she wheezes through the words. “Fuck … you … all.”
“She’s workin’ with him,” Pops announces. “Let’s blow this place.”
“You … gonna … kill … me?” she croaks. “He’ll … get … you all. And … those … bitches.”
“Move, Rhys,” Pops orders.
Rhys releases Flash’s head, and it falls down instantly. Then a gun fires, and blood splatters down on me.
“Fuck,” I grunt out and move back from the chair.
“It’ll wash,” Rhys comments.
“Figure out a way to get this place to blow when we’re out of it,” Pops orders then leaves the room, his gun clenched in his hand.
I don’t fucking like seeing him this much on the edge.
“Thoughts?” Breaker asks.
“Get the rope and tie her evenly to the chair. Then tie it to the legs, punch a hole in the wall, and run it out through the hole. Tie it to the van, pull, boom,” Rhys says as if this is a normal occurrence. Who am I shitting? It is.
After securing the rope, Cruz backs out the van, and the place explodes in front of us.
The beer cools me, but it doesn’t stop my brain from running through all the information over and over again. Ransom is a slippery fucker, and we need to find him and get this sorted.
“Hey.” Bella comes up to my side at the table in the clubhouse.
Music plays in the background, but nothing crazy. There are too many kids here now. While most are downstairs, we try to tone our shit down for them. Well, I should say all of the guys have women now, so they are all more toned down.
“Hey.” I take another pull of my beer then set the glass on the table with a clank. “What’s goin’ on?”
Bella shrugs. “Nothing much. Just kinda crazy how many people are here.”
I want to laugh but give a small smile, instead. “Yeah, there are a lot.” I look around the room, noting all the brothers and their ol’ ladies moving around the place.
Ravage built a bunk area just in case these things happen for everyone to fit. For some shitty reason, they happen way too often lately. I’ve gotta admit that I’m glad I’m now a member and not a prospect.
“Yeah.” She twists her hands. “I don’t know many of them.”
“Give it a few days; you’ll be like old family.”
She chuckles. “Right.”
“It’s true. You’ll be surprised.”
The door to the clubhouse slams beside us, and out of habit, I look up to see who it is. The room gains a silent hush as she strides into Ravage with Derek, our prospect, on her heels. A little pixie of a woman with long, chestnut hair and an hourglass figure, she pulls her sunglasses from her eyes apprehensively, her hand shaking. Her eyes show a bit of fear in them, as they should.
It is a total contrast to the last time she made her appearance on Ravage ground. No, that time, she came to give GT shit for supposedly killing her father, which he didn’t do, and then she demanded money. Not the best way to get in with the brothers, and the circumstances at the time were the only way she lived through it.
“Shaina?” Angel says from somewhere in the room.
My eyes stay on the beautiful woman. I should say “locked on” her because she captivates me. Different isn’t even the word I would use for how she appears now. Before, she was pissed and throwing her attitude around. Now … not so much.
“Hey,” Shaina says as Angel engulfs her in her arms. Tentatively, she puts her arms around Angel, giving that back to her. Serious shit went down with Angel and Shaina while they were held captive by a crazy man. Angel got it bad, but word has it, Shaina got it worse. So much worse.
After that happened, she snuck out and disappeared to her mother’s cabin, and I hadn’t heard anything about her since. Looks like she’s back.
Angel pulls away. “How are you?”
Shaina’s eyes dart around the room then connect with mine. Some type of energy passes through the glance, the same as the last time I saw her, but she breaks it quickly, turning to Angel
C. J. Cherryh
Learning to Kill: Stories
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