by Jayne Blue
Gunner did as he was told. Colt bound Gunner’s hands behind him just like I’d done to Jinx.
“Good. Now, Gunner, it’s nothing personal but I’m going to need you to take a seat against that wall by the fireplace where I can see you.”
Colt patted him on the back to let him know it was okay to do what I asked. I kept my gun pointed at Colt as he took a seat on the couch next to the fireplace. He was casual, resting one booted ankle over the opposite knee, his arm stretched over the seat back. I sank into the chair opposite him with my back to the wall.
“Aren’t you going to disarm me?” he asked.
I smiled. “That’s a reasonable question. But I think you’ve figured out by now if my plan was to kill you, I’d have already done it by now. Now, I’m giving you a show of good faith that your instructions aren’t to kill me either. What I would like is for you to very slowly slide your gun onto the table between us where I can see it.”
“You first,” Colt said.
I leaned back into my chair and crossed my legs. “Relax, Colt. You’re safer than you realize. As soon as Sly gets here, I’d be happy to explain why.”
He reached behind him and slid his gun out, holding the barrel down. He placed it on the table between us. If he was very quick, he could still get to it. Except I was quicker and I think he understood that.
“I just came here to talk,” he said. “That was the truth.”
I nodded. “I believe you. And I have every intention of telling the truth too. But Sly needs to be here. He needs to hear everything from me. How long did you tell him to wait before he could come back?”
Colt smiled. A million thoughts raced through my head. I could just carry out Kagan’s contract now. One pop and it was over. Gunner was a problem, of course. But once I left, none of the Great Wolves would ever see me again. I’d have my retirement money, Kagan would have no reason to come after me, and Sly would still have his life. A few days ago, that would have seemed like an easy choice. Now though, I knew what it would cost.
Sly’s love for me would turn to stone-cold hate. He’d try to find me. He might fail, but I didn’t know if I could just walk away and never see him again. Not have the chance to try and explain. There might still be one chance left to fix this in a way that wouldn’t hurt Sly, slim as it might be.
“Is it Kagan?” Colt said, leaning back into the soft leather cushions of Sly’s couch. My heart tripped. How much did he already know?
“Let’s just wait for Sly,” I said. “I don’t want to have to cover the same ground twice. An hour? Is that what you told him? That’s how long I would have told him. What was your plan? Were you going to have Gunner here knock me around for a while or were you hoping to get to do it yourself?”
I chanced a look at Gunner, his face turned white. “I would never have ...”
“Save it, Gunner,” Colt said. “Scarlett, I don’t know what you think I am. Or what you think this club is, but nobody was planning on hurting you. That is, not unless you had ideas about hurting one of us. Is that what brought you here? Sly doesn’t want to believe it but he’s sensible. He gets how it looks. You showing up here when you did.”
“Look,” I said. “You aren’t going to want to believe it, but at the moment, I’m the best friend you have. And you may not want to believe this either, but Sly matters to me. A lot. And that’s the reason why I’m your best friend. Now, I’m going to let you reach into your back pocket and you’re going to take out your phone and call him. Put him on speaker. My guess is, he’s already on his way. That’s good. Tell him to drive safely. We have a lot to talk about.”
“I like you, Scarlett,” Colt said. “It’s kind of obvious that’s a ridiculous thing to say but there’s a part of me that wants to believe you. For Sly’s sake. He’s in love with you, you know? When he finds out the whole truth about who you’re working for, it’s going to crush him. You know that, right?”
My heart churned inside of me. Sly had me tied in knots. The rule book was out the window where he was concerned. Up until now, every decision I’d made had been rooted in self-preservation. Now, sitting here wasting time with Colt Reddick, I was putting my life and my freedom at risk. Sly could want me dead. Maybe I’d want the same thing if I were in his place. And yet, a part of me had to believe I could make him understand. I could make them all understand. Because if I couldn’t, there was a very real chance both Sly and Colt would be dead by the end of the day.
Colt reached behind him, slow and easy just like I’d warned him. He had his cell phone in his hand as he pulled his arm back. Then two things happened at once.
There was movement to the left of me. I saw it in my peripheral vision, from the large glass window overlooking the mountain view. Colt’s eyes stayed locked with mine as I began to turn. A red laser pinpoint hovered near his ear.
At the same time, the front door opened. I didn’t have to turn toward it to know it was Sly. If I had turned toward it, it might have been the last thing I ever did. Instead, I dove forward across the table, grabbing Colt by the shirt sleeve. He toppled over the back of the couch with me as the first volley of bullets shattered that wall-to-wall glass.
Chapter Twenty
Sly
I took Tiny’s Harley and rode for home. Colt wouldn’t answer his damn phone and that had me worried. Very worried. As I hurtled down the winding back roads, I knew something was wrong. Either the woman I loved or one of my best friends was about to get hurt, if they hadn’t already.
No one had accused me of anything. It wasn’t judgment I saw in the faces of my club brothers, but their looks of sympathy burned hot inside me. I knew better. Sawyer was right. If the situation had been reversed, if Scarlett had gone home with Colt, I would have asked the same questions. Now, my own inability to not think with my dick may have cost me dearly. But Colt crossed a line. He lured me away from my own fucking house in order to get Scarlett alone behind my back. No matter what else happened, there’d be a reckoning between us.
And Scarlett. I wanted to throttle her. I wanted to fuck her. A part of me wished I had just done what she asked and run away with her this morning. She tried to tell me something. Tried to warn me and I was too blinded by lust or love or something in between to see it.
I cut the engine on the bike and parked it at the end of my long driveway. Whatever was going on up there, I didn’t want to give anyone the heads up that I’d arrived. I took the gravel driveway at a run. I was desperate to get in there at the same time I dreaded what I would find.
I opened the door to hell.
I saw Scarlett in profile against the window, her secrets laid bare before me as she pointed a gun straight at Colt. She had Gunner against the wall, his hands tied behind his back. He looked at me and started to say something. Colt turned toward me when I walked in. She didn’t. She was on her feet as my glass wall shattered in a million pieces behind her. Bullets zinged past and I hit the floor, just in time to see Scarlett drag Colt down over the back of the couch.
“What the fuck?” On instinct, I flattened my back against the wall and sank down to the floor. They’d have to run across the hallway and behind the couch to make it to the front hallway where I stood and out the door. I pulled my gun out of the holster at my side, thanking God I’d played it safe and armed myself. I looked up.
Scarlett became some other person. She was cool purpose and action. She grabbed Colt by the arm and he dove with her behind the couch. Pressing her back against the wall she waited; catching my eye she set her jaw into a grim line. I gave her a quick nod and pointed three fingers toward the floor and counted them off one by one. On three, I stood up, held my arms straight out and shot off a round of cover fire letting Scarlett, Colt and Gunner run to my side.
While I kept shooting, Scarlett checked on Colt. He put a hand up. “Just nicked me in the shoulder,” he said. “I think my damn ear drum’s blown out.”
“Gunner, are you hit?” I called out.
He was still pres
sed against the wall looking white as a sheet. He shook his head. “When I say go, we haul ass out of here, okay?” Gunner nodded. I looked to Scarlett. “Grab him if he falls over.”
She gave me a thumbs up, grabbed another magazine from the purse slung over her shoulder and jammed it in to her Glock hard.
“Now!” I shouted.
With his hands still tied behind him, Gunner barrel rolled over to where we were crouched. Scarlett popped around the wall and let off another round. She ducked just as the drywall exploded above her head.
“Shit,” she hissed. “I think it’s just one. Colt’s gun is on the coffee table. How much have you got left?” Her eyes blazed when she looked at me. I’d walked into chaos, the woman before me was a stranger. And yet, as she fixed those brilliant hazel eyes on me, her breasts heaving with exertion and adrenalin, my heart thumped. This was a different kind of turn-on and I knew I might be losing my damn mind.
“I’m probably half empty,” I said. She nodded, pulled another clip out of her purse and tossed it to me.
Black Talon. “Good choice.” I said. She pulled a knife out of her back pocket.
“You planning on throwing that?” This from Colt.
Scarlett cocked her head, shrugged, then cut through the zip ties binding Gunner’s wrists. “Can you move fast when you have to, big guy?”
Gunner nodded.
She looked back at me. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes flashed. I had twin urges to either shake or kiss her senseless. She mouthed “trust me.” Then she stood up and put herself in the line of fire. The air went out of my lungs when I realized what she was doing.
“Is that you, Varney?” she called out. “Your aim is still for shit.”
Silence. I started to rise to stand next to Scarlett. She put a hand on my shoulder to still me. Then she put a finger to her lips.
“I wasn’t trying to hit you, Scarlett.” The shout came from the back patio. Way too close for my liking but she was smart. We could gauge how close he was by the sound of his voice. “That’s your one courtesy warning. You shoot back again and I’m not going to give a fuck.”
“Oh, Varney. You’re breaking my heart. And you’re claim jumping. This isn’t your job. So just get the hell out of here and I won’t keep shooting back. You know how good my aim is.”
Another shot cracked just above her head, ricocheting off the light fixture and cracking into more drywall. Scarlett didn’t so much as flinch. My blood roiled. My fingers twitched on the trigger. Enough of this shit. I put my fingers in her back pocket and pulled her down. When she looked at me, I made a small movement with my chin, pointing toward the front door. I motioned to Colt and Gunner. Inch by inch, we were on the move.
“How’d you hear about this one, Varney?” she called out again and I pulled her backward. “Can you at least clue me in on who fucking sold me out?”
Laughter. The shooter was getting closer. I tugged her pants again to get her to look at me. I gestured with five fingers down and grit my teeth so hard I could taste blood. This shit was ending now. Someone was in my house, shooting at my guys. And she knew exactly fucking why.
Did I trust her? If she wanted to kill Colt or Gunner or me, she certainly could have done it by now. And my heart ached from a growing hole in there at the thought she was playing me this entire time. For now though, there was no time to worry about it. I just had to concentrate on getting us the hell out of here and bringing down whoever was out there.
I counted down to three with my fingers. Colt and Gunner looked to me. I knew they wanted me to leave her behind. If I misjudged, they’d follow my lead straight into an ambush.
Two. One.
I started shooting again as the four of us charged down the hallway in a sort of running pig pile. I kept my free hand on Scarlett’s shoulder. She drew down and started shooting right along with me.
And then we were out the front door and running. Gunner had the presence of mind to slam the front door shut behind him and that gave us just the edge we needed to get down to the Hummer before whoever and whatever came blasting through the front door after us.
Scarlett stopped short just before diving into the back seat. There was a second guy crouched near the shrubbery in my front yard. I would have shot him dead if she hadn’t stepped in between us. She grabbed him by the shirt collar and sent him sprawling to his knees.
“Lewis, you little prick.” She straddled him. His own gun went skittering across the driveway and he put up two shaking hands in front of his face. I didn’t get much of a look at him as I slid into the driver’s seat and revved the engine.
“Get us the fuck out of here, Sly,” Colt said from the passenger side. “This has nothing to do with us anymore.”
“Scarlett,” I called out. With Colt yelling in my ear, I couldn’t leave her. Even if I was the world’s biggest sucker for thinking it, I couldn’t leave Scarlett. Not without hearing her story. Even if every word of it was a damn lie.
I couldn’t hear what the asshole on the ground said to her. Whatever it was didn’t help his case. With a deft flick of her wrist, Scarlett flipped the gun in her hand and knocked the guy in the temple with the barrel. Out cold in an instant, he crumpled to the ground. Then, with more strength than I would have thought possible, Scarlett hauled him to his feet, flung his limp arm around her shoulder and started dragging him toward the car. At the same time, my own front door started to open and I knew hell was about to break loose. Dragging the dead weight of her companion, Scarlett was never going to make it to the car door in time. She pleaded at me with her eyes.
“Fuck,” I muttered. Then, with Colt screaming obscenities after me, I slid out of the driver’s seat and went to her. Together, we ran for the car, and heaved the guy in the back.
A bullet cracked by my ear as I dove back into the driver’s seat while Scarlett climbed in the back. Then, without looking behind me, I jammed the Hummer in reverse and slammed on the gas. I felt another bullet bounce off my right front hubcap before I turned the car around and hauled ass down the driveway.
Chapter Twenty-One
By the time we reached the Den, Colt had already got the word out that we were on lockdown. The bar patrons had been cleared out. We made a motley group heading in the back door. Colt had blood streaming out of a grazing wound on his shoulder, Gunner lost his lunch in the parking lot, and Scarlett and I brought up the rear dragging her still passed-out captive. She’d called him Lewis.
Sawyer held the door open, his expression priceless. When Scarlett and I passed him, he shrugged his shoulders, pointing to the unconscious Lewis. “Who the hell is that?”
I looked at Scarlett and back at Sawyer. “He’s . . . he’s Scarlett’s.”
Absurd as it was, it seemed to satisfy Sawyer and the others for the time being. We brought him into the conference room. I ordered most of the membership out save for Sawyer, Colt and Tiny. I heaved Lewis onto the leather couch against the wall. He slumped to the side but he was starting to come around. I got a good look at him for the first time. He was lanky and thin with nut brown hair, thinning at the temples. He wore a tan designer suit—Armani probably—with douchebag loafers and a blue tie. Scarlett removed the tie and bound his hands in front of him with a creditable handcuff knot. Then she took zip ties out of her purse and secured his feet. She was full of fucking surprises today.
“Thank you,” was all she said as she finished immobilizing him with the calm efficiency of a career kidnapper.
Colt, Sawyer and Tiny had taken a seat at the conference table. They sat there with their hands folded, looking to me for answers. I tore a hand through my hair and started to pace.
“What the fuck, Scarlett?”
But she was cool as ice and hard as steel. She straightened her back and turned to me. Her eyes were dark, her face almost expressionless. She put her hand behind her and drew her weapon out. Movement behind me as Colt and Sawyer went for theirs. But Scarlett held hers butt out and stretched her arm out slowly,
placing her Glock on the table. She held her hands out away from her body and motioned toward the nearest chair with her chin.
I sighed deep and nodded. “Sit down.”
“Sly,” Colt started. I put a hand up to silence him.
“Can we talk alone?” she said. Her voice was flat and dry, like she’d resigned herself to some dark fate. It occurred to me she had good reason to believe she was in mortal danger.
“Boss.” Colt spoke up. “Whatever her story, it involves the whole club.”
I turned on him. It was my Irish temper flaring. This was still my club and I was done with Colt’s bullshit. I thumped my chest over my president patch. Colt gave me a hard look but kept his tongue in his head. I turned back to her. “Colt stays.”
Without another word, Sawyer and Tiny shuffled to their feet, did some awkward throat clearing, and left the room. Not before Sawyer shot Colt a look. I didn’t like it one bit that he was looking to him for direction instead of me. For a thousand reasons I wanted to shove my fist through the wall. I took a breath and sat at the far end of the table next to Colt. Then I turned to Scarlett.
“Who do you work for?” I said. My words felt like burning acid.
Scarlett folded her hands together and placed them in front of her on the table. She blinked hard and pursed her lips. Then raised her head and looked at me, her eyes filled with pain.
“I work for whoever is paying me at the moment. Right now, it’s the Devil’s Hawks M.C. Bruce Kagan put a contract out on you. I took it. It’s what I do.”
Just like that. Simple words delivered with icy clarity. She gutted me. The Hawks. The fucking Hawks. Colt’s intel on Jinx Howell staying in her room came back to me, making a cold pit form in my stomach.
“You fucked with my brakes.” I kept my eyes fixed on hers. I wanted her to say it.
She swallowed hard and pointed her thumbs behind her. “He did that.”
I clenched my fists. Colt stirred beside me. I know he was worried I would blow any second. So was I.
