by Zoey Parker
I shook my head again. I hadn’t done anything wrong. Onyx’s voice had started to rise. He sounded more intense. I thought he might hurt me.
“He didn’t have to know. Nobody had to know. Lance? He deserved what he got. He only came along because he wanted the money. He wasn’t trying to help the club. I was trying to give us a way out of the business without pissing off the suppliers and make money while I was at it. I had a purpose, at least.”
Tell him, I tried to say. Tell Vince.
That, I thought he understood. A glimmer of recognition came over his scarred face. His black eyes narrowed again, and my heart nearly stopped beating when he stood and walked to me. I wanted to run, to fight, to cower in a corner and cover my head with my hands. Anything other than being forced to sit completely still in a chair. My arms burned as I struggled to free them. I felt the rope bite into my skin and winced. Blood dripped from my hands.
He stood in front of me, a murderous look on his face. I closed my eyes tight, hoping that whatever he did, he’d be quick about it.
Then I was stunned. He pulled the gag from my mouth, then went back to his chair.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “That hurt.”
“Sure, whatever.” He folded his arms, crossing his long legs at the ankle as they stretched in front of him. “So. You’re supposed to be so smart. Better than us, right?”
“When did I ever say that?”
“Please. It’s obvious. People like you don’t mix with people like us. As soon as this is all over, if you make it out alive, you’ll go back to your life. But that’s a big if.”
I shivered, forcing back the pain in my wrists and arms. Trying to keep my head clear. I had to convince him to let me go. I might even be able to get to Vince before he did anything crazy.
“Why don’t you tell Vince what you just told me?” I asked. “Lay it out that way. He’ll understand.”
“You don’t know Vince. You think you do, but you’re dead wrong. No way he’d understand. I betrayed him, the same as Lance. In our world, there’s only one punishment for that level of betrayal.” He didn’t have to say what he meant. I connected the dots.
“I could speak up for you. I’ll tell him whatever you want me to. I’ll tell him you were good to me here, that you made sure nobody hurt me.”
“That’s bullshit.” His eyes darted away from mine. It had been a guess, but his reaction told me I was closer than I imagined.
I stared hard at him. “I don’t think it is. I think the only way you’d bring me here would be if Alexander and the rest of them promised not to hurt me. Otherwise, who knows what they would have done to me by now. Right?” My voice dropped to a whisper. “He’s only going to kill me anyway. Right? So what does it matter?”
His eyes met mine again. “No.”
“Onyx.” I shook my head. “Yes. Think about it. Why would he let me go? I can still testify that I saw one of his guys—and I know now that his name is Harrison—murder somebody. I’m a witness. He can’t let me live. He’s going to kill Vince and me.” The sensation of warm, sticky blood running down my hands and dripping onto the floor was driving me insane. It was a struggle to stay focused. I took a deep breath of the dank, rotten air.
“That wasn’t part of the deal,” he insisted.
“Do you think a man like him honors deals? Come on, Onyx.” My voice wasn’t angry or condescending. I was very tired, and very sad. He hadn’t even known what he was doing when he stepped into this.
“Why did you have to fuck everything up?” he asked again.
“I don’t know. I wish I hadn’t. You have no idea how much.”
“It was supposed to be easier than this.”
I sighed. “I’m sure it was. I know you thought you were doing the right thing.”
He looked at me sharply. “I don’t need your forgiveness, bitch.” The coldness of his tone was like a slap in the face. It bothered me more than the word he used to describe me.
“I’m not trying to give it to you. What I’m trying to give you is a little understanding. It’s a hell of a lot more than you’ll get from the club now.”
He winced. I saw how much that hurt him and went with it.
“What do you think will happen? When the Wolves take over the Fury Riders? What will you do? Your old club won’t accept you. They might even want you dead. You have nowhere to go.”
“Shut up.” He looked away, and I saw his hands flex and straighten spasmodically.
“There was never a good way out of this. Alexander had it planned the whole time. He was going to take over your MC. He didn’t tell you the whole plan, did he? And now what are you going to get for your trouble? Nothing. No club, no family, nothing.”
“I said shut up! I’ll put the goddamned gag in your mouth again!”
I pushed on. I had to get the words out so he would at least think about them. “There’s only one way you can make it right. One way. If you let me go. You can come with me. We can get out of this together. I’ll vouch for you, I swear to God I will. But we have to go now. Before Vince gets here. We have to stop him from coming. Otherwise, he might die.”
I watched Onyx’s face work as he processed this. Oh, please. Oh, please. Please. He had to see the sense in what I was saying.
He stood. For one brief, glorious moment I thought he was going to let me go. I could already see myself running away, running to Vince. Catching him, begging him not to get himself into trouble for me. And I would tell him Onyx set me free. I would make sure they went easy on him.
I would have done all those things if Onyx had let me go. Instead, he raised the gag, putting it back in my mouth. I screamed in rage and desperation and anguish. Vince was going to die, and it would be all my fault for stirring things up in the first place.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Vince
We rode to the Wolves clubhouse in darkness. It was three o’clock. There was no traffic on the streets. No witnesses to what we were about to do. Clouds covered the sky, which worked in our favor. I didn’t want moonlight giving us away.
We rode in black SUVs, seven men to a car. There were four in all. I’d left two prospects back at the clubhouse to keep an eye on the girls. Frankie, Axel, and Ralph were among the men in my car. We were silent. The tension was heavy in the air.
This was it. I knew I could count on all of them. I was honored and humbled that they wanted to step up with me and go through with something so dangerous. If we managed to pull it off, it would mean the end of the Vicious Wolves. We could sleep a little more soundly at night.
And I would have Erica back.
But would she really be back? I told myself to shut down the thought as soon as it floated to the surface of my brain. It wasn’t the time to think about a relationship. I couldn’t help it though. A big part of me wanted to know what would happen once she was free and York’s MC wasn’t a threat anymore. Where would that leave us? I was good for protection. I was good in bed. Was I anything else to her?
Before we left, Brett had asked me to please bring her home. Tyler and Sam had nodded with tears in their eyes. Home. They thought of her as being one of them. I wanted her to feel the same way.
The first thing I had to do was make sure the plan went off according to schedule. Then, I could worry about whether she wanted anything more from me.
We parked the cars on the street outside the lot leading to the warehouse. When I strained my ears, I could hear the faint sound of music coming from there. Some hair band. Of course. They were partying, celebrating, living it up. This was the night they had been waiting for.
“We’re still ready to go in there with you, boss, if you need us.” Joe and Chip looked at me expectantly, like they were willing to go into battle with me. I knew how lucky I was to have them.
“I know. Let’s deal with the first thing first. Getting the place rigged.”
Chip nodded, and he and Joe pulled down the ski masks they wore, covering their faces. They went ahead
of the rest of us, sliding along the sides of buildings, in the shadows. They were the best shots in the group and would see if the perimeter was clear before we went ahead.
While we waited, I took deep breaths to calm the beating of my heart. I was ready to go, adrenaline pumping through me like crazy. All my senses were clearer, everything focused on getting to Erica in time to escape. She was my priority. I didn’t care about myself.
Ralph waited with the bag of C-4, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He’d been an explosives specialist in the Army before he was wounded. His talents came in handy, just like his network did. He was on edge, ready to go. I wondered if he saw himself on a battlefield again. In a way, he was.
“Chip’s giving the signal,” Axel whispered.
“All right. Like we talked about. Ralph and the rest with the explosives, you first. Lookouts next, fall out around the outside of the buildings around the warehouse. Stay in the shadows.” They went in staggered groups. That left me, Frankie, and Axel.
“You sure you’re ready for this?” Frankie asked. He looked skeptical, but I was used to that from him. I knew it was coming from the right place.
“I’m fine,” I said. “They won’t want you there. It’ll only cause trouble. Trust me. It’s better this way.”
He didn’t look convinced. That was all right. I didn’t feel convinced. I had no idea what York would pull when I got inside. He might kill me then and there. Axel and Frankie knew that if they heard shots, it was time to go in firing. They both swore they didn’t care if they got killed. They’d rather be dead than have York as president.
“What will you do if you see him in there?” Axel murmured. I’d been waiting to see if one of them would ask.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll probably wanna kill him, but I can’t do it in front of everybody else.”
“Maybe York wants you to. He’s a sick fuck like that,” Frankie said. He spat on the ground, shaking his head. “I bet that’s his whole plan. He’ll get off on watching you kill Onyx.”
“In that case, I wouldn’t do it. I won’t give him the satisfaction.” I couldn’t imagine doing it anyway, but I wasn’t about to get into it with Frankie. I knew how much he wanted revenge against Onyx for what he did. I did, too, but I couldn’t be as bloodthirsty as the others. They weren’t as close with him as I was. They didn’t know what it was like having nobody in my life after the court split up my family. When Onyx came in, it was like I had a brother again. He was all the family I had until I felt accepted by the rest of the club.
“This all seems too easy,” I muttered. “I don’t like it.”
“You think they’re waiting?”
“Of course they are. They know I’ll come. He knows it. He called her my girlfriend, for Christ’s sake. I wonder how much Onyx told him.” When I thought about it that way, I hated him. I hated that he used her the way he had. I hated that he was so stupid, he’d let York use him. I hated that he actually made me consider killing him.
“You’d think at least one of them would be outside,” Axel mused. Just then, we heard the sound of a silenced gunshot. It wasn’t completely silent—that was one thing the movies always got wrong—and in the quiet, we heard it clearly. I knew it was too quiet for the guys inside to hear though, with the music as loud as it was.
We ran silently to the clubhouse then, staying in the shadows along the side of one of the abandoned buildings. Chip and one of the others were dragging a Wolf to the side of the clubhouse. “A lookout,” Chip panted. The man now had a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead.
Chip looked shaken. I crouched down beside him and clamped a hand on his shoulder. “You did a good job. It was either him or you.”
“Yeah? You think so?” he asked. His voice was shaky. It was his first kill.
“For sure. These Wolves don’t fuck around. He’d have killed you. I want you to get home safe tonight.” I patted him on the back, and we hurried away from the clubhouse to wait for the okay from the explosives team.
Ralph sprinted to us, half-crouched. “Everything’s set,” he whispered.
I felt all eyes on me. “You don’t have to do this,” Frankie reminded me for the hundredth time. “We can go in guns blazing. Wipe ’em all out. Get her, get home in time for a drink and a blowjob.”
“Who were you planning on sucking off?” Ralph whispered.
“Shut the fuck up.”
I couldn’t believe they were able to joke at a time like that, but I was glad for it. It gave me a little more confidence. They had my back.
“Let’s get synced up with the time. I don’t wanna think I have more than I have.” I looked at my watch. It was three fifteen. “Okay. Fifteen minutes from now.”
“Got it,” Ralph said. I heard a beep. The timer was starting.
I wished I had an extra minute to thank them, or give them some parting thought, but it was too late. I turned and walked to the front door of the Vicious Wolves’ clubhouse instead, telling myself to be prepared for whatever I found inside.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
When I stepped through the door, I wasn’t noticed at first. Nobody heard me. They weren’t very good at keeping a lookout.
The music was so loud I thought my ears would start bleeding. Heavy metal, some eighties band. Typical. There had to be three dozen guys in there, maybe more. No women. I was glad for that. I didn’t want any women to get caught up in the explosion.
The thought that I’d be killing them all went through my mind briefly. Was this the right thing to do? It had to be. They would never leave us alone. I remembered Harrison, and how crazy he was when I questioned him at the safe house. They all had a little bit of that in them. They didn’t care about themselves, so they could be reckless and stop at nothing.
All I had to do was look around to see how little they cared for themselves.
Just then, one of them looked up and saw me standing there. Suddenly they all saw me, and all of them froze in place. They had no idea what to do. Maybe they hadn’t expected me yet, or maybe they hadn’t expected me to walk right through the door the way I had. York might have overthought this one.
“You know why I’m here,” I said. “Alexander wants to see me.”
One of the guys at the table jumped up and ran through a door off to the side. I stood still, sweeping the main room with my eyes. Where was she? It was a huge room, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. All I saw were the sneers and smirks of the men around the table where a poker game had been going on when I walked in. I felt like telling them all to bet big and bluff big. It didn’t matter. They wouldn’t live long enough to settle up. Whether or not I made it out in time, they wouldn’t live to see the morning.
They all looked hungry, in a way. Not physically hungry, even though some of them were dangerously skinny. More like hungry inside. They wanted something they couldn’t have, maybe something they had never had. They weren’t like my men at all. My men weren’t always the smartest or the nicest—sometimes they were flat-out mean and stupid—but none of them were desperate. That’s what it was. Desperation. They might do anything. I reminded myself of that. A desperate man can’t be trusted.
The door opened again, and there was York. The look on his face was priceless and disgusting at the same time. I knew he thought he had won, and it pissed me off. Let him keep thinking it, I reminded myself. Stall for a little time. Do what you have to do. Then get the hell out of there. The clock was ticking.
“Frisk him,” York said. Two of his guys walked to me and patted me down. I held my arms at my sides.
“Clean,” one of them said. It was true. I didn’t have a gun or a knife on me.
“So, the great Vince Baldoni is here. Finally paying us a visit after all this time. What an honor.”
The guys laughed. I gritted my teeth, wondering how long this would have to last before I could get to Erica and run.
“Where is she?” I asked, ignoring the jeers around me.
&nb
sp; “Who’s that? Your little girlfriend? I gotta hand it to you, Baldoni, you know how to pick ’em. She’s sweet.”
The men laughed again, knowingly this time. My blood boiled. If they had touched her…
“She’s in there.” He jerked his head toward the room he’d come from. “A little tied up at the moment, but pretty much the way you left her. Calm yourself down.”
“She comes out. Now. That was the deal.”
