Patricia turned, seeing Roz with the gun pointed at her head. She laughed cruelly, so sure of her place in this little drama, only Roz wasn’t playing the same game.
“You’re not going to shoot me, Roz. Iron dies if you do.” She smiled evilly.
Roz smiled a deadly smile of her own and cocked the gun. “That’s where you’re wrong. You see, Iron’s likely already free by now.”
“I promise you he’s not,” Patricia said, finally looking a little nervous.
Laughing ruefully, knowing that shooting Patricia was her death sentence, she let her finger tighten on the trigger. “You should have investigated the people you were kidnapping better, Patricia, and maybe work with smarter goons. Iron could take out two Headhunters in his sleep even tied to a chair with no weapons. So you’ve played out your part in this life and now it’s time for you to die.”
“Wait, if you shoot me they will kill you,” Patricia screamed, finally realizing that she didn’t have any more bargaining chips.
Roz pulled the trigger hard even as she sadly spoke the last words the woman would ever hear. “I know.”
Roz watched dispassionately as Patricia’s forehead bloomed with blood and she fell as if in slow motion to the floor. Roz thought she would feel something. After all she had been friends with Patricia for over five years, but knowing what she did about her now she didn’t feel anything other than relief that Patricia wouldn’t hurt anyone else ever again. She knew it wouldn’t be long before the Headhunters came bursting in here. She needed to hide. She looked around, hoping to find somewhere to take cover. With only two bullets left she knew it wasn’t likely she would be able to get out of this room alive but she had to try.
She flipped the table over on its side. It wouldn’t provide much cover but at least it was something between her and any bullets they shot her way.
Chapter 22
Iron dropped the body of the man he’d just strangled to the floor with a loud thump before he searched his pockets for his keys. He needed a fucking ride and despite these assholes being stupid fuckers, their rides were decent.
Pulling out the keys, he moved towards the front door and headed out to find the bikes. Before he’d killed that last one he’d gotten the information on where those bastards had taken Roz. He was going after her and God help anyone who got in his way because if anything happened to her he was going to lose his shit.
He was just climbing on the bike when Reaper, Burner, Lock, Animal and Pansy roared into the yard behind him. Ten others waited closer to the road. Reaper and the others pulled up beside him. Iron wasn’t happy with their arrival because if he told them what had gone down in that house they were going to want to leave Roz to the Headhunters’ tender mercies, but Iron wasn’t about to let that happen.
No fucking way in hell.
“I see you got out of this on your own, but where’s Roz?” Reaper questioned, his eyes warily assessing him.
“You’re here sooner than expected. How did you find us so quick?” Iron asked, not ready to broach the subject of Roz yet.
“My contact called, said we had trouble, that two of ours were here. We came as quick as we could,” Burner said.
“Well, I’m headed after Rozzy now. I don’t need any help,” Iron growled, starting the bike and intending to roar away.
“What the fuck areyou talking about? We’re coming with you. You know that, you idiot,” Animal growled, glaring at him as the bikes idled.
“No, it’s not happening. I have to do this one alone and I won’t be coming back either. Now, get the fuck out of my way,” Iron told him, anger at the delay making his head pound.
“Iron, explain, now,” Reaper commanded.
Iron didn’t want to answer but Reaper had been his friend for more than fifteen years and he was used to following the other man’s commands. “She went with them under the agreement to kill you. I don’t think that she would go through with it but I know what her agreement means. She’s out. Therefore, I’m out. I won’t let you kill her,” Iron told him, looking Reaper in the eye.
“Fuck,” Burner said at the same time Animal growled, “Damn it!”
Reaper just silently watched Iron for a long moment. Iron felt every second because they were each one more second that Roz was in the hands of his enemy and that more than anything worried him.
“Do you think she meant to go through with it?” Reaper asked.
“No,” Iron replied because he knew that much about Roz. She wouldn’t kill someone she knew hadn’t hurt anyone. She didn’t want to kill anyone but she would if she felt that she was the only one who could stop the person from hurting someone else. That was what had him worried.
He knew she hadn’t planned on living long from the sad look in her eyes when she’d told him she had to do this tonight. He couldn’t stand the minutes that seemed to be passing quickly. They were like stones weighing him down.
“You’re sure? You’d stake your life on it?” Reaper asked, looking him in the eye.
“Yeah, she had the chance more than once over the past two months and she didn’t take it. She only agreed to do it today to give me a chance to get free and now she’s alone with them. She intends to do something stupid, I’m sure of it, and every minute I waste here is likely to cost her life if she succeeds with whatever she has planned,” Iron told them.
Reaper nodded.
“Fine, it stays here. No one but us needs to know about this, but if she does something like this again it’s death for both of you, understood.” Iron gave a clipped nod.
“Agreed,” the others echoed, sealing the pact.
He felt relief that he would have help with taking down whoever was in his path tonight. Iron was also grateful that Reaper trusted him enough to give him this concession because it meant that he and Roz could stay with the family.
Reaper whistled and they were on the move, following Iron to the house where they were holding Roz.
Roz was huddled behind the table when the door to the shed opened and a man stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. She expected him to start shooting at her the second he processed the woman lying on the floor in a puddle of her own blood. She didn’t shoot because she was trying to save her two bullets for kill shots and from across the room she wasn’t good enough to hit him.
“Fuck, well that’s not good. Why’d you shoot her––well okay, I get why you shot her, she was crazy as fuck, but you really should have waited. I might have gotten you out of here alive if you hadn’t shot the bitch.” He was coming towards her with his hands up in front of him. “Don’t shoot me. I’m your only shot of living through the night.”
Roz watched the man come closer, her finger resting on the trigger. She regarded him warily. He wasn’t making any sense and if he thought he could fool her into letting him get close enough to take her down, he had another thing coming.
There was a hard knock at the door and the man turned to it. Roz aimed at him but his next words stopped her from firing. “Fuck. Okay, move into the corner farther and I will tell them you got out somehow. That should buy us some time. Maybe I can get them to look for you closer to the house and then I can get you out.”
Roz hesitated, wondering if he was really serious about trying to get her out of this mess. She didn’t really have any other options, she realized. She only had two bullets left and she was nowhere near a crack shot. She was a decent shot but not excellent.
The man opened the door as she huddled in the corner behind the table. “She’s killed Patricia and she escaped somehow!” he told whoever was at the door.
“What do you mean she escaped? We would have seen her, Blade.” Whoever he was talking to sounded confused.
“I don’t know how the hell she got out, you idiot, but she’s not in here! Fucking find her, now!” Blade growled at the man. She heard heavy footsteps running away from the shed, then she heard the door shut.
“Okay, that bought us some time. When do you think the calvary will be
arriving?” Blade asked and Roz frowned.
“What cavalry?” she asked him, feeling confused.
“The Blue Bandits,” he said, looking at her like she was an idiot.
“Um, they won’t be coming for me,” Roz told him, not sure if she should tell him that because it might mean he would kill her or let her be killed without trying to help her.
“You’re patched, right?” he asked, raising a brow as he watched her.
“I was, but they aren’t going to come for me,” Roz informed him as he watched her.
“Sure they will, doll. Any woman who’s patched is family. They’re coming for you, it’s just a matter of time,” Blade informed her.
Shaking her head, she watched him peeking out the small window to see what was going on outside. Feeling like an idiot, she realized he wouldn’t see her shaking her head with his back turned to her.
“They won’t. They think I’ve betrayed them.” Roz understood what her agreement to try and kill Reaper would mean. It was why Iron had begged her not to do this because he knew that if she walked out with Patricia she was betraying them. It didn’t matter that it had been her plan all along to kill Patricia. As far as Iron and the club were concerned, she had destroyed her chances of being part of their club with her agreement to kill Reaper, whether she intended to go through with it or not.
“Fuck, well that complicates things,” Blade muttered, his face grim. He seemed to contemplate that for a long moment. They could both hear the shouting outside as the Headhunters looked for her. That was when the shooting started. Blade turned back to her from the window grinning. “Sounds like they came anyway.”
“Yes, likely to get revenge,” Roz said, paling at the thought of Iron hating her. She didn’t want to think about that so she pushed it away.
“Damn, then let’s get you out of here, shall we.” Blade let out several other choice cuss words as he peeked out the door looking around the area. “All right, follow me and stay close to the building. I’ll take you to a cage and you can run, but you might want to be sure they’re coming for you first because if you were patched, your man might not have told them what happened.”
Roz shook her head as she moved up behind Blade. Iron thought she’d betrayed them too. He would be just as bent on making her pay as the rest of them. She would bet that he’d make it a quick death even though the MC would want to drag it out. His loyalty had shifted to the club years ago and he might love her but there was no way he’d ever leave or betray them. Roz felt tears springing to her eyes and one slipped out falling down her cheek.
Blade glared at her. “Don’t do the waterworks thing. Geez, I hate that shit.” His disgusted look was aimed at her.
He had his gun out and he seemed to shudder at the thought of her breaking down on him into a puddle of tears. Roz wasn’t about to break here; she wasn’t an idiot.
“I’m fine, let’s just move, okay,” Roz snapped, wiping at the tears on her face with the sleeve of her shirt.
“Done, but if you break down in the middle of the yard I’m leaving your ass there to get killed, got me?” Blade’s expression was stony and Roz didn’t doubt for a minute that he meant every word.
After she nodded, he turned and moved out into the night, his gun drawn as they made their way along the edge of the shed. He held his hand in a fist over his shoulder and Roz stopped, realizing it was a signal to wait. He then stepped out of the shadows.
“What the hell is going on, Axe?” he asked the two men who stood between them and a line of trees he had motioned that they were headed to.
“Bandits showed up again. Those fuckers always seem to know when to strike. I thought when we got rid of Burner that we wouldn’t have this fucking problem again but we must have another mole,” he said, looking at Blade for a long assessing moment. “Hey, didn’t you make a call when we hit the safe house?” he asked suddenly.
Blade shot him in the head and turned the gun on the second man before he could even draw his weapon. As they both fell to the ground, he shook his head. “Damned shame those two weren’t idiots like the rest of them but I can’t have them running around talking about how I made a phone call before this raid,” he muttered under his breath as he came back towards her motioning for her to follow him again. Roz realized that he wasn’t just a nice guy in the wrong club trying to help her.
“You’re an informant,” Roz accused.
“Yep, and they were supposed to get you two out hours ago but they must have taken their time. Fuck, this is a damned mess now. Those two weren’t the only ones who saw me talking to someone before the raid and now I will have to kill them unless your man takes care of them tonight. I hate killing my men. Not the assholes but the somewhat decent ones like those two,” Blade grumbled as he led her along the tree line headed towards the cars and bikes that were parked near the larger house.
Roz didn’t know who this man was but she did know one thing, he wasn’t a true Headhunter because he seemed like a halfway decent guy. As they neared the cars Roz was grabbed around the waist by Blade, who shoved her in front of him with a gun pointing at her temple.
Roz was shocked by this change and for a moment she couldn’t tell what was going on. Then she saw him standing in front of her covered in blood and looking like death, his gun trained on the man who held her.
“You so much as move and she’s dead,” Blade growled.
Iron watched him, his gun trained on the man who held her in a painfully tight grip. Roz stared at him wishing that this night had gone differently. So this was how her life ended, she thought morbidly as she waited for the bullet that would end this farce of a showdown, thinking it was a shame he’d never know that Blade wasn’t fully on the side of the Headhunters.
“Rozzy, are you okay?” Iron asked and Roz was startled that he was asking.
“Ye––yes,” she stuttered, not understanding what was happening here. Iron nodded and his gun lowered to his side.
“Just let her go and you walk away,” Iron told Blade, shocking Roz even more because didn’t he want her dead for betraying his club?
“Uh-huh, not buying it. I let her go and your boy over there shoots me,” Blade said, nodding at Reaper who was standing nearby with a gun trained on him. Iron turned to Reaper, who cursed and lowered his gun as well.
“Iron, I love you,” Roz said, intending to pull the plug on this stupid showdown between them in the only way she could.
“Rozzy, you make him shoot you and I will be pissed off. You can’t leave me again, baby. I’ll follow you into death if I have to.” Roz paled because she wouldn’t allow Iron to get killed because of this.
“No, Iron, no.”
“Yes, woman. I fucking love you and nothing or no one is going to stop me from being with you however that ends up being.” Iron had a hard determined look on his face that worried Roz.
“That’s sweet and all but I don’t have time for this shit,” Blade grumbled. “Just toss your guns and I’ll let her go.”
Reaper looked at Iron, then the two men tossed their guns to the ground nearby and Blade leaned close to Roz’s ear.
“When this is all over, if I make it out I need you to give a message to Animal. Tell him that we’re not all lost. Good luck, doll.” Then Blade shoved her hard towards Iron and turned, running towards the bikes.
Iron grabbed her close when she fell into him, absorbing the shock of her body against his and holding her tightly. He was suddenly kissing her forehead and Roz felt her heart pumping hard as she looked up at him. He kissed her eyes, then her nose and finally her lips, that one a little longer than the pecks he’d placed on her face. Roz didn’t know what to think because she didn’t know what had happened in the last few minutes.
“Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” he was asking but she was turning to watch Blade, who was getting on a bike. That was when she saw Burner lining up a shot on him and she knew she couldn’t allow him to kill the man.
Jerking away from Iron, she
screamed, “Burner!”
Burner turned his gun, moving in their direction thinking she was warning him, but she was just trying to stop him from killing the man who might be able to help them take down this crime ring. Because she was almost sure that Blade was an informant for them and if they shot him then he wouldn’t be able to help them anymore.
Burner scanned the area realizing nothing was behind him and swung back around to shoot the man but Blade was already on his bike roaring away. The flash of white with blue flames went roaring past them.
Blade’s parting, “Nice lookin’ out,” was heard by all of the Blue Bandits who were standing near her. Roz knew that wasn’t going to help her case but she had to help him if for no other reason than he’d saved her life tonight.
“Roz, what the fuck did you do that for?” Iron demanded, his eyes narrowed on her.
“Yes, why did you do that, Roz?” Reaper asked deliberately, stepping forward with his gun out, a cold look on his face. Iron moved her behind him, not allowing Reaper to step any closer.
“He’s not who you think he is. He was trying to get me out,” Roz told them, feeling a nervous shaking taking over her limbs.
“Looked to me like he was just using you as a human shield a minute ago,” Reaper said, his face grim.
Burner came up to them asking, “What the fuck, Roz?”
“I know it looks bad but I am telling you that he was helping me. And I think he’s the one who called you tonight to tell you that Iron and I had been kidnapped. He shot a man who was asking him why he’d been making a phone call,” Roz said as Iron’s arms wrapped around her pulling her shaking form back into his side. Roz leaned into him, grateful for the support.
“How the hell do you know we even got a call tonight?” Burner demanded.
Melted Iron (Blue Bandits MC Book 3) Page 22