Page 133 of Full Throttle

He went right and I went left, heading down the stairs. The second my feet hit the damn ground of the den, eyes were on me. I wasn’t wearing a hood over my head like Mina and Nik. No, I wanted these people to see my fucking face. I wanted them to remember the terror I put into their fucking hearts the last time I was here. I moved through the aimless crowd of people, trying my best to ignore the stench and screams.

I was halfway down a narrow alley when I heard a female scream.

I knew that scream.

Nikki.

I couldn’t break into a run. It would look suspicious, so with every ounce of control I had, I switched directions, heading for the sound.

I rounded a corner and saw a man’s hand clamped around her arm. The man wasn’t a resident of Devils Den, but he was a frequent flier; I could tell by the hate in eyes. He came down here to get his fix the law above ground would let him have. Leon was facing off with him as Mina’s eyes landed on mine. Her face gave nothing away, but I read her eyes.

“You can’t afford her,” Leon growled. “Let my product go.”

“I have the fucking money,” the man chuckled, “I assure you.” He yanked Nikki to his side, grabbing her face as he smiled down at her. “I’m going to enjoy you. Very much.”

“You wanna tell me why this bastard has my fucking product?” I clipped, rage coursing through my veins as I took slow, calculated steps towards them.

Leon’s head snapped up and then he jerked his chin to the fucker holding my woman, playing the part. “Fucker said he can pay for her. What are you going to do about that?” he asked, his eyes flashing.

I pressed my tongue against my cheek and looked at the man. “That’s my product.”

“Don’t see your name on her,” he shot back, holding Nikki against his front.

I looked back to Leon, clicking my tongue. “I see we have dilemma, because I paid in advance for that one,” I said calmly, pointing to Nikki.

“You want her?” Lee challenged. “Take her for yourself.”

I smiled, and in the corner of my eye, I saw Mina flinch at the sight.

Leon knew exactly how this game was played.

In a flash, I had a blade in my hand.

Then, it was soaring through the air as I twisted my neck, watching the blade strike true, right into the fucker’s eye. He released Nik and she snarled, breaking out of character, shooting her elbow up. It connected with his chin, and she whirled around, pulling her gun out and firing off two rounds into the man’s chest with him screaming the entire time.

He landed on the dark, damp ground with a thump.

Dammit, clover.

She turned to me, her green eyes wild with a mix of fear and rage. “I’m done pretending,” she breathed out, her voice shaking.

Another gunshot went off behind me, and instinctively I ducked and reached for Nik before turning around. We found Mina a few feet away, her back to us, her gun pointed at the body on the ground. She looked over her shoulder, her eyes hard.

“Bratva,” she said.

“So much for keeping things under the radar,” I muttered.

“Brother, I’d rather make a damn scene,” Leon said. I looked up to find him pulling off his hoodie to reveal a black wife-beater underneath, weapons strapped all around his torso and back. He unsheathed a gun and tipped his chin to Nikki. “You good?”

She nodded. “Yeah…yeah, I’m good,” she told him before looking up at me. “I figured it would be chaos after I fired my gun…” She trailed off.

I pressed a quick kiss to her forehead, and we were moving again. Dontell was keeping somewhat of a low profile, but that didn’t stop him from leaving breadcrumbs for us.

However, his breadcrumbs came in the form of bodies.

We’d stepped over the third one in a row as we rounded a corner and the four of us came to halt, guns and blades raised as we took in the scene in front of us. Dontell was in the middle of two Bratva men, his lip swollen and bleeding. He was fighting both of them, the top buttons of his shirt undone.

Without a second thought, Mina advanced, charging towards the man who had his back to her.

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