“Yeah.”
“Think it has to do with the shit Freak found on the tapes?”
“Probably, fuck if I know. Neither her nor Nicole are talking.”
“Should we step in?”
“Who the hell knows? I…”
Where once the area was filled with talking and laughter, now there’s screaming as gunfire erupts around us. Dancer and I take off running at the same time to cover our women. I see out of the corner of my eye that Crusher is doing the same with Dani. I’m useless in helping the other members scramble. I pull Nicole off the chair, trying to be gentle. I flip the chair to its side. It won’t stop a bullet, but it might mess up the aim of the shooter. I keep my woman covered as much as I can, even though she’s begging me to protect myself. Fucking woman has zero survival skills when it comes to taking care of her own hide.
As quick as the gunfire begins it stops, when Freak and the other brothers start firing back. I look over the top of the chair, trying to get my bearings. I focus on an old black Ford truck peeling out of the parking lot.
“Hold up!” I shout. Slowly the brothers stop shooting. “Follow those fuckers. If they get away I’m going to make sure heads roll!” I stand, helping Nicole to her feet. “Mama, I’m going to go find out who the fuck that was. Are you okay? The baby?”
“We’re fine, Dragon,” she whispers shakily, the side of her face covered with sand and there are tears in her eyes. I bend down and kiss her hard, taking her taste inside of me, because I need it. She’s my air. The reason I live.
“Bull, protect the women and get them back to the compound.”
“Yeah, alright Drag,” Bull says, but something in his tone grabs me. I don’t have time to address it. “Dance, Crush, you’re with me.”
*
I’m fucking tired. It’s been hours. We followed the fuckers and found the truck abandoned at the base of one of the hiking trails through the Daniel Boone National Forest. Crush and I managed to grab one of the fuckers, but the other one or two (I can’t even be sure how fucking many there were) managed to get away.
We brought weasel back to the cabin for interrogation. It didn’t take long. He sang like a fucking canary. Weak-ass, sniveling son of a bitch. I would probably have been doing him a favor if I had ended him, but I didn’t. We have plans for him.
I slam into the front doors of the compound and I’m pissed for many reasons. Bull looks up at me and his face goes tight.
“What’s up?”
“Crush and Dance will fill you in. Where’s my woman?”
“She was feeling bad, went to lay down.”
“Thanks, man. Church meeting in two hours.”
Bull nods, and I’m preoccupied, but I see something flash in his eyes. I should stop and ask what the fuck is going on, but I can’t. I put it on my list. I know Bull is dealing with shit. His voice is ragged and hoarse, he has a scar on his neck and his body is weaker. Rehab helped some, but he’s having issues. I need to be there for him, but I just don’t have the time right now. I put it on the back burner and go to find my woman.
She’s lying on the bed, but she’s not asleep. She’s wide awake, staring at the door, with those same damn tears in her eyes.
“Mama, we need to talk,” I close the door behind me and lean on it, waiting.
“I don’t think we do. It’s done now.”
“Done? Nicole, what the fuck are you talking about? It’s not done. I’ve just spent the last hour interrogating some jerk to find out that there’s a freaking lunatic out there gunning for my woman and Dani, because it seems Dani was married to the fucker and ran out on him fucking five years ago! How do I not know this, Nicole? How could you not tell me about this?”
“Wasn’t my secret to tell, Dani has a right to her privacy, Dragon—even from you,” she says getting up.
“She is married, Nicole. To a rich-ass lunatic who thought she was dead. She stole five hundred grand off of him. You had to know he’d never give up trying to find his damn money. You had to know he’d eventually hunt you down for answers!”
“He had no reason to. He had no idea that Dani and I were still in touch. We covered our bases damn good,” she says calmly. I swear if the woman didn’t own my soul I would be tempted to slap some sense into her.
Covered their bases? What the fuck? She’s an amateur trying to take on the big boys. I had Freak research this Michael Kavanagh. What I found out still fucking leaves me with chills just thinking what someone like that would do to Nicole. I don’t want my woman anywhere around this fucker. I do not want her in his line of fire.
I look at her like I have no idea who she is, because honest to God, I don’t right now.