Chapter 27
Penn
“What’s wrong?” Dixie asks as I reach for my phone in my pocket. “Why’d we pass the house?”
“Someone’s following us,” I say, and call Pacino. “Got a tail.”
“What?”
The car’s headlights turn off, and my anxiety spikes. I don’t know if they’ve got a gun, or if they just plan on trying to run us off the road. “Just turned off their lights. And I think I saw two more join.”
“On it.”
“We’re being followed?” Dixie asks, her voice barely above a whisper.
After the threat from Stephen at the bar, this is the last thing she needs. I take her hand and give it a squeeze. “Nothing is going to happen to you or the baby. I promise.”
Her fingers tremble in mine, but she nods.
The exhaust of multiple motorcycles fills the air, and I smile. I hope someone’s following us. They’ll get their just deserts. I’ve done some shady shit in my life, but I’ve never targeted a pregnant woman. There’s not much lower one can go.
The cars turn off a side road as soon as six headlights come into view. Turning around, I head back to the house, thankful for my brothers. Considering I haven’t been able to count on my twin brother since catching him with Veronica, it’s nice to know I have loyal non-blood-related family.
“I’m tired,” Dixie says.
“Go on inside,” I say. “I’ll join you in a minute. Just wanna make sure no one’s dumb enough to come back around.”
She just nods, and I release her hand as Pacino opens the door for her. “Thanks.”
As she walks inside, I shake my head. “Like tonight hasn’t been rough enough for her.”
“I’ve got Scotty digging up every secret Stephen Patterson has buried. We’ll get him. And Kannon, Rooster, and Jethro took off after the cars,” he says as Capone rests on his bike with the kickstand down.
It’s nice knowing they’ve got not only my back but Dixie’s. She and I still need to have a talk about what exactly we’re doing now, but I think she needs to decompress a bit before we do that.
“Thanks, I—”
I stop and turn towards the house. Princess isn’t giving her happy bark at seeing Dixie. No, it’s a frantic, angry bark that pierces through the air. Wild and desperate, and then I hear the whimper of her being thrown against a wall.
“Dixie,” I breathe and take off running toward the house.
Pacino and Capone are right behind me, moving with surprising, lethal speed that matches my own panic. When I reach for the door handle, it doesn’t turn.
“She wouldn’t have locked it,” Capone says.
The barking rises to a fever pitch, followed by a heavy thud and yelp of a dog in pain. “Fucking shit bit me!”
“Back up,” Pacino says.
I do as he says, and he lowers his shoulder like a fullback punching through the line and breaks the door down. It splinters the frame, but I don’t care. I need to get to my girls.
“Stop kicking her!” Dixie screams. “Princess!”
“Fucking bitch bit me!”
The scene in the living room is pure chaos.
The coffee table is flipped on its side, books and decorative candles Dixie bought scattered across the rug.
In the center of the room stands Stephen, his face swollen and cut from the beating I delivered earlier.
His foot winds back to kick Princess again when I launch myself at him, sending us both sprawling along the floor.
“Dixie, get to the bathroom,” I shout. “Capone, check on the dog.”
Stephen grunts and tries to get me off him, but he fails. I manage to flip him over and get a solid hit to his jaw. As he flails, he gets a lucky shot to mine, and it stuns me for a split second.
“You made a big fucking mistake,” I shout as I stand and use my boot against his ribs. “Breaking into my fucking house? Hitting my dog? Going after my girl? You got a lot of fucking balls, I’ll give you that.”
My third kick gets caught by his hands, and he has more stealth than I gave him credit for. He twists my leg, forcing me off balance, and I land on my ass on the tile floor.
This gives him just enough time to scramble to his feet and out the broken door.
“I’ve got him,” Pacino calls, running after him with his gun in hand.
“She’s pretty hurt,” Capone says as Princess whimpers.
“Go,” I call and rush over to the pup. “It’s okay, girl. You did good. You did such a good job.”
Her tail gives a small wag, and she licks my hand as though understanding what I mean. She did her job. She helped protect Dixie. But how Stephen knew where I lived and got here before I did, I have no idea.
Pacino and Capone come back inside, both pissed, and I know he got away.
“There was a sedan waiting. He dove into the backseat before it drove away,” Capone says. “Kannon and the others are chasing after it, but they were quick.”
“How’s the dog?” Pacino asks.
“She’s not in good shape. Can you take my truck and bring her to the vet on Route 14? There’s an emergency clinic. Whatever it costs, this dog stays alive,” I say.
Nodding, Pacino picks up Princess in his arms as gently as possible, and her whimpers have me clenching my fists. I want this motherfucker dead even more than I did at the bar now.
I jump to my feet and shout, “Dixie!”
I run to the bathroom, but find it empty. My heart races, and I run into my bedroom and the attached bathroom. The door is locked, and I break it down easily, relieved to find Dixie pressed into the corner with the lid of the back of the toilet in her hands, ready to be used as a weapon.
“Penn,” Dixie says, her eyes filling with tears.
Taking the lid from her hands, I gently put it back on the toilet and pull her into my arms. “It’s okay. He’s gone. He’s gone, but we’re going to find him.”
“Princess. Oh God, Princess!”
“Pacino’s taking her to the emergency vet. Whatever it takes, they’re going to save her.”
Tears fall from her eyes. “I’d just let her out of her kennel when she started growling and barking. Stephen walked into the room threatening me.”
“He was in the house already?” Capone asks, even though we already figured that one.
She nods. “Yeah, he was saying that I wasn’t going to have his baby and raise it with a biker. When he reached out to grab me, Princess attacked. He slammed her against the wall, but she attacked again. Bit his leg.”
“That’s my girl,” I whisper. “Are you hurt? Did he touch you?”
“No, Princess stopped him. What if he really hurt her, Penn? It’s all my fault.”
“No, it’s his fucking fault,” Capone says. “He tried to attack and then threatened a pregnant woman, broke into a biker’s house, and tried to kill a dog. Dude’s about out of lives at this point.”
The thought of what would have happened if we didn’t have Princess here, or if Dixie hadn’t gotten her out of her kennel, makes my blood boil.
A white-hot rage fills me, and my vision blurs along the edges.
Stephen came here to destroy something that means the world to me.
To take what he thinks is his, and he didn’t care what he had to do to get it.
“He’ll never touch you again,” I promise, my voice coming out more lethal than I intend. The last thing I want to do is scare Dixie.
Pulling back slightly, she looks into my eyes. “What are we going to do? He won’t stop, Penn.”
“I will stop him.”
“Does that mean you’ll… you’ll kill him?”
I could lie. I should. But I don’t. “After I take everything important to him away, yes. I’m going to make sure that asshole never comes near you again.”
It’s the truth. I plan to kill him in one of the most torturous ways I can come up with, and I don’t want to lie. But Dixie surprises the hell out of both of us when she says, “Good.”
“Good?” Capone asks.
“He’s never going to stop. Not until someone stops him,” she says. “I never expected this was who he really was. I never would have—”
“I know. We know,” I assure her.
Her lip quivers. “Can we go to Princess? She shouldn’t be alone.”
“She’s with the people who can help her,” Capone assures her.
“But she’s there because she protected me. I want to be there. I want to make sure she knows we didn’t leave her with strangers, Penn. Please?”
Nodding, I hug her tightly. “Of course. Pacino took my pickup, so we have to take your car.”
She snorts. “You fit so well in it.”
“Whatever we need to do, we will. Let’s go.”
“I’ll board up the front door,” Capone says. “We’ll get it fixed tomorrow when we can get supplies.”
“Penn!” Kannon shouts, walking through the house. “Where the fuck are you?”
Nodding, Capone heads to the bedroom door and sticks his head out. “Back here.”
“Motherfucker’s a slippery bastard,” he says, walking into the room. “Dixie, you okay?”
She sniffles and nods. “I’m fine. Thanks to Princess.”
“Who the fuck is Princess?”
“The dog,” Capone says. “Stephen beat her pretty good.”
His eyes widen. “Oh, he’s an animal beater now. Great. Just fucking great. Even more reason to…”
“She knows,” I say.
“Do me a favor?” Dixie asks.
“Anything.”
She looks around and locks eyes with each of us for a second. “When you kill him… Make it hurt.”
“Oh, I like you,” Kannon says. “Girl after my own heart.”
“We’re heading to the vet,” I say.
“I’ll help Capone with the door. And we’ll keep a watch on the house. He won’t get to you again, Dixie. We’ll make sure of it.”
“Just be careful,” she says. “He’s capable of so much more than I ever dreamed he would be. Don’t get hurt.”
Giving her a wink, he nods. “We got this. Don’t worry.”