by Chelle Bliss
I don’t get a chance to reply and tell him I feel the same before his lips crash down on mine, stealing my words and my breath.
22
Pike
My eyes fly open as a cold hand covers my mouth. “Pike,” Morris tries to whisper, but being quiet has never been his thing. “Men are on the perimeter.”
I blink up at him as I lift myself, letting his words slide over me, penetrating the haze I still have from the dream I was just in a minute ago.
Gigi shifts in my arms. “What’s wrong?” She goes stiff as soon as she lays eyes on Morris, who’s hovering above us.
“Get your asses up and be ready.” Morris moves toward the door, but he’s still staring at us, a worried look on his face. “Shit’s about to go down.”
Gigi rises next to me, holding the sheet over her chest. “Fuck. For real?” Her eyes are wide, and I can see the fear all over her face.
Morris doesn’t answer as he disappears into the hallway. The only sounds are his heavy footsteps and those of his brothers moving around the compound as the door clicks behind him.
“Get dressed and go into my closet.” I move my chin toward the door on the other side of the room. “Don’t come out under any circumstances. And when I say any circumstances, I mean, don’t come out until you hear me, Tiny, or Morris calling your name.”
She scurries to her feet, gathering her clothes off the floor where I’d thrown them last night. “Don’t come out under any circumstances,” she repeats my words, pulling her shirt over her head and then moving for her pants. “Pike, what if…”
I shake my head, zipping my jeans. “No ifs. If you don’t know the voice, don’t come out. Stay quiet, and no matter what, don’t cry. I don’t want these fuckers finding you.”
“Don’t get yourself shot, okay? No jumping in front of bullets for me.”
I stalk up to her, grabbing her neck and hauling her lips to mine. “Darlin’, I’ll do whatever it takes to get you back to your family and keep you breathing.”
“I’d never be able to…”
I don’t let her finish the statement before my mouth closes over hers, taking what I can get for what might be the last time. If shit goes south, which it could and probably will, I may never have another chance to kiss her beautiful mouth and feel her in my arms again.
I break away, even though I want to hold her like this forever and forget the shit that’s going on outside this room.
“Go.” I run my finger along her chin, memorizing every dip of her lips. “Get in the closet. Go all the way to the back and hide behind my things.”
She nods, walking back slowly, dragging her hand down my arm until just our fingertips are touching. “Be safe and don’t be a hero.”
I’ve never wanted to be the hero, but I want to be hers. I’m not sure I’ve ever wanted to be anything more that in this very moment. No one would get by me and get to her. Not as long as I still have air in my lungs and the ability to move.
“Go, Gigi,” I order her, pulling on my boots, gun by my side on the bed, my body facing the hallway.
A wave of emotion passes across her face as she opens the door to the closet and steps inside. I lift my chin at her, and she gives me a pained smile before finally closing the door, disappearing into the darkness.
I grab the gun, but I stay on the edge of the bed, knowing whoever comes through that door is going to get one of my bullets. I won’t hesitate to pull the trigger, and the brothers here know better than to walk in here unannounced or without calling the all clear.
Gunfire rings through the building, sounding like fireworks on steroids and coming so fast it’s like a hurricane of metal and fire.
A million thoughts cross through my mind as the shadow of boots passes by the door, heading toward the main room where the majority of the bullets are flying.
These guys, the ones I thought of like family, are hauling ass toward the gunfire, shielding us from their spray.
We’re the intended targets, but they’re willing to put their lives on the line so we can breathe another day. They live for shit like this. They crave danger, not giving a fuck if they live or die as long as they enjoy every minute of the time they’re here, walking this earth.
I hold my breath, knowing someone’s going to come through the door if anyone has survived. I pray—something I haven’t done since I was living with my grandmother—hoping like hell we get out of here unscathed. Not just us, but the men putting their lives on the line as I sit in the dark, protecting my girl and waiting for hell to come to me.
I’ve lived through a hail of bullets before, but I had never been the intended target. I’ve been shot, and I sure as fuck am not looking forward to feeling the hot metal slice through my skin again. But I also want to live, having more to live for than ever before.
My father’s sins were following me. His curse was the only thing he gave me besides his name. But after tonight, after the gunfire ends, no matter which side comes out on top, his time in my life will end as well.
The shouts of the men I know are barely audible over the gunfire as it grows louder, coming close to us. I prepare myself, lifting the gun toward the door, poised to shoot anyone who enters. My hand doesn’t shake, even though I’ve never shot a man before. I’ve held a gun hundreds of times growing up in Tennessee, but never have I been more prepared to use it to kill another person than I am right now.
My body stiffens as a door slams nearby. Clearly, someone’s searching and got through the front line. I lift my other hand, gripping my forearm to steady the gun because if I shoot, I sure as fuck ain’t missing.
“Keep lookin’!” a man yells. “I know he’s here.”
He is me, and I’m thankful they haven’t said anything about Gigi. I’m their intended target and not the scared girl hiding in my closet probably losing her shit but following my orders nonetheless.
A single shot rings out in the hallway, sounding more like a firework popping and echoing through the tiny corridor. The knob on my door turns, illuminating my room with just enough light to see the outline of a man. I squeeze the trigger, not hesitating to fire as he lifts his arm, ready to take me out too. But my shot is quicker, and the man falls backward, a clean shot right in his head.
“Don’t shoot,” another man says, but my ears are still ringing from the shot I just fired. “Pike.” I can’t see him because he hasn’t shown his face, probably not wanting the same fate as the dead bastard on the dirty-ass floor.
The gun’s still pointed at the door, my hand not as steady as it was, but I’ll take out any other bastard that tries to walk inside. I keep my mouth shut, not knowing who’s calling my name or their intentions.
“It’s Morris. Don’t shoot,” he says. “They’re gone. All dead but a few already out the door and running for the hills.”
“They’re gone?” I ask, not moving a muscle because I can’t.
“Just this one cocksucker got by us, but you handled his ass. Three more made it out, but men are after them, making sure they don’t get wherever they’re going.”
“Morris?” I ask because my mind is hazy and all I can see is the puddle of blood oozing out of the man’s body.
“Yeah, kid. It’s me. Put the gun down. The shit’s over.” He’s still hiding, taking no chances with me.
I don’t blame him. It’s not every day a man takes the life of another. Morris knows I’ve never done it and how it changes a man.
My hand drops as I take my finger off the trigger, but I’m not ready to put it down. It’s like the metal has fused to my hand, becoming one with me. I’m in shock. I know it. I know my body is trying to catch up with what my mind already knows. I shot a man. I took a life.
“Is it down?”
“Yeah,” I call back to Morris. “Come in.”
He steps over the man’s body, flipping the switch on the wall and bathing the room in light. “Nice shot,” he says as soon as his eyes land on the man with a bullet clean through his forehead.
“I always knew you had it in you.”
“Can I come out?” Gigi says from the closet, no doubt hearing our voices but unable to wait for the all clear. The girl only has so much patience to follow orders, which is maddening, but at least she stayed in there long enough to keep her ass alive.
“Come out, girl,” Morris tells her before I can. “It’s over.”
I’m on my feet and at my closet before she has a chance to see the dead guy on the floor. I grab her face, keeping her eyes on me. “You okay, baby?”
She nods, eyes glistening as she stares up at me. “I’m okay,” she whispers, but her voice wavers. “When I heard the shot go off…” Her lip quivers, and her voice breaks, not finishing the statement.
“I’m fine. We’re fine.” I hold her gaze, trying to keep my shit together so I can convince her that what I’m saying is true.
“Yo!” Morris yells, making Gigi jump. “We got a body over here.”
Gigi tries to look around me, but I hold her face, forcing her to look at me and nowhere else. “Don’t look. You don’t want to have that burned on your brain.”
“Did you do it?” she asks, her voice whisper-soft, the quiver still on her lips.
I nod, rubbing my thumb across her cheek. “It was him or us, and I wasn’t about to end what we have. I told you I’d do anything to protect you, and I did what I needed to do.”
“You killed a man.”
I nod again because I did. I pulled that trigger without an ounce of hesitation, thinking of him as the enemy and not a human being. I didn’t give a fuck if he had a wife and kids. He wanted to kill us, and for that alone, he deserved the bullet he got.
The tears in her eyes build and fall when she blinks. “You protected me?” she whispers as her hands find my sides, gripping me like she needs to touch me to stay upright.
“I’ll always protect you.” I know my words are true. “I told you that, darlin’.”
Boots are behind me, shadows moving around the room as the guys bend down, hauling the dead guy from the doorway. “Take him outside with the others,” Morris says. “We’ll deal with them together. And get Midge in here to help clean up this mess.” There are a few grunts of understanding, followed by Morris’s shadow growing in size on the wall behind Gigi. “I’ll give you two some time to talk and some privacy.”
I nod, not turning around because I’m not taking my eyes off my girl. She needs me. More than she needed me before this shit went down. She heard too much, knew too much, and that shit would mess with her head.
When I peer over my shoulder, there’s only a small amount of blood visible near the doorway. The majority of the guy’s brains and blood landed in the hallway just outside my door and out of sight.
I reach down, lifting Gigi into my arms, carrying her toward the bed. Her head moves to my shoulder, arms around my neck as I cradle her tightly, wishing she’d never had to experience this. I brought this to her door. My father brought this to mine.
“We’re safe now.” I sit on the edge of the bed, resting her ass in my lap, still holding her close. “No one’s going to hurt you.”
“I’ve never been so scared in my life, Pike.” Her fingers toy with the hair on the back of my neck, sending a shock wave of feelings through my system. “Not just for me, but for you. I was so worried that…”
“Shh, baby. It’s over. Stop thinking about it. I’m breathing. You’re breathing. There’s nothing else that matters right now.”
“What about the guys?”
“I don’t know what happened out there, and I’m not ready to find out. Tiny will call for us when he’s ready to tell us what we need to know and what he wants to tell.” I brush my lips across her forehead, needing to feel her softness and be reminded of all the good there is in life to replace the bad I’ve just done. “All that matters is you’re okay.”
“Do you think they’ll come back?” she whispers, toying with the collar of my T-shirt, grazing my skin with her fingernails.
“I don’t know if there’ll be anyone to come back. If any of them made it out, the others went after them on foot. They don’t have much of a chance on all this land with the Disciples on the hunt.”
“I guess that’s a good thing.”
“It’s a good thing for us, but not for them.”
We’re both thankful to be alive. I may have lived within these compound walls for years, but we’d never been attacked and I’d never been in what sounded like a battle zone. My body trembles slightly as the adrenaline that has been coursing through me starts to wear off.
“Do you think we’ll ever get to go home?”
I run my hand up her back and nuzzle my face in her neck, needing her smell, her softness to keep me grounded. “We will, darlin’. DiSantis isn’t stupid enough to lose all his men trying to kill someone who doesn’t know dick about his business. I don’t know how many came here tonight, but based on the sounds, I’d say he lost too many to try to come after me again.”
“Kid?” Tiny calls, knocking on my door but not entering the room. “You two decent?”
Gigi laughs, and the sound is like angels singing, making all the shit that happened seem like it was part of a distant past.
“Yeah, Tiny. We’re good.”
The door creaks, and Tiny sticks his head in the room. “Just talked to James.”
“Oh shit,” Gigi whispers, and her laughter dies. “We may have survived the gun battle, but now we have to figure out how to make it through my family.”
“He’s on his way with a few of her uncles and her father. They’ll be here in a few hours. Get your shit together. You two are heading back.”
I gawk at Tiny as he wipes his bloodied hand with a towel. “But what about DiSantis?”
Tiny shrugs with a smile. “Fucker’s dead. Someone went after him tonight before the hit went down. Took a blade across his neck just before lights-out. He ain’t gonna bother you again.”
I let out a heavy breath like a weight has been lifted off my back that I didn’t know was there. “That’s it? He’s dead. It’s over?” I repeat like the words haven’t sunk in.
“Yup. Dead as a fucking doornail. You have three hours before the guys get here to collect you two.”
He starts to close the door, but I have shit to say and not a lot of time to say it. “Tiny,” I call out, causing him to stop. “Thank you for tonight and everything.”
Tiny nods, still wiping the blood because there’re so many dead bodies out there, I’m sure there’s blood on everything. “You are family, kid, and we take care of our own. I meant what I said earlier, you need backup or safe haven, you come here. Nowhere else.”
I nod. “Nowhere else.”
“Now get some rest. You made it through one hit squad, but you’re about to be in front of another. I have a feeling you’re going to get an earful on the way back.”
“I won’t let them say anything to you.” Gigi gazes up at me from my lap.
“You’re cute, darlin’. If they want to lay into me, let them. I can take it. It’s not like they’re going to be shooting bullets at me. I can handle a little angry talk. Let them get it off their chests, and I’ll take it like a man. They’re probably worried out of their minds.”
“A little angry talk?” she says, laughing with every word. “I know you’re used to badass bikers, but these are Gallo men. They may not wear patches or ride a hog, but I’m telling you now, they’re just as fuckin’ scary. A little angry talk.” She bursts into a fit of giggles, knowing her family way better than I do. “We’re going to get our asses chewed out for a living, and you’re going to wish you were lying in that heap of bodies outside.”
“Come on. We’re alive. How bad can they honestly be?”
23
Gigi
I slam back two shots of Jack as Morris yells that two cars are approaching. The same two cars that are carrying my family. The same two cars that not only carry my family, but men so pissed off, I’m pretty sure they broke every
speed record to get here.
I know what awaits me. I’ve seen my dad and Uncle James angry before, but it was never pointed at me. I figure if I am going to make it through the long-ass drive home, I need a little liquor to make me more agreeable and less likely to argue back.
“You ready?” Pike asks at my side, holding out his hand to me.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be ready.” I try to smile, but it’s impossible knowing my dad is nearby, probably foaming at the mouth.
“It won’t be that bad,” he says with a straight face because he only knows my dad and uncles as the chill guys they can be sometimes and not the raving lunatics they can be when someone in the family is in danger.
“I’ll remind you that you said that.” I grab the bottle of Jack and try to pour myself another drink before Pike takes it from my hands.
“This won’t make things better.”
I try to pull the bottle out of his grip, but it won’t budge as we play tug-of-war. “I beg to differ.”
“Get your asses moving,” Morris yells out, standing at the open door of the building, glancing back at us as we’re locked around the bottle of Jack.
“Fuckin’ fine.” I let go, knowing it’s a lost cause and we’re out of time.
“The girl lives, sees death, but the attitude never leaves,” Morris mutters, glancing up at the dark sky and shaking his head.
I walk away from Pike, stalking toward Morris, the guy I’ve grown fond of over the last few days. “Thanks for everything, big guy.”
He blushes as he tips his head down to look at me. “Don’t be a stranger, kid. Make sure to keep that boy in line, ya hear?”
I laugh, nodding at him as I wrap my arm around his middle. “I promise to make sure he walks the straight and narrow.”
Morris’s arm is around me immediately, holding me tightly. “Maybe I’ll come visit. I could use another piece.”
“I’d love that.”
“You two done?” Tiny says, stalking by the doorway, heading toward the headlights.