Page 76 of Never Wed an Outlaw

The last part was a lie. I had no intention of letting this vampire drain the club dry and coming anywhere near my family ever again.

I'd find a way to kill him. If it didn't happen today, then several months down the line, when the fuckheads came for their money. If we had to part with a cool million to get him off our backs today, to let us all walk away alive, we'd deal.

Dom smiled, too dark and knowingly for anything good to happen next. “Ah, so you can just murder us later, right? I know how biker trash works, Dust. Your friends out west in the Grizzlies and the Devils up north have set too many traps, and I know you're working with them.”

“I ain't Blackjack,” I growled, secretly wishing I had some of the old man's magic right about now. The Grizzlies Prez made a fortune and kept his crew alive against the odds. “I'm a man of my word. You help us find some way where everybody walks away from here without more death or hurt, then we can do business.”

Hurt like hell to say those words because I meant it. Fuck, I'd let them live to fight another day, if I just got Hannah and my son back in one piece.

Joker groaned behind me. Crawl leaning down with them now, applying extra pressure to the Veep's messed up leg.

“You're braver than I expected, but you're just as stupid,” Dom said, yawning as he finally pushed away from my gun. “We have the upper hand. See that room back there?”

He laid his disgusting hand on my shoulder, squeezed it, and pointed. “That's where you'll find your wife. She's very sick. We delivered the kiddo just fine, but we don't have the fancy antibiotics and hygiene like you'll find in a hospital. Her baby seems healthy, for now. Whatever happens to him after today isn't our responsibility if we can't make a deal. That's on you, Mister Prez.”

“Let. Them. Go.” The words barely sounded humanwhen they left my mouth.

This time, I grabbed the motherfucker, shoving my nine against his ribcage, straight at his heart. Every one of his crew trained their guns on me.

Seriously contemplated pulling the trigger. I could kill him here, and give my boys a good fuckin' chance while they cut his crew to pieces, too busy filling me full of lead to fight back.

“We have the upper hand, Dust. Already told you. Don't be a fool,” he said, digging his gun into my chest, too. “We gave our demands. You meet them, or everybody dies, including Hannah and the brat. We set the conditions. We set the timetable. We say fucking jump, and you do it. That's law when one group has more guns than the other. Remember: we're a multimillion dollar, international syndicate. You're a shit stain, drug dealing biker gang stuck in the hills. No fuckin' contest here.”

For a second, I let my eyes wander, looking over the whole ugly scene. Joker continued bleeding on the ground, several brothers protecting him, aiming their guns at the mafia cocksuckers who had their arms trained on me.

Dom sneered in my face. Probably thinking he'd kicked me square in the balls.

That shit-eating smile on his lips didn't last long once I started laughing. He shoved his gun harder into my chest, his hand shaking slightly.

“What?! What's so damned funny?”

“You mafia assholes are all the same. Goddamned know-it-alls who never figure out they're in over their heads 'tilthe very end.” I grabbed his gun, and pushed it off me. “You wanna fact check and tell me the lay of the land? Let's do it. You've got two fatal flaws in what you think you know, Dom.”

His eyes were wide and rolling now, angrier than ever. He backed up, pointing his gun in my face. “Don't do anything stupid, redneck asshole. Are you high from that shit you push on the streets? Your little family won't make it out of here alive if you –“

“I don't deal junk. That was my old man, and he ain't been in charge for awhile now. That's mistake number one, and it proves you're pretty fuckin' out of touch,” I said, walking forward, keeping the asshole on the move. He took a couple steps backward before he planted his heels in the pavement again, regaining his poise. “You talk a big game about your friends on the coasts and over in Europe. It's like you're clueless we've been making lots of new buddies, too.”

“What? More biker trash out west?” He snorted, shaking his head. “You're really comparing the Grizzlies and the Prairie Devils, more worthless MCs, to aworld classorganization that's been doing business for the better part of a century? Listen to what you're saying, Dust. It's like you don't realize that even if your men get away untouched – and they won't – that they won't be putting their own lives and their families under the gun as soon as news crosses the ocean. There'll be a price on your heads so fucking high every bounty hunter on two continents will want to collect.”

“Nah,” I said. He stopped, and I put my hand on hisgun again, holding mine near his guts. “I'm talking about our friends further abroad. Trust me, the Irish and the Russians arerealfuckin' happy with the money we're bringing in from the new gun routes going to the coasts. So happy, in fact, that they're not letting our little dustup spread to their home turf. Your Sicilian brothers overseas are smart. They cut a deal last week, told my friends they wouldn't interfere, whatever happens here. You're on your own, asshole.”

Dom's face twisted angrily. Finally, my turn came to wear the ugly smirk, and I did proudly.

“Don't be mad, asshole. You've still got plenty of leverage. Just a lot less than you thought, considering you've been cut off at the balls by your own family.”

“Fuck!” One of his men lowered his gun, off to the side, pacing in a panicked circle. “He isn't giving us the truth, is he, boss? Tell me he's lying through his fucking teeth!”

“It's true,” Firefly said, standing up and moving over to the man. “I was there myself on the call when we heard your brothers give you up. Sure evens the odds. Our Prez is a genius.”

“Shit...shit!” I saw another one of Dom's men turning pale out the corner of my eye. It was Will, the nasty looking fucker with the dark hair who'd put a bullet in Joker's calf. “Didn't know we were dealing with the Irish, or the Russians! Christ, I didn't sign up for this. I –“

“Shut the fuck up!” Dom spun, turning his gun away from me, aiming it at his own man. “It's a trick, you stupid, spineless cocksuckers. He'll say anything right now to stop usfrom marching back in there and feeding that fuckin' bitch scraps of her own dead kid. Fuck the negotiating, it's –“

Over? Yeah, it fucking is,I thought, finishing it in my head for him.

My gun wentoffbefore the asshole could say the final word. Not the nine in my dominant hand, but the old antique pistol I'd grabbed from my hip, hurling a fat ball of civil war era lead into the demon's spine.

Dom went down instantly, howling in pain. Several more guns barked, and I hit the pavement. Everybody fired at the bastard who'd tried to back up his soon-to-be deadcapoboss.

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