by Rie Warren
They grumbled with every bull’s-eye Blaize killed. The fact she hardly paid attention to her aim was drawing a fuckload of attention to her skills.
And that was never a good thing.
“You might wanna try missing a few t-zones, cher.” I leaned into her, subtly changing her aim.
With a flip of her hair and a flirty giggle, she purposefully fired off a few wild shots.
Burn collected a handful of bills from Kouto. “Knew it. Last night was pure luck. The chick couldn’t really hit shit if she tried.”
They scraped back their chairs and left, barely glancing back.
Why did I feel like we were the ones under surveillance?
We continued pulling triggers and plugging holes into our targets.
My lips barely moved when I asked, “What are we doing about Slade?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Misfire
“NOTHING FOR THE MOMENT. We stand down on him.” Blaize reloaded her weapon.
“Are we considering him an asset or an enemy?” I persisted.
“I can’t get a read on him yet.”
“What about what Walker and Justice said?”
She snorted. “Walker all but told us he went off range to help this no-namer—and potential game-changer—on an unsanctioned op last spring. And Justice—hell, both Walker and Justice—have honeymoon on the brain. I believe they know what they know. But that doesn’t mean we should get in bed with Killian Slade.”
“I fuckin’ hope you’re not considering getting in bed with him.” I hit three bottles in quick succession, shattering green glass like shard-sharp rain.
“Figure of speech.”
“Speaking of figures . . .” Getting a little bit closer to Blaize, I held her hip in one hand and lowered my lips to her neck.
She shuddered. “You’re just trying to wreck my concentration.”
“Would that be so terrible?” My lips skimmed up to her ear, and her Walther wavered.
“We need to discuss the mission plan,” she whispered breathily.
“Oh. I definitely have plans for you.” I snugged my groin against her ass.
“Yes. We went over those last night. Twice.”
“Three times.”
She hissed when my palm brushed the underside of her tit. “Need I remind you I’m packing a gun right now?”
“Tell me somethin’ new.”
“The only way we get Legion nailed to the wall is if we catch them in the act. With all the key players. In one place. Go after them with RICO.” She curled her fingers around mine, drawing them down to the flat of her belly. “How’s that for new?”
“Legion, Los Reyes cartel, and the terrorists all in one place?” I asked. The gun-coke-money triangle: just the usual one-percenter triumvirate.
“Yes.”
“What about backup?”
“Since when have we had backup?”
“Probably a good thing since we can’t trust the local LEOs per Venom. Fuck. This is gonna be a shit storm, Blaize.”
“You’re the logistics man. The one with the connections here. You need to convince Venom to set up a drop with everyone again.”
I dropped my head to her shoulder, cradling her from behind. “I don’t want Angel caught in the crossfire. Or charged with anything.”
“Then you probably shouldn’t talk to me about how you’re going to keep him safe, Storm.”
“It’s gonna come to you and me against them.”
“It always was. You knew that.”
“And Solomon? Shar? Nikki and—”
“Kat?” Blaize turned in my arms and looked up at me. “We’re not gunning for innocent targets, Storm. If they cooperate, corroborate . . . WITSEC.”
“We don’t know if they’ll cooperate,” I gnashed out.
“Feel like shooting something now?”
“Yeah.”
She lined ’em up. I took them down. When my cartridge was empty, I loaded another, and only when that magazine clicked on empty did I holster my piece.
“Your turn, Blaize.”
“Don’t mind if I do.”
We’d been out here for over and hour, the sun’s autumn rays warming us.
Her bare arms glistened, her taut muscles flexed. Her body positioned right in front of me.
I decided to have a little fun because fuck knew what tonight or tomorrow or even the next hour would bring.
“You should adjust your aim, cher,” I whispered against her ear.
“And you should step off. You know the rules of the range.” Her spine straightened.
Her shoulders pulled back.
She squeezed the trigger.
Just as I goosed her ass.
Blaize was pissed.
I was loving it.
“Don’t think I won’t shoot you too,” she hissed.
“Temper, temper.” I wrapped my arms around her, lowered my stance, and levered my hand around hers on the sidearm. “Go for center mass.”
“Oh, I know all about center mass, baby.” Reaching for my cock, she squeezed that rigid trigger, too.
“Interesting pointers, Storm.” Venom’s guttural voice cut through my glory moment.
Blaize stiffened.
I turned to find Venom lounging behind us in the chair earlier vacated by Kouto. He held a full beer bottle by the neck in one hand, and with the other he lazily rolled the cylinder of his Ruger. The one he’d made me play hairy Russian roulette with. Twice.
Blaize misfired.
On the target.
And my cock.
Venom, that fucker.
I almost had her down on her hands and knees for me.
“Your girl really got the goods to come through?” Venom peered down the silver barrel at me.
Loaded gun.
Aimed in my direction.
From Venom.
I held my pistol down at my side.
I really wanted to raise it on him.
“I think I can hit a bull’s-eye, Venom.” Blaize’s syrupy sweet words drew his gaze toward her. “Storm told me what to do.”
Christ.
Spinning to the new bottles lined up, Blaize splintered all of them one-by-one. Then she pointed the weapon at Venom. My eyes widened. Standing completely still, she stared down Venom before shooting the bottle from his hand with a shattering sound. Glass and beer sprayed around him, an echo of the fountain in the foreground.
My fingers pulsed on my Sig when Venom stood, dropping the remains of the beer bottle to the ground. He slowly shook his head.
Blaize put her .38 on safety, showing absolutely no fear.
My hairs stood on end. How long had he been watching? Listening?
How long before our time was up?
With a loud laugh, Venom hitched his Ruger into the back of his jeans.
“Where’d you say you found her again?” He looked up at me.
“Holding up a bank in Tennessee.”
“That so? Thought you said she was your pen pal when you were in lock-up.” He grabbed the napkins Kouto and Burn had left on the table and preceded to wipe off his arm. “Ain’t surprised, though. Can see how a woman like her would have more than one story.” He pointed his finger at Blaize. “Good aim. You be sure to be a good girl to Storm, now. I’d hate to find you . . . aimless and alone. No telling what would happen to you then, Blaize.”
As soon as Venom left us alone I hustled Blaize into the house, up the stairs.
Fuck.
So many prying eyes.
I kicked the door shut. Locked it.
Wheeled on her.
And damn right I took her weapon off her.
“You always have to prove a point?” Holding her chin in my hand, I rammed my tongue into her mouth.
There was no slow.
No waiting.
“Just once I’d like to make love to you.” I sneered.
“What’s stopping you?” Blaize stood in front of me, a fury in her own right.
“You and your smart mouth. Jesus Christ, Blaize. No wonder you stay out of the field. You’re the fuckin’ risk-taker.”
“You like it.” She turned her back on me.
Wrong move.
“He’ll come after me. Not you,” she hissed when I gripped her arm.
“That does not make it one bit better, Blaize.” I tugged her around to me. “That makes it worse. Someone needs to strap you to a desk or tie you to a bed.”
“I dare you to try it.”
Standing off. Close to kissing. Wanting to smack her ass. Hide her away. Scuttle this mission.
Knowing none of that was an option.
I lifted her in my arms. We hit the walls. In a hurry. She bit my lips, my neck. She scratched my chest and tore at my shirt.
We wrangled my jeans to my thighs. Freed my cock.
I shoved her top above her tits. My mouth on them immediately.
Landing on the bed, I jerked her back and back and back until there was no more room.
Blaize didn’t take it easy on me. Her nails bit into my skin, scoring red lines.
She opened her lips, opened her legs, cried out so loud when I slammed into her.
No words.
Nothing but a raging hard fuck.
Who knew how much time we had left?
I held onto the headboard. Driving inside her wild wet heat with my thick long thrusting cock.
Bites.
Slanted kisses.
Gasping moaning curses.
Braced up on my fists with her fingers digging into my forearms, I reared into her. Fucked her. Had her. Spilled inside of her. Came so deep, so hard, so fast a tight fist of lust exploded.
With our smoking guns right beside us.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Center Mass
I’D GOTTEN MY SUMMONS the next night to convene in the barroom of Thunder Road. For the past thirty-six hours Blaize and I had played the game like it was just biz as usual. And even though I was seriously fucking tempted to tie her up to keep her tethered to the bed, just to make sure she stayed somewhat safe, I somehow managed to refrain.
I began to consider any day that started out with the two of us still alive a good one.
And we were still alive as I sauntered downstairs.
The barroom was emptied of the regular horny ladies in waiting as well as a lot of the Legion crew. Only the officers sat around the largest table, arranged by rank, and longtime members lined up against the walls creating a scowling black leather fortification.
None of the usual joie de vivre in the form of loud tunes, bottles of booze, or rowdy roughhousing.
Looked like it was time to get down to business.
Immediate alarms went off in my head. Feeling a little queasy, I glanced once at Angel, who nodded at me. With a casual move, I patted the pistol tucked at the back of my leathers before taking my chair next to Venom at the head of the table.
“What’s all this? Did I miss my party invite?” I bluffed through the tension that made my shoulders stiff and tight.
Angel started placing stacks of cash on the table.
“Payday,” Venom said with a nod to Angel who pushed the bricks of green toward our prez. “Made a business transaction with a new lead to sell the cocaine. Lucrative, huh? I’m thinkin’ we might branch out into smack next. Could upgrade the digs. Build us a fucking castle or somethin’.”
He began passing out the cashola, and the mood momentarily lightened as men collected their pay and flipped through the bills.
He shoved a large stack toward me.
Great. I could donate it to my favorite charity. Pornhub.
I reached for my share of the loot, but Venom suddenly withdrew it. I sat slowly back in my seat.
“You know”—he took out his cocaine sniffer, tapped it on the table, looked at me with narrowed eyes—“I think I worked out why you came back, Nash LaFontaine.”
Fuck. Nerves skittered all through me. I hoped I could draw faster than any of these other fuckers. I’d need to nab someone else’s gun in order to shoot it out of here, but it definitely wasn’t an impossibility.
I’d been up against worse odds before.
Folding my arms across my chest, I lounged back. “Oh yeah? Why’s that? The food. The booze. Or the company?”
A smirk grew up the side of Venom’s mouth.
He was totally playing me, but I couldn’t quite figure out how.
“For Ange.”
“Angel?” I looked over at the blond dude who’d straightened right up in his seat.
“Me?” He frowned.
I chuckled from deep in my chest. “We were always close but—never like that.”
“Oh hell no.” Angel’s brow crinkled. “You gotta be kidding me, Venom.”
Venom laughed from his belly, a jovial enough sound, except I suddenly knew what he was gonna say next, and it might just be enough to put the shakedown on me.
“He really doesn’t know, huh?” Venom squared his shoulders toward me. “That you’re brothers?”
“What?” Half standing from his chair, Angel leaned across the table.
The entire room went dead silent.
With a jerk of his chin, Venom motioned Angel to sit the fuck back down.
“Somethin’ I figured out last time you were here. Somethin’ his dad said before he died—”
How does Venom know what Lucian said with his last breaths?
More suspicion swept through me.
I suppressed the urge to reach for my gun before this scenario got any hairier.
I felt Angel staring at me. Could almost hear him grinding his teeth in order to keep his mouth shut when no doubt a million-and-one questions wanted to leap off the tip of his tongue.
Venom continued, enjoying the way he had everyone in thrall and me by the balls. “Yeah, Lucian mentioned Ange had a half brother. A dude called Nash. He also said I might wanna keep an eye on you if you showed up in Angel’s life.”
“That’s bullshit! I don’t have a brother. I never knew my mom—” Angel’s eyes peeled wide, and he stared at me as he went white to the lips.
Venom steamrolled over him. “’Course I couldn’t do that because you up and disappeared right after you were taken into police custody.”
“Didn’t disappear from jail. They let me out. For good behavior.” I maintained my same relaxed stance, one arm slung over the back of my chair.
My comment earned a few guffaws from the surrounding men.
Inside? I was slowly dying because I couldn’t get Angel alone to talk to him. To explain to him. I sensed him staring at me like I was a stranger he’d just as soon spit on than say how-do to. And it hurt. It cut like a sharp razor blade right through my heart.
“Then I started making deals with the jihadi, and you turn up again.” Venom’s eyes lit with evil intent.
“Don’t forget the rednecks from Tenn-tucky.” I grinned, trying to keep the internal pain off my face. “Don’t blame it on me you went multicultural.”
“Oh, I ain’t blamin’ you. Just trying to get a read on you, Nash.”
“Same ol’ good ol’ boy from down on the bayou I always was.”
“Here’s what I think.” Folding his hands on the table, Venom looked between Angel and me. “Either you’re thinking about selling us down the river. Or you and your brah here are gonna make a run at a takeover of the Blood Legion.”
Angel jabbed a finger toward Venom. “I didn’t even know he was my fucking brother! This MC is my life, so don’t go trying to pin shit on me.” Angel looked about ready to blow his stack when he swung on me. “You knew? All this time? You were my friend. The guy I looked up to.” He shook his head. “I thought I didn’t have any family left. Now maybe I wish that was true.”
“Angel.” Standing up, I reached out to grab his shoulder. “Your dad died right before I joined up. You were mourning. Hell, the whole Legion was—”
The bar filled with a chorus of quiet murmurs in memory of Lucian L’E
sperance.
“You think that would’ve been a good time to go hey, by the way, we got the same mom, but she’s dead too?” I gripped Angel harder.
And fuck, I wanted to hug him, get him away from here, tell him about all the times I’d wanted to come back for him but couldn’t.
“Don’t touch me. Don’t give me that mentor bullshit either.” He shrugged away from my hand. “And don’t you even think about trying to make it up to me now.”
“Guess I’m not the only one who might be wondering about your allegiance, Storm.”
“My allegiance is right here. The brotherhood of the Blood Legion. Nothing’s changed.” Part of me wanted to put a quick end to this meeting so I could talk to Angel alone, but I couldn’t cut out, not with the distrust in the room coming at me in thick, angry waves.
“What about making a run for prez, like you were talking about?”
I refused to lose my temper. “I meant when you retired.”
Asshole.
“Only way I plan on retiring is when I’m in my grave.”
“Then I hope you live a very long life.” I kept my tone light, my expression bland.
Inside?
I can’t wait to end you like the human trash you are, Venom.
I listened to unconcealed grumbles of discontent all converging on me from Venom’s henchmen. Angel stared off away from me, his eyes flinty and hard. Kouto ever so subtly—not—laid his shiny sharp machete on the table.
“You can see why I’m having trust issues.” Venom patted the stack of cash meant for me.
“Any other grievances you want to air?” I asked.
“Not at the moment.” He rhythmically tapped his coke straw on the table. “You?”
“Nada. Never had any in the first place.” I started shoving my chair back, hoping to get upstairs to Blaize and regroup before any more shit hit the fan.
“Hold up,” Venom said.
I stilled, fighting every instinct to take out my gun and make a run for it.
“Just one other thing actually.” Venom raised his finger in the air.
The door leading to the hall banged open, and I swiveled around.
Slade strolled through, hauling a very uncooperative Blaize behind him.