Page 8 of Ride Long
She could handle herself. Couldn’tshe?
“Done.”
I glanced down at my thigh and counted the stitches. Five. Blood was smeared over my leg and had dripped onto the tiled floor. Rolling up my sleeve, I showed him myhandiwork.
“You’re a hack, Chaser,” Butcher drawled. “A realbutcher.”
“Look who’s talking.” I snorted as he picked up a pair of scissors andcut.
“What happened outthere?”
I gave him a pointed look. He could ask all he wanted, but I never talked about what I did.Never.
The door opened, interrupting our intimate moment, and Rick appeared. He was a new recruit. Fresh, green, and still in shitty diapers. A child playing at a man’sgame.
“Marini wants to see you,” he said, glancing at mythigh.
Narrowing my eyes, I picked up a washcloth and cleaned some of the blood off myskin.
“Now.”
“Careful,” I said, my lip curling. “You may be wiping his ass, but it doesn’t mean you get to order anyonearound.”
“You better listen to what he says, boy,” Butcher said, pointing the scissors at the newbie. “Boss may have singled you out, but it’s not because of yourintelligence.”
“I—”
“Don’t you even think of talkingback.”
I stood, my leg stinging like hell, and pulled my jeans back up. Looked like I was going to find out what happened to Sloane sooner rather than later. Good. It’d been a long time since I’d had someone to worry about—not since Madison—and I wasn’t sure I knew how to deal with it anymore. Hell, I wasn’t sure I’d even dealt in the firstplace.
“Don’t rip those stitches,” Butcher said, glaring at Rick but talking to me. “You’re a tough asshole, but I’mlazy.”
I smirked and flipped him the bird on my way out. I wouldn’t go as far to say I liked Butcher, but at least I knew where his loyaltieslaid.
Ditching Rick, I limped across the compound, dodging eye contact with anyone I passed so I didn’t have to stop and make small talk. I didn’t see hide or hair of Sloane, but I knew I wouldn’t. I didn’t know when I would get to see her again.Should’ve kissed her one last time. My dick twitched.Should’ve fucked her,too.
Marini was sitting in his shit-stained armchair when I dragged myself into his rooms. He loved that Goddamned chair. Why, I didn’t know, but his ass was permanently grafted to thething.
“Another memento added to the collection,” he said as I closed the door behindme.
I grunted and walked over to the sofa, masking the pain behind my eyes. My scars were a painful reminder of the servitude I’d been tricked into. So was the tattoo on my thumb and the psychopathic asshole sitting in front of me. They weren’t a memento for myscrapbook.
“My daughter says you should be rewarded,” Marini went on. “But she’s covered in cuts and bruises. You delivered me damagedgoods.”
I gritted my teeth to keep from saying something I would regret. Knowing she’d probably sat where I was right now wasn’t verycomforting.
“You dropped the ball on this one, Chaser. Big time.” He picked up the revolver sitting on the coffee table and flicked open the chamber. Taking out some bullets from his shirt pocket, he loaded them one by one in slow, deliberatemoves.
“They’ve upped their game,” I said, anger bristling up and down my spine. “We were forced to take an Amtrak from Albuquerque. I don’t know how they tracked us, but they were connected enough to block out two carriages with no prior planning. They ambushedus.”
Marini stared at me, his expression passive. He was a hard man to read at the best of times, but right now, he was blank. When he was like this, he was capable of his absoluteworst.
“What are you going to do with her?” Iasked.
“Be careful what you say next,” he snapped, closing the barrel on therevolver.
“I went to great lengths to get her here. I killed five men, got shot and knifed. Almost bled out on the way here. I want to know if it was worth it.” The words burned my throat as they came out. Sloanewasworth it. Took me time to realize it, but she was. I cared about her. When a killer cared about someone, things were destined to becomemessy.
