“Woman!” Rob roared so loud, I had to take the phone away from my ear. “Did you know she was in this kind of danger?”
“Rob—”
“Answer me, goddamn it!”
“Don’t talk to me that way!” Mom shrieked.
He was back to me. “Evie, are you okay?”
“I have friends around me.”
“Your man?”
“I’m told he’ll be fine.”
“Let me talk to my daughter!”
“I gotta go now, sweetheart,” Rob said. “But I’m gonna call a little bit later. Please, answer when I call, and just to say, it won’t have anything to do with your mom.”
“What does that mean?” Mom demanded.
Lottie was motioning to me, so I said, “I’ll think about it, Rob. Good luck. And good-bye.”
I was about to take the phone from my ear to disconnect, but I didn’t when he said softly, “Love you, Evie. You’re a good kid. From the minute I met you, wished you were my own.”
Tears filled my eyes again and my voice was husky when I replied, “Thanks, Rob. That means a lot.”
“Take care of you and I hope we speak soon.”
“Okay.”
“’Bye, sweetheart.”
“’Bye, Rob.”
On that, I disconnected and focused on Lottie.
“She didn’t do the block so maybe the stepdad isn’t a total dickweed,” Pepper muttered.
I heard her but more, I heard Lottie say, “Eddie’s got you in.”
My heart jumped, and before I could lose the will to go forward with all this, my mouth moved.
“Let’s roll.”
I grabbed my bag off the kitchen island and marched to the door, feeling bodies close in on all sides.
So I stopped, looked around, and I was right.
Bodies were closed in on all sides.
“You guys can take off,” I said carefully to Pepper, Ryn and Hattie, going carefully because they all were wearing determined expressions. “Thank you for, well…everything today and it sounds lame, but truly, I’m really so sorry this got out of hand the way it did. Now you need to go home, chill out, and this can be Lottie, Tex, me and hottie biker guy.”
“I’m going with,” Ryn stated.
“Me too,” Pepper decreed.
“I’m not leaving your side,” Hattie declared. “Except, of course, when you talk to your brother, if the cops won’t let me in, but I’ll be waiting for you in reception after you’re done.”
Hattie really was all kinds of cute.
Axl was in for a world of goodness.
I didn’t focus on that.
I started, “I really don’t think—”
“Clue in, Evie,” Ryn interrupted me. “This is how it’s done, sister.”
I stared at her.
I stared at Pepper.
I stared at Hattie.
I looked to Lottie.
She was smiling.
I didn’t have a lot of experience with this kind of thing, but from Lottie’s smile, it seemed Ryn was correct.
This was how it was done.
“You said something about rolling?” Lottie prompted.
I nodded, turned and barely took a step when I was brought up short by hottie biker guy standing in front of the door with his long legs planted and his arms crossed on his wide chest.
When he caught my eyes, his deep voice rolled out.
“Guts me to do this, you bein’ on this tear, and I don’t know you, but seems like it’s been a long time comin’, I still gotta say we do not have the go-ahead to ride.”
“I’ll take responsibility for Evie makin’ this play,” Tex said.
Aw.
I loved Tex.
“Not sayin’ she can’t make this play,” Dutch said to Tex. “Just sayin’ she’s gotta make it when her man lifts the house arrest.”
Say…
What?
House arrest?
“Are you being serious?” I asked.
His gaze came to me. “After I got shot, found my woman tied to a chair in a warehouse with her face lookin’ like yours, I set a man on her to look out for her with the simple instructions to keep her safe in my crib, and he did not follow those instructions, I would not be happy.”
“Danny’s more enlightened than you,” I probably lied.
“You do know I know your man?” Dutch asked, and in so doing, sharing that he knew I was lying.
I tried a different tack.
“Please?”
“Babe…”
Gah!
Another “babe”!
“I feel you,” he went on. “Sounds like your family is the pits. But need to remind you what you been sharin’ with your biologicals. You got kidnapped today.”
“You’ll keep me safe. Tex’ll keep me safe. And when we get there, we’ll be in a place crawling with police. I couldn’t be safer than there.”
Dutch didn’t respond.
“Please?” I tried again.
Dutch stared at me.
“I need to do this,” I whispered. “And I need to do it before I lose the courage to get it done.”
He continued to stare at me before he muttered, “Fuck,” pulled out his phone, engaged it and then said into it, “We’re riding. Evan has something to say to her brother. We’re heading to County.” He then disconnected and leveled his eyes on me. “Shit goes down, you do as told. Don’t make me regret this.”
I smiled at him.
Big.
And through it, I said, “I won’t. I promise.”
He studied my smile, his expression changed to something that made my nipples tingle, then he wiped it and said, “Let’s ride.”
Mag
“I’m feeling a more active role in this situation,” Lee Nightingale stated.
“Lee—” Mitch began.
Lee looked to Brock. “Your woman was kidnapped.” Then to Tack. “Your woman was kidnapped.” And finally to Mitch. “And your kids were kidnapped. Now, my woman was kidnapped, twice, so I suspect our shared experience with this kinda bullshit would lead us all to a place we…did not…fuck around.”
“No one’s gonna fuck around, Lee,” Brock assured.
“All right, we’ll just break up on the understanding we always got. You do what you do and me and my men will do what we do,” Lee returned just as his phone rang.
Rush’s phone was ringing too.
Lee ignored his.
Rush didn’t do the same.
“Your boys, or Chaos, or Hawk’s soldiers do anything to fuck with bringing down Cisco,” Mitch began, “and bringing him down clean, I gotta say, respect, but there will be issues. Tony was a good man. Tony had two kids and his wife was pregnant when he was capped. And Cisco is a thug who somehow managed to convince people he’s a boss and none of us at this table are unaware of what that’s meant on the streets of Denver.”
Before Lee could respond, Rush’s low conversation ended and he rapped his knuckles on the table, getting everyone’s attention.
And Mag did not feel good about the fact Rush’s eyes were aimed at him.
“That was Joke,” Rush said. “There’s a convoy rolling out of your condo. Seems your woman engineered a sit-down with her brother.”
Instantly, Lee nabbed his phone.
Mag blew out a sigh.
Then he stood.
And walked right out of the room.
Evie
“Just so you’re prepared, when you enter that room, your brother will be chained to the table,” Hank told me.
God, I thought.
“Fine,” I replied.
“No physical contact,” he went on.
“Again, fine,” I said.
He stopped outside a door and looked down at me.
“Eddie’s in with him now and Eddie will remain in that room with you. He’ll try to be unobtrusive, but he will not leave. I’ll be watching through the one-way. And Evan, I gotta share how far this not-being-a-priva
te chat goes. Anything he says that might incriminate him or anyone he knows, or any information he provides about criminal activities, he will be further interrogated about after you leave. Do you understand?”
I looked right in his attractive, whiskey-colored eyes and declared, “I know a policeman was killed, Hank. I know my brother was in possession of the gun that did that. I know he knew he had possession of that gun, and instead of turning it over to the police, he kept it safe for whoever to do whatever they intended to do with it. So, if he incriminates himself about being involved in this sorry business, that isn’t on me.”
His face gentled and he said, “I’m not asking you to get him to talk—”
But I didn’t let him finish.
“If you were, I’d say yes. This isn’t about that, but if you want to make it so, I’m in.”
His chin shifted to the side in surprise before he replied, “Just do what you came here to do and what comes of it, does, Evie.”
I nodded.
Hank turned the handle on the door and shoved in.
I heard my brother in the middle of saying something, ending with, “…this harassment bullshit. You can’t let every asshole and their brother come in and—”
He abruptly stopped when he turned his head to the door that Hank had gotten out of the way of so I could fully push open and he saw me walk in.
He then paled, jerked in his chair like he was intending to stand, making his chains rattle and Eddie warn, “Cool it, Gardiner.”
I felt the tightness in my cheek, how it was pushing up into my eye.
I also felt the burn in my other cheek, and I knew that graze against concrete broke skin.
I had not had a look at myself, but I could tell by Mick’s reaction the results of my short time with Snag were dramatic.
I glanced in Eddie’s direction where he was standing, arms crossed, in the corner.
He gave me a nod.
I moved in.
“Evie,” Mick whispered, reaching both of his bound hands across the table as I sat down opposite him.
“I’ve had an interesting day, Mick,” I told him, purposefully resting my hands in my lap.
“Sweetheart, honey, oh God, what the fuck?” He started this with coos and ended it with clips.
“You did this to me,” I said.
He blanched further on a flinch and moaned, “Evie.”
I guessed that was the end of my line because I leaned deep into the table and screeched, “You did this to me!”
Mick dropped his head.
I stared at the top of it, but I didn’t see it.
I saw the spray of Mag’s blood on my fucking living room wall.
“You know, the whole time I was captive. The whole time he held a gun on me. The whole time he was tying me to a chair. The whole time he was asking me the same question over and over and over again until he got sick of it and lost it and hit me. The whole time I was lying on my side in an empty warehouse in the cold, tied to a goddamn chair, all I could think about was one thing. When Snag shot Danny in my living room, if Danny had survived.”
“God, this got so dicked up,” Mick told the table.
“Look at me,” I bid.
He shook his head.
“Look at me!” I shrieked.
He lifted his head and now his face was red, so were his eyes, and they were bright with wet.
Once upon a time, that look would register on me.
Once upon a time, that look would bring me to heel because I so badly wanted to be everything a sister should be to my brother.
It was no longer that time.
“He shot my boyfriend in my living room.”
“Evie, I had no idea—”
“You knew.”
He shook his head again. “I didn’t. I had no idea. Things were hot for Snag. They were up in his shit, thinking he had what was in that bag, so he needed to unload it for a while, and he promised me he’d get clear and take it off your hands as fast as he could. No one was supposed to know you even had it. He told me he’d be sure when you grabbed it no one was around. He promised me you’d be safe. I swear to God, Evie, he promised me.”
“So, you admit it. You did this to me. You did it to Danny. You did this to us. You put us right in the line of literal fire, and for what? A favor to a friend? A friend who’s a pimp?”
“I owed him.”
“You owed him, and as usual, I paid.”
“Sweetheart—”
“Fuck you,” I bit out.
He blinked in shock, going so far as to sit back heavily with the weight of it.
“Were those drugs in that bag yours?” I asked.
He began to look shifty and then he sounded it.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
God, I was sitting there looking like I did and telling him about my day, and he was covering his own ass.
How had I not seen this before?
It was a new definition of love being blind.
“Liar,” I whispered. “You’re in the clink and you not only needed someone to look after a murder weapon you promised some piece of slime you’d keep safe, you needed someone to look after your stash.”
“I was just paying on a marker I owed. That’s it. I got nothin’ to do with anything that mighta been in that bag. I was just paying a marker.”
Such a liar.
“You’re dead to me,” I told him.
His eyes got big and he leaned forward, again reaching out with his hands. “Evie, don’t say that.”
“Leave me with one good memory, Mick. If you know anything, anything at all, that will find the man who killed that cop, you tell Detective Chavez.” I jerked my head in Eddie’s direction.
Mick’s face closed down and he spat, “I’m not gonna rat.”
“I can’t imagine why not, considering you’re a complete rodent.”
He looked stunned, wounded, and then he looked ticked.
“Well, fuck you too, Evie,” he snarled.
Really?
Really?
This was where we were now?
Trading fuck yous?
I gave him a long stare before I replied, “You didn’t have to say that, Mick, considering you’ve been doing that all my—”
I didn’t finish.
The door opened and Mag walked in.
His arm was in a sling.
His face was murderous.
And his attention was focused on Mick.
“Honey,” I called.
He looked down at me and grunted, “You done?”
I looked to Mick and decided I was.
So I stood, leaned into a hand on the table that separated us and gave him the words he gave me.
“Do right by your sister, Mick. Do right.”
With that, I pushed away, nodded my thanks to Eddie and moved to Mag.
He took my hand, and connected, we walked out of that room.
Well down the hall, I started, “Danny—”
“We’ll talk when we get home.”
I looked up and saw how hard his jaw was, therefore asked tremulously, “Are you angry with me?”
He stopped abruptly, released my hand, turned to me, cupped my face and bent so his eyes were so close to mine, another inch, and I could give him butterfly kisses.
“No, I am not angry with you,” he decreed roughly.
But that was all he said.
So I replied, “Okay.”
“Okay,” he grunted, took control of my hand and started us walking again.
“Were you watching?” I asked.
“Got there around the time you made him look at you. Determined to give you space to do what you needed to do. Got done doin’ that when he said, ‘fuck you.’”
Well, one good thing about that, he already knew my brother was a douche canoe.
“So, I’m your boyfriend, huh?” he asked.
Oh shit!
He gave me a look I couldn’t quite read, though I knew i
t wasn’t bad, before he pushed open the door that led into reception.
We both stopped dead when we got into the waiting area.
It was crowded.
Not just with Lottie and Tex, Ryn, Hattie and Pepper, and Dutch and his two hottie-biker buddies.
But now also Mo, Boone, Auggie, Axl, a dude that at first glance I thought was Hank’s twin and another hot guy I would almost immediately know was Luke, Ava’s husband, seeing as she, Indy, Jet and Roxie were coming through the front doors as we entered reception and Ava went right to him and got a lip touch.
The other dude was Lee because he and Indy did the same.
Most of these people, I barely knew.
All of these people were mine.
Suddenly, I couldn’t wait for Gert to meet Mag, Mo, Lottie and the guys.
She was going to love them.
“I’m hungry!” Tex boomed. “I’m also feelin’ Mexican. Anyone up for Las Delicias?”
“Does anyone ever turn down LD?” Indy asked.
“I’m callin’ Nancy,” Tex stated, making his way to the door. “You call the gang,” he ordered Indy. “I’ll get the tables and extra chips and salsa.”
Then he was gone.
Guess he was hungry.
I looked up to Mag. “We should get you home.”
He looked down to me. “Feedin’ you first.”
“Honey, you were shot today.”
“I’m fine.”
“Danny—”
“Baby, what did I say this morning?”
That morning felt like ten years ago.
“Which part?”
“About a man who takes care of his woman.”
I clamped my mouth shut.
He seemed okay with me calling him my boyfriend.
But was I his woman?
I didn’t ask that.
But Mag asked a question.
“Do you like Mexican?”
“I love it.”
When he got that answer, he smiled.
Chapter Fifteen
Drop
Mag
Mag let himself and Evie into his condo, flipped on the lights, then made sure the door was locked behind her before he moved in, tossed his keys on the island and went direct for the Fireball.
His shoulder was killing him.
As the doctor ordered, he should have popped a pill and rested after Baldy got done with him.
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