by Carmen Faye
"Gabriel?"
"Speaking," he said and it almost clicked before she spoke again.
"This is Nicole, Gabriel."
"Where are you?"
"That's not what I'm calling about. I want to make sure you understand that I'm gone. That I'm done. I have a new life and I intend to leave the city soon. Even if you find me, I won't come back. I'll never perform the show again. I'm done. I didn't take anything and I owe you nothing. Goodbye, Gabriel."
Then the connection broke.
Gabriel stared at the phone unable to give names to the emotional turmoil rising inside of him. There were so many, though most could be categorized under the heading of murderous.
Antonio calmly rose and picked Gabriel's phone up from the desk. He checked the caller ID and wrote down the reported number for the last caller onto his note pad. Then he set the phone back down. "I'll have her back on her schedule in one hour, ready to meet a client in three," Antonio said with peaceful assurance. "Is there anything else you require right now?"
Gabriel looked at him, then to his phone, and then back to Antonio. The white noise of murderous rage began to subside, "No, that will be all."
"Then after this matter is handled, I will be off for my regular three days. Davis will be your contact. He's a good man."
Gabriel nodded. Davis was a good man. "He might do well as a bodyguard for Nicole on her return, don’t you think? She is obviously so naïve; she is a danger to herself. I want to ensure nothing happens to her, Antonio. She is very profitable and must be able to work."
"Of course and I'll let Davis know of his... reassignment."
"Be sure to tell him that it is temporary and that he will be replaced and returned to his normal duties as soon as we can find someone suitable. Also assure him that his pay remains the same with normal commission considerations. I don't want him thinking he just got demoted."
"You are very generous," Antonio suggested.
"Yes,” he mused, examining this unprofitable corruption of his personality, “it appears that I am."
"I'll also get a new driver," Antonio reported as he walked for the door.
"The last one was very good from all reports. Perhaps you can locate him again."
"He has already moved onto another situation. He's into drug running now, I believe."
"That's a shame. I should give some thought to driver incentives for when we come across men of his caliber. Nicole told me his skills actually were the main reason she was able to salvage a high paying new client."
"I'm aware of the story, yes. It was admirably handled. Even the client was impressed," Antonio agreed.
"Goodnight, Antonio."
"Goodnight."
Read on for an excerpt from the sizzling sequel
Rogue Stallion
And now, an excerpt from Rogue Stallion
CHAPTER ONE
Cole pulled his bike into his drive, clicking the garage door opener attached to his handlebars and watched blankly as the door began to ascend. The Lowrider purred, sounding good. He would take it in for a tune tomorrow anyway. He just completed a run down to St. Louis, out to Kansas City, then up to Des Moines. This completed the schedule, so back to Chicago he rode. To date, that was the longest planned ride of his experience and he loved the journey, but he was glad to be home. He missed Nicole more than he could stand and spent an embarrassing amount of time talking to her on the cellphone.
Nicole came bouncing out of the house, running up to meet him with a smile on her lips and sex in her hungry eyes. She squeaked with glee and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him across his face and then narrowing down to his lips.
"Holy shit I missed you, baby!" she exclaimed breathlessly. "I'm so glad you are back. Are you back? Do you have to go anywhere else tonight?"
"All done. Let me get the bike into the garage and check her over. Then I'll come inside."
She nodded happily, "I'll get dinner started and some beers out."
"Make mine a Coke. I need the caffeine," he requested.
"I visited with Angie today and she gave me a bit of a pick-me-up. Want some? Wake you up?" she asked.
"It will wake me up and put my dick in the dirt. Can't maintain erections on that stuff, but I'll give you good pillow talk," he offered.
"Never mind. I don't know anything about crystal. Haven't seen any for years in fact. Not even sure what it is, now that I think about it. So, a Coke? Cause I am very horny, lover. I have no idea what the fuck you did to me, but for a gal who use to think she thought about sex all the time, I'm seriously thinking about sex all the time," she pouted. "Only now it is all about how I'm not getting any because my lover is in fucking St. Louis."
"So, you did a bit of that crystal I take it," Cole decided.
Nicole bit her lip, "I'll get dinner."
"Good idea."
She tossed her hair into a shower of gold as she spun and skipped back toward the front door. Cole watched her with warm amusement and then he pulled the bike inside, hitting the switch to close the door behind him. He checked the bike over—oil, air, belt, and tires. Then he leaned back against his tool bench and let exhaustion fall down on him. It was a good and profitable trip, but perhaps not the thing for him. Still, he made more money this week than he ever made in the same amount of time while doing something he loved to do.
His eyes suddenly focused and he realized that he had been dozing. "Might as well do some crystal. Not going to be much use to her anyway," he muttered, and went out the side door, and into the back door of the house, walking a tired but content stride through the kitchen looking for his lover.
She was at the front door and from her posture he could tell she was seriously scared.
"I called him, Antonio. I made it very clear." She was saying.
Cole then heard a professionally calm voice say, "Yes, I was there. It was quite amusing, Nicole, but unfortunately there is no out. You have a client tonight, in three hours. We need to get you there. Brian is your new driver; he’s in the car and this is Davis, who will be your bodyguard. We are very concerned about you right now. You are not making healthy decisions. So we are taking on a bodyguard's expense to ensure that you are safe, even from yourself. Now, do you have things you would like us to gather up for you?"
Cole knew Antonio and Davis. Brian, he dearly hoped wasn't a Chrome Horsemen, or this was going to get ugly and very difficult to explain. Antonio was the most dangerous. He was brutal and as skilled in close quarter combat as they come. His history boasted over thirty years of serious experience and when a man is an enforcer for the mob for thirty years, you don't take him lightly. He is a man who made it a habit to stay alive while making other men dead.
Davis was a monster. He was nearly as tall as Cole's six-four, but outweighed Cole by at least sixty pounds. Cole didn't know him well, but he had the reputation of being a knife man. So far, no one noticed him in the house and he made sure they wouldn't by changing his course as he came up behind Nicole, drawing his weapon.
They weren't going to take no for an answer, so he wasn't going to bother asking the question. Against a superior enemy, which he was, ambush is an acceptable and effective tactic. He just reached the position he wanted to be in when Nicole shouted "No! Don't touch me!"
"This is will hurt if you do not come," Antonio told her in his eerie calm voice.
Cole located the position of Antonio’s voice on the other side of the door and fired at mid-height three times, then adjusted his aim to near the door jam area, across the portal, where he figured the bodyguard would be and sent four rapid shots into the wall, blowing apart the jam and splintering just about everything in the area.
Then he grabbed Nicole by her shoulder and spun her hard, sending her back into the house and flying for the couch while keeping his aim on the door area as he did. He heard her thump into the couch cushions just as the door was slammed, sending it flying on its hinges to crash into the entry wall, but by that time Cole was pulling the trig
ger. He fired, adjusting his aim as information presented itself.
The first face he saw was Davis, who had his gun out, but was looking the other direction—a fatal mistake. Cole calmly fired two slugs into Davis’ head, then swiftly adjusted his aim again as he spun on his knees, going as low as he was able to without losing balance while pulling the trigger on Antonio four times, going for center mass.
Cole's gun clicked empty, but instead of going for the extra clip in his jacket, he hurtled it at the surprised Antonio's face while sprinting forward as fast as he could. Cole caught the corpse of Davis as it slid down the doorjamb and removed Davis' gun from his dead hand in time to see another man running up the walk outside from the waiting limo. The new man had a gun in each hand. Keeping the stunned and dying Antonio between himself and the other man, Cole called out, "Horseman!"
The man stopped. "Chrome Horsemen?"
"Yes!" Cole replied making sure the man heard him. But staying out of direct line of fire.
"Cole? Shit! Is that you, Cole?"
"Yes! I don't want to kill you man, but I will. I'm in no gaming mood."
The man put his guns away and lifted his hands, "No, not between brothers man. What do you need?"
"I need to get to the clubhouse, fast. Myself and one other. And I need you not to know where we went. You're going to catch flack for this, Brian."
"Not from anyone important," Brian told him. "I'll make some calls, get riders to meet us on the way. I would advise moving now and not taking anything with you except what you need for survival. We'll buy everything else. Get on your bike and ride. I'll follow in the limo."
"Got it," Cole agreed, very relieved.
He didn't know Brian by name, but he recognized him now. He was one of the new guys, just came in to patch-holder status less than three months ago. That Brian was on the security teams list already strongly suggested he had hardcore experience and top of the line training. Cole was happy not to have gone up against a man with credentials obviously much better than his own, especially in a fair fight.
Antonio collapsed.
Cole looked down at him and saw no life in the enforcer's eyes. "Fucking tough son-of-a-bitch," Cole hissed and put Davis' .45 under his belt in the front of his pants, then retrieved his own weapon and reloaded.
Nicole was watching with wide eyes as Cole went through the house, pulling out three more guns from various hiding places and eight more clips. He tossed Nicole's jacket to her, "Still have your stash here?"
She nodded, but didn't speak.
"Get it, now. Move!"
His voice drove her out of the couch and sent her flying down the hall. She came back with a black backpack, shrugging it on over her leather jacket. "I don't know... I don't know what to do," she gasped.
"I do," he told her. "Do what I say. Don't hesitate."
She nodded.
"They don't want you dead. They want you back. So we are fairly safe right now. They still don't know about me and that gives me two edges."
Nicole blinked, "What was the first edge?"
"I want them dead."
"Oh, okay," she muttered with a nod of her head, her eyes still showing how much shock she was in. There was no time for comforting, though. Other men could be showing up or waiting in ambush and cops were on the way.
"We're leaving. Cops will be on the way. Anything you need? Anything you can't live without?"
"Laptop," she sputtered.
"Grab it and put it in the saddlebags. Move!" he ordered.
Nicole ran for his office, returning with a laptop bag while stuffing in power cords. "I'm ready."
"Head for the back door. Don't stop or slow down. Go straight into the garage and get your laptop into the saddlebags. Let's move."
She didn't run this time, but she moved fast and sure. Cole felt a sweet pride in his girl right now. She wasn't bundled up into a ball of hysteria on the couch and she wasn't freaking out on him, or asking a lot of questions that start with why and are meaningless most of the time.
Cole played back what he heard and what he did, searching for anything that seemed out of place. He recalled Nicole saying that she had called Gabriel. Well, that was how they found her. Simple thing—caller ID. Obviously Nicole needed some education. Serious education on basic survival skills and it wouldn’t hurt to show her how to fire a weapon.
Cole nodded to this deficiency and mentally noted the tasks as urgent. Following close behind her, ready to knock her to the ground at the first whisper of trouble, they left the back door and moved fast into the garage.
As soon as she had her laptop in his bag, Cole fired up the Lowrider and clicked the garage door opener. Then he went into a crouch, taking Nicole's hand and pulled her to the side of the garage while he drew one of his pistols.
Nicole squatted down low behind him. They searched the street together. Seeing nothing and trusting that Brian was on the ball out there, he pulled Nicole back to the bike and they got on while pulling on helmets. Cole clicked the garage door as he cleared the threshold and revved his engine to warn Brian they were coming out. Then he released the clutch and thundered out of the garage.
Brian was in the road and held up his hand. Cole pulled over to him. He was probably thirty with deep red hair and looked about as Irish as anyone could. "You're fairly safe,” Brian told Cole. “We were the only crew sent after your girl here with orders that she was not to be harmed in any way that would show a bruise or keep her from working tonight. They really thought this was going to be a simple snatch and grab. They even had me waiting in the car like an asshole while they were gunned down."
"Better them..." Cole muttered.
"Agreed. Nice work, by the way. I have their wallets and phones, and two guns off the corpses. Davis was carrying an ankle. Now, head straight for the boulevard. Take it to the club. Riders are on their way to follow you in, but there's honestly no one coming."
"Thanks. I owe you," Cole told him.
"No, I owe you for shouting out, rather than just cutting me down," Brian laughed. "Ride safe. I'm behind you."
Cole nodded and then eased the Lowrider down his street, heading straight for the boulevard as instructed. Riders were on their way. The Horsemen looked after their own.
Unfortunately, Nicole wasn't one of their own and the Horsemen had a good, profitable alliance with Gabriel's stable. That connection was through Antonio, who Cole just gunned down as fast and hard as he could, along with Davis—and who knew what connections Davis had or who was going to be pissed off about his death come morning.
"Not good," he muttered and put his hand down on Nicole's thigh. "But worth it."
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