by Zoey Parker
“No, women just aren’t worth the time,” he said. “We don’t have girls hanging around the clubhouse except to answer phones, on principle. They flirt with the guys when the guys should be focused on business.”
“Business. Is that what you call murder nowadays?”
He came to me so fast, I thought he would hit me. He didn’t. Instead, he clapped his hands down my shoulders and stared into my eyes. “Don’t act like your boyfriend isn’t just as guilty of murder as any of us. Or did he not tell you about the time he spent in prison?”
“I told you, he’s not my boyfriend,” I said, trying to wriggle out of his grasp. It was pointless—his hands were like iron.
“Whatever. Did he tell you?”
I nodded. “Yeah, he said it was because you sent somebody after him. He killed defending his president, not to mention himself.”
Gareth’s long, greasy hair hung on either side of his face. I could smell it, and my nose wrinkled. I would have paid good money for him to back away from me. He laughed, showing me his bad teeth. He had a piece of his burger stuck between two of them. It was a struggle to keep down the fries I’d eaten.
“Yeah, he would tell it that way, wouldn’t he? He was the hero, saving his prez, saving his own life against Big Bad Gareth.” He finally let me go and stepped away, letting me breathe again. “He didn’t tell you why I sent somebody there for him, did he?”
“No, but I guessed it was because you’re insane.”
He shot me a warning look, and I closed my mouth. I sensed he was dangerously close to the edge, and didn’t need me poking at him to send him over it.
“If I’m insane, it’s because that fucker led an attack which ended up killing five of my men. Can you get that through your head?”
I swallowed hard over the lump forming in my throat. “How did it happen?”
“We found out about a shipment of drugs they were gonna transport, and I went in and took a piece.”
“You stole from his club, then.”
He snorted in derision. “You could call it that. I call it business.”
“What happened? I guess they didn’t let you get away with it.”
“No. Like I said, your knight took it personally and led a bunch of his guys against us. Five good men ended up dead because of him. And he thinks he’s so fucking heroic, the hypocrite.”
I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t see things his way, naturally—if he hadn’t stolen in the first place, none of that would have happened. But I couldn’t exactly defend Eric either, as much as I cared about him. I couldn’t justify murder. Even if it wasn’t him pulling the trigger, he was part of it. Seeing him in that light was sobering. Knowing deep down that he was up to no-good business and actually having the story told to me were two different things. It made me feel a little sick.
“So excuse me if I don’t think of Eric as the good guy you think he is.” Gareth stood with his hands on his hips, glaring at me.
I had to know something. “Did you think your would-be hitman was going to kill him? Or did you send him in there because you knew Eric would kill him?”
His face changed. I saw something that looked like grudging respect there. “Not a bad guess,” he admitted. “You’re smarter than I thought you were.” I took that as confirmation of what I’d suspected.
“So his life was expendable? And your other five men, they mattered. Is that how it goes?”
“Zack’s death was part of a bigger plan. That was a strategy. My other guys, that was something else. That was stupid fucking revenge.”
“Which you then turned around and took on Eric. Seven years of stupid fucking revenge.” I wasn’t going to let him go. I wouldn’t let him get away with his twisted logic, even if it meant he would hurt me.
He smirked, then leaned in close to me again. It took everything I had in me not to lean back.
“At first, I didn’t like thinking that I was gonna have to cut you to pieces in front of him when he finally gets here.” His smirk turned into a full-blown smile. “Now I’m looking forward to it.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Eric
We pulled up at Gareth’s. It was me, Spike, Pete, Joe and nine others. Slash waited for us back at the clubhouse. I knew he was just as full of nervous energy as I was. I was almost glad I wasn’t in his shoes. I’d go crazy wondering what was happening.
“You sure you wanna go in alone?” Spike asked as I got off my bike.
“Definitely. He’ll freak if he sees anybody else. You all stay out here.” I called Spike, put the phone on speaker, and slid it into the pocket of my kutte. That way, he could hear everything happening. He knew what to listen for—I could trust him to keep his distance until something happened.
It was late, dark. I hoped Michelle wasn’t mad at me for waiting so long. I hoped she didn’t think I deserted her. I wanted to wait until the street cleared out a little, which meant waiting until after work hours. That part of town was mostly businesses, and it shut down at night.
“All right. I’m going in.” My heart nearly stopped when I looked toward the front door. She was waiting for me. I took a deep breath and reminded myself of what hung in the balance of this mission. Only the life of the woman I loved.
As I crossed the street, I knew I loved her. I didn’t run away from the thought the way I might have in the past. The Eric of just a week earlier would have cringed, or laughed, if somebody told him it was possible to fall in love so fast, so totally. He would never have believed he had it in him to love another person the way I loved Michelle. I would have moved mountains for her, and only her. It went beyond anything I’d ever felt for the club, for my best friends. Yeah, I would have put it on the line for them—I already had, when I killed a man who threatened my president. I’d already given up seven years of my life for that. I would have given up ten times that for Michelle.
It might come down to that. I might have to kill him for her. I would do that, too. No matter if it meant going back to prison. Her life was more important than anything. She was worth more than me.
My hand landed on the clubhouse door, and I took another deep breath. My men were behind me. My woman was in front of me. I only had to get through one person.
When I stepped inside, it felt like time had stopped. The place was dead silent and dark. I didn’t like it. The hair on the back of my neck stood straight up. Every sense was on high alert. I listened for the slightest noise, watched for the slightest movement in the shadows. No way he’d send his whole club home. Where were they? Where was he? Where was she?
The air had a charge to it, full of electricity. I was on the edge of something. Had he rigged the place? Were they all waiting for me to make the wrong move? Never in my life had every move I took been so full of danger.
I couldn’t stand still forever, and I knew Spike would start wondering if I was silent for too long. I walked through the large main room where meetings were most likely held—the large, round table in the middle told me as much. The walls were hung with mugshots of the members throughout the years. They were proud of the time they’d served. I couldn’t keep a smug smile off my face. Gareth’s picture would be up there soon enough. He might not ever get the chance to see it for himself.
“I’m here, Gareth.” Like he didn’t know. But I had to start it somehow. He reminded me of a spider, watching, waiting for me to make a move. Wherever he was, he could probably see me. This was all on his terms, after all. Or so he thought.
“Turn to your right,” I heard. I almost jumped, I was so surprised. Where the fuck was his voice coming from? I realized he had some sort of surveillance system in place, or it might have been something even simpler, like one of those new video doorbells that let the people inside the house talk to whoever was outside. No matter what it was, I was unnerved by it.
I turned, as asked, and saw a door along the dark wall with a thin slit of light coming from beneath it. That was where he was. I prepared myself for the chance that s
he wasn’t in there, that this was all some ploy to get my guard down. I was supposed to think she was in there so I’d rush in to save her. I took my time, still breathing evenly, deeply. Keep it together. Don’t play on his level. Make him play on your level.
I turned the doorknob and the door swung easily. I kept the other hand on my butt of my automatic. I had no idea what was behind that door. It could have been an ambush.
It wasn’t. Michelle sat in the middle of the room, tied to a chair at her legs and waist. Her arms were at her side, and they’d wound the rope all the way around her. She looked at me with wide, tear-filled eyes. My heart almost broke when I saw the look on her face. She was terrified, but she tried to be strong. Keep being strong, I thought, wishing she could hear my thoughts. I’ve got this. You don’t have to be afraid now.
Of course, Gareth had his own ideas about that, and the gun he held to her head told me as much.
“It took you long enough,” he sneered.
“I didn’t want to do this with a million civilians outside,” I said. I spoke to him, but my eyes never left Michelle’s. I needed her to understand, and I thought I saw a look of relief cross her face. She understood. That was a relief.
“That’s one of the things I’ve never understood about you,” Gareth said. From the tone of his voice, he might as well have been talking about a bug on the floor.
“What’s that?”
“The way you care so damn much about everybody else. Or you pretend to at least. I know you’re not the good guy you pretend to be. You only think you’re better than the rest of us.”
I shook my head. “I never said I was better than anybody else.”
“You don’t have to. Going to jail for killing one of my guys. Not because he tried to kill you, but because he aimed at Spike. You’re the hero. How does that always happen?”
“You sound jealous,” I murmured. My eyes kept straying around the room. I needed to know how he planned to play this out. I stepped aside, away from the open doorway. I didn’t need anybody sneaking up behind me. With the wall at my back, I felt more secure.
“It’s not jealousy. It’s disgust.”
“Not true,” I said. “You are jealous, and you know it. That’s why you always hated me, isn’t it? You never understood it’s not about the number of people you kill, or how vicious you are.”
“But you are a killer,” Gareth said, and I noticed the way he pressed the gun against Michelle’s head. “You killed five of my men in an attack.”
So what was what it was all about. I hadn’t thought about that night in years. “Damn, really? Are you pretending like you had nothing to do with that? Like we wouldn’t have left you alone if you hadn’t stolen from us? That was the reason we attacked you. I didn’t even personally kill any of them.”
“You personally killed Zack.” Zack. That was his name.
I shrugged. “I had to do that.”
“You’ve killed more than just him, though, and more than my men. Haven’t you? Tell her.” He shook her, and she cried out a little. Like a bark from a small dog.
I gritted my teeth and reminded myself to keep my focus on him, not on her. It was almost impossible, though. “Yeah. He wasn’t my first.”
“How many others? Tell her the truth. Then she’ll decide if she wants to be with you.”
I looked at her. “I’ve killed others. They were all bad guys. I never killed a good, honest person.”
“Bullshit. Now you’re just making excuses. How many did you beat up?”
“I couldn’t tell you how many,” I admitted.
“How many did you put in the hospital?”
“Probably a lot.” I stared at her, and she didn’t look away. She was numb, I thought. How much of this had he been feeding her all day? He was sicker than I’d thought. Obsessed with me, with bringing me down. All because he stole from my club and I took back what was ours.
“But you still act like the good guy. Like I’m scum for putting the auctions together.”
“No, I never said you were scum. Maybe that’s how you feel about yourself.” I needed to get him to point the gun at me. I had to turn his attention to me, instead of leaving it on her.
“So why did you try to set me up?”
“What you’re doing is illegal. That’s it. I don’t have an opinion about it either way. You’re putting words in my mouth. You know, I went through a lot of therapy when I was a kid. Maybe you should try it.”
His eyes widened. It was a drastic move, but I had to do something to shake him up, throw him off balance. I ran the risk of him pulling the trigger on Michelle, but I couldn’t face off with him forever. The longer I gave him to play games, the more dangerous he’d become.
“Where’s the recording?” Finally, we were getting down to business. I reached into one of my pockets and pulled out a small tape.
“Funny how far technology’s come, but we’re still using tapes for these things,” I mused. I held it up. “Here it is.”
“How do I know that’s actually the real tape?”
Good question. I hadn’t thought about that. I bluffed my way through it by saying, “I don’t know. Do you have a tape player for it?”
“No.”
“Then you’ll have to take my word for it. Why would I screw with you right now? You have her. I want her. I’m not gonna do anything to jeopardize that.”
He thought it over. I let my eyes fall to hers for a split second, and tried to give her courage. Just hold on a little while longer.
“Toss it over here.” He motioned with the gun, pointing to the floor. I tossed the tape, and it landed near his feet.
“Okay,” I said. “I gave you what you want. Now give me what I want.”
“Why should I?”
I swallowed hard. This was what I thought he was gonna do. “Because that’s how you said it would go. I brought you the tape, so you give me Michelle.”
“How do I know you didn’t make a copy?”
I rolled my eyes. “Right. Because I have that equipment just lying around.” I did, but he didn’t need to know that.
“And you would just come here and lay it at my feet that easily? Get the hell outta here.” He snickered nastily. I got the feeling that I was trying to hold sand in my hands, only my fingers were open, and it was sliding through my grip.
“Come on. You know how important she is to me, or you wouldn’t have taken her. You know I’ll do anything to make sure she’s safe. Why would I play games?” He had to believe me. Otherwise, I’d have to give Spike the word to come in.
“Okay.”
I was startled. “Okay? That’s it?”
Gareth put the gun on the table he stood next to. “Yeah. That’s it. You’re right. You wouldn’t lie when it came to her.”
I looked at Michelle, and the relief on her face was just as heartbreaking as the panic I saw when I first walked in. I didn’t think it was going to be as easy as he was pretending it was, but she was eager to believe him. Don’t believe him, I thought, trying to send her the message with my eyes. He’s still got a trick up his sleeve.
Sure enough, he did. In a flash, he pulled a knife out of his back pocket and flipped it open. I made a move toward him, but he pressed it against Michelle’s cheek. That froze me in place. She let out a whimper, and I could have killed him when I heard the terror in her voice.
“You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” He laughed, then looked down at Michelle. He stood behind her, with her head in one hand and the knife against her right cheek. She didn’t take her eyes off me, and I heard her short, hard gasps for air.
“Let her go! You have what you wanted!”
“Bullshit,” he spat, looking at me. “You had more than enough time to make a copy. I want the copies, too.”
My blood ran cold. I knew he wouldn’t make it that easy. He was a spider, and he thought everybody around him was a spider because of it. “I didn’t make any!”
“You don’t really
expect me to believe that, do you?” He pressed just a little harder, and a thin line of blood ran down Michelle’s cheek. She screamed. I lunged toward them out of reflex.
“Nope! Stay back, or this knife might slip. I could take off her nose, or maybe cut out one of her pretty eyes.” He stared harder at me. “The copies. Now.”
“I’m telling you, I don’t have any.” Adrenaline rushed through me, my heart pounded so hard I thought it might explode. This was it. I was beyond panic. I had to save her.
“You’re sure about that? You didn’t just leave one at your clubhouse? With your buddy Slash?”