“So, how are we going to do this?” Violet says.
“How many of these fecking arseholes are we up against?” Mack says, pulling up a seat at the table and sipping away at his bourbon. “And how soon can we get to killing them?”
“Just like that, Mack, you’re in?” I say.
I expected him to put up some kind of common sense argument against Violet’s insistence that everything happens tonight. It’s his fucking job as Sergeant at Arms to make sure we do a job like this right. Just like it’s my job to show my loyalty to the club by getting our cargo to its destination without any entanglements.
Looks like we’re both fucking up our jobs today.
And enjoying it.
“Fucking right I am,” he replies. “I just spent the last sixteen hours sitting in an auto shop guarding our truck. Sixteen fucking hours alone with that Max Paisley arsehole. He likes to listen to soft rock, and he talks to his tools. I felt like I was in the fucking loony bin. I’m ready to do anything except go back to fucking guard duty.”
Bitter and surprised, I sip my bourbon and try to come up with the right words that will bring a halt to this meeting and talk some sense into my brothers.
“You know I’m fucking on board,” Snake says. “We have to get Josie’s mom back to her. Speed Demon was looking real sad when I brought her home from school today. I don’t think that kid can take much more of this.”
“Serious, Snake?” Blaze says.
“Yeah, man, she cried a little,” Snake replies. “These tiny little tears and her nose got all snotty. It rips me up, man.”
“Fuck it, I’ll go right now. Kill every single one of those bastards for making Speed Demon cry,” Blaze snarls. And he gets up out of his chair and I have to get up out of mine and put a hand on his shoulder to get him to sit back down.
“I want to do this tonight,” Violet says. “I want to bring my friend by the hospital tomorrow, so she can spend some time with the guy who cares about her so much that he got stabbed protecting her, and I want her to be there to pick her daughter up from school. How do we make that happen?”
“Well, we got guns, lass. Plenty of guns and plenty of ammo. Enough to fill hell up with every single one of those rat bastard Death’s Disciples,” Mack rumbles.
“Oh fuck yeah,” Snake says, pumping his fist. “We will turn that snow red. It will be a fucking beautiful sight. I can’t wait to stab some of those bitches.”
“Hold on,” Blaze interjects. “Thinking about it, I’m all for sending these bastards to hell as soon as possible, but we can’t do this tonight.”
Violet leans forward. She’s nowhere near the size of Blaze, it’s like a mouse confronting a lion, but somehow she looks intimidating. There’s a fire in her eyes that’s as sexy as hell. She’s pushing us to recklessly race into a shootout with a bunch of heavily armed men, but all I can think about is how fucking hot she is and how I want nothing more than to have my brothers clear the room so I can bend this fiery-eyed woman over the table and fuck her senseless.
This is out of control. This is the kind of fucked-up love that I know leads straight to all kinds of trouble. But I don’t think I can stop.
Don’t know if I want to, either.
“Why the fuck not, Blaze?” She says.
“Because that hike will take all our fucking energy, and if we wear our asses out going through that biting cold, those Death’s Disciples will have no problem blowing us to hell and back.”
“We have to do something,” Violet says. “You saw what they were doing to her. I can’t wait around while my best friend suffers.”
“So we do the hike at night. We leave as soon as it gets dark, I’ll make sure we’ve got the right equipment, and I’ll guide us back to that valley. Shouldn’t take more than five hours. We’ll camp in that spot I found the night before — unless you and Crash want to return to that little love nest of a cabin you found — and then we’ll hit them just before dawn. I can even make a distraction, start a minor fire that will have them shitting their pants and flush them out of that cabin they’re hiding in.”
“You could do that?” Violet asks.
“Spent years of my life fighting fires. I know a thing or two about starting them, too.”
Satisfied, she pounds her bourbon and slams the empty glass down on the table.
“Great. We have our plan. Tonight, we hike that trail and then tomorrow morning we free my best friend.”
Chapter Nineteen
Violet
When the meeting breaks and Blaze, Mack, and Snake disperse to go take care of business in preparing for the hike and rescuing my best friend, I slump into my seat and stare into my bourbon in disbelief.
What the hell am I doing?
What are those things I was saying?
An ambush? Guns? Killing? Who am I?
Seconds ago, I was taking part in a meeting where I was urging on these men to commit multiple murders. And I was excited by that. Excited about the thought of them — and me — catching those Death’s Disciples unaware and shooting them. Killing them.
Days ago, all I wanted was a simple life, one where I run a bar with my best friend, spend time with
