DAX
My heart all but sank to my stomach as Cognac told me his story.
I could see the pain in his eyes that he hid so well from others.
I’d always prided myself on being able to read people, but he had just proven to me that I hadn’t had a clue what he was hiding under that bright smile.
Becoming Two Tricks changed me, but that didn’t mean it caused me to lose all forms of sympathy for someone who had experienced loss—just in the cases where they took from me first.
“Cognac—”
“No, loba, I didn’t tell you that to get your pity or even to try and get sympathy sex from you later.
I just wanted you to know that another person here at this table knows what it’s like to lose something so dear to your heart.
A few of us have even worse stories, but we all chose to live and found it was easier to do things together than on our own.
Really give us a chance for you to get to know us and vice-versa, it might just surprise you,” Cognac pressed.
“What? Like you want us all to go on dates and shit like that?” I laughed.
“Yes, little demon, I think that is exactly what he’s saying, and I happen to agree with him. Like you said, our whole relationship has been backward and upside-down. Maybe if we rewind a little, it might help,” Void suggested.
I fidgeted in my seat and was thankfully saved when a man wearing a food-splattered apron showed up with all our food.
“Hey, boys, got your grub,” he announced, as he started to pass out plates. “Need anything else?”
“We’re good, Jerry, thanks,” Picasso answered, giving the man a salute.
If I was a betting woman—and we all know that I am—I would have to guess that Jerry is Nelly’s father.
They looked too much alike not to be related, but he was too old to be a brother.
Jerry gave the table a once over and nodded to himself before he headed back to the kitchen.
Looking around the diner, I noticed that we were the only ones still here.
Even Tilly and her men had left. I glanced down at my watch to find it was only eight-thirty, far too early for this place to be empty.
“Did you guys ask for the place to be ours tonight?” I inquired, searching the space for any hint of someone trying to kill us.
“No, well, at least I didn’t ask,” Eagle answered, pausing to look around the space.
Unwilling to go without food twice, I started to shove my burger into my mouth and chewed as fast as I could. Mid chewing, I pulled out my gun and laid it on the table for easy access, watching the windows for anything. When I saw the headlights, I knew it was too late.
“Guys, we got company!” I grabbed my gun, then the edge of the table and flipped it forward so it was a shield.
“Jerry, grab Nelly and get the fuck out of here!” Eagle bellowed, just before the sound of the truck engine became deafening as it smashed through the front doors.
The guys moved instantly, ducking behind the table. Void shoved me under him as the boom and crash of the impact sent glass and other shrapnel flying.
Who the fuck were these guys that they didn’t give a fuck about the police getting called on them?
Neither of these hits had been subtle or in places that could be easily written off.
Not to mention, this was the second hit of the night unless they had another person that I didn’t kill back at the restaurant.
I never did get a good look at the driver of the Taurus.
The cock of a shotgun echoed in the quiet of the diner. “Come out, come out, I know you’re there! I’ve spent all day following you and your friends, but we haven’t gotten to play.”
This creepy motherfucker. Too bad I needed him alive.
“Let me up, Void,” I whispered harshly, elbowing him in the gut. “We can’t kill this asshole. We need to find out what he knows.”
Void grunted but shifted to the side so I could wiggle out and climb over the top of him to peek around the table.
When I did, the middle-aged balding man with a sawed-off shotgun spotted me and pulled the trigger.
Ducking behind the table once again, I rolled as a chunk of the table went flying.
This asshole was shooting slug shells, making this all the more fucked up.
These types of bullets have been named the deadliest thing you could put in a shotgun.
I’m talking like a bullet and a pipe bomb had a baby type of fucked.
“If we can’t get the guy alive without one of us getting killed in the process, you better take his psycho ass down. He’s shooting slugs,” I told the others.
Weston frowned and glared at me. “Why do you always have to have some of the worst of humanity come after you? Couldn’t we just get normal thugs and lackeys?”
“Pfft, this is way more fun.” I smirked and leaped up and over the back of the seats, landing with my back to the wall.
This was the start of the hallway to the bathrooms, but also offered protection from being seen as I planned what move to make next.
I had to keep this guy’s attention so he didn’t go shooting up the table and taking all the guys out.
I spotted the rolling dirty dish cart and grinned—oh this is gonna be fun.
Diving across the open space, I shoved chairs into tables as I went, sending them crashing every which way.
Then I hopped a ride on the dish express and rolled toward the kitchen and through the main section of the diner, gun at the ready to shoot this asshole right in the dick.
Only he wasn’t out there waiting for me like I thought he would be.
I reached the counter and ditched the cart, scrambling behind the dining counter and out of sight.
“I thought you wanted to play. Don’t tell me you’ve left already?” I yelled, trying to peek over the counter in different places to find out where baldly was.
I noticed the guys had left their safe spot with their guns drawn, spreading out to cover the dining area.
Guess I couldn’t have expected them to just hide out while I took care of things.
They were much too macho for that. I had to hand it to Void though, he had a silencer on his gun. One point for team enforcer.
“No, I haven’t left yet, I just thought it might be more fun with a friend,” Baldie’s voice said from the direction of the kitchen.
“Fuck,” I swore. My money was on the fact that Jerry or Nelly didn’t listen and leave when they should have.
Peeking back into the kitchen from the opening of the order shelf, I spotted our trigger-happy hitman and his new “friend” Nelly.
Now I was left with the choice of if I really cared enough to save her or just let her become cannon fodder so I didn’t have to worry about her taking my guys.
Goddamn it, they would be pissed if I let her die, and I really didn’t need more flak from them right now.
Moving out from behind the counter, I headed for the guys.
“He has a Nelly shield for protection in the kitchen. I can only see one way in and out of there, so some of you need to cover from the counter and the rest of us will go to the main entrance,” I directed. When I tried to head off, Picasso grabbed my arm.
“Look, I of all people know that you can handle yourself, but can we please not do anything to make this night worse?” he begged.
I frowned at him. “What are you talking about? This is nothing. That asswipe could’ve done a hell of a lot more damage to this place if he wanted to.
Lucky for us, he really only wants me. I just haven’t decided if it’s dead or alive.
The other two definitely wanted me dead, this one I’m not so sure. ”
“Spitfire, you do realize that you’re not making any of this sound like something we shouldn’t worry about, right?” Picasso groaned, rubbing his face with a hand.
“Buck up, boys, the faster we can deal with this, the faster you can yell at me about how reckless I am,” I said, as I moved down the hall to the swinging kitchen doors.
Grabbing the dirty dish cart along the way, I crept my way along the wall, stopping to wait for Weston, Picasso, and Eagle to join me.
“I’m gonna shove the cart in first and then try and get around the worktable in the middle of the kitchen.
I’ll go left, one of you go right, and the rest try not to shoot us or get shot,” I whispered, gearing up to rush the door.
“Oh yeah, and don’t shoot Nelly either. I’ll be the only one to do that, if she deserves it. ”
Eagle frowned and Weston moved to stop me, but I was already in motion, using the cart as a battering ram and shoving the double door wide for us to dive through.
Shots echoed in the space, the ting of bullets hitting metal overhead as the others laid down cover for us to get closer.
The blast of the shotgun was deafening, and I had to force myself not to flinch and cover my ears.
There was a reason these guns were for outdoor use only; they could burst an eardrum faster than a rock concert.
I rolled onto the metal shelf running under the center counter, knocking pans and baking sheets off, adding to the chaos level of noise in an effort to hide where I was coming out from.
Aiming for the hitman’s leg, I shot him right in the knee cap.
“Gah!”
Three bullets used, five left, I noted when he still didn’t go down or let go of Nelly.
I peered up from where I was grabbing a pizza tray and chucked it, like a giant Frisbee, at his hand.
It almost missed him, but I managed to get his elbow and his reflexes jerked, releasing Nelly.
Diving out of my spot, I grabbed Nelly’s legs and pulled them out from under her, causing her to crash to the floor, leaving the hitman open for the others to get a clear shot.
In seconds, four bullets hit him right in the chest and started to bloom with blood, telling me he wasn’t wearing a vest under his shirt.
Ignoring Nelly, who was sobbing on the floor, I scrambled over to baldie.
“Who the fuck hired you?” I demanded, as I climbed onto his chest, shoving my thumb into one of the bullet holes. “Tell me now or I’ll take the last moments of your life, giving you a taste of what hell is gonna be like.”
He coughed, blood bubbling up in his mouth, telling me he’d been hit in the lung. “Diego wants you to suffer for the loss of his son. I understand that now because I wanted you dead for killing my children. At least this way, I will be with them in the afterlife.”
“You cut out your own son’s tongue? What the hell kind of father does that?” I demanded.
“It’s a sin to lie. Without a tongue, you can’t lie ever again.” He gasped, trying to catch a breath that would never come now that his lungs were full of blood.
Stashing my gun back into the holster, I stabbed my pointer finger into another wound. “What about killing, isn’t that an even bigger sin?”
“Not if it’s ridding the world of evil…” he whispered as he slipped away, blood pooling around his whole body.
Shoving off him, I stood and wiped my bloody hands on my shorts and turned to find a sobbing Nelly wrapped around Eagle, like the snake she was, clutching his shirt. I might have brushed it off if her face wasn’t nuzzled all up in his neck as well, like she belonged there.
“Aw, fuck no, that is not happening,” I roared, whipping my gun out and pointing it right at her head. “Get your motherfucking hands off of what’s mine you twatwaffle.”
The sobbing only got louder, and she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. I met his gaze and I saw shock on his face. “Dax, she almost died, and it doesn’t mean anything to me. Let’s just find her father so I can hand her off to him.”
“Fuck you, Eagle,” I spit. “You talk about wanting to make something work between us, but you won’t do something as simple as removing a woman who is clearly into you.
She’s taking advantage of this moment to climb all over you, but you’re too blind to see it.
” I dropped my gun and shook my head in disbelief.
“You might be fine sharing me with the guys, but I’m sure as fuck not okay with anyone else touching what belongs to me, if you even do.
So this ends one of two ways. You remove the sobbing opportunist bitch or I walk out those doors and go back to my life. ”
“Dax, I get you don’t have the same thoughts on family that we do, but Nelly is family, nothing more.
We protect and comfort our family when they’ve almost been killed.
Are you saying you wouldn’t do the same for one of your people?
” Picasso argued, because heaven forbid anyone disagrees with his big brother.
“This is what you wanted for your brother isn’t it?
To be protected when they get involved with something that they didn’t do? ”
“This is nothing like that,” I screamed, my whole body shaking with rage.
“I can’t do this. You’re asking me to change into someone I’m not willing to be.
I can’t fix the shattered person I am. You either accept me how I am now, or I don’t need any of you in my life.
If you’ll pick her over me, then clearly everything you said is a lie. ”
“Rebel, that’s not what we’re doing.” Sprocket shifted to block my shot. “All we want to do is get her somewhere safe, then we can all leave, together, and go back home.”
No, this was a clear betrayal that proved they were lying about everything. Why wouldn’t they pick me over her?
Weston shoved his gun into the back of his pants and came over to me, hands raised in surrender as I shifted the gun to him. “Come on, shortcake. I think it’s time we both went home.”
Dropping my arm, I looked back at the five men who had almost gotten past my walls, but I’d managed to save myself at the last moment, before it was too late. It was safer this way. For it to just be me and Wes—the one man who never let me down.