He closed the distance between us, telling me urgently, “You don’t understand. Let me fucking explain, all right?”
He reached for my hands, but I jerked back, screaming, “Don’t touch me!”
“Tasha,” he beseeched me.
“No! How dare you play me! I thought you were the one person who would never do that with me. How could you—”
“It was all for us!” he bellowed over me. “So we could finally be together, woman!”
His words shocked me into inaction. All I could manage was a croak. “What?”
“Slade has his agenda. I have mine. I would never let Nik hurt you again. Never. The plan was that you would do Steel Titans this favor, helping us take down our worst enemy, and then we’d be in your debt. The club’s perception of you would shift. They’d see you as a hero, not the way they currently see you. I could bring you in, make you a permanent part of my life, and finally fucking well claim you as my woman, because they’d finally accept you. Slade’s willing to give you this option of redemption in exchange for helping him put Nik to ground.”
It was a hell of a lot to take in. We fell into an uneasy silence as I mulled everything over, weighing it all over and over. The strategy itself was as sound as it could be with Nik involved. But it definitely wasn’t without its risks. Major risks.
“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”
“Because there’s no way any of that’s happening now.”
“What?”
“Any risk is too great now, even with me minimizing it by taking point on Slade’s mission. You’re compromised now, because you’re pregnant. The stress alone would be too much for you and the baby.”
“Wow. That’s one of the most sexist things I’ve heard in a long while.”
“Call it what you want, but it’s the way it is and I’m not gonna risk you. Not in any way. Why do you think I’m so pissed about this bull that’s happened with the Strikers now? I’m having a hard enough time trying to figure out how to work this development with us when it comes to the club, to bring you in without putting you in danger by having you go through with that mission. And, now, this? Another fucked-up Nik Stone situation to deal with.”
The solution was clear as day to me.
But Cole really wouldn’t like it.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of a choice. From the outline I’d briefly scanned on the phone Rick had given me and the corresponding extremely disturbing video that he’d included for an incentive to force me into it, my solution was the only way.
“I’ll do what Slade needs me to do.”
“You’ll… what?”
“Nik needs putting down, Cole. Now.”
His brow furrowed and his gaze dropped to the phone in my hand. “What’s on that phone? What does he want from you?”
“He wants me to run a narcotics shipment into Steel Titans territory. Nik will spread the word once it’s in place. His goal is clearly to undermine your club’s legitimate status and draw trouble to your door in a big way.”
“Fuck,” he groused. “I can’t let that happen.”
“It has to, Cole. Until we put him down we have to tread very carefully.”
“Why?” he demanded, stepping up to me. “What the hell does he have on you that’s so damned bad that you’d be willing to fuck us over when I’m busting my ass trying to bring you in as mine? Why the fuck, Tasha?”
“It’s not me!” I yelled over his tirade. “It’s you!”
He stopped short. “Me?”
I shoved the phone at him. “It’s all here, okay? This is why. He has video footage of you murdering Mikhail Baranov.”
He hastily took the phone and opened the video. I saw his jaw drop, the panic in his eyes. “Son of a bitch. That piece of shit.”
“If he releases this, you’re done for. Slade, too, seeing as though he helped cover it up. Cole, this could take down you and the club. We could both lose everything. That’s why I have to do the job.”
“Fucking shit.”
7
~Natasha~
I HUNG UP WITH MY POINT PERSON.
“Well?” Cole spoke from behind me before I could even breathe out a satisfied sigh. Well, satisfied was an exaggeration. Sure, all the pieces had fallen into place, all the logistics were worked out with the high efficiency and advanced problem-solving skills that I was known for. And I liked when that happened with a job. It gave me a great sense of accomplishment.
But this one was different.
It was a job I was being forced to run for one hell of a son of a bitch.
There was comfort to be found in knowing it had protected Cole and in remembering its place in the grand scheme of things, in our plans to take down Nik Stone at long last. Setting it up would stall Nik with that obsessive instant gratification he always sought out with him thinking he’d delivered a hard blow to the Steel Titans MC. It would also give Cole’s club brothers the impetus they needed to be up for an all-out, dangerous battle with the Strikers. The way I’d heard it, a lot of them were currently on the fence about it. I didn’t blame them. No sane person actually wanted war. Slade had tried to avoid it for a hell of a long time, though, but Nik had left him no choice. He just wouldn’t stop.
They needed to make him.
“Everything is in place.”
It had better be, given that I’d spent the last forty-eight hours arranging things. Cole hadn’t been happy when I’d physically had to go down to the warehouse to get the ball rolling with my guys. There had been many variables in play, all of which had needed to be handled with as much care and skill as possible. It wasn’t
