Chapter 27
Danica
P asting a sheepish smile on my face, I wrinkled my nose at the men while trying to look adorable, sweet, and lost. “Hi guys!” I tried to force the words to come out bright and not quaver at all. “Is this the way to the bathroom? It’s an awful long way to expect pregnant women to go to pee.”
They gave each other confused looks for a moment before focusing back on me. “This area’s off limits,” the bigger one on the right grunted at me.
“Oh, my. I’m so sorry,” I gushed. “Then I’ll just be getting back to…the…” I trailed off when I tried to brush past them and they each grabbed a bicep.
“You’re not going anywhere,” the ringleader said. He looked over my head at his friend and asked in Italian, “Think she saw anything?”
“Better take her to Bruno. He’ll be pissed if we let her go and she did.”
“If she didn’t, we’re dooming a woman to death,” the first man said.
This entire exchange happened in Italian, which, thanks to my father’s love of languages and my deep-seated need to learn everything I could, I knew, along with Russian and Spanish. The blood drained from my face. What had we stumbled into?
“If you want to take her place then go ahead and let her go. See what Bruno will do to you then. He doesn’t like to be crossed. And if he lets you live, The Don will make sure you pay for your mistake.”
“Um…guys?” I asked as loudly as I could to warn the others there was trouble.
Minds made up, as one unit, they began dragging me toward the double doors.
“What are you doing? I was just looking for a bathroom.” I peered down the hallway as I was dragged past and was relieved to see no one there.
Hopefully the others would get the message to get out of here.
They spun me around and hustled me through the doors. My eyes widened as I looked around the room. Fremont’s fixer, Carl, was nowhere in sight, but ten scary looking guys in suits were staring at us. Or, more accurately, me.
“What the fuck are you doing bringing her in here?” a large man with a brutal scar running across his cheek asked. After that initial question he switched to Italian to argue with the brutes at my back. “Don Amato is going to have your heads for this.”
“We found her outside, Bruno. Weren’t sure what she saw so we figured we’d let you decide what to do with her,” the smaller guy explained. He seemed to be the brains of the duo.
The man named Bruno studied me, then sighed. “Fine. We’ll bring her with us.” That was in English.
Oh shit. This isn’t good.
“I didn’t see anything,” I told them. Until now that was. There had been a wall blocking the view from the door into this room. Now that they’d dragged me past it, I saw everything.
The men were standing at tables, putting money into counters, then into waiting duffle bags. There were a lot of duffle bags. I rolled my lips between my teeth and bit down. This really wasn’t good.
“Well, now you have,” Bruno said, then turned away. “Do something with her until-”
“Babe!”
The men were following Bruno across the open room as he spoke, pushing me along with them, but Static’s call made them freeze. Now everyone was staring at him . They really hadn’t expected to be found back here in the depths of the event center. It was written all over their shocked faces.
My mouth fell open as the guys spun me around to face Static.
I tried to tell him with my eyes that he had to leave.
They were going to kill us both if he stayed here.
I couldn’t live with his death on my conscience.
Though, if what these men said was true, I wouldn’t live to feel guilty about it.
Bile rose in my throat and I tried to swallow back the vomit forcing its way up my throat.
There was no holding back and I leaned over and puked onto the feet of the goon standing next to me.
“She’s pregnant,” Static told the room. It was easy to see by the look on his face that he was expecting trouble.
“Whatever my old lady did, I’m sure we can work things out.
” He was trying to get us out of this and I wanted to give him a huge kiss.
Maybe after I downed a whole box of mints.
I just hoped he could convince them to let us go.
Bruno stepped forward, giving me a disgusted look as he addressed Static. “It’s too late for that.”
“I’ll take her home. We won’t breathe a word about this.”
There was no hesitation. No consideration. “No.”
All hopes dashed, I exchanged a helpless look with Static. Just go , I mouthed at him. There was no reason for the two of us to be caught up in this. Of course he didn’t. He had too much integrity to leave me here.
The men let me go and rushed forward. My gasp was drowned out by the pounding of flesh on flesh.
Static caught the first guy with a haymaker, laying him out.
He followed with an uppercut to the next man, I swore I saw a tooth fly.
Static was holding his own, even winning, as he exchanged blows with the men who’d found me.
It wasn’t until four more men rushed forward and surrounded him that things took a turn.
When his head snapped back from a sucker punch that came from the side while he’d been focused on another man, I started forward.
My dad had taught me to throw a punch, but I’d never even been in a fight before.
It didn’t matter, I couldn’t stand here, doing nothing, while he was ganged up on.
They were raining down punches on him and he was so outnumbered he had no hope of protecting himself.
Bruno grabbed my arm and hauled me further into the room, preventing me from helping. I struggled against him, but he was far too strong and I couldn’t break his hold. “Please,” I begged as I watched Static fall under the weight of so many men hitting him. “Leave him alone!”
The asshole jerked me closer, leering down at me. “You want me to spare him?”
“Yes! Please.” I wasn’t above begging. Not for the life of a man who’d tried to protect me. For one of Smokehouse’s brothers.
His whistle split the air and the men looked over their shoulders at him with expectant grins. He made a motion with his hand that I didn’t understand.
Glancing over, a sound of dismay escaped as I saw two of the men drag Static to his knees.
His head lolled forward, but he wasn’t completely unconscious.
His blue eyes met mine and I saw the bruises already forming on his face.
He jerked his arm free of one of the men’s hold and reached for something at his back, but before he could aim, the guy knocked the gun from his hand.
It had been a last resort to try to get us out of this situation.
The men in the suits laughed, a nasty evil sound, as they toyed with him. Static’s chest rose and fell heavily as he looked up at the guy who was standing in front of him. Only the three were there now, the others had backed off.
There was a resignation on Static’s face that I didn’t quite understand. We could always try to escape later. Bruno had mentioned bringing me with them.
My heart stalled in my chest when the man standing, staring down at Static, produced a gun from beneath his suit coat.
He pointed it straight at Static’s head.
I struggled against Bruno’s hold, unable to believe what I was looking at.
This was the kind of stuff that happened in the movies, not in real life. Not in my life. I couldn’t believe it.
“I’m not in the habit of sparing lives,” Bruno told me in a low gravelly voice. “Shoot him.”
“No!” My scream was piercing as it echoed off the walls. The horror blazing through me translated into that word and it caused all hell to break loose.
Motion at the back of the room, where the loading bay was, caught my attention.
Auron let out a menacing growl as he whipped past the men standing near the plastic curtain.
Jecht let out a shrill series of barks as he leapt through the air and hit Bruno so hard it sent all three of us sprawling to the ground.
My gaze darted back to Static and relief was white-hot as I saw Auron hanging off the goon’s gun arm.
That was when I heard a war cry that sank straight into my soul.
Terror flooded me as I saw my friends rushing through the loading dock doors, Seek at the front, for a brief moment until she had to stop and gasp for breath.
She was too pregnant to keep running. It took most of her energy just to get around the clubhouse these days.
Kit streaked across the room and landed on the back of the guy who had tried to shoot Static. She was riding him like a bronco while Auron chomped on the man’s arm. His scream was satisfying an evil part of me that hoped Auron caused permanent damage. He deserved it for what he’d been about to do.
Sloane had pulled Seek to the side and was watching out for her while the rest of the women went on the defensive. They were completely unarmed, but unwilling to leave Static and me to our fates.
Tori raked her nails down a guy’s face who had a hold of her and Daisha smashed a briefcase against his head, sending papers flying through the air.
Gwen was covering Static’s motionless body with her own while Jordan tried to help Kit. Jenny and Susie were throwing anything they could find on the tables at the men who had been holding onto Static.
The men were dodging staplers and paperweights, cursing up a storm.
No one seemed sure of what to do with all the feral women who’d just burst into the room.
Somewhere in the chaos one of them threw a money counter in the air.
The cloud of cash caused further panic amongst the goon squad, half chasing the money, the other half fighting off the women.
Keely struggled with a guy who was standing in her way as she tried to get to me.
It was pure pandemonium.
A canine yelp of pain pulled my gaze back to the fight happening next to me. Jecht skidded away on the linoleum floor with a whimper as the man kicked him.