Not Acceptable Red Eyes MC Romance Series - Book #3)

by Blair Grey

  “What are we going to do?” Braxton asked as we walked out of there. “That Mambas hostage didn’t tell us anything.”

  “First things first,” I told him grimly. “I’m sorry, but I have to figure out where Anne is. To make sure that she really is safe.”

  “And then we do some more waiting?” Braxton asked.

  I shook my head. “I think we’ve done all the waiting that we’re going to do,” I told him. “The pieces are in motion now. They know we can identify at least a few of their guys. And they also have to be pissed that we foiled their attempt to get at Anne this morning. They’re done playing with us, I’m sure. There won’t be any more waiting.”

  “Good,” Braxton growled.

  We went to Anne’s house first, but she wasn’t there. I frowned. “You don’t think she would have gone back to the pharmacy, do you?” I asked.

  Braxton shrugged. “I don’t know her,” he reminded me. “I have no idea what she might have done.”

  “We’d better check, just in case,” I said grimly.

  To my surprise, Donald was there when I got back. “You again,” he said, narrowing his eyes at us. But he didn’t go running to the back room this time, and I wondered if he had stuck around to watch Braxton and me beat the shit out of the three other guys that morning.

  “Where’s Anne?” I asked.

  Donald gave me a weird look. “I figured she was with you,” he said. “Wasn’t that why you came swooping in here earlier, to make sure that she was safe?”

  “Yes,” I said tersely. “But then she went off on her own while we dealt with the three goons.”

  “Well, she isn’t here,” Donald said, shrugging and looking around as though making a point of how obvious it was that Anne was nowhere to be seen.

  It felt like my skin was too tight, and I was about ready to strangle the guy. “Do you have any idea where she might be?” I asked.

  I could see the flicker of something in Donald’s eyes. He knew exactly where she was, I was sure. But he shook his head. “If she wanted you to know, I’m sure she would have told you,” he said.

  Braxton narrowed his eyes at the idiot pharmacist and took a menacing step forward. “Listen—” he started to say.

  But I cut him off with a hand on his arm. The last thing I wanted was for him to send Donald running. We needed him. I needed to find Anne.

  Donald looked back and forth between the two of us, and finally, it seemed to dawn on him that we weren’t going to leave until he told us whatever it was that he thought he knew. “She might be at her friend Lina’s house,” he said. “I think I have the address here, hold on.”

  Sure enough, a couple minutes later, he was copying down the address onto an index card for us. “Thank you,” I said pleasantly as I accepted the card, slipping him some cash as thanks for his cooperation. Donald looked like he didn’t even want the money, and he didn’t respond as we walked out of the pharmacy.

  “I think we should call Jason as backup,” I said to Braxton as we walked out. I frowned. “I wonder where he got to anyway. He was with us when we had those guys in the alley, and then he just disappeared once we were back at the clubhouse. You don’t think he’s afraid of a little interrogation, do you?”

  Braxton frowned and then dragged me to a stop. “I know you think you’re the brains of this mission, but has it ever occurred to you that Jason might be the rat?” he asked.

  “What?” I asked incredulously. “What in the world makes you say that?”

  “Just think about it,” Braxton said impatiently. “He’s the only one who knows where we’ve been. How did that kid just happen to come up to the right car when we were staking out that business? How did they find us there? Or at the restaurant, the day that they pickpocketed you. I invited Jason out to lunch with us and told him exactly where we were planning on going. But he said he has something else that he needed to do.”

  I shook my head. “Neil trusts him,” I reminded Braxton. “And he definitely doesn’t seem to like the Mambas either.”

  “Says what evidence?” Braxton asked. “You’ll notice he didn’t exactly jump in to help when we were beating up those guys this morning.”

  “You told him he was backup,” I reminded him. “He probably just wanted to make sure you got in enough punches to satisfy you.”

  Braxton stared at me for a moment and then shook his head. But he didn’t argue with me anymore. “All right, boss,” he said sarcastically. “Give him a call if you want to then. It’s not my girlfriend who we’re rushing off to save.”

  “We don’t have time to investigate it now anyway,” I pointed out. “If he is the rat, we’ll have to deal with him later.” But I shoved my phone back into my pocket without calling Jason. I had to admit; there were some points of Braxton’s argument that were only too plausible.

  I rang the door when we got to Lina’s house, and it swung open almost immediately. But the woman, Lina I supposed, burst into tears when she saw us. “You’re not the police,” she wailed.

  I blinked at her, wondering just what Anne had told her. “No, we’re not,” I said slowly. “I’m Landon, and this is my brother, Braxton.”

  “I know who you are!” Lina snapped. “But you’re too late.”

  “Too late for what?” I asked, feeling my blood run cold. “Is Anne here?”

  “She was,” Lina informed us. “But she’s gone now. Some guys came and took her away. I couldn’t stop them.”

  “Where did they go?” I asked, even though I knew she probably didn’t have any clue.

  Lina waved up the street to the right, though. “That way,” she said. “They were in a big black van.”

  “Come on,” I said to Braxton, immediately running down to the car and getting in. We had to follow them. Before it was too late.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about what Neil had said, about how by the time he and Ray got to where they were holding Ray’s mother, the Mambas had already killed her. I couldn’t let Anne suffer that same fate. I had to find her before the Mambas were done toying with me. Before we ran out of time.

  I peeled off down the street, going too fast for the nice residential area. But fortunately, no one was there to stop me.

  Finally, we spotted the black van, abandoned down an alleyway right next to an empty building.

  “Do you think they’re in there?” I asked Braxton.

  “Only one way to find out,” he said grimly.

  We raced into the building and up the stairs, eventually finding Anne on the fourth floor, in a large open space that might once have been an office, judging by the open floor plan and the upturned desks stacked in one corner.

  Anne was kneeling in the middle of the room, and one of the Mambas guys was holding a gun pointed directly at her head. “Anne!” I said, rushing forward. But with that guy and his gun, I was worried to get too close. I didn’t want him to take it as provocation.

  “So nice of you two to join me,” I heard from behind me. When I whirled around, Jason was standing there. He had a gun in his hands as well, but it wasn’t pointed at the Mambas guy. Instead, it was pointed at Braxton’s head.

  “I told you he was the rat,” Braxton grumbled, and I knew that if we made it out of here alive, he was never going to let me live this down. The one time that he had been smarter than I was. The one time I should have been following his lead.

  Jason laughed. “Get down on your knees,” he said to Braxton, and I watched as my twin grimaced but complied.

  I looked back and forth between the two of them. Anne on one side, Braxton on the other. Both on their knees, both with guns pointed at them. If I made a single wrong move, they could both be dead.

  Fuck.

  34

  Anne

  I wanted to wipe away the tears that continued to stream from my eyes, but I was afraid to even breathe with that gun pointed at me. It wasn’t the first time I had ever been this close to a gun, but it was definitely the first time I’d ever had a gun poi
nted at me before.

  The tears only grew stronger once Landon and Braxton arrived. If only there had been a way to warn them. But it had all happened so suddenly. One minute, Lina and I had been chatting in her kitchen, and then next thing I knew, these two guys were there in her house, one of them grabbing me and the other one warning Lina not to get involved.

  Now here we were, Landon standing in between his brother and me, looking back and forth like he didn’t know what to do. And at that moment, I just knew that I was going to die. There was no getting out of this alive. Not when they had a gun to Braxton’s head as well.

  They’d give Landon a choice, I was sure. Me or his brother. And even though I was starting to suspect that Landon might have feelings for me, just like I had feelings for him, it was nothing that we’d had the chance to speak about yet. And what’s more, even if I loved Landon and he loved me, that was nothing compared to his love for his brother.

  He would have to choose his brother.

  Landon, to my surprise, sneered at the guy holding a gun on his brother. “What, just the two of you?” he asked. “You mean to say that we beat up more than half of your MC this morning?”

  Jason scowled at him but didn’t deign to respond to that.

  “You’ll find that the two of us are plenty to make you lose the two people that mean the most to you,” the man holding the gun next to me said pleasantly. I heard a click as he removed the safety. “So foolish of you to stick around, Landon Stevens. This was never your battle to begin with.”

  Landon gave him a look. “If you were a member of a real MC, you would know a thing or two about fighting battles for other members,” he told him. “Ray raised Braxton and me like we were his own sons, from the time we came into Red Eyes. We owed him. And he owed Neil.”

  “Maybe,” the man said, inclining his head. “But I can’t help thinking that Jason was brought up in Red Eyes as well, yet here he is today.”

  Landon looked over at Jason, his disgust clear on his face. “Well, we can’t all be two-timing scum,” he said.

  I was trying to figure out what the hell he was playing at here. Did he really want to piss off the guys with the guns? But suddenly, as I saw him nod at Braxton, I realized exactly what he was doing. He was trying to distract the two gang members so that he and Braxton could attack.

  Even as I watched, Braxton surged to his feet, kicking Jason’s legs out from under him and then wrestling him to the floor. Unfortunately, I was no match for the guy with the gun pointed at my head, and as I turned to face him, I was looking straight down the barrel of the gun at close range.

  And instantly, it was as though time had slowed down. Like I had time to reflect upon my entire life. I thought about everything that I had done, and everything that I might have done differently. About everyone that I loved, starting with Landon and ending with Lina. Hell, I’d even add Donald to that list. He was an obnoxious misogynist sometimes, but I had to admit, ever since he’d started trying to be a better person, he was much more tolerable. And he had at least thought about trying to save me that morning, with that baseball bat of his. I had to give him credit for that.

  I thought all of this as I stared down the barrel of that gun. But then, the world sped back up again, the man fired his shot, and I heard myself scream, as if from a great distance.

  The shot never hit me, though. Instead, it was Landon who crumpled to the ground in front of me. The other gun went off twice, and I turned in horror to stare at where Braxton had been. If both brothers were dead, that surely meant the end of me.

  It was Braxton holding the gun, though, and both of those guys fell to the ground. Dead. They were dead.

  I knew I should be horrified, but all I could think about was Landon. I scrambled to where he lay on the floor, turning him over so I could get a good look. God, there was so much blood. I couldn’t even tell where it was all coming from, couldn’t find the entrance wound let alone an exit wound. And the more I looked, the more my hands were covered in the blood of the man that I loved, and the more hysterical I became.

  “Landon!” I cried, shaking him in an attempt to wake him up. But distantly I knew that he had lost too much blood, that he was still losing too much blood. We had to get him to the hospital.

  Braxton put his hand on my shoulder. “I called an ambulance,” he told me. “They’ll be here in just a minute. But before they get here, I need you to listen to me very carefully.”

  I nodded at him, trying frantically to focus on his words.

  “I need to get out of here before they arrive. I need you to tell the police, when they get here, that Landon killed these two. It was self-defense. Do you understand?” Again, all I could do was nod. Braxton squeezed his hand tighter on my shoulder. “Landon killed them,” he repeated. “And it was out of self-defense.”

  “Landon killed them out of self-defense,” I echoed hoarsely. “But where are you going to go?”

  “I have something else I need to take care of, but I’ll meet you at the hospital.” He paused. “It’s going to be all right. Don’t give them any more information than that, though. Tell them you’ll need a lawyer first.”

  “How do you know that?” I wailed. “Some pharmacist I am. I can’t even tell where he was shot, and I’m sure there’s something I’m meant to be doing to stem the blood flow, but I just don’t know what to do!” I had never felt so helpless before in my entire life.

  “Call it a twin’s intuition,” Braxton said. “He’s going to be all right.” He looked down at his brother, and I could see the way he swallowed hard, the way his face turned just a couple shades paler. He was trying his best to put on a strong face for me, but I could tell that he was just as worried.

  Off in the distance, I could hear sirens. They were coming closer.

  “I have to get out of here before they arrive,” Braxton repeated, and this time, he didn’t wait for an answer.

  But I repeated his words anyway: “Landon killed them, but he did it out of self-defense. Because they had their guns pointed at my head.”

  There was a key part missing from the story. The reason why we were there in the first place. Why had these guys kidnapped me? But my mind was blank. I couldn’t seem to think of a reason why these guys would have kidnapped me and trained guns on me.

  Except that Landon was part of a motorcycle club and these guys were part of a rival gang. But I couldn’t tell them that. They would arrest Landon before we even made it to the hospital, I was sure.

  Then, I remembered the other thing that Braxton had said. Don’t give them any other details. Not until I had a lawyer present. I wasn’t on trial. I hadn’t done anything wrong. All I had to do was tell the police that Landon had shot these guys and that he had done it out of self-defense. Let them fill in the rest of the blanks, or let Landon figure out how much he wanted to reveal once he woke up.

  If he woke up. I swallowed hard, hating to think of that possibility.

  The emergency rescue team burst out of the stairwell and rushed over. I was nudged out of the way, and I stood off to the side, feeling shock course through me. The police followed shortly after the ambulance team.

  “Miss?” one of the guys said, looking at me with concern.

  I turned my hazy gaze on him, feeling faint. “Landon killed the two guys,” I said before he could even ask. “But it was out of self-defense. He was just trying to protect me. And they shot him.”

  I could feel my breathing speed up and knew I was going to faint. The cop wrapped a blanket tightly around me and guided me toward the floor, helping me breathe into a bag to calm myself back down. I looked at my hands as they gripped the paper bag. They were streaked with blood. Landon’s blood.

  “I’m Officer Johnson. Are you injured at all?” the policeman asked.

  “Just some bruises,” I said, knowing that all in all, I had gotten off pretty lucky. I should never have been dragged into this mess to begin with, but Landon had done exactly what he had promised. He had pro
tected me.

  It might have cost him his life.

  “I have to go to the hospital,” I said, suddenly realizing that while I was panicking, they must have taken Landon out of the room. There were more policemen in there, too, putting body bags on the other men. But I didn’t care about them. I tried to get to my feet, grateful for Officer Johnson’s support as I swayed. “I have to get to the hospital,” I repeated weakly.

  “I’ll take you there myself,” the man promised. “Your husband is going to be in surgery for a little while anyway, though. He’s lost a lot of blood.”

  And I could see that. There was a whole puddle of blood on the floor where he had been lying. Plus all the blood on my hands.

  The blood on my hands. Because if he dies, it’s my fault. He died trying to save me.

  I wouldn’t have been in this mess if it weren’t for Landon, but right now, it felt like I owed him my life. “I have to get to the hospital,” I repeated once more, stumbling toward the door.

  35

  Landon

  I blinked open my eyes, staring up at the white, popcorn ceiling. It was the buzz of machines and the faint beeping of another that let me know where I was. The hospital. I frowned, trying to remember how I had gotten here.

  When I shifted, I could see I wasn’t alone in my room. Braxton, Neil, and Ray were all slumped in chairs at my bedside, all three of them looking exhausted. Braxton’s eyes lit up when he saw me looking at him, though. “He’s awake!” he cried. “You’re awake!” He gave me a big hug, mindful of my shoulder.

  I frowned at the wad of bandages on my shoulder, but I couldn’t tell what they were covering up. “What happened?” I asked, my voice raspy with disuse.

  My three visitors exchanged looks. “What do you remember?” Braxton asked slowly.

  Suddenly, I realized who wasn’t there, and it was like a cold bucket of water had been dumped on me. I forced myself into a sitting position, making to tear out the tubes in my arm. Braxton immediately grabbed my hands in a firm grip. “Don’t,” he said.