Dutch nods at the same time Gator lets out a snort. “Sounds like a fucking plan.”
We turn from Marshall and I’m glad that we had him take his cameras out of the warehouse and only ours are in place. Something that we required, but also had Worm verify.
Sending a text to Worm, I tell him to disable all of the cameras at the mattress warehouse. I don’t know when he’ll be able to do it, but hopefully soon.
After all this shit blows over, if he survives it. I don’t know just how thorough and bloody the Punchers plan on being today or if this is more like a message they’re trying to send. Instead of shoving my phone in my pocket, I send a text to Jaguar.
CALL ME. ASAP.
I wait for a few moments and am about to call him my fucking self when the phone rings and his name lights up on my screen. My thumb slides across the screen and instead of putting it to my ear, I touch the speaker icon.
“Care to explain to me why your men are invading Eagar?” I bark.
It’s quiet, too quiet, and I think that he’s ended the call, but then he speaks. “I didn’t know. I’m allowed to go to some meetings, but I’m not fully patched in, they don’t let me in on everything. I thought they were just going on a regular run,” he practically whimpers as he quickly speaks.
“I want Marshall’s daughter delivered to me. Hand delivered.”
“Hawk,” he hisses.
“Don’t fuck with me. I’m about ready to go into that place guns blazing and right now you’re my number one target.”
He’s quiet again, but finally speaks. “I didn’t do anything, if I had known, I would have at least warned you. I would have warned Dragon.”
“You got a choice to make, Jaguar. You’re either with us or them, young snatch aside. I won’t kill everyone in there, including her, if you deliver Marshall’s daughter to me by tomorrow morning.”
“What else are you going to do,” he grinds out.
“Oh, I’m blowing some shit up, I just won’t blow everyone up. Tomorrow morning. Have her where we met today. Maybe bring your other young snatch with you if you don’t want her to accidentally get caught in the crossfire.”
I end the call, turning to Gator who is watching me with a narrowed gaze. “That’s why Dragon isn’t going in yet, Jaguar wants to wait until his jailbait turns fucking eighteen so she’s not put on an Amber fucking Alert list as being kidnapped.”
“One hair on Maria’s head is hurt, I’m killing him myself.”
“You’ll need to stand in goddamn line,” I snap.
Dutch clears his throat, his gaze flicking between us. “We got bombs to build, fuckers. Let’s do this shit.”
Without another word, we leave the warehouse with Marshall on the ground soaked in his own blood. I should feel badly, he was my friend. A guy that I met in a bar in Oregon years ago. He seemed decent enough, but he wasn’t loyal and I have no room in my life, in my club’s life, for that shit.
A man is nothing if he doesn’t have his word and, in the end, Marshall was absolutely fucking nothing.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
AVAH
It feels like we stay in that dark office for hours. Hours and hours and hours. Maria and I don’t speak anymore, we just hold hands and tremble next to one another.
I don’t know what is going to happen next, and it’s eerily quiet outside of the office for far too long. I expect Pinkie to pop her head in and tell us it’s safe, but nothing happens.
“We get out of this alive and I’m fixing everything with Mamba and Gator, whatever that means,” Maria blurts out on a whisper.
“Whatever that means?” I ask.
She squeezes my hand again right before she starts to whisper to me. “If Gator needs more, something that he can’t get from us then I have to let him go. If Mamba can’t give him what he needs, then we’re going to have to let him go.”
“But you’re not willing to let Mamba go?” I ask.
She’s quiet, too quiet, and I hear her sniffle. She’s crying, but I don’t tell her it’s okay, because it’s really not. If she loves them both, she shouldn’t be willing to let one go just to keep the other.
“I don’t want Gator to be unhappy, I don’t want either of them to be unhappy. I just want what we had back when we started.”
“Nothing can be the way it was in the beginning,” I breathe.
There’s another long moment of silence. “I’m afraid that I’m going to be the one left behind,” she admits softly.
“Because?”
“They love one another so fiercely, you can practically taste the desire in the room. When they are together, it’s like I’m an afterthought.”
“So you make yourself the center of attention?” I guess.
She hums and I squeeze her hand. “Talk to them. If you don’t want to talk, then show them how much you need them both—together.”
“Have you ever been in a poly relationship before?” she asks.
“I haven’t, but I’ve had a lot of men come to me instead of talking to their wives about what they need. Instead of showing them what they desire.”
The room is bathed in silence, and I expect her to say something, but she doesn’t. She also doesn’t release my hand. I hear her suck in a breath as if she’s getting ready to speak when the door flies open.
My lips part and I start to scream when I realize that it’s Mamba on the other side. “Jesus fucking Christ,” he growls. “Get the fuck out here.”
Maria scrambles to her feet faster than I’ve ever seen a woman move in my entire life. I watch as she runs toward him, throwing her arms around his shoulders and wrapping her legs around his waist, then she starts
