Chapter Twenty-One
Horse
Horse saw red when he saw the gun at Marie’s head. Jensen stood next to her, trembling so hard he thought it might be enough to pull the trigger. The man was obviously tweaking hard on something, probably meth. Very bad news. Might even be hallucinating. It took everything he had not to charge Jensen and kill him with his bare hands, but he had to be smart.
“Hey,” Max said, sounding a little too casual. Horse glanced over at him and caught his play. “We’re just here to make sure Marie’s all right. We were afraid the Jacks got her. We know you love her and would never hurt her so let’s talk this through. Win/win, right?”
Jeff laughed, the tone high-pitched and more than a little crazed.
“I showed her the evidence,” he said. “She knows all about what you did in Afghanistan to those kids. And now you’re going to die for what you did to her.”
Horse ignored his words, focusing on reading his tone and body language. No clear shot, obviously. How could he get to her? He’d been in tighter situations but never with so much at stake.
“I’m going to put down my gun,” he said, setting the gun very slowly and carefully on the floor. Then he held his hands up, showing Jeff they were empty. “Max will do the same. Then you can take the gun away from her head. I don’t want any accidents. We’ll let you get in her car and go, sound good?”
Jensen laughed again, something new and ugly on his face…honest glee, with a hint of gloating.
“I want you out in the center of the floor,” he said. “No tricks.”
Horse stepped forward, hands up. The gun trembled in Jensen’s hand as he pulled Marie backward, deeper into the barn’s open central floor. F*ck.
“That’s good,” Jeff said. “Your turn,” he added, looking at Max now. Horse heard Max shuffle behind him and then Marie’s eyes went wide. She opened her mouth and screamed at him as a bullet tore through his back, pain exploding as his vision started going dark.
He hit the floor, seeing his blood flowing out onto the ground next to him. He couldn’t move but he could feel, the pain beyond anything he could have imagined. This is how Bagger went, he realized. Alone in a pool of blood, knowing that he failed his woman. Then he stopped thinking and everything stopped.
Marie
Horse hit the floor and my world ended. I think some part of me had doubted whether our love was real. Not anymore. I hardly noticed as Jeff let me go, I just ran over to Horse and felt his neck for a pulse. It was there, and while the blood was pooling beneath him it wasn’t spurting out.
I still had a chance.
I stood to see Max and Jeff greeting each other, guns lowered. Holy shit.
“This was a setup,” I said. Jeff glanced over at me.
“Max is my inside source. He knew I’d be here tonight and planned to deliver you, but it made things a lot easier when you gave Cookie a ride home.”
“Too much talk,” Max said, narrowing his eyes at Jeff. “We can’t trust her.”
Jeff nodded, looking sad.
“Yeah, you’re right,” he said. “Marie, I know this is hard for you but you’ll get through it. You’ve only known him a few months and it was all fake anyway. You’ll see.”
“Everything ready?” Max asked. Jeff nodded.
“All set up,” he said. “Haven’t pulled the money from the accounts yet, didn’t want to do that and tip them off until we got her out. Marie, grab your purse, we gotta go.”
He picked it up and tossed it toward me, then pulled Max away, talking with him quietly. Both men seemed extremely excited and agitated as they pored through papers on one of the work benches. I didn’t care about that—I needed to find something to stop the bleeding. I saw a pile of rags that looked pretty dirty, but figured we’d worry about infection if he managed to survive. It wouldn’t matter if I kept the wound clean if he bled out.
Once I had the rags on him and started applying pressure, I tried to think of the next step. I definitely wasn’t going anywhere with Max and Jeff. I’d finally grasped the reality—I’d already lost Jeff. There was something really, really wrong with him and I’d never be able to fix it. Even if I did, I didn’t want him in my life anymore. Not after he killed Horse. Tried to kill Horse.
He wasn’t dead yet. Gotta keep the thoughts positive.
Max and Jeff were engrossed in whatever they were studying—apparently I wasn’t a threat to them. I could use that. I glanced down at my purse and realized I had two very powerful tools in there. My phone and my gun. I couldn’t call and say anything though, because they’d hear me. I guess I could’ve called 9-1-1 in the hope they’d find me, but considering it was a cell phone that wouldn’t happen very fast.
I’d call Picnic and hope to hell he answered. Maybe he’d hear something useful.
I scooted around Horse’s body, turning my back to them. That felt wrong, but I needed some cover to dig through my purse. I also needed to keep up the pressure on his wound, so I leaned down and across him, holding down the rags with the weight of my body as I searched quickly through the bag. I found the phone first, turning down the sound and hitting Picnic’s number. It rang forever. Nothing. Shit. I heard their conversation shift and realized I was running out of time. I hit Maggs’ number and set the phone on the floor behind Horse’s arm, hoping she’d answer and hear something. I couldn’t do more than that, not right now.
Now for the gun.
Horse had given me a really cute leather purse that had a little compartment in it designed especially for a handgun—crazy, right? I was damned thankful for it at the moment though, because my .22 slipped right out when I pressed the latch. Now all I had to do was cock it. I got ready and then coughed loudly as I chambered a round, sliding it under his arm.
“You should leave him,” Jeff said behind me. “He’s going to die, no way you can change that. Grab your shit and let’s go.”
I lifted my chest and pressed against Horse again with both hands. Then I scooted around to find Jeff standing over me.
“I’m not going with you,” I said, meeting his eyes. “You guys should get out while you can. Leave us. I won’t even tell them who did it, I just want you gone.”
Max laughed and came up behind Jeff, holding up a paper. He smiled and shook his head, studying whatever it said.
“I can’t believe it’s this simple,” Max said, shaking his head. Jeff turned back to grin at him, the maniacal gleam coming back into his eyes. “You’re a genius. We’ll be set, even after we pay off the cartel.”
“It’s only simple because I spent so much time setting it up,” Jeff said, looking pleased, although I noticed his hand had started twitching again. Of course, he kept his finger on the trigger. Just what I needed.
“You did a hell of a job,” Max said, shaking his head ruefully. “It’s a thing of beauty, man.”
Jeff grinned at the compliment.
“I’m really glad they didn’t listen to me back in September,” Max continued. He looked at me and smiled almost fondly. “Gotta thank your old man for that, Marie. I wanted to kill you months ago, Jeff. Figured you might expose me on the skim. Never figured on a payoff like this. Damn. I’m actually sorry I have to do this. It’s not personal, okay?”
Jeff looked at Max, puzzled. He never saw the biker’s hand lift and for the second time in ten minutes I found myself screaming a warning too late for someone I loved. Jeff’s head exploded. Literally exploded, chunks flying off. One of them hit me in the face, which I didn’t notice at the time because in the instant Max shot him, Jeff’s hand spasmed and pulled the trigger on his own gun. A second shot rang out almost instantly and I felt a line of fire across my arm. I ignored it because my brother was dead, my lover was almost dead and I had a really, really bad feeling that I’d be dead, soon too.
Max looked down at me, tapping his gun against the side of his leg. He wore the same puzzled look he’d had the night he’d attacked me.
“He’s going to die,” Max said, looking down at Horse thoughtfully. “Your brother was right about that. You might as well let him go, because his blood is getting all over your clothes.”
“What’s wrong with you?” I whispered. “Why would you do this?”
He shrugged.
“Money, what else? Get out of the way unless you want me to shoot you too. I want to f*ck you first. Your call.”
My eyes widened as he raised his gun and pointed it right at Horse’s head. This was it. Horse was out of time. I needed a distraction, just for a second.
“Oh my god, I’m covered in blood!” I squealed suddenly, pulling my hands away from Horse to tear off my shirt and bra. Max’s eyes went straight to my tits right as my hand grabbed my gun. A thousand memories flashed through my mind in an instant, but the one that stayed with me was the sound of Horse’s voice, that first day he taught me to shoot.
Just remember, you ever point this at a person, you shoot it right at his heart and you shoot to kill. Never point a gun unless you’re ready to end a life.
I lifted my gun and pointed it straight at Max’s heart like I’d practiced hundreds of time. I didn’t even think as I pulled the trigger over and over and over until I ran out of bullets. Like Jeff, Max’d pulled his trigger as he died but his arm had dropped just enough to miss us. I crawled over to his body and grabbed his gun, taking it back with me as I climbed onto Horse, sitting on the rags as I grabbed my phone.
“Maggs, are you there?” I asked, my voice.
“What happened?” she demanded, her voice steady and calm. Apparently Maggs took gunfire in stride. “The guys are on their way, they’ll be there in two minutes, tops. They had GPS on your car. Are you okay?”
“Horse needs an ambulance,” I said, my voice shaky. “I think he’s still alive. Max and Jeff are dead. Please save us, Maggs. I’m really, really scared.”
The barn door burst open in front of me and I dropped the phone, bringing Max’s gun up and pointing it at Picnic, Bam Bam, Duck, Ruger and a couple other guys I’d seen at the armory, guys from another charter.
“I want cops and an ambulance,” I said, and my voice might have been weak but my hands were steady.
Picnic surveyed the scene, his face calmer than seemed reasonable.
“Max tried to kill Horse,” I told him. “He killed Jeff. I don’t trust any of you. I want an ambulance for Horse and I want you out of here.”
“Babe, I have no idea what went down here,” Picnic said slowly. “But you have to let us help Horse. Put down the gun.”
“No f*cking way,” I replied. “Max shot him in the back. I’ll shoot any one of you f*cking Reapers who try to touch him. Ambulance. Now.”
“There’s one on the way,” Picnic said. “Bam’s called it in. But if you’re sitting there holding a gun on us when the cops get here, that’s going to make it a lot harder for them to take care of Horse. He’s our brother, we aren’t going to hurt him.”
“Max was his brother too.”
“A bad thing happened here,” Duck said, stepping forward. Something about his voice mesmerized me, and his eyes looked soft and sad. I watched as he crossed the floor and sat in front of me, about three feet from the gun. “Don’t make it worse. We can still control the situation, but not if you get in a shootout with the cops.”
That startled me.
“I don’t want to shoot the cops, I just want to protect Horse,” I said.
“How are they going to know that?” he asked reasonably. I heard sirens in the distance. “You’re running out of time, let us help you through this, okay?”
I wanted to agree and had opened my mouth to tell him when something tackled me from behind. Duck’s hand darted forward at the same instant, wrenching the gun out of my grasp as Ruger rolled me away from Horse’s body. He held me down, hand over my mouth, and leaned his face in close to mine. His expression was intense, almost feral. In the corners of my eyes I saw the guys spring into action, throwing things into a bag, which Bam Bam grabbed before he took off running out the back door of the barn.
“All hell’s gonna break loose when they come in here,” Ruger told me, his tone urgent. “They’re probably going to arrest you, maybe all of us. Keep your mouth shut. I don’t care what happened here and I don’t care who did the shooting. You keep your mouth shut and the only time you open it is to ask for a lawyer. Keep asking for a lawyer ’til you get one, we’ll send him to you. Do not talk, you got me?”
He pulled his hand away from my mouth and I nodded, eyes wide. A single cop came flying through the door and stopped abruptly, obviously shocked at the scene.
“Holy shit!” he yelled, reaching up to grab his radio. “We need backup now. Everyone, hands up where I can see them. Get off that girl, let her go.”
Ruger rolled off me and stood, backing away with his hands raised high. The others followed suit and then I joined them. The lone cop watched us anxiously as EMTs rushed over to Horse, bundling him onto a stretcher and hauling him out the door. More cops arrived, which was the start of a very, very long night.
I asked for a lawyer and eventually I got one, but he couldn’t answer the one question I cared about.
Was Horse still alive?
Horse
He felt detached from his body, almost floating. Pain roared through him. Voices echoed in the background, along with sirens. Then the world went black again.
More voices. Pain, but muted. Horse opened his eyes slowly, taking in a blurry room and a bright white light. A woman stood over him, asking him questions. He tried to answer, telling her his name, but he was so damned tired. He needed to sleep.
“Wake up, a*shole. You’re late for church. No excuses.”
Shit. Had he slept in?
Horse opened his eyes, blinking rapidly, trying to focus. Not his room…hospital. Had to be a hospital. It came back to him in a rush—he’d been with Marie and then somebody shot him.
“Did they get Marie?” he demanded, but it came out in a whisper. F*cking p-ssy, he couldn’t even talk. He hated feeling weak.
“Marie is safe,” Picnic said, stepping into Horse’s line of sight. Horse studied his face to make sure the man wasn’t lying to him. “She’s in jail right now. Our guy’s arranging bail. He says that if the ballistics match her story, they probably won’t charge her with anything. She’d be out already but they’re pissed that she’s stonewalling about why her brother and Max were fighting.”
“Jail?” he asked, confused.
“Marie shot Max,” Picnic said, his face grim. Horse wrinkled his forehead. “Ruger’s in there too. Hands covered in blood so they arrested him. He had to tackle your girl to get the gun away from her. She’d gone all Pulp Fiction on us, ready to defend you by killing all of us if she had to. Crouched over your body like Wonder Woman. Gives me a boner just thinking about it.”
“You’re the a*shole. Why would she shoot Max?” Horse asked, every word grating against his sore throat. Had the bullet hit his mouth, for f*ck’s sake? Why couldn’t he talk right?
“Max shot you in the back,” Picnic said shortly. “And then he shot Jensen. Marie was probably next—she told our guy that Max was getting ready to finish you off when she took him out. Kid is like a f*cking commando, never saw that coming. Shot him seven times.”
“F*ck,” Horse muttered, feeling himself smile. “Damn, that’s amazing. My girl’s a one-woman army.”
“No shit,” Picnic said, shaking his head. “Took care of business, no question about that. Hey, gotta ask you something important.”
“What’s that?”
Picnic leaned over and spoke softly.
“Cops found all kinds of papers,” he said. “No idea what was in them, but Marie told the lawyer they were talking about money transfers. Jensen said it was all set up. Could we be in trouble?”
Horse wrinkled his forehead, trying to think.
“I changed everything after we found out about Jensen,” he said. “New accounts, the whole thing, a lot more than just passwords and shit like that. Shouldn’t have been traceable.”
“Wonder what he was talking about?”
Horse searched his memory, which was way too hard. Must be on drugs, he realized. Something hovered just out of reach, something he knew was important. Then it came to him.
“We’re good,” he said, smiling.
“How’s that?”
“Max was in the office the last time I printed out a list of the overseas account numbers and contact information,” he said. “Told him I was making dupes for the lockbox. Probably left to take a piss or something and he copied them. Bet he thought he’d hit the jackpot.”
“Tell me that isn’t as bad as it sounds, bro.”
Horse tried to shake his head, but it didn’t work.
“They were dummies,” he replied, savoring the moment. “You know I like to f*ck with the cops. Couple times a year I update my fake accounts and ledgers, make ’em realistic enough that if we ever get raided they’ll be chasing their tails for months. I never told Jensen, and Max sure as f*ck wouldn’t know. Max gave him accounts with about five grand in them. Just enough to trick someone trying to do a test transfer, you know? Little game I like to play, extra insurance…guess it worked out.”
“Jesus Christ… Thank f*ck for that,” Picnic said.
“Nope, not Jesus, just a man,” Horse whispered. “Although when women see my dick for the first time, they’ve been known to fall down on their knees and worship me.”
Picnic laughed.
“Yeah, you’re gonna live,” he said. “Ego’s too big to die. Cops’ll want to talk to you at some point. Tell ’em you can’t remember anything beyond being at the party, lawyer says a traumatic head injury can make you forget the hours right before it happened. Yours hit the ground when he shot you. That’ll get you off the hook and drive ’em crazy at the same time. I’m gonna call the nurse now, let them know you’re awake.”
“Wait,” Horse said. “Tell me about the Jacks. I miss anything?”
“Nothing yet,” Picnic replied. “We’ll keep an eye on them, this is just getting started. War’s coming. Doubt your girl’ll be their target though. Not worth their time to range this far out of their territory if they aren’t getting paid.”
Horse heard the room door open, and the sounds of a busy hallway behind it.
“Hey, Picnic, I just went down to grab a drink,” Dancer said as she walked in. Horse managed to open his eyes again and look at her. She froze, eyes wide, then her face exploded in a huge smile as she rushed over to him. She leaned over to give him a hug, pulling back at the last minute with a grimace. Thank god for that, a hug right now and he’d probably need another gallon of whatever painkiller they’d given him. “Horse! I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up. How do you feel? Can he talk?”
“You look like shit,” Horse said. “What’s wrong with you?”
“My brother got shot, you douche,” she said. “I thought you were going to die. Marie saved your life, did he tell you that?”
“Yeah,” Horse said, closing his eyes again. Damn he was tired.
“F*ckin’ pansy,” Picnic said, and Horse heard him laugh, as if from a distance. “Damn woman had to protect him, lazy a*shole wouldn’t even get up off the ground. Dripping blood, making a mess…”
Horse opened his mouth to tell him to f*ck off, but before the words came he was out again.