Page 86 of The Belle and the Biker

My finger caresses the trigger.

"No," Axl says. "We don't know for sure."

"He looks good for it." I want this to be over. I want Savannah to be safe and able to live her life—even if she decides to live it without me.

"We all want it to be over, but this isn't the way."

He's right. If I shoot some innocent tourist, the guilt will haunt me forever, and I might very well blow the whole operation. And we agreed to let the cops handle the takedown. We're here mostly as backup. If the cops miss, we won't.

The blue car starts up again and heads to the parking lot.

I suck in my breath. Finger on the trigger, eyes on the prize.

In the parking lot, he accelerates suddenly. He screeches into the parking lot in a cloud of dust.

"Leave it," Axl mutters to me. "The cops will handle it, and we only shoot if it looks like he's getting away."

The blue Nissan drives by the decoy car and sprays it with bullets. Spiderwebs of cracks spray across the windows, but they stay intact. I grimace, praying that the woman inside the car is okay.

His arm pokes out the window and rakes the car with another round of bullets. Pockmarks dimple the car's exterior. The windows are still holding.

Surely the shooter must know that this is a setup by now? The window glass should be in pieces all over the asphalt, and the car windows should be giant gaping holes.

He backs up, swerving wildly.

I'm dying to shoot the motherfucker, but I don't get the chance. The SWAT team pours out of the warehouse. There's a brief exchange of gunfire, but he's completely outmanned and outgunned.

The shooter tries to make it out of the parking lot, but he's driving wild. His car swerves and lurches.

Then it rolls, very slowly, into a tree. The wheels are still revving, kicking up dirt. His limp arm dangles from the car window, and a gun falls from his bloody hand and drops onto the cracked asphalt.

We don't leave yet. We wait until the cops have swarmed the car and pulled out his limp body. He lies on the road in a spreading puddle of blood. The female cop from the decoy car approaches, gun drawn. She appears uninjured.

"Time to pack it in," Axl says. He pats me on the arm. "You did good. This was all you, brother. Your idea."

"Is it over?" I say in astonishment. "Holy shit. I think it's finally over."

CHAPTER26

Savannah

Winter has found Bitter End.It’s thirty-eight degrees, and I’m wearing my puffy jacket as I leave Daisy’s carriage house and head toward Main Street. Rhett is trotting next to me, happy as a clam. He’s got a nice fur coat and doesn’t seem to notice the cold.

I’m delighted to have all of my old clothes back. Tawny insisted on giving me her two-prong ring, and I accepted because the prongs look like little cat ears, and it’s actually cute. I feel like myself again, but hollowed out and aching.

Crash was my missing piece, or so I believed, for a short, happy time. Now I don’t know what he was. How could a man who cared about me keep such big secrets?

I miss having him with me. I miss him teasing me, smiling at me, looking at me like I’m the prettiest thing in creation. I miss how safe I felt with him. I miss the smell of him and the feeling of those big muscular arms wrapped around me.

At least Tawny’s happy again. She and Axl had a passionate, tearful reunion, and they’re back in New York. He came clean to her about having PTSD and a drinking problem, and he’s stepped down as club president to take time to deal with his issues. I’m delighted and ninety percent not jealous. Ten percent of me wants to throw them off a bridge because Tawny keeps texting me highly personal details about how Axl is making up for lost time.

Well, I’m glad that someone’s getting some lovin’. I’m sleeping in the Abernathy Family’s Bitter End carriage house, alone, trying to figure out what I’m going to do with myself. I’d love to ask Crash for his advice because he always seems to know what to say to make me feel better—if only he weren’t a lying bastard.

Crash has been trying to apologize, but I’m just not having it. Trust is huge with me when it comes to relationships, and I’m afraid I’ll never be able to trust him again.

He’s not giving up easily. He’s been sending me a giant bouquet of sunflowers at the carriage house every day, and he texted me that he and Tank are staying in a campground in Swampy Bottom because there are no available hotel rooms. After getting that text, I turned off my phone and haven’t turned it back on. The temptation to reply would be too strong.

I’m staying in Bitter End because when I got back to town three days ago, Aunt Hepzibah and I had some words over the whole situation with Carlisle. I packed up my stuff and called Daisy, and she came and picked me up.

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