Page 31 of Sniper

She flashed a sad smile. “Yeah, well I am worried dammit,” she joked, tossing my own words back at me.

“I’ll be careful. I promise.”

She wrapped her arms around her waist and nodded absently, but the tension around her mouth was a dead giveaway that she was worried. “Katey?”

She shook her head as if she was trying to talk herself out of something. “You don’t have to do this, do you? I mean if this is all about Ethan, you can just call it off… right?”

I frowned. “Having second thoughts?”

She nodded and then shook her head. “Yeah, I mean why should you or any of your friends get hurt because of me? I’m not… I mean, I can’t let you do this.” She shook her head again. “I… can’t let you do this.”

This woman was actually going to be the death of me and not how she meant. How could she be so blind to her own worth? I crossed the room and took her hands in mine. “First let’s get one thing clear, you can’tletme do anything. And youareworth this, goddammit. You are worth more than you know and I’m gonna do this. We are gonna draw that fucker out and make him regret tormenting you.”

She kept shaking her head. “Don’t do it Sniper. Please.”

“It’s as good as done, wife.”

“But what if someone gets hurt? Falcon nearly died because of me.”

Shit. “He’s alive because of you. He was shot because a man couldn’t accept ‘it’s over’ at face value.”

She grinned. “Who knew you were so progressive.”

I smiled back. “Who knew you gave a damn,” I replied, throwing her words back at her.

She rolled her eyes just as a sigh rushed out of her. “Just be safe. Please.”

“I will. Promise,” I whispered as I leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lush lips. I froze and stared at her, shook off whatever that odd feeling was that coursed through my body and headed back to the door. “Stay here.”

“Nowhere to go. Remember?”

“Except hanging with the old ladies,” I called back and left our bedroom and the feelings I had that I had no fucking clue how to deal with. I headed outside instead of the bar, needing to get my head on straight before tonight. I couldn’t afford to be distracted.

I took a few minutes just for myself, breathing deeply while I cleared my mind of everything except tonight’s mission. It was exactly what I always did before it was go-time, in the military and in the MC. Focus was what kept us all alive, it was how we managed to do the shit we got up to and make it home in one piece, so that’s what I did.

Cleared all thoughts of Katey from my mind.

All thoughts of her rat bastard ex pushed down until this mission was over.

Focus on the current mission and deal with the next after. It was how I functioned.

“Yo Sniper, you ready?” Rebel called out to me from the doorway, a curious expression on his face.

“Yeah,” I grunted. “I’m ready.” My phone said it was almost nine and my head was clear, so I let out one last sigh and turned. “Let’s do this shit.”

***

Just after half past nine we were on the road and headed for the fake gun buy meeting. Traffic was light since we’d taken the route that went around Vegas instead of straight through it. The mood was quiet and serious, not even Gio dared joke as we all got ourselves into the headspace of what had to be done tonight.

Men would die tonight, that much was certain. The Black Vultures had tried to take out one of our own and they’d nearly fucking succeeded, which they had to pay for. If they showed up tonight—and they would—it would be in the hope of catching us off guard and ill equipped to fight back. They wanted us gone, wiped off the game board so that they could take our territory, our customers, and our influence.

Not on my fucking watch.

The parking lot felt like exactly what it was—once a busy hub for truckers and other road warriors, now abandoned and long forgotten. T-Bone and I sat in the truck, the taller vehicle allowed us to see the Black Vultures before they arrived. “Lookalive,” I shouted. “Incoming.” I flashed the headlights to let Diesel and the guys on bikes know that trouble was imminent.

T-Bone knocked on the truck to let the guys inside know it was showtime.

And then we waited.

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