The next evening I walked into an Iron Horsemen club wearing a little black dress. And because I was a biker’s woman, my little black dress was made of leather. It was a halter, and it clearly showed off the ink on my shoulder.
I’d paired the dress with leather ankle boots with silver metal studs and spikes and a matching black studded clutch. Unfortunately, the purple cast on my wrist detracted just a bit from the bad-assery. But Ramsey assured me it would absolutely make Dev think I was weak and incapable of taking him down. The cast, he said, was an asset.
There was no room for any sort of weapon on me anywhere, and though I didn’t like going into a wolf’s den unarmed, I knew I’d have to in order to set my plan in motion.
I passed the bar and ignored the writhing bodies on the dance floor. I glanced up at the second story of the club and saw two Iron Horsemen lording over their holdings.
I quickly found the stairs and slowly approached both men wearing leather cuts. Every square inch of skin that I could see, aside from their faces, was inked.
There was a door at the other end of the balcony, which I knew— thanks to a hacker friend of Flynn’s who got us the floor plans—was Dev’s private green room. An office and a place to play cards where he could kick back and relax.
The two men slid around me, halting my progress.
“Where do you think you’re going?” the one standing behind me purred.
“I’ve got a meeting with your president.”
The oaf looming in front of me clucked his tongue. “They’ve already got entertainment for the evening.”
“But we don’t.” The one behind me reached out to grasp my hip and pulled me back into his hard body. I felt the evidence of his enjoyment, but I didn’t react.
“He’ll want to see me. Tell him it’s Mia.” I looked at the peon in front, watching his eyes widen in understanding. The goon behind me released me like he’d grabbed a hot poker straight from a fire.
The thug turned to stride down the hall. He knocked once on the door and then entered, shutting the door behind him. A few moments later, the door opened again, this time all the way and he gestured for me to come forward.
Adrenaline pumped through my veins as I walked into the wolf den.
I stepped through the doorway, careful to keep my face blank.
“She’s alone,” the criminal behind me said.
“You pat her down?” Dev asked without looking up.
“She’s wearing a tight, slutty dress. Where would she be able to hide a weapon?”
Dev sighed like he was tired. “Get the fuck out.”
Duly chastised, the half-witted criminal slunk from the room and shut the door.
Five men, including Dev, all sat around a card table. Each of them had a scantily clad woman sitting on his lap, but none of them paid their toys any attention. Dev hadn’t even glanced up when I entered the room.
Women were nothing here.
With a quick scan of the table, I realized they were playing Texas Hold ’Em and were at the turn card.
I took a moment to study each man playing. Dev was the only one wearing leather, the other four were all of different nationalities and wore suits. International businessmen?
Criminals for sure, if they were associating with Dev.
I watched them hold their cards and examine them, and when the Asian man shifted in his suit, I recognized his tell and knew he had a stellar hand before the river and there was no bluff about it.
Dev placed a five hundred dollar bet. The Asian man matched it and raised another five hundred.
The other three folded.
The dealer dealt the river card and both men checked after a moment eyeballing each other. Dev gestured with his chin at the Asian man who showed his two cards.
Royal flush.
I couldn’t stop the smirk that fell across my lips when Dev cursed and threw down pocket aces.
Considering the cards on the flop, it was a bad hand, thought strong only by weak-minded men.
“Fuck,” Dev cursed before lifting his eyes to mine. He said nothing, but instead chose to rake his gaze down my body. I forced myself to stand completely still and act like it didn’t feel like a million little insects were crawling across my skin.
He smirked. “Nice cast.”
“What’s the buy-in?” I asked ignoring Dev’s dig. My gaze flitted away from Dev to peer around the room.
One man—the Slavic—stared at me in curiosity, but barked something out in his native tongue. It was grating to my ears.
“You don’t have the kind of cash to buy in to one of my games, darlin’.” He leered, leaning back in his chair, his hand palming the backside of the blonde perched on his lap.
I opened my clutch and tossed out a packet of cocaine.
It landed in the center of the card table with a soft thud.
“What about now?” I asked softly. “Is that enough?”
His eyes darkened. “Everyone out.” He lightly smacked the girl’s butt, making her squeal. She jumped up and sidled around the table and then out the door. Her compatriots followed suit and so did the men who’d been sitting at Dev’s card table.
The door closed with finality.
I took it upon myself to pull out a chair and sit, spine straight, legs crossed.
“You’ve been holding out on me. I knew it.” He reached for the packet of cocaine and then took the next few moments to sample it.
“Does your business partner know about your love of his product?” I asked mildly.
Dev’s eyes were hazy. “How’s your friend? The pretty blonde with the stellar rack? Oh, that’s right.” His smile was cruel. “She’s dead.”
My rage was icy and intense. My blood froze and it was all I could do to control myself. But it wouldn’t do me any favors to let Dev under my skin. I couldn’t let him cloud my judgment with emotion.
“I guess we’re done here.” I placed my hands on the table and stood. “Good luck explaining to your business associates that you nearly recovered their massive shipment of cocaine, only to let it fall through your fingers.”
His hand lashed out to grab my right wrist and squeeze. I felt the bones crunch underneath his relentless grip. “Want me to give you a matching cast for the this arm, you fuckin’ bitch?”
I didn’t answer, and I didn’t wince even as the pain intensified.
“What’s your angle, darlin’? Because I know you didn’t walk in here with a packet of coke to dangle like a carrot in front of my face. You’re up to something.”
“Damn right I am,” I said mildly. “You mind letting go of me?”
He squeezed it one final time and then released me. “What the fuck is this? Why are you here?”
“You brought the cartel to Waco,” I said. “Let’s pretend I give two shits about that. I don’t. What I do care about is you fucking with me and my livelihood and shooting at women and children in a park.” I cocked my head to the side. “You seem awfully calm for a man who owes millions to the Garcia cartel. You’re still alive, which tells me they don’t know that Richie stole the shipment from you. But the window is closing on how long you can bullshit them. Once they realize what’s going on, you’re fucked.”
“So you have it all figured out, do you?” he murmured. “You don’t know shit.”
“No?” I nodded. “Okay.” I turned to leave.
“You want something. What is it?” Dev demanded.
His words made me pause and slowly turn around to face him. “Richie left Dive Bar to me. I want you and your boys to fuck off, and stay out of it.”
“Dive Bar doesn’t exist anymore. Your man had it burned to the ground.”
“I want to rebuild and reopen it. And I do not want the Iron Horsemen attached to it. Clean slate. You will also forfeit your territory on the East side. In exchange, I’ll take you to the warehouse tonight and you can recover your shipment. And hopefully keep your head before Alejandro Garcia removes it.”
I placed my hands on the table and leaned over. “I know who you’re in bed with. I know what they’re capable of doing. Your shipment for my bar and your club stays the fuck out of the East Side of town, that’s the deal.”
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Dev said with a rusty laugh. “I’m not giving you the East Side. Why don’t I just kill you now and be done with it?”
“Simple. My guys have moved the shipment. I no longer know where it is and won’t find out until I’m safely out of this building and call to confirm you’ve agreed to the deal. Only then do you get an address. You can show up heavy if you don’t trust us. We just want the bar. We don’t want shit to do with the cartels and the bar provides us clean money. Fuck with drug muling if you want, but keep us out of it.
“Besides, I can’t imagine you’re down for what Alejandro will do to you if he finds out you’ve crossed him by involving Richie. He certainly won’t care that Richie is dead. But if you don’t care about yourself, then maybe you care about your club?” I shook my head. “You know they won’t stop at just killing you, right? You know what they do to men who fuck them over. What do you think they do to women of the men who fuck them over?” I cocked my head to the side. “How is Sydney, by the way? She’s a freshman at A&M, isn’t she?”
His jaw tightened but he said nothing, his eyes glittering with suppressed rage. “Why did Colt send his Old Lady to negotiate for him?”
“Kinda hard for him to speak for himself, what with him being in jail and all. And you and I both know, none of the Angels could walk into this club and make it out alive.”
He smiled, but said nothing.
“Once we get outside I’ll get in my ride so my guys know I’m safe. Then I’ll give you the address to the warehouse and then you make a call to get Colt and the others released from jail. We all know who pulled the strings to get them locked up anyway.”
“I don’t trust you not to fuck me over,” he stated.
“That’s the pot calling the kettle black,” I seethed. I reached into my clutch and pulled out a set of keys and tossed them at him. “As soon as I give you the address you can go and see for yourself.”
His eyes gleamed. “Do you think I’m stupid? Do you really think I’m gonna go to an address that I haven’t scoped out yet. It could be a trap. You’re coming with me.”
“As what?” I asked, brows raised.
“Collateral.”
“I’m not going to a storage unit in the middle of the night with you. What’s to stop you from getting your entire shipment back and then putting a bullet in my brain?”
He grinned. “Nothing.”
I stared at him. “You kill me, and you start a war.”
“Darlin’, are you stupid? The war has already started.”
His eyes lifted to the spot over my shoulder.
I turned.
And then everything went black.
My head throbbed and something warm trickled down my temple.
The goon who clubbed me into unconsciousness had thoroughly enjoyed putting his hands on me. That much was obvious when I finally opened my eyes and met his gaze.
I was in the back of a van; my limbs and hands were free. Even if I was able to get a good kick at the asshole, rendering him inert, there was no way I could get through the metal safety screen between the front and back of the van.
Better to wait.
My heart beat frantically in my chest. I’d prepared for Dev to hurt me physically. We had discussed this possibility at great length while solidifying the plan. Still, it was one thing to mentally brace yourself for pain, quite another to actually feel it. Nausea churned in my belly as we went around a curve.
“Bitch is awake,” the Iron Horsemen thug in the back of the van said.
His friend who was driving said nothing, but passed a phone to Dev, who was sitting in the front passenger seat.
“Mia, darlin’, what’s your ride’s number?”
I told him and he put the phone on speaker.
“You know who this is. We’ve got your girl and need the address for the pickup.”
I heard mumbling on the other end of the line but couldn’t make out what was said.
“Oh, that’s simple. If you don’t give me the address, I’m gonna bring her back to you in about five different garbage bags. Give me the fucking address! Now.”
I heard a delay, then a response, and then Dev hung up and I shut my eyes to keep my headache from spiraling out of control.
They’d moved the shipment from a storage unit to a warehouse in a deserted, blue-collar part of town.
Twenty minutes later, the van came to a stop. The door flew open almost immediately and Dev was there, hauling me out, a pistol trained on me. He was taking every precaution and it was clear he assumed he was walking into a trap. But the fact that he came at all proved how desperate he was to get his hands on the missing product. I’d been fishing for information when I’d said I knew the cartel didn’t yet know the shipment was missing and I’d struck a nerve.
His clock was ticking and time was almost up.
The full moon lit the sky and there wasn’t a cloud in sight. A bead of sweat rolled down between my breasts. My mouth was dry and I was in desperate need of water.
Dev jabbed the pistol into my lower back. “Move.”
My vision was spotty and my head ached, but I forced one foot in front of the other. I couldn’t see the two men that were with Dev, but I assumed they were surveying the area.
“All clear,” one said, confirming my suspicion.
“Yep, I don’t see anything,” his friend added.
“Look around,” Dev barked. “I don’t trust this bitch.”
“Smokey and Mac checked it out as soon as we got the address and they didn’t see anything. It’s been a while now and nothing. They’re watching from across the street but no one has come in or out.”
We trekked toward the warehouse and when we arrived at the door, one of his boys pulled out a bolt cutter and cut off the lock.
“You first,” Dev said, prodding me with the pistol.
I opened the door. “I’m going to turn on the light, okay?”
“Do it.”
My hand slid across the wall and the lights flickered on, showing the stacks and stacks of cocaine in plastic bags. Dev reached into his leather vest pocket and pulled out his phone and dialed a number. He placed the cell to his ear and then said, “Back the van up to the door. We’re loading up.” He ended the call and then moved us farther into the warehouse. His grip on my arm was slack, but he was clearly strong enough that I couldn’t overtake him. Regardless of the movies I’d seen, I knew that small women didn’t beat up massive bikers.
The light overhead flickered before sputtering out.
We were pitched into darkness and a sliver of the full moon managed to peek its way into the warehouse, illuminating Dev’s harsh features. I could smell the acrid stench of fear seeping from him.
There was the sound of a distant crack like a massive whip had flicked through the air, and then the thud of something striking the exterior of the warehouse followed by a shout. Another bang a split second later accompanied by a thump, and then there was nothing.
“What the ever loving fuck,” Dev snapped. His slack grip suddenly became like a vice as he hauled me toward the door.
When he yanked me toward him, I twisted an ankle, causing me to stumble and fall toward the floor.
Dev jerked me up easily with one arm as though I weighed nothing and made sure to keep a firm grip on his pistol, as he marched us out the door of the warehouse.
The two men who’d accompanied Dev were leaking blood onto the ground in pools around the stumps of their lower jaws and necks.
They’d had their heads blown apart.
A sudden wave of nausea assaulted me as the smell of blood, like old copper pennies, hit my nose and I began to breathe through my mouth and hastily closed my eyes.
Gray had done his job.
“You lying bitch,” Dev seethed as he pulled me in front of him and stuck his pistol under the base of my skull at the back of my head.
“Come out, fuckers! Come out now or she dies!”
When no one made a move, he pressed the weapon more firmly to my head and made a guttural sound like he knew he was going to die.
The bite of metal against my skin made my heart pound, but it suddenly felt like everything was happening in slow motion.
I knew Gray’s general position on the roof across the street, but like any good sniper he was impossible to see. Dev didn’t know Gray was out there, for all he knew it was two men on foot down below, but Gray hadn’t taken a shot at Dev yet. That told me he couldn’t hit Dev without injuring me.
Out of the corner of my eye, the light in the warehouse suddenly turned on, causing Dev’s gaze to stray.
I took advantage of the distraction and in one quick breath, I lifted my arms into the air, balled my fist up tight and elbowed Dev in the solar plexus as hard as I could.
“Fuuuck!” Dev screamed, firing off a shot in my general direction as he lost his grip on me.
I rushed forward to escape him.
He stumbled back, tripping over one of the bodies of his men. When he fell, he dropped his pistol and his eyes darted around in search of it, reminding me of a trapped rodent searching for an escape. He was without his men, and now he no longer had a hostage to ensure he’d leave alive. Desperation had set in.
I kept waiting for Gray to take his shot, but it didn’t come.
Something was wrong.
I felt it deep in my gut.
Had Dev’s two men—Mac and Smokey—who’d been watching from the distance found Gray? Was he fighting on the roof for his life, or was his existence already forfeit?
Dev started to laugh when he realized I was alone and unarmed, that he could now finish me off and there wasn’t anyone to protect me.
I’d been right on one account.
Dev had followed me into a trap, but the trap failed.
I had no idea where Flynn was, or if Gray was still alive.
I was on my own—facing off with a madman who would stop at nothing to kill me.
My only shot in hell was making it to the van and praying his man had left the keys in the ignition.
If not…
I took a step forward only to have pain lance its way up my leg.
I looked down and realized I’d been hit when Dev’s pistol fired. A river of blood poured from the wound, trickling down my calf and into my boot. I became light-headed.
“Where’s your boyfriend now, you fuckin’ cunt?” Dev taunted, rising from the ground with a pistol he’d found by the body of one of his men. “You think his name on your shoulder is gonna protect you?”
I hobbled toward the van, my hand to the wound on my leg. But my palm kept slipping off because of the blood.
The air smelled of gunpowder and death.
“You don’t think I knew this was gonna be a set up? Of course I knew.”
“Then why did you let my guy kill two of yours?” I asked, feeling faint.
“Sometimes you have to sacrifice a few for the many,” he stated. His eyes took on a deranged glint in the moonlight.
Spots marred my vision and my breathing was already labored as my heart tried to pump more blood and oxygen to the wound in my leg.
“You didn’t think I knew about your alliance with Flynn Campbell? Or your boys’ meeting with the Jackals. The Jackals would be idiots to pick the losing side in a drug war.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask how he knew. But I realized it didn’t matter. He had been one step ahead of me and I was going to die for it.
“I know all, darlin’. I own this city.”
I reached the van and grabbed the door handle as Dev slowly approached from behind, not at all concerned that I was attempting to escape. The door was locked and my hand slid off the metal, leaving behind a bloody trail. I whimpered, even as I felt myself sinking to the ground.
As I rested against the wheel of the van, Dev crouched down to get into my face.
“I admire your balls.” He grinned. “For a woman. Still, you’re just a woman.”
He caressed the side of my face, almost tenderly, almost like we were lovers. Lovers entwined in blood.
My vision was hazy and I refused to let Dev’s face be the last thing I saw before I bled out. I focused on the warehouse behind him, a slight smile curving my lips when I saw the tendrils of smoke curling out from the warehouse.
“Guess you don’t know everything,” I wheezed.
Dev frowned and then looked over his shoulder, following my line of sight. “No,” he whispered, rising from the blood-soaked pavement beneath us.
He repeated the word over and over as he watched the warehouse of cocaine slowly become engulfed by fire.
“How? How did this happen?”
I wanted to tell him. I wanted to gloat. But I was having trouble staying awake. And just before I passed out, I swore I heard the faint rumblings of a motorcycle.
I was being lifted off the ground and pressed to a warm, solid chest. The cotton T-shirt smelled familiar. Like my favorite detergent—and Colt. I would’ve snuggled closer, but everything felt heavy. My head, my limbs, my entire body.
“Fuck.” The voice sounded very much like Colt’s. Which was impossible because Colt was in jail.
And I was dying.
Maybe it was an angel with Colt’s voice escorting my soul to heaven. My internal voice snorted at the thought. If anything, it was the devil shepherding my soul to hell. For the things I’d done. For the wrongs I’d committed. For the life I’d chosen.
I felt something cinch around my thigh.
“Brother,” came another voice I recognized.
Zip.
Why was Zip with the devil taking me to hell? Did devils work in pairs? Deranged thoughts. Thoughts from deprivation of oxygen.
“I can’t lose her.” Colt again.
Bleak.
So, so bleak.
I wanted to tell them that I was still here and I wasn’t ready to leave yet. I wanted to tell them that I had more living to do, more loving. I’d just found my father. I’d just unofficially adopted an eleven-year-old boy that I had no idea how to raise. And Colt. I couldn’t leave Colt.
I finally found the strength to open my eyes and stared into Colt’s intense brown gaze.
And then I died with a smile on my lips.
