Page 98 of Kings Fear No One
I’m supposed to be relieved.
But instead, it’s the opposite—ice-cold dread fills my veins. I come face to face with a scene that rocks through me like no other.
Teysha’s slumped over a table, barely sitting up, nursing an empty shot glass. She’s seated with two men I’ve never seen before, both leaned toward her like vultures ready to feed.
I don’t think. I act.
“Teysha? Teysha!” I yell.
I charge forward, shoving aside anybody in my way. Me calling her name barely seems to register with her. She glances up with heavy-lidded eyes, a slack expression on her face.
It’s been twenty-four hours and she hasn’t changed—she’s still in the dress she was wearing yesterday, the left strap halfway down her shoulder, her hair messier than she usually likes it.
A man I’ve only seen before in passing steps in front of me. Average height and build, with dark, wavy hair, he’s dressed like he’s about to attend a business meeting not hang around some crumby dive bar.
Miguel Barrera has done business with the Steel Kings throughout the years. From what Ozzie’s been telling me, the partnership was going well until recent times where it’s started to sour.
He smiles wide, his polite air nothing but a smokescreen. “I’m surprised to see some Steel Kings in our midst. Can I help you gentlemen?”
“I’m here for my wife.”
“Wife?” Miguel chuckles, glancing over either shoulder. “I don’t see a wife here. Maybe you’re confused, primo. How about some drinks?”
“That’s my wife right there—TEYSHA!”
She perks up as if zapped by electricity. Her gaze pans across the bar ’til she spots me and recognition dawns on her face. “Logan?”
“If you insist on causing a disruption, then I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” Miguel says.
“I’m here to pick up my wife and take her home.” I move to go around him, but he steps to the side to block me. “Move the fuck out of my way before I drop you.”
“That’s not going to happen. We have an agreement with your club that you show up to our territory by invite only. Unless you are here at the behest of the Barreras, then you do not belong here,” he explains in his fake polite tone. He gestures to the door. “I was willing to offer you a complimentary beverage since your club is a business partner, but I can’t let you interfere in the festivities.”
“My wife won’t be partaking in those festivities, dipshit!”
“I’m afraid the lady is here of her own free will. She has opted to stay with my men. As have the other women being initiated here tonight.”
“You fucking prick!”
I knot my fist in the front of his button-up shirt and wrench him toward me. Several men seated around the bar leap to their feet and reach for their weapons. Ozzie throws himself between me and Miguel to play mediator.
“Whoa, fellas, turn the heat down!” He tries to break my hold on the Barreras leader to no luck. “Ghost, let him go, man. Now’s not the time.”
“Teysha leaves with me.”
“Teysha will be enjoying herself in our company.” The smile slides off Miguel’s face. The courteous tone he’s been putting up vanishes for his deeper native tongue. “Soldados vienen a eliminar esta molestia de nuestro club. Él está acquí para causar problemas.”
“You touch me, I’m breaking it!” I roar.
His men have closed in on us, pointing guns and grappling to get hold of us. Ozzie groans in regret while I push back and swing on two of them.
Things quickly spiral into a brawl.
Miguel’s men attack us. Guns are pointed at our heads, and we’re jostled toward the door. The few bystanders in the place crane their necks to watch the commotion. The two guys crowded around Teysha get up and lead her to the back of the bar.
I scream her name some more. I throw another fist. A couple of my punches hit the mark, but it’s no use when we’re two against twenty. We’re tossed through the front door, into the dirt lot that’s reserved for parking.
The music blasting from the bar grows even louder, like they’ve turned it up in celebration.
