by Franca Storm
“We’ve got too many cameras in here for that to be a possibility. He’s not that stealthy. Sounds like what happened is you fools were sleeping on the job or something.”
“No. I swear.”
Knowing Nolan as well as I did, I doubted it was just the prospect of being fired that was striking fear into his employee. I wasn’t gonna let some innocent pay for what I’d done, even if the guy had been stupid enough to get mixed up working for the likes of Adrian Nolan. Before I left here, I’d make sure they knew the truth. I had enough blood on my hands without adding collateral damage to the charges.
Nolan waved the security guy off, then crooked his finger at me to continue on after him toward his office. I gritted my teeth at the insult of the gesture. But I left it at that.
This wasn’t about pride. It was about what was necessary.
Besides, he’d get his. Sooner than he realized.
I followed him around a corner down a corridor that was lit with blue pot lights.
A few more feet and closed doors along the way and we finally made it to his office.
He opened the door and stormed in ahead.
“Shut the door,” he muttered over his shoulder.
Eyes narrowed at him giving me a command, I kicked the thing shut.
He spun around at the rough slam that reverberated through the room. The look on his face was all I needed to calm down a notch or two. He was pissed that I’d scuffed the door with the heel of my motorcycle boot. Everything had to be perfect and pristine with him.
Just like the inside of his office.
It was as overdone and as needlessly luxurious as I remembered it being the last time I’d set foot inside. Flashy artwork hung on the walls in gold frames. Big-ass, hand-crafted mahogany furniture filled the space. A desk took up at least a third of the massive space. A portable bar over in the seating area boasted the most expensive liquor I’d ever laid eyes on. So, he served his customers shit, but enjoyed the best there was to offer for himself? It was the opposite of what he was going for. Class. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t just buy that. You either had it or you didn’t.
The other thing he’d never had that pissed me off more than anything?
Honor.
“Neanderthal,” he muttered under his breath. He gave me a sour look, then turned and strolled behind his desk. “Have a seat and we’ll discuss this like civilized men.”
I walked over one careful step at a time, sensing something was off. I’d felt it the moment he’d invited me to join him in his office. The history between us didn’t fit with that. I knew he usually handled that sort of thing out back in the piss-soaked alley.
He flicked his suit jacket open, then shrugged it off and hung it over the back of his chair. Then he started uncuffing his shirt sleeves and slowly and deliberately rolling them up to his elbows.
That was when I knew.
There was no civilized discussion in our near future.
He was preparing for a fight.
Hell, he’d brought me in here to kill me.
As he moved behind his desk, I watched his hand brush against the smooth wood.
Did he really think that would get past me?
There was a silent alarm under there.
He was bringing his security team in to do his dirty work.
Or, so he thought.
I took a seat in one of the high-backed chairs in front of his desk, lounging back casually.
His eyes strayed to the clock over the door. Anxiety spiked in them.
“Waiting on something?”
His gaze snapped to mine. “What have you done?”
I just shrugged. If he didn’t have the smarts to figure it out, he really didn’t deserve to know.
“Slade!” he roared, bolting to his feet and kicking back his chair. “Enough of these games!”
I rose calmly, telling him, “You should know by now, in our world, everything’s a deadly fucked-up game. The only way to survive is to be one step ahead.” I pulled a blade from the inside pocket of my leather jacket and spun it around rapidly. “The way to do that? Know the rules better than anybody.”
“Where the hell did you get that? There are metal detectors at the entrance.”
“Why else would I order the piss water passing for scotch in this place? To distract the bartender and lift this. I might favor a gun, but I’m pretty ace with a blade.” I gestured at the scar across his cheek. “You should know.”
He touched the scar. “When you did this, you crossed a line, but I gave you a pass, because I didn’t want a blood feud on my hands. Those things spiral out of control too quickly and there’s no winner.”
The way the guy spun things was out of this world. He ended up so far from the truth by the time he was done. “I gave you a pass. It was a warning.”
“I let it go after you interfered in something that had nothing to do with you. If I’d reacted and gone after you, it would’ve compromised my business and that wasn’t a price I was willing to pay.”
“You made it my business by letting me see that sickening shit.”
Years ago, when I’d first taken over as Prez, I’d considered expanding the club’s business dealings into a chain of strip clubs. Adrian had owned one that’d been on the market right around that time. I’d headed down to meet with him and take a tour and all that. But what I’d seen that day had put the kibosh on going that route with Titans.
Instead of hiring dancers for his club, he'd staffed them with unwilling workers, women who were down on their luck, in majorly bad situations. They’d been blackmailed or colluded into working at his clubs. Some of them had been shy of legal age by a couple of years. As if that weren’t fucked-up enough, he’d had their duties extended from just working a pole, to working a dick. Any of them that’d resisted had been punished, which was what I’d walked in on when I’d shown up early to meet with him.
I’d put him down and etched a long-ass scar into his cheek, so he’d never forget why he had it, what a sick bastard he’d been. I’d hoped it would’ve changed him and woken him. But some people were stubborn. Some people crossed all kinds of lines for the almighty dollar.
He’d laid low for a couple of months and I’d been watching him. So, I’d known the second he’d started that bull back up. Me and the club had cut off a transport of the girls he’d been bringing in to re-staff his clubs. Nolan had shown up right when me and the boys had been setting the girls free. He’d made a move against my brothers, so, I’d kneecapped him. That had stopped him for good. He’d spent months recovering from that and it’d calmed him the hell down.
Getting him to back off on that had come with a price for me, though.
This.
Having a death threat hanging over my head for far too long. Having something out there blocking me from living free all the way.
Adrian Nolan was a public figure, so he’d known I couldn’t touch him without paying for it. I couldn’t risk the club like that.
But I weren’t gonna be club much longer.
By the time word got out about this, I’d be long gone, having no ties to Titans. I’d make it damn clear it was all on me and nothing to do with them. The boys would be safe. And I’d be free.
Both of those things had been a long time coming.
And there was just one fucking asshole standing in the way of it now.
“This,” he said, pointing at his messed-up knee that’d never healed proper. “It was one giant step too far.”
“Nah,” I said simply.
“You maimed me for life!”
“You deserved way worse.”
“Don’t you get it?” he sneered. “You can’t escape the this. You can’t kill me. The power here is solely mine. I’m a well-known, respected businessman. My murder would make the news in a big way. But you, you’re nothing. You die and nobody outside of your club gives a crap. One more biker gang president off the table will be a welcome thing. Sad, really, isn’t it? To know your life means nothing to
anyone? Inside the very small world of Steel Titans, you’re a king. But beyond that, you’re just scum.”
Nice try at pushing my buttons. It weren’t nothing I hadn’t heard over the years before, though. Ignorance was everywhere.
I took a step toward him, watching fear swimming in his eyes. “If I were nothing, you wouldn’t be pissing yourself right now being in a room alone with me.”
He tried to cover it up, scoffing, “You don’t fool me, Slade. All this big talk, coming across as having a major dark side. I’ve seen it up close and it didn’t break me.”
“You ain’t never seen my dark side,” I growled. “But you’re gonna.” I lunged at him, fisted my hand in his hair and used my grip as leverage to slam his face into the desk. As he grunted and flailed, I adjusted the grip on my blade, then drove it through the back of his hand and deep into the fancy-ass wood, pinning his hand to the desktop.
He screamed in agony.
I slammed his face into the desk again. Blood spurted, making it clear I’d broken his damn nose this time. And, hell, was it satisfying. Way more than I’d figured on it being. This was supposed to be business, but the asshole had spent the entire time we’d been inside his office making it personal.
It had settled it.
So much for the quick, efficient way of doing this. I was gonna make this kill personal.
I ripped the blade from his hand, making him scream out at the top of his lungs. Good thing his office was soundproofed. That was biting him in the ass big time, right now.
I’d disconnected that alarm underneath his desk. I had his surveillance system on a loop. Nobody was coming to save him, or to fight his battle for him.
“You fucking maniac,” he spat, fumbling to right himself and stumbling into his chair in the process. He managed to get a hold of it with his one working hand. He used it as leverage to kick back at me.
I dodged it with no problem.
But, in the next second, I realized he’d been counting on that.
He ripped his top desk drawer open and snatched up his cell phone. He speed-dialed before I could stop him. “My office! Now! I’m under attack!” he yelled down the line.
I dove over the desk, grabbed his wrist and dislodged the phone from his grip.
But it was already way too late.
The office door flew open and smacked against the wall.
The next thing I knew, several arms were around me, fighting to pull me away from Nolan.
They slammed my hand down on the desk over and over until I finally lost my hold on the blade.
“Make it hurt! Take him down!” Adrian bellowed, basically frothing at the mouth with a mix of rage and agony.
I thrust my elbow back, driving it hard into one of the guys behind me. I heard a grunt and felt the hold around me loosen. It was just enough for me to jerk hard to the left, and shove myself free.
A couple of hefty back kicks freed me.
But then two more security guys ran into the room.
In seconds, I was surrounded.
Outnumbered.
Outgunned.
It weren’t looking good.
Normally, I’d be worried. Adrenaline would be tearing through me. Dozens of potential plans would be whirring around my head. But right now, I was just… numb.
I'd wanted to be free. I had for a long while now. And there were different kinds of freedom. Maybe going out like this was the only way I’d ever really had open to me.
Grasping his injured hand, Nolan glared at me, victory gleaming in his eyes as his guys surrounded him protectively. “After all your careful planning, you still couldn’t pull it off. And this time there’s no way out.” He staggered closer and snarled, “Now, get on your knees, so I can end you like the nothing piece of shit you are.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
Nolan sneered and held his good hand out behind him. One of his guys handed him a gun.
Before he could even take aim my way, a sharp whizzing sounded.
Shocking the hell out of me, a dart plunged into Nolan’s neck. He grunted, his eyes rolling back in his head, just before he crumpled to the floor.
Tranqs?
His guards spun toward the door and that was when I saw a figure decked out in head-to-toe black, a hoodie hiding their face.
The disguise didn’t fool me for a second.
I knew that get-up, knew that body, knew those moves.
Willa “Shadow” Rose.
She fired four more shots in quick succession, dropping the guards before they could even react.
But it wasn’t over.
More barreled down the corridor, coming in hot.
Willa spun into the attack, leaping into the air and knocking one of them back with a brutal flying kick like something from a martial arts movie. The rapid-fire moves took three of them down, but they just kept coming.
I looked between Nolan and Willa.
Every cell in my body was urging me to finish him, to finally end it after all these years. But, fuck it, it was Willa.
So, I ran into the fray and beat back the onslaught, using my brute strength and the rage coursing through me to clear a path. I ripped one of the guards off her, shoving him into the wall, as I yelled over my shoulder to Willa, “Go! Go! Go!”
She took my cue and bolted along the path. I followed right behind.
We made it out through the club, the guards trailing close behind.
Willa pointed to a beat-up Sunfire, then pulled a fob from her leather jacket pocket and unlocked it. I’d taken a cab here instead of riding in with the attention-gaining roar of my bike.
As Willa jumped into the driver’s seat, I hopped in the passenger side.
Before I’d even closed the door, the car was tearing out of the club lot. “Dumbass.”
She jerked her hood back.
Piercing blue eyes stared back at me.
Silky blonde locks fell forward.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“What else? Saving your life.”
Fuck.
5
~Willa~
ANGER REIGNED.
Slade hadn’t stopped ranting since we’d sped away from Indulge.
It had been half an hour and he still hadn’t calmed.
Rolling my eyes, I pulled my pistols from my hip holsters and laid them down on the kitchen counter as I watched him pacing up and down the living room of my safehouse, muttering a slew of curses under his breath.
I shrugged off my tactical jacket and walked to the closet, sliding open the doors, then hanging it up inside. Then, I crossed to the bar in the far corner near the oak bookshelves and poured myself a glass of scotch.
I needed to take the edge off.
A close quarters fight like that really got the adrenaline pumping. My body had been wired ever since and I hadn’t been able to calm down. Normally, I could pull it off easily, automatically, even. It wasn’t like that had been my first rodeo. I was a pro at this sort of thing. And I was damn good at it. I didn’t usually need booze to help me chill and compartmentalize after a mission.
It was him.
Slade frigging Mitchell.
He was why I was still so wired and ridiculously on edge. He… did something to me. And it pissed me off more than I could quantify.
Our relationship was supposed to be strictly business. Until him, I’d never had an issue with that in the fifteen years that I’d been known as Shadow. I’d never even thought about crossing the line and mixing business with pleasure. Blurring things like that was an invitation for chaos.
But five years ago, I’d almost done just that with Slade. I’d been ready and beyond willing to go. Then he’d backpedaled. Not only that, but he’d also gone behind my back, overridden my command and my carefully constructed plan to deal with a certain target of his. It was a target that was not only still breathing, but who was causing a shitload of trouble for the both of us right fucking now. That asshole, Adrian Nolan.
&nbs
p; Jeez. I had my hands full for sure.
I had to ignore the personal shit between me and Slade and stamp out the attraction that was threatening to boil over with every additional second I spent in close quarters with him.
The problem was that it was going to be way more than a few seconds in his presence. Days, possibly weeks, because of his actions tonight.
I had to keep the big, bad biker president far away from that sleaze ball, Adrian Nolan. There would be some severe, far-reaching consequences for what had gone down tonight, for what Slade had done. The only way to effectively numb the fallout was to change the equation. That meant taking Slade out of it, keeping him off Nolan’s radar.
He wasn’t going to react well to it.
Slade Mitchell wasn’t a guy who was used to being benched. He was always in the thick of everything, very hands-on. This would be like some form of torture to him.
He’d just have to suck it up.
It was for the greater good. His good, actually.
I was doing him a favor. When he calmed down and managed to gain some perspective, he’d see that.
I leaned against the wall and sipped from my glass of scotch as he continued to pace like a caged beast.
The minutes ticked on by with no sign of him calming.
So much for waiting it out. Enough was enough. It was time to lay down the law.
I chugged back the rest of my scotch, then slammed it down on the bar and yelled over his continued muttering of curses, “I explicitly told you not to pull something like that!”
He jolted at my vehement words and stopped pacing. A low growl left him, before he rebutted, “I ain’t one for taking orders.”
“Clearly, that’s a mistake, because I had to save your ass back there.”
“I had it handled.”
That earned a major scoff from me. “Come on.”
Clearly all the adrenaline, frustration and rage from the night had taken him over and he’d reached his tolerance. He couldn’t check it and smashed his fist into the wall and roared, “That motherfucker needed putting down!”
Thankfully, the walls weren’t the cheap drywall kind. They were cedar-lined wood that mimicked the external cedar logs of my cabin. It was located well off the beaten track, a few miles outside the city that Adrian Nolan ruled way too much of.
