by Leah Wilde
“We’ll meet up with them there. First, let’s get what we can from HQ.” I patted him on the shoulder and sent him after our members while I walked up to the building.
I heard protests from the firefighters, telling me it wasn’t safe. The building wasn’t structurally safe. They didn’t know if there was more fire still burning. There was too much smoke. I wasn’t going to find anything in the rubble. There may have been other explosives that still hadn’t gone off.
The paramedics were telling my guys to stay down. They didn’t know the extent of anyone’s injuries or how much smoke they’d inhaled after the explosion. I heard my guys telling them to back off, that they were fine, and that they were going to listen to me before they listened to any of them.
Soon, I was joined by other MC members while we combed through the wreckage of our headquarters. Judging by what damage I could see, I understood the firefighters’ concern that the building wasn’t sound anymore. It probably wouldn’t be standing much longer, and if we were lucky, it wouldn’t fall on us.
I watched as guys pulled handguns out of the rubble and dusted them off. For the first time since I’d been back, everyone was starting to look like Hellions again. They were walking off and shaking off whatever pain or other discomfort they felt from injuries and smoke inhalation they’d sustained in the blast. We were going to be fine, I realized.
“Listen, you really can’t be in here,” one brave firefighter said, approaching me nervously.
“We’ll only be a minute more,” I told him. “Then you can get back to whatever it is you guys are still doing here.” I patted him on his shoulder and sent him back to his buddies.
While we were digging around inside, my phone started ringing again. I checked it. It was Titus. I shot Brodie a look to let him know it was him again. He nodded to my phone to try to convince me to answer it.
“Yeah,” I said as I put the phone to my ear.
“Rogue, it’s good to hear your voice,” Titus said smugly. “I didn’t expect you to answer.”
“Cut the shit, Titus. I know this was you,” I snapped.
“Yes, it was,” he admitted. “Well, actually, I can only take credit for the plan. It was your guys Vance and Drake who took the bait and let my boys in. I owe them. How are they?”
“Funny you should ask,” I said with a hoarse laugh. “Your boys killed them with the explosion.”
“That’s a damn shame, Rogue. You know it? I’m really sorry about that.” He feigned concern.
“I’m sure you are. I’ll send your condolences to their families.” Two could play his fake concern game. “Now, why are you calling me again? I’m in the middle of cleaning up your mess.”
“I couldn’t help but notice your lack of a sense of urgency, Rogue. I wanted to call and remind you what’s at stake here. See, if you don’t show up, I won’t have any use for Violet anymore, and I can let her go,” he threatened.
“Let her go?” I asked. I didn’t like the way his let her go sounded. It sounded a lot like murder.
“Yeah, it just seems like such a waste to keep her around, you know? She knows too much now anyway. She’s a liability more than an asset now. I really need to declutter my life, and I’d hate to have to start with her, but I guess we all have to do what needs to be done,” he said. “You have an hour.” He hung up the phone.
I looked at Brodie and everyone else.
“Guys, take what you’ve got. We’ve got to go,” I told everyone.
In one unified motion, everyone stood back up straight, turned from the rubble, and started to walk out of the building, to the amazement of the men and women watching us. They stepped aside as we walked past them.
“What’s the plan?” Brodie asked as we walked away from the building.
I waved my hand to bring everyone into a huddle.
“Guys, we’ve got less than an hour to meet up with Mason and the rest of our members at Brodie’s place. We’ll be right across the river from our target. We’ll go from there to take down Titus and his men,” I said.
“Less than an hour? How the hell are we supposed to get there from here in that time? We can’t walk,” Brodie said.
“I’m working on that,” I told him.
I looked up and down the street, trying to find a car we could use. I spotted an SUV parked at the corner. I started walking towards it.
“Oh, hell yeah,” Brodie said behind me. I could hear the Hellion finally waking up in him. His voice deepened, and there was excitement in his voice at the prospect of stealing a ride.
I tried the door. It was unlocked. I checked the visor and middle console for keys. They were stuffed into the passenger side visor. I didn’t even have to try to hotwire it. I held the keys out for everyone to see.
“We’re in business, guys.” Everyone hurried to the SUV and piled in. I sat behind the wheel and got her going.
It felt good to be back in business, but it still felt a little odd to be going after Titus in his sister’s name instead of just to get him out of the picture. I didn’t know how I was going to tell the guys to subdue everyone instead of trying to kill them when we got there. We weren’t on a mission to kill Titus anymore.
If I killed him, I would lose Violet completely. If I allowed him to be exposed for who he really was, I still stood a chance a patching things up with her. We were still going to make sure Titus was no longer a threat, but I had to get creative in order to do that.
I was going soft, but I couldn’t let the guys see it. Oh, who the hell was I kidding? They were going to see it soon enough anyway. The trick was playing my softness off as an attempt to work smarter instead of harder.
If I could keep Titus alive long enough for him to stand trial, I could help plant evidence that he’d been involved in the shooting and theft that landed me in prison five years ago. If I turned him over to the law and did it right, I could probably make sure he never got out. And by pulling some strings with the connections I had made when I was behind bars, I could easily make his life on the inside hell.
By foot, the way to Brodie’s house would have taken a couple of hours. By car, it was only a few minutes from the clubhouse to his house. It was also late enough that there wasn’t any traffic on the road to slow us down.
“You mind cluing me in,” Brodie said.
“On what?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the road.
“On what it is we’re doing exactly?” he probed. I couldn’t tell what he meant by that. I had just told him that we were going to his place so we could use it as a staging ground for our attack on Titus and his men. What the hell else did he need to know?
I drove in silence the rest of the way, wondering what the hell was going on with my men.
Chapter 26
Violet
Titus had left again to make another phone call. I was pretty sure I knew who he was calling. He didn’t have to leave the room to talk to Rogue. He could have talked to him right in front of me. It wasn’t like he hadn’t just told me everything. It wasn’t like I didn’t know what was going on. I knew very well what was happening. I knew he was trying to set Rogue up again.
After he finished his phone call, he came back in the room.
“I’ve got better news,” he said.
I rolled my eyes, determined not to entertain him with my response.
“I just spoke to Rogue. Your boyfriend is still alive. He made it through the blast somehow, and sends his love,” he said with a smirk.
He was just fucking with me at that point, trying to get a reaction out of me.
“He says he’ll be in here in roughly an hour to get you.” He said it like he was just going to let Rogue come pick me up, like a parent picking up their kid after a sleepover. I knew he was just pulling my leg. It wasn’t going to be that easy.
“You’re full of shit,” I accused him.
“Which part, though?” Titus asked.
“Acting like you’re just going to let him waltz in here and get me,” I explained.
<
br /> “Oh please.” He laughed. “I never said I was going to let him get you. I just said he was on his way. He’s not leaving here today with you. In fact, little sis, you might not be leaving here today either,” he said, leveling his tone out again. “I haven’t decided yet.”
“What are you saying, Titus?” He found something that could shock me, but it was something completely unexpected and out of left field. Was he talking about killing me?
“I’ve reached a point where I need to cut loose any dead weight in my life. And, Violet, you have become dead weight,” he said matter-of-factly.
“What do you mean, Titus?” My body was starting to tremble with adrenaline and fear. I had never imagined that my life would be in danger under my brother’s watch. I never expected him to talk about eliminating me the way he would have discussed doing the same to Rogue.
“I mean you don’t have a real job. You insist on working behind the counter at a card shop instead of applying yourself and your degree. You haven’t shown any inclination to go back to school for a graduate degree or anything. You are living off of the money I make through my organization, and you show no signs of improving your life, Violet. You are putting a strain on my operations here and on my lifestyle,” Titus explained. He said it like it was just a fact of life, like it shouldn’t have been news to me at all.
But it was news to me. It was a shock to my whole system. I shook my head and fought back my tears. I pushed my softer emotions back to let my anger and revulsion take center stage before looking back up at him.
“You know, Titus, I can understand now why Rogue did what he did to me,” I told him spitefully. If there was even an inkling of that caring brother he pretended to be still inside him, I was going to poke at him until it came out.
“How is that, Violet? How are you going to justify siding with the man who used you to get at your older brother? How are you going to explain his actions to me?” He was hungry for an excuse to say or do something else mean to me—I could hear it in his voice. I was going to feed that hunger even if it killed me. It was beginning to look like I was doomed anyway.
“I would have wanted revenge, too, if you had lured me in and then framed me for some shit I didn’t do. Then, to top it off, you paid everyone to make sure he took the fall for it. I’m sure there was some sort of evidence there to point away from him, but you made sure that evidence was ignored, didn’t you?” I jabbed at him.
“You’re finally starting to catch up,” he jeered. “My naïve little sister is finally starting to figure it all out. I’m proud of you.” He gave me a slow, mocking clap.
It was time to turn up the heat.
“If I had realized what he was doing at first, Titus, I would have given in to him a lot sooner. God, if I had known what I had been missing all those years, I would have jumped his bones the minute he walked in the store with his broad shoulders and big arms. He’s a beast, Titus. You should see him without his shirt on.” I bit my lower lip and rocked my hips the best I could in the chair.
He laughed nervously and shook his head.
“I can’t tell if I’m turning you on or making you angry,” I told him. “Before you told me what was going on between you guys, I started to think you were just jealous of him, like you wished it had been you instead of him. I never knew you felt that way, Titus. I was actually starting to consider, you know…” I said, letting my voice trail off at the suggestion. I couldn’t even say it. The idea of sleeping with my brother was so gross, I couldn’t even say it just to get a reaction out of him.
“Shut your whore mouth,” he shouted at me.
I laughed. It was my turn to play his little talking game. I could see why he did it so much now. It was fun to ramble on and upset the person I was talking to, especially when it was someone like my brother, who deserved it.
“That does it,” he said, nodding. “I’m going to murder your biker thug boyfriend right in front of you. Then, I’m going to kill you. I’m going to make it look like he did it, like he shot you, and after realizing what he’d done, he turned the gun on himself. It’s going to be your classic murder-suicide,” he fantasized.
Every time he mentioned killing me, it sent chills down my spine. I had never been able to read my brother when he was joking or bluffing. There were all kinds of subtle cues he gave me when he was talking, but I never grasped his sense of humor or his bluffs. I was sure they had the same cues, but I hadn’t picked up on them.
“You wouldn’t,” I argued. “Do you really expect me to think you would sacrifice your little sister just to get him off the street?”
He stared at me, speechless. I couldn’t read his cold eyes. His silence said I had called his bluff, but his eyes said he was serious. If he really was considering letting me go just to get rid of Rogue and make sure nothing followed him out of the warehouse, I knew my only hope was going to be Rogue showing up and taking care of him first.
“If he fights like he fucks, you don’t stand a chance,” I told Titus. I closed my eyes and took a slow, deep breath. I was trying to take another jab at him, but my mind did end up drifting off, back to our night together, back to the way he moved inside of me.
I tried to squeeze my legs to contain my excitement, but my knees would only move so far with the way my legs were tied to the chair. I remembered the way I stretched around him, the way my tight, untouched sex wrapped around his experienced, hard shaft.
I rotated my hips in the chair. The memory alone was enough to almost take me there. I gasped as my desire peaked. I could still feel his hands on my breasts, his fingers gripping my tender flesh and taking all of me into his palms.
He had been gentle, but at the same time he was forceful and demanding in bed. I breathed in sharply, deeply through my nose. My body shook. I was on the verge of another glorious orgasm, courtesy of Rogue’s big, hard cock.
“Violet,” Titus barked, snapping me back to the present.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said, blushing. “I sort of forgot myself there for a moment. Damn, Titus. You should spare him just because of how good he is in bed.”
“Shut the fuck up,” he snapped at me.
“I mean, damn. See, if you let us both go, I can guarantee you won’t hear from either one of us again. Damn.” I shook my head, unable to let go of the way my body felt or the remnants of the surge of pleasure and desire that had been interrupted by my brother.
“Violet, I’m serious.” His voice leveled out as he pulled a gun from underneath his suit jacket. The anger was gone. His tone was flat and even. The word I was looking for was resolve.
“So am I,” I continued to tease. I was so horny, I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t get Rogue out of my head. Besides, Titus was just threatening me. He hadn’t even pointed the gun at me yet. He was just holding it so far.
“Violet,” he urged.
“Titus, brother, you may have done us a favor by locking him up for five years. Could you imagine how it would have been if he’d been in there longer? He probably would have fucked me to death.” I laughed. I knew I was really starting to get under his skin, and I was beginning to see that he wasn’t prepared to actually do anything about it.
“Vi—” he started, but he was interrupted by another suit at the door.
“Boss, we have a problem,” the man said.
“What kind of problem? Can’t you see I’m in the middle of some family business here?” he snapped at the man.
“I’m sorry, but you need to come out here and see this.”
“I’ll be back,” Titus said to me, putting the gun back under his jacket as he followed his other suit out of the office.
I could hear voices talking. Some of them were raised. I heard anger and anxiety mixed with urgency. Was it possible that Rogue and his men were there? I didn’t hear any gunshots. Surely there would have been gunshots if his men were storming the warehouse.
I slumped against the back of the chair and listened. I didn’t feel like I was in any dan
ger. In fact, I felt safer than I had when I was talking to my brother. Something was going on. Someone was there, and my brother’s men weren’t too happy about it.
“Alright, make sure you cover us,” Titus was saying to someone outside the office when he opened the door and came back in. He held his gun in one hand and a knife in the other as he hurried around behind my chair.
“What’s going on?” I asked him.
“I’ve got to get you out of here,” he said. “Now. Rogue and his men are here, and they are armed. They didn’t listen to my demands, so I’m going to move you somewhere safe before things get ugly.”
I felt the rope cutting from my wrists. When my hands fell free, I pulled them around to my lap and rubbed my tired, sore wrists.