Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 27809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 139(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 139(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
“You expect us to make this clean and simple?” Knight growled. “After he threatened our women?”
Everyone was silent for a minute, then Dax said, “Your call.”
Knight and I stared at each other, the need to make Bickle suffer burning in our guts. I wasn’t sure I had it in me to do anything except cut Bickle’s balls off and feed them to him. Then make him scream some more before he ate a bullet.
But I struggled with the weight of the greater good versus my own need for revenge.
“It’s justice either way,” Knight finally conceded, though I could tell that he was fighting the same battle.
“It means letting Markoff go,” I said, speaking to all my brothers.
No one responded, and I knew it was their way of acknowledging the truth and still leaving the decision in our hands.
Finally, I nodded before I changed my mind.
“Do it,” Knight snarled.
It only took a few seconds before Bickle jerked back violently, a hole visible right between his eyes as he fell to the ground when no one attempted to catch him. His son screamed until he met the same fate.
Markoff’s men immediately surrounded him, guns drawn and looking all around to find the source of the bullet.
“A warning.” Hack’s voice came through one of the bodyguard’s radios. “Keep your filth out of other people’s territories.”
Markoff wasn’t visible in the circle of his guards, but his voice carried. “What you do now that your boss is dead is up to you.”
Bickle’s men stared at each other, seemingly unsure of what to do next.
Markoff didn’t wait for a response. He and his men moved as a unit to the door and disappeared.
“We don’t even have to let them know he’s dead,” one of the men commented.
Another piped up. “We could run it with him as the fall guy if no one suspects it’s us.”
Knight suddenly grinned, and I knew he’d had the same thought.
“You want backup?” Nova asked, clearly knowing where our minds had led us.
“Nah,” I said.
Knight raised his pistol, and I did the same, then we stalked into the open space, aiming at the heads of the two nearest thugs.
“Gonna have to pass on the promotion, boys,” I drawled. “Won’t matter anyway because you’ll be dead.”
The four men had pulled their weapons the second they spotted us, but their actions weren’t smooth, and they didn’t work as a unit. Knight took a shot at the same time as I did, disarming two with a bullet to the wrist and firing another into the heads of the last two before any of them could get a shot off.
“Just the four of us. Now we’re even,” Knight drawled.
The two injured men were shaking with rage, and when one bent down to grab his pistol, I shot forward and kicked him in the head, sending him flying backward. After hitting the ground hard, I expected him to stay down, but the idiot struggled to his feet and came rushing at me. “Assholes never fucking learn,” I muttered as I stepped to the side and darted around to his back when he lunged for me, taking him off balance. Then I banded an arm around his neck and grabbed his wrist, pressing my thumb directly onto his wound.
He screamed like a little girl and tried to fight free, but I had him in an iron grip.
“We need this one?” I asked.
Knight looked at the other man, who froze and cradled his bleeding hand against his chest. “You gonna play nice?” he queried.
The man nodded and cleared his throat before saying, “Yes. Just don’t kill me.”
Neither of us answered as I switched my grip so I could break my hostage’s wrist. Then when his attention was on his shattered bone, rather than trying to free himself from my hold, I pulled a knife from the holster around my thigh and slit the bastard’s throat.
I released him, and he crumpled to the floor. “Don’t fucking get up this time,” I snarled sarcastically.
He only lasted another minute or so because I’d severed his carotid artery.
The rest of our brothers sauntered in when they saw we had the situation handled.
An hour later, we’d extracted what we could from the guard, and Knight had sliced open the bastard’s throat. We let Dash know he needed to get a crew out here to clean the scene, then while the rest of our gang waited for them to arrive, Knight and I took off like bats outta hell, our only thoughts about getting home to our women.
We stopped at Knight’s place to clean up the blood and spattered remnants of brain and whatever else was clinging to us. We didn’t want to scare the fuck out of Kiara and Karina, but more than that, we didn’t want them tainted by the realities of club business. They accepted us for who we were, but that didn’t mean we wouldn’t do everything in our power to keep them from the seedier parts of our life.