Sly

by Jayne Blue

  “That’s Lewis Drake,” she continued. “Up until today, he more or less acted as my agent. He set up the jobs. I carried them out. He got greedy and tried to do yours on his own. Obviously, he blew it. The only reason Kagan didn’t kill him over it is because he brought me in to finish it. Kagan knew my reputation. I’m one of the best there is.”

  My blood reached its boiling point. I turned to Colt. “Get out.”

  He jerked his head back, his eyes widening. “Sly—”

  “Out. Take that asshole out of here. Stick him in one of the back bedrooms until I figure out what to do with him.”

  “Sly.”

  “Now, goddammit.” I pounded my fist on the table hard enough to shake it. Colt flinched. Scarlett didn’t.

  Slowly, Colt rose to his feet. I stared straight ahead. I didn’t want to see the “I told you so” judgment in his eyes. But right now, my guts were shredded and Scarlett would guard her words with him in the room. She might anyway with him out of it, but I needed to know for myself.

  Lewis moaned when Colt moved him, but went willingly. His eyes widened as he came to and saw where he was. Scarlett’s eyes never left mine as Colt dragged him out. He shut the door hard.

  Then Scarlett and I were alone. I said the cruelest thing I could think of.

  “How much extra did you make for fucking me? You might be one of the best at that too.” I felt bile rise in my throat as soon as I got the words out.

  She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms in front of her. “I told you what I do. So, ask yourself why you’re not already dead.”

  “It’s been a long time since this club had the connections to verify how good you are. I’m not in the business of taking out hits.”

  “Ten jobs.” She blew a hair away from her eye then rubbed her cheek with her hand. “That was it. Ten jobs. I’d have over two million bucks. Then I’d get to retire. Sunny skies, palm trees. Nothing but the beach.”

  I snorted. “Let me guess. I’m ten.”

  She smiled and nodded.

  “Why me? What’s Kagan’s angle?”

  “Kagan thinks the club is vulnerable now. You’ve gone legitimate. He figures he takes you out, the Great Wolves don’t recover. He takes your businesses and has new territory and a nice little squeaky clean front for whatever seedy bullshit he wants to run through Green Bluff. You’ve got nice real estate here. You know you’re going to have to keep fighting for it.”

  I whistled low. When I ran off the last of the criminal element attached to the club, I expected something like this. Just not this fast.

  “I won’t beg you to believe me,” she said.

  I shrugged. “Thanks for that. What about Lewis up there?”

  She sighed. “My deal with Lewis is he gets a ten percent finder’s fee. He’s supposed to deal with the clients directly so I don’t have to. He got greedy on this one. Lucky for you. I broke every rule. You were never supposed to even know my name.”

  “So why do I?” The air hung thick between us. I could see a tiny pulse beating in her long, slender neck. The neck I wanted to both wring and kiss right then.

  “I know you,” she said. And suddenly she was talking to me and yet not. “Devil’s Hawks. Red Brigands. Great Wolves. All of you. I’ve seen what you do. Five years ago, my brother died in my arms with your mark branded into his stomach. The name carved into his chest with a butcher knife.”

  I put up a hand. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Not the Wolves. No. The Brigands did that. But what does it matter? That’s what I told myself.”

  The Brigands were the worst of the worst. Murder, hardcore drugs and mayhem was their game. Scarlett’s story had a ring of truth to it. The Red Brigands dealt with their enemies in memorable ways.

  “Who was your brother?”

  Her eyes reddened and she looked at a point over my shoulder. “My brother was supposed to be the best. Not me. Isn’t it ironic that I turned out to be? Mickey was on a job. He was supposed to take out the Brigand’s president. He got made. I still don’t know how. It was so easy too. That was number one. I popped Duffy Wade in the parking lot of his own fucking clubhouse six hours after Mickey died. And he knew, ya know? Right before my bullet exploded between his eyes, I told him this one’s for Mickey.”

  My head spun. “Duffy Wade? You’re saying you did the hit on Duffy Wade?” The Brigand’s reign of terror out in New Mexico made it that much harder for legit clubs like mine to get out from under that reputation. The rumor was Duffy had survived no less than a dozen murder attempts. He was untouchable. Until he got his brains blown out outside his club. Just like Scarlett said.

  Then the rest of the pieces slammed into place. “Mickey,” I said. “Your brother. Your brother was Mickey Shaw?” Mickey was a known mob hitman. There had been rumors he was the one who finally took out Duffy. My head spun in two different directions. When we were still connected to the Pagano crime family, Mickey Shaw’s name had been tossed around plenty.

  Scarlett’s face turned to stone except for a single tear that spilled out of her eye. She wiped it away and looked toward the wall.

  “Duffy was number one. I promised myself five years, ten hits. Then I was out. I did that first one for Mickey. As far as the rest of the world knew, I was Mickey Shaw. I told you, Lewis met with the clients. Just like he’d done for Mickey. The jobs got done. No one questioned anything. After that first job, it just started getting easier, you know?”

  I shook my head. “That’s how it always works.” I wanted to go to her. Scarlett was in pain. Or she was the world’s greatest actress. I didn’t know what to believe anymore.

  “I can’t even tell you I’m sorry,” she said. “Because I don’t think I am. And the one thing I can tell you is that I won’t lie to you anymore.”

  Something hardened in my heart. My simmering blood felt like it was coming to a full boil. “I am fucking sorry,” I said. As soon as I did, I felt a dark rage rising. It was about Scarlett and it wasn’t.

  “Do you understand what it’s cost me to get my club out of the shit my uncle got us into? You’re right. They were all the same. Duffy was just like my Uncle Blackie. Blackie wanted this club right where the Brigands were. And if Mickey got made trying to take out one of us back then, maybe I would have been the one carving a wolf’s head into his chest.”

  I stood and shoved my chair across the room. It landed hard against the door to the bar making a loud clatter. This time, Scarlett did flinch.

  “I wanted to hate you,” she spat. “I never should have let you get close to me. But I did. And I know you’re not like the Brigands. See, that’s what’s going to get you killed anyway.”

  “Who’s Varney? The shooter at the house. At my fucking house. You called him Varney.”

  Scarlett crossed her arms in front of her, sat back hard in her chair and stared straight ahead. “We’ll call him the second best at what we do. I’m guessing Kagan found a backup plan. Since Lewis was there I can only assume he talked Varney and Kagan into transferring the contract and cutting me out of the loop. It means there’s not a lot of time. Varney knows I’ve got Lewis. And he knows you and Colt probably aren’t dead yet.”

  “Why didn’t you kill me?” I went to her. I turned her chair and grabbed each arm rest. She still didn’t flinch. She set her mouth into a hard line that made me want to kiss her into submission at the same time I wanted to throw a fist through the wall.

  “I got Kagan to cancel the contract on you.”

  She wouldn’t look at me. “How? You telling me you just batted your pretty lashes like you did to me and he changed his mind?”

  She did look at me then. Her eyes flashed with rage. “I’m a hit woman. Not a whore. You can believe whatever you want. I never lied about how I feel. But I’m not going to sit here and beg you to understand or to forgive me. I’ve given you a show of faith. If I wanted you dead you would be. I’ve had a hundred chances. Hell, I’ve had five just today.”
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  She looked away again. I put my hands on her. Not hard. But I grabbed her shoulders. I wanted her to look at me. I thought I could see the truth if she showed me her eyes.

  I put my hands around her neck. “You seem to have the impression that I’m a nice guy. You think you’re the only one who’s had to cross lines in their own self-interest?”

  She moved ninja quick. She brought her arm up and brought it down on my wrists, breaking my grip. Then she swept her foot across my ankle, so fast I lost my balance. She had me on my back on top of the conference table, leaning over me with one hand around my neck and with the other she drove her thumb into a pressure point near my clavicle. Stars swam in front of my face.

  The air between us held an electric charge as her eyes blazed; her nostrils flared as she breathed in and out. My heart pounded like a sledgehammer. Blood rushed from my head straight down to my cock. I grew rock hard and I knew she felt it as she stood with her thigh pressed against the inside of my leg. She opened that sweet mouth to say something. She hesitated and I made my move.

  I wrapped one hand around her wrist, the other around her waist. I flipped her to her back. She let out a small grunt as she hit the table and the air went out of her lungs. I straddled her, getting my knee between her legs, dodging the kick she tried to land between mine. I hovered over her with my hands flat on either side of her head.

  She kicked out anyway, knocking over another chair and sending it flying across the room. It too crashed against the wall. There was pounding at the door.

  “Sly!” Colt yelled. “What the hell’s going on in there?”

  “Back off, Colt. If I need you you’ll fucking hear it,” I yelled back, never taking my eyes off Scarlett. Her face was flushed. A slow blush colored her chest. Her breasts heaved with exertion and desire. Heat grew between her legs where my thigh pressed against her. For my part, I was turned on as hell.

  “Five minutes,” Colt yelled again. “You’re not out in five we’re breaking the fucking door in. We found some things out about her, boss. She’s more dangerous than you think. You need to hear this.”

  “I said back the fuck off! You try coming through that door without my say so I’ll drop you.”

  The hint of a smile lifted the corner of Scarlett’s mouth as I looked back at her. She covered just as quickly, biting her bottom lip. But it was enough to undo me.

  God help me, I still wanted her. As much as this woman fucking destroyed me, she stirred my blood in ways I’d never felt before. I hated her. I loved her. As she lay beneath me, panting with adrenalin and lust, I couldn’t help myself. I crushed my lips to hers and kissed her. She responded instantly, her lips parted, her tongue darted out. Her hand moved up my leg and settled on my ass.

  “Fuck,” I murmured. My dick throbbed, straining against the fly of my jeans.

  She bit my lip hard enough to draw blood. At the same time, she clutched me against her even harder. I knew then she fought the same war within her that I did. We wanted each other. We were the worst thing in the world for each other. Being together was about to destroy both of our worlds.

  And neither of us cared.

  “Fuck me,” she whispered against my neck as she fumbled with the zipper on my jeans.

  I was way ahead of her. I pushed her denim skirt up past her hips. I hooked a finger under the cotton crotch of her panties. They were soaked. As my cock sprung free, I couldn’t even wait long enough to drag her underwear down. I pulled it to the side and slid into her slick, hot pussy.

  God, she felt so good. I loved the sound of the quick, little gasps she gave as I drove myself deep inside of her. She clawed at my ass as she brought her legs up and wrapped them around me.

  “Fuck me,” she whispered over and over. Keeping my hands flat against the table I did. I brought myself up on the balls of my feet to give me even deeper access. She spread her legs wide and slid her hands under my cut and t-shirt. As I pumped inside her, Scarlett raked her nails down my back. I let out a slow hiss where I knew she drew blood but even that felt perfect and good. Pleasure and pain. I wanted her to mark me. To brand me just as I wanted to do to her.

  I knew I wasn’t going to be able to last long. Scarlett lasted even less. I felt the first shuddering clench of her slick walls around me as she found her release. I pumped into her, hard enough to rock the table on its legs. If the sound of that didn’t send the rest of the club busting through the door, I didn’t know what would. In those few moments though, I didn’t care. Nothing was going to keep me from fucking my gorgeous Scarlett.

  I knew she wanted to scream when she came. She squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip hard to stop herself. I wanted to tell her to let go, but worried for the same reason she did. I felt my balls clench just as she was coming down of her own explosive orgasm.

  “Fuck me,” she whispered against my neck as she wrapped her arms and legs against me, drawing me in even deeper.

  I thrust into her as deep as I could. Hard enough it made both of our teeth rattle. It was raw, powerful, wild. It started out as a hate fuck for both of us, but it started to dissolve into something else. Because both of us knew it would likely be the last.

  “Don’t. Lie. To. Me.” My words came timed with my thrusts. I pummeled her with my cock, making her head rock back and forth on the table. I punished her with my pounding thrusts and she just grew wetter with each one. On and on I rammed into her as she spread her legs wider, struggling to wrap them around me and contain me. I loved her. I hated her. I couldn’t live without her. She was destroying me. My balls were hard, filling to the point of pain with what felt like rage and desire both. “Don’t. Fucking. Lie. To. Me.”

  “I won’t,” she gasped. “I swear it.” She was in that raw space, just after she’d crested down. I knew every sense was heightened for her just as it was for me. The truth was in that space as well. I shot my hot seed into her. It exploded out of me, releasing my tension, my rage, my lust. As she curved her body to receive all of it, Scarlett finally opened her eyes. I saw her answers in them. She’d told me things, but she held more back. She’d said the things I wanted to hear, but there were harder truths to come.

  I stayed in her for a moment longer. Knowing the minute we separated, we’d have to face the rest of that truth. And in that instant, I knew there would be no coming back for either of us after I heard it all.

  She leaned up one last time and kissed me. Placing a light hand on my temple, she smoothed back my hair. Her eyes reddened and filled with tears again as I finally straightened and pulled out of her. She adjusted herself and hopped off the table.

  Scarlett changed again, just like she did back at the house when she leapt into action as bullets started to fly. She straightened her back and took her seat at the end of the table. Her eyes went cold and she folded her hands in front of her again. She blinked hard once then looked up at me.

  “You should let the others back in now,” she said. “We’re running out of time and you won’t want to have to repeat everything I tell you.”

  Despair froze in my veins as the weight of her words sunk in. Scarlett. My Scarlett. She was gone now. In her place, this cold stranger. I took a breath and practiced hardening my heart against her. Somehow, I knew it was the only way any of us would survive.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Scarlett

  I told them everything. Sly let the rest of the membership in. They took their places around the table and listened as I recounted everything I’d already told Sly and everything new.

  I couldn’t look at him. Sly showed everything he was thinking in his eyes. I could take his pain. Somehow, that I could bear. At least then I knew he still felt something. But when his eyes turned to stone it seared me.

  “You traded my life for Colt’s,” he said when I finally got the last of it out. I told him about the bargain I’d struck with Kagan. Colt’s life for Sly’s.

  I nodded. “I couldn’t figure out another way.”

  “And what would ha
ve happened if I’d done what you asked. If I’d left with you this morning?”

  This was the part that I knew he couldn’t forgive. I promised him the truth and so I gave it. “Then you would have been far away when and if anything happened to Colt.”

  “If?” Colt slammed his hands to the table. “If? Sly, why are we still talking to her? If we hadn’t run that card and unraveled her lies last night, I’d be lying in a pool of blood and you’d be off getting a tan under some fucking palm tree. Was that the plan?”

  I looked straight at Sly and nodded. “It was. Sunny skies, palm trees and the beach all day long. But then the plan changed. Don’t forget, I could have just as easily killed you this morning when you came to the house.”

  “You’re delusional,” he said and I couldn’t help that it made me smile.

  “Who are you kidding?” I said. “You and Gunner would both be dead if that’s how I decided to play it. I got the jump on you easy.”

  Colt shifted in his chair. His dark eyes flashed but I could at least give him credit that he didn’t deny it.

  “So here we go again,” Sly said. “Mother fuck. I get us out of all of this shit and here we are dragged back into it. On the brink of a fucking club war. It will never end. It will never fucking end.”

  I nodded. “You’re not on the brink, Sly. You’re in it.”

  “Shut up,” Colt said. “You’ve said enough.”

  Sly was pacing at the other end of the table. “Maybe,” he said. “Except she’s going to help us win it.” He pointed a finger at me and my heart tripped. He sat on the table in the space next to me. It took everything in me not to slide my hands over and touch him. He could stay cold with his eyes, but his flesh would warm beneath me. And I hated that I still wanted it to.

  “Tell me how it was supposed to go down?” He leveled that cold stare at me.

  I took a breath. “He wants a body. Colt’s body.”

  Sly nodded. “So it looks like we’re going to have to give it to him.”

  After that, all hell pretty much broke loose.

  ***