Page 14 of Sully
“It changes everything.Because I’m willing to go through this with you.I’ll take care of whatever you’re up against.”
She looked at me then, really looked at me, her eyes searching mine for something.Sincerity, maybe?Whatever she found made her shoulders drop a fraction of an inch.
“You don’t even know what you’re offering, Sully.”She accepted the fresh drink and some ice wrapped in a cloth from Mike, nodding her thanks.She winced slightly as she pressed the ice pack to her cheek.“You don’t know what kind of trouble follows me.”
“I will if you tell me.”
She sighed, running a finger along the edge of her glass.“You’re persistent, I’ll give you that.”A reluctant smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, pulling at her split lip.She winced, then dabbed at it with a napkin.“Fine.Short version?I pissed off some very bad people by existing, and they’d prefer I didn’t.The bruises?”She gestured vaguely at her face.“Just a friendly reminder of what happens when they catch up with me.”
The casual way she said it, like being hunted was just another Tuesday, made something in my chest constrict painfully.“And the long version?”
She opened her mouth to answer, but her eyes suddenly fixed on something over my shoulder, her body going rigid with tension.The smirk vanished, replaced by a coldness I hadn’t seen before.
“Looks like you’re about to get it,” she said, her voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.“Because my trouble just walked through the door.”
I spun around to follow Darby’s gaze just as the door slammed open.Six men pushed inside, scanning the crowd with purpose.The bulges beneath their jackets told me they were armed.One of them zeroed in on Darby and alerted the others.The leader, a tall man with a jagged scar across his throat, pointed directly at her and the pack began to move as one toward us.
“Shit,” Darby muttered under her breath.Her hand disappeared into her jacket, emerging with a set of brass knuckles she slipped on with practiced ease.
I didn’t think, just moved.In one fluid motion, I positioned myself between Darby and the approaching men.I heard the scrape of a bar stool behind me as Darby stood, felt her heat at my back.I thought I saw Knight moving toward us but didn’t want to take my focus from the six guys in front of us.
“You don’t have to do this, Sully,” she said, her voice low and urgent.“This isn’t your fight.”
“It is now,” I replied, not taking my eyes off the approaching threat.
A shadow materialized at Darby’s other side.I was right.Knight, his tattooed face impassive, had put himself in a position to defend Darby’s other side.
The lead man stopped a few feet away, his lips curling into something that might have been a smile on a human face.On him, it looked like an animal baring its teeth.“Darby Miles,” he said, her name sounding like a curse in his mouth.“You know we’re not passin’ up on the fortune your daddy’ll pay to get you back.”
“You honestly think my daddy wanted you to smack me around?Or, you know, try to rape me?”
Red flags all around, but now wasn’t the time.
“Honey, your daddy don’t care what shape you come back in as long as he gets you home.Besides, we’ll swear we found you in whatever condition you end up.”
“Go fuck yourself, Jenkins,” Darby shot back, stepping out from behind me despite my attempt to keep her shielded.
“I mean, he ain’t officially offered a reward for you but the whole of Nashville knows he’s lookin’ for you.Maybe, just to guarantee us a reward, we hold you for ransom.He’ll pay then.”
I guess that was one taunt too many because Darby let loose, striking first.She launched herself past me with a feral snarl.Her brass-knuckled fist connected with Jenkins’ jaw with a sickening crack before anyone could draw a weapon.He staggered back, blood spraying from his mouth, and then chaos erupted.
The bar exploded into violence.Two men rushed me, one swinging a chain, the other reaching for what was definitely a gun.I caught Chain Man’s wrist mid-swing, twisting until something snapped beneath my grip.His scream was cut short when my fist crashed into his throat.I used his momentum to swing him into Gun Man, sending them both crashing into a nearby table that splintered beneath their weight.
Knight moved behind us on my blind side.I heard and recognized his grunts, having been in more than one bar fight beside the man over the weeks.
And Darby?Christ, Darby fought like nothing I’d ever seen.She was just as savage as any one of my brothers.She’d grabbed a beer bottle, smashing it against the edge of a table to create a jagged weapon that she wielded with terrifying expertise.She slashed at Jenkins’ face, opening a long cut across his cheek before dancing away from his counterattack.
I barely had time to register the shock on the man’s face before Gun Man was up again, this time with his weapon drawn.I lunged forward, grabbing his wrist and forcing it upward just as he pulled the trigger.The shot blasted into the ceiling, raining plaster and dust.I drove my knee into his groin, then slammed his head against a nearby pole hard enough to cause him to crumple at my feet.
Glass shattered somewhere to my left.I turned to see Knight disarm another attacker, the man’s switchblade clattering across the floor as Knight dislocated his shoulder.The bar had emptied of regular patrons, chairs overturned in their haste to escape the violence.Only Mike remained, shotgun in hand, though he seemed content to let us handle the situation as long as no one threatened him or his bar too badly.
The third man charged me with hate in his eyes.I sidestepped, letting him barrel past, then grabbed the back of his jacket and used his momentum to slam him into the solid oak of the bar.
“Behind you!”Knight called out.
I whipped around to see a fourth man rushing Darby from behind, switchblade gleaming.She was occupied with Jenkins, unaware of the threat at her back.I moved without thinking, tackling the guy around the waist and driving him to the floor.We rolled across broken glass and spilled beer, my fists finding his face again and again until he stopped struggling.
When I looked up, Darby had Jenkins pinned against the pool table, her forearm across his throat.But the fifth man, one I’d lost track of in the chaos, blindsided her with a vicious punch to her already bruised ribs.I heard her pained gasp as she doubled over, momentarily vulnerable.
