Chapter 24
twenty-four
COLE
Isabelle.
After a week of trying to get her out of my head, here she was. Standing on bloodstained ground, terrified, a gun pressed to her temple. It was a sight I knew would be scored in my memory for the rest of my life.
My muscles were tight enough to snap. I pushed my anxiety down so far it could never be found.
I couldn’t afford any distractions as I figured out how to get her out of this mess.
The second I saw that barrel pressed to her head, her chest breathing rapidly in fear, I knew I would do everything in my power to make sure she walked away from this.
“Easy,” I said, my voice flat and even. “You don’t want that kind of heat on your crew. The cops will be swarming this whole place if you pull that trigger.”
Axel tilted his chin toward Isabelle. “Is she one of yours?”
“No,” I said, “She's a civilian who likes sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong.”
Isabelle’s eyes were trained on me. There was hurt buried deep under the fear, but now wasn’t the time to care about it. I needed to downplay her importance to me.
I watched as her hands began to tremble. It must have been sinking in just how much trouble she was in. What the hell was she doing here? The most important thing right now was stopping Axel from realizing the value of the leverage he had in his hands.
“Then we have a problem, don’t we?” Axel asked, his smile thinner than I had ever seen it.
“The only one with a problem is you,” I said, not taking my eyes off the weasel of a man. “You shorted the shipment, tried to pass off soft steel as the real shit, and now you grabbed a civilian. You are stacking up mistakes. Let’s stop here. Take the money. It’s yours.”
Axel did a quick scan of the surroundings, like he could possibly find a way out of this mess.
“You shot my man. What have you got to say about that?”
I shrugged. “I could say it wasn’t us, but I doubt you’d believe it. He’s not dead. Call it a win.”
Axel was thinking it over. They had taken more damage than we had. We could have finished them, if not for the fact that he had a hostage now.
“Look, man, you got half of our money already as a show of good faith to get the trucks here. You brought half of the order. So why don’t you let the girl go, keep the money and your steel, and we can all walk away from this?” I suggested, staring Axel down.
“And we get what?” Gage asked under his breath. Yeah, we were losing big, but there was a gun at Isabelle’s head and nothing else mattered.
I shot Gage a look that shut him up quickly, before returning my attention to Axel.
“You know that girls with a face like hers don’t go missing unnoticed.
The media will eat this up. You have too many witnesses.
We’ve made too much noise already. Do you really think that the cops aren’t already on their way here? Don’t be stupid.”
That got his attention. All his men held their breath, as if listening for sirens in the distance.
A muscle jumped in his cheek, and he dropped his thin, artificial smile.
He glanced down at Isabelle, his gun still jammed against her temple.
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed hard, her eyes still fixed on me.
She still held herself tall, stubborn, and reckless.
“Maybe we shoot her, injure her too, just like you did my man, and then see how nice you want to play?”
I didn’t meet Isabelle’s eyes. I couldn’t. I just shrugged.
“Maybe, but it’ll draw more attention if a girl like this goes to the hospital. You do that, we have to kill her, and then there’s an investigation. I want less heat, not more.”
I didn’t dare to look at my little Goldilocks’ face right now, and see when she realized what kind of man I was.
Sure, it was an act to save her, but there was no way those words weren’t worming inside her head and making sure she understood how dangerous it was to know me.
Good. She should know. Maybe it would save her from ever being in this kind of situation again, with a damned man like me.
I stared the man with the gun down, refusing to back down for even a second.
Then, I heard it.
Sirens in the distance. Sirens on their way. The cops really were coming. I’d just been bluffing, but somehow, they were coming. The men opposite us looked around nervously.
“Let her go,” I called out to Axel, steel in my voice. “You’re going to get us all killed or locked up. You let her go, you get to keep the money, your soft steel, and your freedom. I keep my men, and everyone gets to drive away.”
His gaze slipped to the semitruck and the crates, half of which had already been taken out of the truck. He wanted to wash his hands clean of this deal as much as I did.
“We let her go, and everyone walks?” he clarified.
“She walks, and you don’t say her name again.” Fuck, that was dangerously close to caring too much.
A sickly-sweet smile spread across his face. “We don’t know her name.”
“It stays that way.”
A long second stretched out in front of us.
Isabelle was breathing rapidly as she remained pressed against the man with the gun.
Gage and Maddox were on either side of me, their weapons not drooping an inch from their firing positions.
Finn shifted in the gravel behind me, his breathing too loud and too fast, showing every tell in the book.
I held up a hand behind me, and Finn stilled.
Axel gave a quick nod and shoved Isabelle forward.
She stumbled, scraping her hands and knees in the gravel.
She pushed herself off the ground without a wince and brushed her hands off on her blue jeans.
I caught her eye and gestured for her to get behind Gage and Maddox.
Thankfully, she obeyed, walking with her head held high.
“Do not let her out of your sight,” I said through gritted teeth to Maddox.
I forced my gaze away from her as she tucked herself behind the Hounds as though she belonged there.
Axel cocked a brow at that, training his gun on me now, and I held mine pointed toward him, just as steady.
He waited a beat and then whistled between his teeth, and the quiet around us erupted into motion.
His men moved to the semi, quickly loading the remaining crates.
Gage and Maddox stayed put as I stepped forward.
Axel slid his hands into his pockets as the last crate was loaded. “Well, it has been a pleasure doing business with you, Cole.”
“No,” I said bluntly. “It hasn’t.”
Axel and his men hopped back into their blacked-out SUVs, loading in their injured among plenty of groans and curses, and then drove out of the parking lot in a single-file line, followed by the semitruck. The cops’ sirens were too close now. We had to get the hell out of here.
“Can I count on you two to wrap this up?” I asked, directing my question to Maddox and Gage. They were already dragging our injured men onto their bikes.
“Of course, boss,” Gage replied, his serious face breaking for a fraction of a second into a smirk. “You have other things to take care of.”
“Finn, do as you’re told for one damn time in your life!” I shouted at him. “Help them and then head home.”
The Hounds all moved, knowing their jobs were far from over for the night.
The guys who’d been injured needed medical attention, but nowhere near Hade Harbor.
Gage and Maddox could handle it, but my skin itched at the thought of leaving them after a shoot-out.
But Gage was right. I did have other things to take care of. Her.
She had found a dark corner of the parking lot that broke toward the highway. She stood with her arms crossed as if she hadn’t been seconds away from being shot in the head. I walked toward her and noticed the subtle movements of her hands rubbing up and down her arms, trying to warm herself up.
“Let’s go,” I said, taking her arm and steering her toward my bike.
“I can drive myself,” she stated, her voice quiet and unsure.
“No,” I argued. “You’re with me. Now let’s go.”
She opened her mouth, about to argue, but another glance at my face had her shutting it again.
She climbed behind me and hovered her hands by my waist like she didn’t want to touch me, despite the electricity between us saying otherwise. I reached back and took her hands in mine, wrapping them around my torso where they belonged. Her fingers tightened.
“Hold on,” I said, kicking the engine to life.
I felt her suck in her breath, her stomach pressing tighter to my back as I took off out of the parking lot.
She didn’t talk on the ride, and her breaths were my only companion.
I took the long way, not only because I liked the way she felt pressed up against me, but because I needed to make sure we weren’t being followed.
She leaned with me, not fighting the tilt of the bike like most newbies do. Good instincts.
Watson’s Pass appeared out of nowhere in the darkness.
A place only me, Gage, and Maddox knew. A small lookout point just off a curving mountain road.
I pulled off over the loose gravel of the road and onto the grass.
I killed the engine and waited for Isabelle to remove her hands from my waist. She held on for much longer than necessary before finding her bearings and slipping off the back of my bike.
“What the hell was that?” I demanded, striding across the grass of the well-hidden lookout point. The town of Hade Harbor was laid out below us, twinkling in the darkness. Isabelle followed slowly, wrapping her arms around her middle.
She wet her lips, looking for words to explain and not seeming to find any. She was shaking. Shock was setting in.