by Nicole Snow
More than anything, while I lay there tangled in the sheets, one hand cuffed to the bed, surrounded by these killers, I had one selfish regret.
I missed my husband's face more than my own life. Dusty's cool grey eyes, his expert lips, the salt and pepper stubble that used to scratch my face when he explored every inch of me.
I did everything I could to bleach it from my brain these last few months, on the run, and I'd failed miserably.
He was gone, but not forgotten. Robbed away by my own stupid actions.
Focusing on the mistakes wouldn't bring him back. So, I lay there in hell, struggling to remember every last detail of the man I'd loved with as much crystal clarity as I could get through pure delirium.
The next time Dom swore, barking an order to his men, I had a strange, sad smile on my face.
Dusty made me happy to the bitter end, and I wouldn't let anyone take that away.
The end was coming. I knew it the next time my eyelids fluttered open, and I heard a heavy roar outside, several loud engines, snarling and impatient.
Dom and his bastards moved around the room in a flurry. They were getting ready to load us up, and take us to the next world, one wicked way or another.
If there was any justice in the universe, it would be kinder than this one to me and my child.
14
Showdown (Dust)
I brought two guns to settle score. My trusty nine, which saved my life ten times over, and still might tip the balance for my crew when harvest time came. The other pistol hadn't been fired for a hundred years and...well, fuck, Dom would find out why soon enough.
I turned off the road, roaring into that beat up parking lot, as soon as I saw the two vans. Crawl pulled ahead, doing a quick survey, and radioed his confirmation.
They were there.
Very few businesses had tinted windows on their shit, especially out here in the sticks, where nobody cared if tools weren't strapped down according to code.
The cold rain picked up when we surrounded the main entrance. My boys fanned out quick, covering the soon-to-be battlefield like we'd done a hundred times, getting in between the fuckers and their vehicles so they'd have to go through us to leave.
Joker stood at my side. I turned to him, one hand on the nine tucked in my belt, ready for hot death if any of those doors in front of us popped up. “You go talk to the owner, Veep. Find out what room they're in. Tell them to take cover, and that there's ten big in cash waiting if they listen.”
He took off running. This place wasn't huge, and probably hadn't been remodeled since the seventies. Maybe a dozen units, more than half unoccupied. I walked up to the one on the corner, just a few paces from the slots where the vans were parked crooked, giving the assholes the fastest escape route 'til we'd arrived.
Where the fuck's Joker? Firefly and I shared a look across the lot when the Veep didn't show. We were about to go after him when a maintenance door popped open. He stepped out with a gun to his back, clenched in the hand of a nasty looking fucker in a rumpled button down shirt.
Shit! As if worrying about my woman and kid being hostages wasn't bad enough.
The whole crew pointed their guns at the asshole's head, too close for comfort to Joker's. “Let him fuckin' go,” I growled.
“We're just here to talk!” Crawl yelled, pushing his thick black hair away from his eyes. “Just wanna give your boss a message.”
“Fuck you, Pistol cocksuckers. Why don't you tell him yourselves?” He yelled it, and the door we'd been swarming around opened a second later. “Anybody fuckin' shoots, this asshole's getting one right through his head.”
Dom and several more mean looking motherfuckers came out through the new door. I kept my eyes trained on the asshole shoving his gun into Joker's head. Veep looked at me, angry resignation all over his face, silently telling me not to take any shit.
Fuck him, too. He didn't get to be so reckless. The boy had a wife and kid to worry about, same as I did. Even if he was damned near ready to give up his life, I wasn't gonna let that happen.
“Gentleman, gentleman, why don't we all lower our weapons and talk this out like men?” Dominick Barone was shorter and slimier than I expected. The evil glint in his eye was familiar, though, something I'd snuffed out in evil bastards like him dozens of times.
Before the day ended, I'd be doing it once more.
He walked toward me, ignoring the gun I kept aimed at his heart. Stupid sonofabitch practically walked into it before I lowered it. He stood in front of me, too damned close for comfort, a sickly sweet fruit smell rolling out his mouth each time he exhaled.
“You know why I'm here, capo,” I said, his mafia rank bleeding sarcasm on my tongue. “Give me back my Veep, bring me my wife and kid, and maybe we can walk away from this alive. Ain't asking you again, motherfucker.”
“Funny,” he said, a sly smile curdling his lips. “I'm not hearing much room for negotiation, biker trash. And this is a negotiation instead of a straight up shootout, correct?”
No, fuck face. I imagined ramming my nine into his jaw, knocking him on the ground, and burying a bullet deep in his brain. Too bad the people I loved would die if I went loose cannon.
“Name your price, and show me you ain't killing my Veep before we talk about anything.”
“Three million, and not a cent less,” he said coldly, before slowly turning to the man at his side, holding his gun to Joker's head. “Will, you know what to do.”
His chokehold on Joker came off. For a second, I thought the fuck was showing good faith. Fatal mistake, considering I always should have remembered animals like him had no honor.
No sooner than Joker got several paces, moving next to Firefly, the asshole who'd been holding him hostage fired.
Fuck! I watched my boy drop, blood coming thick.
Veep went down, screaming, falling into my Enforcer's arms while his leg gushed from the wound.
Everybody's guns were back up, primed, and half a fuckin' second from going off.
Goddamn, it'd feel good to finally pull the trigger on this bastard's skull, even if it was the last thing I ever did.
“Careful,” Dom said softly, not even flinching when I rammed my nine's barrel into his temple. “I'm taking insurance. Your man is merely wounded. We could've killed him if we'd wanted.”
“Asshole!” Joker screamed behind me, spitting through his teeth, while Firefly ripped through his jeans and bundled the denim tight, forming a crude tourniquet.
“Let's not have any hard feelings over this, Dust. This isn't about ego, whatever you think's happening between you and me. I want to talk.”
“So fuckin' do it,” I snarled, trying to keep my finger off the trigger. “No more violence. If one more bullet flies when it ain't meant to, I swear to Christ, I will kill you where you stand. Consequences be fucked.”
“You want your woman and your son, and I named my price. Bring everything here in the next forty-eight hours, or there's nothing left to discuss.”
Son? Fuck, my grip on the trigger weakened, temporarily taking my mind away from this psycho staring me in the face.
I had a son.
Four simple words that shocked me to hell and back, amping my consciousness to new heights when I got my shit straight, because now I had to live to meet my boy.
“We don't have that much, and I think you know it, asshole,” I said. My eyes shifted to Skin.
“He's telling you the truth. I'm the club's Treasurer.” Skinny boy stepped up, backing me up, neither of us knowing if we were digging ourselves deeper. “We might be worth three and a half or four with all our assets, but only half of that's liquid. It's taken all year to get back on our feet after our coffers ran dry.”
I nodded. “We'll give you a million cash, and make payments, you piece of shit. You can come to Tennessee yourself to collect if you think there'll be any hangups.”
The last part was a lie. I had no intention of letting this vampire drain the club dry and coming anywh
ere near my family ever again.
I'd find a way to kill him. If it didn't happen today, then several months down the line, when the fuckheads came for their money. If we had to part with a cool million to get him off our backs today, to let us all walk away alive, we'd deal.
Dom smiled, too dark and knowingly for anything good to happen next. “Ah, so you can just murder us later, right? I know how biker trash works, Dust. Your friends out west in the Grizzlies and the Devils up north have set too many traps, and I know you're working with them.”
“I ain't Blackjack,” I growled, secretly wishing I had some of the old man's magic right about now. The Grizzlies Prez made a fortune and kept his crew alive against the odds. “I'm a man of my word. You help us find some way where everybody walks away from here without more death or hurt, then we can do business.”
Hurt like hell to say those words because I meant it. Fuck, I'd let them live to fight another day, if I just got Hannah and my son back in one piece.
Joker groaned behind me. Crawl leaning down with them now, applying extra pressure to the Veep's messed up leg.
“You're braver than I expected, but you're just as stupid,” Dom said, yawning as he finally pushed away from my gun. “We have the upper hand. See that room back there?”
He laid his disgusting hand on my shoulder, squeezed it, and pointed. “That's where you'll find your wife. She's very sick. We delivered the kiddo just fine, but we don't have the fancy antibiotics and hygiene like you'll find in a hospital. Her baby seems healthy, for now. Whatever happens to him after today isn't our responsibility if we can't make a deal. That's on you, Mister Prez.”
“Let. Them. Go.” The words barely sounded human when they left my mouth.
This time, I grabbed the motherfucker, shoving my nine against his ribcage, straight at his heart. Every one of his crew trained their guns on me.
Seriously contemplated pulling the trigger. I could kill him here, and give my boys a good fuckin' chance while they cut his crew to pieces, too busy filling me full of lead to fight back.
“We have the upper hand, Dust. Already told you. Don't be a fool,” he said, digging his gun into my chest, too. “We gave our demands. You meet them, or everybody dies, including Hannah and the brat. We set the conditions. We set the timetable. We say fucking jump, and you do it. That's law when one group has more guns than the other. Remember: we're a multimillion dollar, international syndicate. You're a shit stain, drug dealing biker gang stuck in the hills. No fuckin' contest here.”
For a second, I let my eyes wander, looking over the whole ugly scene. Joker continued bleeding on the ground, several brothers protecting him, aiming their guns at the mafia cocksuckers who had their arms trained on me.
Dom sneered in my face. Probably thinking he'd kicked me square in the balls.
That shit-eating smile on his lips didn't last long once I started laughing. He shoved his gun harder into my chest, his hand shaking slightly.
“What?! What's so damned funny?”
“You mafia assholes are all the same. Goddamned know-it-alls who never figure out they're in over their heads 'til the very end.” I grabbed his gun, and pushed it off me. “You wanna fact check and tell me the lay of the land? Let's do it. You've got two fatal flaws in what you think you know, Dom.”
His eyes were wide and rolling now, angrier than ever. He backed up, pointing his gun in my face. “Don't do anything stupid, redneck asshole. Are you high from that shit you push on the streets? Your little family won't make it out of here alive if you –“
“I don't deal junk. That was my old man, and he ain't been in charge for awhile now. That's mistake number one, and it proves you're pretty fuckin' out of touch,” I said, walking forward, keeping the asshole on the move. He took a couple steps backward before he planted his heels in the pavement again, regaining his poise. “You talk a big game about your friends on the coasts and over in Europe. It's like you're clueless we've been making lots of new buddies, too.”
“What? More biker trash out west?” He snorted, shaking his head. “You're really comparing the Grizzlies and the Prairie Devils, more worthless MCs, to a world class organization that's been doing business for the better part of a century? Listen to what you're saying, Dust. It's like you don't realize that even if your men get away untouched – and they won't – that they won't be putting their own lives and their families under the gun as soon as news crosses the ocean. There'll be a price on your heads so fucking high every bounty hunter on two continents will want to collect.”
“Nah,” I said. He stopped, and I put my hand on his gun again, holding mine near his guts. “I'm talking about our friends further abroad. Trust me, the Irish and the Russians are real fuckin' happy with the money we're bringing in from the new gun routes going to the coasts. So happy, in fact, that they're not letting our little dustup spread to their home turf. Your Sicilian brothers overseas are smart. They cut a deal last week, told my friends they wouldn't interfere, whatever happens here. You're on your own, asshole.”
Dom's face twisted angrily. Finally, my turn came to wear the ugly smirk, and I did proudly.
“Don't be mad, asshole. You've still got plenty of leverage. Just a lot less than you thought, considering you've been cut off at the balls by your own family.”
“Fuck!” One of his men lowered his gun, off to the side, pacing in a panicked circle. “He isn't giving us the truth, is he, boss? Tell me he's lying through his fucking teeth!”
“It's true,” Firefly said, standing up and moving over to the man. “I was there myself on the call when we heard your brothers give you up. Sure evens the odds. Our Prez is a genius.”
“Shit...shit!” I saw another one of Dom's men turning pale out the corner of my eye. It was Will, the nasty looking fucker with the dark hair who'd put a bullet in Joker's calf. “Didn't know we were dealing with the Irish, or the Russians! Christ, I didn't sign up for this. I –“
“Shut the fuck up!” Dom spun, turning his gun away from me, aiming it at his own man. “It's a trick, you stupid, spineless cocksuckers. He'll say anything right now to stop us from marching back in there and feeding that fuckin' bitch scraps of her own dead kid. Fuck the negotiating, it's –“
Over? Yeah, it fucking is, I thought, finishing it in my head for him.
My gun went off before the asshole could say the final word. Not the nine in my dominant hand, but the old antique pistol I'd grabbed from my hip, hurling a fat ball of civil war era lead into the demon's spine.
Dom went down instantly, howling in pain. Several more guns barked, and I hit the pavement. Everybody fired at the bastard who'd tried to back up his soon-to-be dead capo boss.
The others took off, running as quick as their polished little feet would carry 'em. “Don't shoot! Don't shoot!” they screamed back at us, dropping their guns along the way, all but surrendering.
Sixty, Crawl, and Skin were on their bikes in ten seconds flat, revving them up, ready to give chase down the highway.
“No!” I screamed, putting my foot on the asshole's shattered back, making Dom squirm harder as he bled. “There's too many cops tooling around. They'll be all over the fuckin' place if we don't get out of here. We'll take the vans, too, if we can find their keys.”
My boys gave me a sharp look. “You really want to let those cowards go, Prez?” Skin raised an eyebrow.
“No, no, he's right,” Joker said weakly, struggling to pull himself up with the trunk of somebody's car. “Tried to talk to that owner before the asshole ambushed me. He looked pretty spooked, like the type who'll call 9-11, if he hasn't already. That shithead from their crew ambushed me, hiding behind his desk, but there's nobody watching him now.”
Fuck. We had something else to worry about, and we had to move fast.
“You heard the Veep! Let's find the damned keys, get them out of that room, and haul some ass.”
Nobody second guessed me. We burst into the room a moment later, and the rest was a blur.
One second. That's all I gave myself to savor the moment, holding Hannah tight in my arms, thinking about how I'd finish the fuckface out front if his blood didn't run out first for keeping her in this dirty gown.
The boys were running in and out, finding the keys, loading up everything they could. Vans and bikes started out front, their engines rumbling together in a steady growl.
“Dusty?” she said, her eyes barely open, as if it took all her strength just to do that.
“Sleep, darlin'. We're bringing you home, and our kid, too. It's over, babe. It's all –“
We heard the sirens blaring in the distance about a second before Sixty came racing up and kicked open the door. “We need to go now, Prez! Hurry!”
Never ran so fast in my life. My heartbeat roared in my ears, harder than any bastard slamming my head into the floor.
We were too fuckin' close to give up now.
I pulled Hannah into the back of the waiting van and held her tight. Firefly sat across from me, the baby carrier next to him, his big hands keeping it from moving too much while the vehicle jerked forward. We got about half a mile down the road before it rolled to a stop.
Then I saw the cherry lights blinking through the tinted windows, and I knew we were fucked.
A minute later there were voices outside. Men talking, cops shouting, probably negotiating our goddamned surrender.
Hannah was burning up in my arms. Still slipped my hand into her fingers, let them clench, and dipped my face to hers.
It wasn't a perfect kiss by any stretch. Her with a fever. Me and my boys about to be arrested for trashing several savage killers the law should've put away long ago.
Firefly's tense, frightened eyes were on me when I finally broke the kiss. Nothing like seeing a big, strong man who'd already been through hell several times crack to make you come undone.