Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
RATTLER
I’m in the middle of a dream, the kind that has me waking with my cock hard. It featured Ames in a starring role, making me wonder how I could imagine, with such clarity, something I’ve never had. For a moment, I wonder what had woken me, when the knock at the door comes again.
Cursing that it interrupted my dream, I call out gruffly, “Come in.”
Ames shifts next to me but doesn’t immediately waken. I come to fully when I see who my visitor is.
“Prez?” Freak has a clock on the wall opposite the bed.
Neither Ames nor I had thought to switch off the light.
I can see clearly it’s only eight p.m., I’ve only been sleeping for a few hours.
The room being illuminated allows me to see what he’s carrying, the crutches Bronwyn had promised she’d find.
I also notice Bullseye’s expression is grim. My ribs protest as I gently ease Ames’s arm off me, then sit myself up. I breathe in shallowly. Then I rip the IV needle out of my arm.
“Where do you need me?”
Prez’s jaw is set. “Stone’s coming for us. We’ve got the advantage, he thinks he blew half of the club up.”
My eyes close briefly. For a second I’m catapulted back to the memory of sitting in that chair, holding an armed bomb on my lap, knowing it was a trap left for the brothers who’d come looking for me.
There had been a camera on the wall, I hadn’t been able to warn them openly.
But thank fuck, Bullseye had caught on, and Pippa had worked her magic.
Pippa had come through once again. In that moment I realised how much I owed her an apology — I’d railed against her being kept alive, but if we’d got rid of her as I’d wanted, I wouldn’t be breathing now.
Bullseye had followed her instructions, he’d cut the right wire.
Then, again as advised by Pippa, he’d first replaced the duct tape over my mouth, and had left me sitting alone where I was.
She’d reactivated the camera for a few seconds, while Bullseye and the brothers had rushed into sight.
Prez had reached for the bomb, and Pippa had turned off the camera feed to simulate an explosion.
Finally, when I was untied and free, she’d talked Bullseye through rearming the bomb and somehow how to explode it remotely, sending that building I’d been in sky high.
As far as Stone was concerned, I was dead and had taken several brothers along with me.
It wouldn’t have taken long for the flames to burn the whole place down, that old house didn’t look like it had ever been up to code.
By the time it would be cool enough to search for human remains, hopefully Stone will have fallen into another trap, this time, one of our making.
Painfully, I swing my legs over the bed. It hurts to put weight on my ankles, the right now just as bad as the left, and when I stand, my knees threaten to buckle.
“Here.” Prez nods to someone behind him, and Short appears, taking the crutches from him, and bringing them to me. As Short passes them over, Prez states, “Only giving you these as Bron said your legs are bruised and not broken. “
He waits until I’ve got them under me, and Short, being a fucking giant and the last person to use them, makes the adjustments so they fit someone of my height.
“Where do you need me?” I repeat.
“In my bedroom,” Bullseye answers.
Quick as a flash, I tell him, “Even if I swung that way, I can’t guarantee my dick’s working.”
“And here I was worried that bump on your head might have affected you,” he drawls. “But no, you’re the same old Rat.”
With Short’s help, I get the crutches under me. While working them with one arm isn’t easy, my left shoulder, now back in its right place, can still cope enough that I’m able to reach out and pat his cheek as I pass. “But you love me. Otherwise, you’d have let me get blown up.”
“I may be regretting that,” he admits. But his mouth quirks.
He and Short step back as I do a sort of shuffle with most of my weight on the crutches.
I notice they both hover close by in case I lose my balance and need help.
I reach Bullseye’s room, just two doors along from Freak’s.
I’ve already a sneaking suspicion why he wants me here.
His has a window that’s situated right above the clubhouse door.
And as I enter, I’m proved right. A rifle and bipod have already been set up.
“You’ll be okay up here?” Prez moves forward and cracks the window open.
“I’ll be good.” After examining the set up for a moment, I turn back around. “Our guests have anything to tell you?”
“I’ll go back down, and get into position,” Short tells us, and goes, leaving me and Prez alone.
Taking a step back, Prez pulls up a chair for me to sit on, then when I’ve situated myself, he takes the crutches from me, puts them aside, then he sits on the bed.
“Freak had to pull out all the stops to get them to crack. What’s left ain’t pretty.
But they sung, at last. Even got the leader to make a call to Stone to confirm everything went down at the clubhouse as planned.
” He gives a twisted grin. “He thinks they’ve got Ames, and the other useless old lady they found here. ”
I snort. “I bet Pippa loved that.”
“You think I’ve got the balls to tell her?
” He chuckles, “I’ll leave that to Saint.
” He sobers. “He also confirmed he’d got rid of the prospects and the two members they left.
And then took out Saint and his crew when the VP returned from his wild goose chase.
” He grins. “To make it believable, we got him to add that there were a couple of casualties on their side as well.”
I grin. “Stone’s going to just walk in thinking he’s won.” I pause, then ask, “They tell you anything else?”
Bullseye raises his chin, then informs me, “Just who they were. They were hired muscle of the Russians who run an underground gambling ring in Phoenix, the kind where only high rollers need apply. Stone had a winning streak, got hooked, then got taken to the cleaners. He owes them big, as we already know.”
“Taking them out going to come back on us?”
“Nah, shouldn’t. They weren’t Bratva, they were street thugs in it for money.
But just in case, I’ve got Pippa setting up a life insurance policy for him, one that’s predated.
If needed, the payout will be enough to cover his debt.
The recipient, his sister. All she’ll need to do is clear it, then she’ll have the money to pay the Bratva back.
There’s no reason for them to want to hurt us. ”
I’m not stupid. And I’ve been set up here for a reason. “A bullet through the head won’t look like an accident.”
“Yeah, and we don’t want the cops investigating how he died to prove a claim.
So, your job is to shoot anyone that comes with him but leave us to take Stone down.
” His lips fractionally curve. “I see a car accident in his future.” He smirks.
“One involving a fireball to hide any damage inflicted during our interrogation.”
While I’m up for him being hurt, I kinda resent that I can’t be the one who frees Ames forever with a quick bullet to his head, but Bullseye’s plan will work.
It will protect the club, and that ingenious insurance policy will take any heat away from her.
He stands, peers out of the window as if checking my line of sight, then places his hand on my shoulder.
“From what Ames’ said, you two have got pretty close. ”
A wisecrack is on the tip of my tongue, but I decide to give him the truth. Swallowing hard, I admit, “Yeah, we have.”
“This marriage thing going to be real? Am I going to be ordering an old lady’s property of patch?”
Again, I’m honest with him. “In the cabin, we started off hating each other.” I reconsider.
“Well, I hated and resented her. Hated I was trapped. But slowly, I came to see she was different to what I’d built up in my mind.
” I shake my head, “It wasn’t just her, haven’t ever had much time for bitches. ”
“We’ve noticed,” he inputs drily.
“She surprised me. I tested her, she passed every fuckin’ time.
She took my shit and gave it right back.
She intrigued me, and I grew to like her.
For the first time ever, I felt I had a soul mate.
We clicked, you know?” His shrug shows he doesn’t quite understand.
But then Bullseye’s never been close to a woman himself.
Or, not in the time that I’ve known him.
He’s a bit like me with the club girls, though admittedly, less of an asshole.
I finish what I was saying, “We became friends.”
He gives a one-sided smug smile. “Friends with benefits?”
“No, not that,” I retort sharply. “We never…” My voice trails off. We hadn’t, but if we’d had more time, I’m certain we would have. We skirted quite close to the edge.
Breathing in air, he lets it out on a sigh.
“I read it wrong. Sounds like you’re not going to claim her.
Rat, got to say that girl’s hung up on you.
My advice? Don’t lead her on. Perhaps Stone did you a favour drawing up the annulment papers.
I showed them to her earlier, you know the ones with your signature on… ”
“You fuckin’ what?” I interrupt with a growl.
Prez sighs. “How many times did you say you didn’t want to be tied down? You mocked Saint, Short, and Freak when they found their other halves. I know you, you’re never going to take an ol’ lady.”
“People change,” I snarl. “Ames is fuckin’ amazing. She’s brave, intelligent, loyal…” I realise I can’t find enough adjectives to describe her. “So no, I don’t want the fuckin’ marriage annulled. I want to see where this might take us.”
“You had me going there for a moment,” Ames states softly. “I want a chance to see where things go as well.”
Both of us swing around. Prez stomps over to where Ames is standing in the doorway. “How long have you been standing there?” he growls menacingly.