He pressed his lips together. “You’re the one who wanted the One-Eyed Jacks and the Flames of Hell to understand that you and I mean business, big business. Two birds, one stone, my friend. For both of us. I told you I’d provide for your needs.”
Notch exhaled a cloud of smoke and signaled to two of his brothers. Fists flew at me, slamming into my middle. One landed on my scar, the stinging throb shooting through me. A blow to my side had me doubled over, crashing to the ground. Pain exploded in my skull.
“I wanna see the Jack crawl.” Notch laughed.
I raised myself up but got kicked down. And again. My muscles strained and shuddered. I rolled over, the sun needling my eyes. I pushed up, but a jab to my lower back had me sprawled in the earth. Dirt and dust scoured my dry mouth.
A large hand pulled me up from the ground and shoved me forward.
“Go. Run like a hen. Run!” Alejandro’s voice pierced my ears.
“Yeah, give him a head start. Make this more fun,” came Notch’s lazy voice behind me.
My blurry eyes fell on my snake coiled tight over my arm, his damn ugly face glaring at me, fangs at the ready, broken bones in his mouth.
The bones I’d broken.
Alejandro’s bodyguard at my back shoved me again.
“Never again, never go back.”
I spun, bashing my handcuffed fists into his throat. He croaked and wheezed, crumpling to the ground. I spotted his gun and propelled myself forward, lunging for the weapon just beyond his feet. I grabbed the handle, but my useless fingers were numb. The fucking gun tumbled from my grasp.
“Shit!”
My head reeled. I forced my eyes to focus.
Shots rang out, yelling split the air. The peal of a semiautomatic ripped around me. I smashed my face into the hard ground.
“No!”
My eyes sprang up at the sound of his voice.
Alejandro trained a sleek, shiny weapon at me. Was it engraved?
“You’re mine! Mine!” he hissed.
Crack. Crack.
He snapped back as if by an invisible force, disappearing from view.
I crawled to the side and reached for the gun again, my hands sweaty, my fingers sticking to the handle. I rolled onto my back and pulled myself up, pain lashing through me like tongues of fire.
I had to be ready for him. Have to be ready.
I stretched my arms, the gun shaking in my hands.
A roar exploded in the back of my skull. A blur of black battered me, and the gun was ripped from my grasp.
“Fuck!”
A Blade pounded my jaw, my chest, the blows hammering through me.
“Son of a bitch!” I rammed my feet into his middle, and again to his crotch. He howled.
Thick pops went off in the air, and his body flinched and seemed to stop in midair, blood spurting over me. I spotted the glint on his belt and snatched his gun as his lifeless hulk heaved on top of me. With a grunt, I shoved him off me, raising myself up again.
And there he was.
Alejandro’s huge dark eyes glared at me like flags in the distance. His mouth opened wide in an ugly yell as he pointed his weapon at me.
I aimed through the haze, my shoulders shuddering. Alejandro collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut. His jaw loose, his hand wavering over the dried grass, like a useless last-minute flag of surrender, and then it flopped down. I blinked, crawling backwards.
The shot to his head had come from behind him.
What the fuck was going on?
Black dots appeared over the horizon, dots moving, a swarm of dots. The ground rose up, and my eyes hit dirt, my skull thudding on the hard surface.
I trembled, my fingers digging in the earth. Using the surge of adrenaline flying through me, I pushed myself over and fell on my back. A breeze tripped over my face, and I opened my mouth to take in a gulp. I blinked, my eyes straining in the sunlight. Bulky clouds briskly slid across the streaky blue sky.
How do those fuckers move so fast? So silently?
“Bro!”
Butler.
Hands lifted me up. “Fuck, he’s bleeding.”
“We gotta go, man. Feds are on the way.”
Catch’s and Dready’s voices buzzed somewhere over me. Shuffling, thudding, stamping pounded all around me.
“Get him up. He can’t move. Let’s go!”
“You’re safe, Bone. Don’t worry. I’m here with you. Right here.”
A soft hand brushed over my forehead, easing the cold that had seeped through my flesh and the shuddering in my veins.
A light kiss on my lips.
Jill.
“Thanks for coming, Doc,” a hoarse male voice said in the distance.
More voices, footsteps.
“The doctor said you’re going to be fine, Bone. Thank God.” Another kiss on my hand.
Her eyes hovered over me, her wavy hair tickling my face.
My fingers uncurled in her hand. “Jill.” Needles pricked my throat.
“Right here. We’re at the Flames’ clubhouse. Their doctor just cleaned you up. It’s all good.”
“Jill, what—”
“I’ll go get Butler for you. I’ll be right back.”
I pulled on her, my one hand bringing her within inches of my face. “What the hell did you do?”
She blinked. “I chose love. Love, not fear.”
I locked on those gray-blue eyes of hers, my lungs pinching in my chest. Iron in her bones.