Rubbing my forehead, I took a moment before I slid into the car and started it up. I glanced back at Harper, who met my eyes with a little more life in them. I smiled, and she gave me a half-hearted one in return, letting me know that I hadn’t lost her completely.
I’d never been a fan of her tiny little car, but as we wove through traffic, I was starting to appreciate its value. The sky was starting to lighten slightly with dawn approaching, and I was even more thankful to get out of the city before the rest of the world woke up. Once on the more open, rural roads, it was smooth sailing. The quiet in the car was relaxed, and I left it that way.
“Ugh,” Picasso groaned as he started to wake up, rubbing the back of his head. “Why does my head hurt so much? Wait, why the fuck am I in a clown car?”
Looking at him out of the corner of my eye, I smirked. “It seems we need to work on your infiltration skills. Nothing like a pistol whip to the head to make a great story for your first hostage rescue.”
Picasso glared at me, then he caught sight of Harper in the back seat and relaxed a little. “Looks like you weren’t lying when you said you didn’t need my help.”
“Hey, I tried to tell you this isn’t my first rodeo. The cesspool of people I have to deal with puts you in all kinds of situations. You have to learn to manage. Six on one is a personal favorite of mine—it makes it challenging enough that I have to actually try,” I gloated.
“Dax, are you saying this is normal for you?” Harper whispered, her eyes wide in horror.
The grin on my face fell as fear grew in my heart that she might never look at me the same after this conversation. “This is something I wish you never had to learn about me, Harper. I did everything I could to keep you clear of all this. I promise, once we are safe and you get some rest, I will answer any questions you have, if you want to ask them.”
She turned her gaze away from me but didn’t say anything more. Once again, the car fell into silence, but this time it wasn’t so comfortable. I pressed the gas down further, needing to get free from the tension that was building in the small space.
As I pulled up right in front of Eagle’s house, I wasn’t surprised to see all the lights on, a beacon guiding me back. The internal sigh of relief to be back caught me by surprise as I opened my door. Picasso carefully unfolded himself from the small space, trying not to hit his head again. The front door opened a few moments later, Wes and Eagle coming out to meet us.
They both made a beeline right to me, but I waved them off, not wanting their attention. Wes sighed and went to Harper, tucking her under his arm and bringing her into the house. Eagle glared at me, letting me know this wasn’t over as he grabbed his brother by the back of his neck and pulled him into a strange bro hug.
Exhausted but knowing that sleep wasn’t coming any time soon, I trudged up the steps, where I found Sprocket holding the door open for me. I smiled at him when I saw the coffee mug in his hand that he held out. Cupping it with two hands, I let the heat of the cup revive me, giving me the push to keep going.
Sprocket pulled me to the coffee table, where he sat me down. I raised a brow at him, but he just signaled for me to wait. Not having the energy to argue, I just sipped on my coffee and looked around for Cognac and Void, but I didn’t see either. After a minute, Sprocket returned with a large first aid kit and started pulling things out that he needed.
“Pants off,” he instructed.
“Gosh, buy a girl dinner first, would ya,” I teased, feeling a little punch drunk.
His green eyes held mine, and I saw there was no humor in his gaze. What I found surprised me—Sprocket was angry. Setting my mug down, I stood, undoing my thigh holster and setting it to the side before shimmying off my jeans. I hissed I peeled the fabric off my thigh, the dried blood caused the material to stick to the skin around my injury. It started bleeding again, making Sprocket’s frown deepen.
He moved with practiced ease as he cleaned the wound, not speaking a word to me. His touch was gentle but thorough.
“Looks like it’s gonna need stitches,” Sprocket said, still refusing to look at me as he grabbed more supplies.
I sighed, knowing this was going to burn like a bitch, but it wasn’t the first time this had happened in my life, nor would it be the last.
“You any good at those?” I asked. “If not, I can do it myself.”
That got Sprocket’s attention, his eyes snapping up to mine. “How many times?”
“What?” I asked, wrinkling my brow.
“How. Many. Times. Have you had to stitch yourself up?” Sprocket asked, anger burning in his tone.
“I don’t know—I’ve lost count. It’s really not that big of a deal, Sprocket. It happens,” I said with a shrug, not understanding why he was so bothered by this.
A growl fell from his lips as he stood and walked away from me towards the bottom of the stairs. “WESTON! Get your ass down here right now!”
I stood from the coffee table, but he whipped around so fast I froze.
“Sit. The. Fuck. Down, Dax,” Sprocket demanded.
The fury in his eyes caused me to sink back down, completely caught off guard by what was going on. Wes charged down the stairs, his eyes scanning the room, looking for what could have caused Sprocket to holler for him. Before I could get out a word of warning, Sprocket clocked Weston right in the face, making him stumble into the wall.
“What the fuck, man?!” Wes snarled.
“How could you let her get into situations where she ends up getting hurt and having to patch herself up?! Where the fuck were you? I thought you two were a team, but it sounds to me like you hide safely behind that goddamn screen while she puts her life on the line,” Sprocket fumed.
Their argument seemed to draw everyone out, and now all the guys were standing at different points around the room, watching everything unfold. Even Harper was observing from the top stair, clutching a pillow, eyes glued on what was happening before her.
“You have no fucking clue what you’re talking about here, asshole,” Weston shot back.
Eagle stepped in as Sprocket was about to lunge at Wes again, holding him back with a hand to the chest. “Easy, we need his mouth to keep working so he can explain himself.”
Sprocket growled but backed off as the rest of them circled around Wes.
“I think you better enlighten us there, Westical, before Void decides to make good on this threat from earlier,” Cognac said, crossing his arms over his chest.
Wes glared at all of them before his gaze flicked to me as if unsure of what he was about to say next. “You guys don’t understand, I’ve been at her side through everything. The history that we have both shared and survived in the Hidden Empire gives me a level of knowledge you will never know. Dax is a survivor and doesn’t need a bunch of meat-headed men trying to smother her in a bubble. If she tells me she can handle something, then I let her—but I wouldn’t hesitate jumping in front of a bullet for her if the need arose.”
“No,” Sprocket snapped, getting all up in Weston’s face again. “You claim to love her, but from where I’m standing, I don’t see it. No woman of mine would be allowed to put her life on the line for me or anyone else. I don’t give a fuck who Two Tricks really is, but he’s not having her back after this, and neither are you!” Sprocket bellowed.
Weston, having had enough, tackled Sprocket, causing Void to wade into the fight. The blur of fists and grunts as they landed on each other made Harper break.
“Stop!” Harper screamed, running down to the bottom of the stairs where Cognac stopped her. “Please, you have to stop them. They’ll kill each other if they keep going!” Tears streamed down her face as she fought against Cognac’s hold.
That did it. I shot to my feet, grabbed my gun, and fired a shot into the floor. This caused the room to fall silent as they looked at me with shocked faces. Marching over to them, I watched as they scrambled to their feet, Wes wiping at his bloody nose while Sprocket looked like he might have a black eye
. Void even got a split lip out of the exchange.
“Are you dumbasses finished? Let’s start with the fact that Wes couldn’t have stopped me if he wanted to—he doesn’t own me or control me. If you lot think you’re going to have a better shot at it than him, I’ll tell you right now that it’s not gonna happen. Now that that’s clear—do you really think you could take me away from Tricks?” I demanded, hands on my hips. The guys frowned at my words, chomping at the bit to tell me they could. “I got news for you dipshits—I’m motherfucking Two Tricks!”
At my declaration, the room stilled, all eyes trained on me as my words hit home.
“Joke’s on you, idiots. The one person you’ve been trying so desperately to get the attention of has been sitting right in fucking front of you. Weston is my right-hand man, as well as my best friend, but when it comes to the Hidden Empire, he works for me! If he tried to keep me from doing what is necessary, I could have cut him off and out of my life. He keeps his mouth shut and lets me put my life at risk, no matter how much he hates it, because I always come back,” I snarled, my breathing heavy with the flood of emotions that was hitting me. “Now back the FUCK off of him.”
Void tilted his head back and began to laugh a deep belly laugh. “Oh, little demon, you are the best surprise I could have asked for in life.”
This seemed to break the tension in the room, and I noticed that Harper was gone from the stairs. I groaned to myself, knowing that was the worst way possible for her to hear this. Flopping down on the coffee table once more, I hung my head in my hands and fisted my fingers in my hair. God, how was I ever going to fix this?
Hands covered my own, pulling them from my hair, causing me to look up and see Weston squatting in front of me. “Don’t write her off just yet, shortcake. Trust in your friendship. Harper knows the real you that no one else gets to see, just give her time to take it all in. This has been a rough night for everyone.”
I nodded and gave him a weak smile, and he stepped aside for Sprocket to get back to my wound. He had to clean it all over again, seeing as I couldn’t keep still and caused it to start weeping again.
Once ready, he looked up at me. “I’m sorry I lost it like that, little rebel, I just couldn’t stand the thought of you having to deal with this all on your own. We good?”
“I don’t know… are we good? If you’re pissed at me, I think I’d rather do this myself then have you make this hurt worse than it already will,” I said.
Sprocket cupped my face and rested his forehead against mine. “You did what you needed to survive, who am I to judge? Besides, it’s kinda cool that I have the most powerful woman on the West Coast right in front of me. Queen of the Hidden Empire, woman of the Phantom Saints leadership. How people will talk.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I don’t remember signing up to be your woman or anyone else’s.”
“Hmm, you’re right. That doesn’t quite seem to work, does it? How about this. The Queen of the Hidden Empire and her knights willing to defend her at any cost,” Sprocket mused.
“You sure you can speak for the others like that, road captain?” I teased.
Pressing a soft kiss to my lips, Sprocket leaned back, letting me see everyone else gathered on the couch before me.
“Anyone disagree?” Sprocket asked, turning to look at them.
“Nope, every queen needs strong knights to keep her in line,” Eagle said with a twinkle in his eyes.
“I’ve always wanted to be a knight!” Cognac piped up, a wide smile on his lips.
“Seems like our little vixen is stuck with us,” Picasso smirked.
Void grunted, crossing his arms as he met my gaze. “You guys make it seem like she had a choice. My little demon wasn’t ever going to leave us again.”
Finally, I looked at Wes, knowing there was so much we hadn’t had a chance to talk about, but if I was honest with myself, I knew all along we would end up here.
“Dax, my love and loyalty has always been yours, and if you decide these guys are yours too, then that’s all I need to know,” Wes assured me.
“It’s settled then. Two Tricks has an alliance with the Phantom Saints that she will personally oversee. Now Sprocket, if you could be so kind as to stitch me up, we have a war to prepare for,” I announced, grinning at my guys.
Elizabeth Knight
Elizabeth is originally from Illinois but is now living in the sunny Phoenix AZ. Though she is newer to publishing, Elizabeth has been writing for nine years. She started out in YA Fiction but recently found herself loving the Reverse Harem genre. Like her favorite books, Elizabeth loves to write strong women of all varieties. Not all strength is flashy or apparent at first glance—some lies just under the surface.
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Also by Elizabeth Knight
Elementi Series
Book 1 - Discovering Synergy
Book 2 – Refining Earth
Book 3 – Liberating Water April 4th, 2021
Hope Series
Book 1 – Hidden Hope
Book 2 – Claiming Hope
Book 3 – Defending Hope June 20th, 2021
Mercenary Queen Series
Book 1 – Birthright
Book 2 - Dragon Queen Sept. 19th 2021
Hidden Empire Series
Book 1 - Two Tricks
Some Kind of Luck
The Trouble with Luck (Some Kind of Luck Book 1 – Co-write) March 17th 2021
Stroke of Luck (Some kind of Luck Book 3) August 29 2021
Two Tricks (Hidden Empire Book 1) Page 19