“You know my sister?” Jeff met Axle’s gaze in the rear view mirror.
“Your sister?” Axle spat. “She’s your fucking sister? So who are you? Bunny never gives out personal details. So spill. Are you Viper’s boy?”
“Yeah. The weapons are for him.”
“Well, damn.” Axle barked his delight. “Things were looking pretty bad for me for a while there, but fortune has smiled on me at last. Price just went up, J-Boy ’cause the weapons I have to sell are the weapons Viper tried to steal from the Sinners. I got them this evening with the help of a sexy redhead.”
“Sherry?” The name dropped from Arianne’s lips before she could catch it.
“So clever.” Axle pressed the knife against Arianne’s throat. “Yeah, Sherry got me into the storage shed behind the safe house where she’s stayin’. Jagger kicked her outta the club, but he let her stay at the safe house because someone roughed her up real bad, and Jagger just can’t deal with seeing a woman in pain. I had to hit her quite a few times to make it look authentic enough for him to want to help her, but I never expected he’d put her in the safe house, right near the shed. Never thought it would be so easy for her to get the code. But a man will pretty much give up anything for good head, and Sherry’s the best.”
Her lip curled. “You’re disgusting.”
“And you’re gonna suffer so much worse than she did when she first told me she wouldn’t do it.”
Jeff’s hands convulsed on the steering wheel, and the car veered to the side of the road. “That wasn’t our deal. She’s not part of this except to get the extra cash.”
“Consider her a surcharge.” Axle laughed. “I gotta say, I was worried about how to make a living after I got kicked outta the Sinners, but getting into bed with Bunny, using my connections to get shit he needs, has more than made up for my loss.”
Arianne fingered the trigger on her gun, weighing her chances of avoiding the blade if she could shoot Axle across her opposite shoulder. “How much more does he owe?”
“Eighty grand. And hand the gun over to Jeff, love. Nice and slow. I know you got it, and I don’t got any problem cutting you tonight, because every day you’ve been alive since we found you at the clubhouse has been borrowed time.”
Muttering a curse, she held the gun out for Jeff, who took it with his right hand, and lowered it carefully to the floor beneath his legs.
“Nice piece,” Axle said. “I always carry a .45. Much more effective. But maybe I’ll add your toy to my collection.”
“Fuck off.”
“Don’t antagonize him,” Jeff whined. “We just need to get the money and—”
“Eighty grand?” She cut Jeff off and glared. “Why the hell did you tell him I would give him the money? I don’t have eighty grand. I spent everything on those passports.”
“You must have some cash, Ari.” He scraped a hand through his hair. “I’ll drive you to the bank and you can check.”
The car veered to the right, and Arianne sucked in a breath. “Are you okay to drive?”
“No. I’m not okay.” Jeff wrenched the steering wheel in the opposite direction. “I’m outta meth, and there’s a shortage since the ice house blew up. Axle wants his money. Viper wants his guns. You want to fucking run away to Canada. I can’t take anymore. I can’t take the pressure. I need one thing to go right.” His voice rose and his hands jerked on the steering wheel. Oh God. He was tweaking. She had to get him out of the car or he’d kill someone.
“My bank is five blocks to the east,” she said. “I might have some cash in my savings account.”
“Lucky for you.” Axle eased the pressure against her throat.
Arianne scowled at him in the rear view mirror. “Lucky is winning the lottery, falling in love, or being the only person to survive an airplane crash. Lucky is not riding around in a decrepit vehicle with a tweaking brother while some low-life scumbag holds a knife against my throat and threatens to steal my money.”
“You forgot the part where I’m going to kill Jeff if I don’t get my money tonight,” Axle said. “And then there’s the fun you and I are going to have after the deal is done.”
Fear and anger curled through her belly. This wasn’t happening. After all they’d been through together, Jeff wasn’t betraying her when they were so close to the life they had dreamed about since the day they huddled on the roof all night, praying for the sun to come up.