowly bending down to place the weapon at my feet.
When I straightened, he smiled smugly. “At last.”
He was pleased with himself. His lecherous eyes lit up with delight, and his fat jowls reddened with the sudden rise of his heartbeat. He had the upper hand, and he was almost ejaculating with joy.
“At last, indeed,” I growled.
He nudged Noah forward until they were standing right in front of me so he could press the muzzle of his gun to my forehead.
I’d had had plenty of guns pointed at me in my lifetime. But the only time one had been pointed at my head was when I had placed the muzzle against my own temple. Back then I had wanted to die. But not today.
I didn’t want to die.
I thought about my family and my club. I thought about what my death would mean to them, and what would happen once my body was in the ground and I was no longer around. And then I thought about Taylor and Noah, and what it would mean for me to die before I even had a chance to begin a life with them. I thought about all of the unsaid things. All of the things undone. All of the feelings left unfelt.
I wasn’t done.
I wasn’t finished with this life.
There was more to do. More to see. More to feel.
I thought about the last few weeks with Taylor, and felt her satiny skin against mine and the soft silk of her hair against my cheek as I made love to her.
I heard her laughter and saw her smile.
Felt the warmth of her body as she lay next to me, and the tenderness of her touch as she woke me in the early hours to make love.
And then I thought of Noah.
There was so much for me to show him.
So many more thug moves to teach him.
“I have prayed for this day,” Martel said, an evil glint in his rheumy eyes. “But before I kill you, tell me something…”
“What?”
He pressed his gun deeper into my forehead. “Was it worth it?”
No, it wasn’t worth it.
My eyes slid to Noah. He looked terrified.
I’m so sorry, buddy.
“Don’t do it in front of the boy.”
Glee curled on his ugly lips. “You don’t get it, do you? And that was always the problem. So, let me remind you one last time, you cock-sucking motherfucker. You don’t get to tell me what to do. Do you understand? You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
Any second now, a bullet was going to turn my world to black.
I had no doubt.
Except, in that moment, Taylor appeared in the doorway, her gun raised, her aim pointed at the man who was seconds away from ending my life. A startled Martel swung the gun in her direction and fired. And in that moment, the woman who had my heart, who I was so goddamn in love with, dropped to the floor.
Noah cried out and broke free, and ran over to his sister lying on the floor.
In the confusion, I launched at a distracted Martel and knocked the gun from his hands. I grabbed him and started pounding into him, all the hate and darkness bubbling to the surface and spilling out of me as my fist continued to collide with his face. My revenge took a step backward, letting the fear that he’d just killed the woman I was in love with overpower me, and I lost control.
I was a powder keg of emotion.
Pain and betrayal swirled through me.
Fear and terror that Taylor was dead blinded me with rage.
I was a man possessed. Unable to stop.
I was going to kill him with my bruised and bloody hands.
Until Noah’s small voice somehow made its way through the thick waves of darkness in my head.
“Bull,” he sobbed. “Taylor needs you.”
I looked over at him. And somehow, seeing him kneeling next to his sister made me break through the surface of the black ocean of rage I was drowning in.
If I kept going, Noah’s life would change forever. He could never unsee me take Martel’s life with my bare hands. He could never unsee the ugliness of murder. Of revenge. The dark side of me. It would linger in him for the rest of his life and manifest into nothing good.
In that moment I had to choose. Did I get my revenge on Martel and soak in the satisfaction of his death? Or did I protect Noah from the darkness of watching one man take another man’s life?
My need for revenge ran deep and fast through me, like venom in my veins, and every part of the president in me screamed for me to beat the life out of him.
Three months ago, I would’ve.
Three months ago, I was a different man.
But despite the agony of seeing Taylor wounded on the floor, I broke through the chains of my revenge and pushed it back.
I let Martel go and he fell to the floor.
He would live.
He would wake up broken.
