Sly (23 page)

I couldn’t look at him. Sly showed everything he was thinking in his eyes. I could take his pain. Somehow, that I could bear. At least then I knew he still felt something. But when his eyes turned to stone it seared me.
 

“You traded my life for Colt’s,” he said when I finally got the last of it out. I told him about the bargain I’d struck with Kagan. Colt’s life for Sly’s.
 

I nodded. “I couldn’t figure out another way.”
 

“And what would have happened if I’d done what you asked. If I’d left with you this morning?”
 

This was the part that I knew he couldn’t forgive. I promised him the truth and so I gave it. “Then you would have been far away when and if anything happened to Colt.”
 

“If?” Colt slammed his hands to the table. “If? Sly, why are we still talking to her? If we hadn’t run that card and unraveled her lies last night, I’d be lying in a pool of blood and you’d be off getting a tan under some fucking palm tree. Was that the plan?”
 

I looked straight at Sly and nodded. “It was. Sunny skies, palm trees and the beach all day long. But then the plan changed. Don’t forget, I could have just as easily killed you this morning when you came to the house.”
 

“You’re delusional,” he said and I couldn’t help that it made me smile.
 

“Who are you kidding?” I said. “You and Gunner would both be dead if that’s how I decided to play it. I got the jump on you easy.”
 

Colt shifted in his chair. His dark eyes flashed but I could at least give him credit that he didn’t deny it.
 

“So here we go again,” Sly said. “Mother fuck. I get us out of all of this shit and here we are dragged back into it. On the brink of a fucking club war. It will never end. It will
never
fucking end.”
 

I nodded. “You’re not on the brink, Sly. You’re in it.”
 

“Shut up,” Colt said. “You’ve said enough.”
 

Sly was pacing at the other end of the table. “Maybe,” he said. “Except she’s going to help us win it.” He pointed a finger at me and my heart tripped. He sat on the table in the space next to me. It took everything in me not to slide my hands over and touch him. He could stay cold with his eyes, but his flesh would warm beneath me. And I hated that I still wanted it to.
 

“Tell me how it was supposed to go down?” He leveled that cold stare at me.
 

I took a breath. “He wants a body. Colt’s body.”
 

Sly nodded. “So it looks like we’re going to have to give it to him.”
 

After that, all hell pretty much broke loose.
 

***
 

Lewis looked worse than the rest of us felt. His face had lost all color and he trembled in his chair as Sly hovered over him all menace and threats. I didn’t blame him. A part of me hoped Sly would put Lewis out of his misery and slam a bullet into his brain. He’d sold me and everyone else in the room out. But he still had one thing of value.
 

“Lewis,” Sly said. “You don’t have a choice. You call your contact and you get Kagan to come to the drop-off point. He wants a body. He’ll get one.”
 

Colt sat on the far side of the room rubbing his dark stubble with his hand. Since
he
was the body in question, he was taking all of this very well.
 

Sly motioned to me. I slid my phone in front of Lewis. Sly sat stoic at the head of the table. He was drained, just like I was. There was a very real possibility that all of this was too late. Varney was out there. He knew Colt was alive and with me when he left Sly’s house. The only thing keeping that information from getting to Kagan right now happened to be Lewis, everyone’s best and worst middle man.
 

“And as soon as I make that call, what’s to stop these thugs from wasting me on the spot?”
 

Sly raised a brow. “You came to my house with a gun, meaning to either shoot Colt over here or help. You’re calling us thugs? Make the fucking call.”
 

Sly leaned forward and patted Lewis on the back. “It’s going to be okay. This will all be over in a couple of hours. Nobody’s looking to hurt you if you do the right thing.”
 

He took the phone; his fingers hovered over the screen. He glowered at me. “Mickey never would have gone for this. This would have been over day one, pop pop.”
 

I raised my hand but Colt got to him first. He backhanded Lewis, making his head snap forward. “Take it easy,” Lewis said. “How many times you gonna knock me in the head in one day?”
 

“As many times as you need!” Sly and I said the same thing in unison. It would have been laughable except for the dozens of eyes staring both of us down. I didn’t know these men well, but things were uneasy within the club. I knew Colt and the others would have preferred dealing with Lewis and me quite differently. I may have spared Sly’s life, but he’d lost something with his club and it was one more thing I could blame myself for. Maybe I hadn’t killed him, but I’d messed up his life.
 

Lewis dialed the number. “Easy,” I whispered. “Don’t talk too fast.”
 

I could hear just enough of the voice on the other end to know it was Jinx.
 

“It’s all over,” Lewis said, locking his eyes with mine. I nodded. Keep going. “Where do you want us to bring the package?”
 

I clenched my fists. That’s not what we rehearsed. Kagan couldn’t dictate the location. Lewis’s eyes widened, realizing his mistake.
 

“Green Bluff. She says Green Bluff. The cliffs. Scarlett said Kagan would know why that was poetic justice.”
 

Lewis’s hand shook on the table but he kept his voice even. A moment later, he nodded and closed his eyes with relief.
 

“An hour,” he said, looking to me again for affirmation.
 

Then Jinx must have hung up on Lewis mid-sentence. He pulled the phone away from his ear and dropped it on the table like it was made of plutonium.
 

“It’s set,” he said. “Kagan wants the proof himself.”
 

I looked to Sly. This was insane. But he knew club politics. I didn’t. Hopefully, it would be enough to keep every member of his club breathing.
 

“We’d better get going,” I said, rising. A solid hand came down on my shoulder. Tiny stood behind me and guided me back into my seat.
 

“What, him?” I pointed to Lewis. Surely they couldn’t expect Lewis to pull off the meeting with Kagan.
 

Sly shook his head. A look passed between him and Colt that I didn’t like one bit. He closed his eyes and let out a breath. Then he gave a quick nod of his chin, in some private signal.
 

Tiny’s hand on my shoulder settled like an anvil. I squirmed but didn’t struggle.
 

“You should let Gunner do the honors,” Colt said, his tone bitter.
 

“Take her upstairs,” Sly said. He wouldn’t look at me. “Keep them separated until I get back.”
 

“Sly,” I said. “Don’t do this. Don’t meet with Kagan without me. You could be walking into an ambush. You need me there. You saw how good I am. You need me to watch your back.”
 

“That’s not your job,” Colt said. He threw my purse to Gunner. Tiny helped me to my feet with rough hands. Then he led me up through the bar and up the stairs. They installed me in the same bedroom as the night I’d stayed here.
 

Sly at least had the decency to follow me up here. “If everything goes all right, I’m going to let you go,” he said as Gunner came behind me and fastened my hands behind me with zip ties. He owed me, I couldn’t deny that. Still, it pulled at my heart a little to see the uncertainty in Gunner’s eyes. He was one of the good guys too.
 

“It’s not going to go all right, Sly,” I said. As soon as I said them, the truth of my words settled in my stomach like a lead weight. “Because he won’t stop. I’ve seen it in his eyes. He wants to bring your club down.”
 

He didn’t answer. “This doesn’t involve you anymore. This is club business.”
 

His tone was stone cold as Gunner moved to my feet and tied those too. I tested the bindings. They were tight but didn’t pinch. I stifled a smile. Gunner might have a future in this. He gave me a pat on the shoulder then left Sly and me alone.
 

“I won’t beg you,” I said. “But you have to know that the things I said . . . the things I shared with you were real. I just . . . I want you to know that, just in case.”
 

“We know how to take care of our own, Scarlett. We’ve been doing it a hell of a lot longer than you have.”
 

My heart tore in half as Sly gave me one last look. There was heartbreak in his eyes that I knew I put there. But there was something else too. There was the cold determination of a man resigned to his fate . . . whatever that may be.
 

I had a golf-ball-sized lump in my throat as Sly turned and closed the door, locking it from the outside.
 

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sly
 

At sunset we rode up to the cliffs. Kagan traveled light. So did we. Sawyer drove the Hummer, Colt and I stayed hidden in the back seat. The rest of the members stayed at the bottom of the hill out of sight, but ready to ride in if they heard a signal from me. I could only assume Kagan had eyes everywhere too. He leaned against his Harley, looking out at the river below with only Jinx standing beside him.
 

I tried to drive away the vision of Scarlett looking at me with broken, pleading eyes when I left her back at the Den. Whatever happened, she had no place here. Maybe she had no place anywhere. It was over. I couldn’t reconcile the lies she told with what I had to do now.
 

Kagan never turned around when Sawyer cut the engine. He just kept looking down at the river below, hands in the pockets of his jeans. Jinx straightened as Sawyer opened the door. I had a fleeting thought that maybe Scarlett was right. Kagan was expecting her or Lewis to come out of the car. The split second or two it would take for either Jinx or Kagan to figure out the problem could have been helpful.
 

But fuck it.
 

I gave Colt a hand signal. We drew our weapons and stepped out of the car.
 

“Boss,” Jinx said; his hands fingered his side arm.
 

It was all I could do not to put a bullet in that fat fuck’s lopsided face. Kagan finally turned, but kept his posture casual. Only a slight uptick in his white eyebrows betrayed his surprise in seeing both Colt and me alive, breathing, and standing right in front of him. The fucker had balls of steel, I had to give him that.
 

“Awe, now you’re going to hurt my feelings,” I said. “You don’t look happy to see me.”
 

Kagan smiled. He put up his hands.
 

“This ends now,” I said. “I see you or anyone wearing a Hawk cut anywhere around Green Bluff again, you’ll end up at the bottom of that river down there.” Even as I said it, I knew it wasn’t how this was going to go. Kagan and the Hawks dwelled in the darkness. The pull of it for me was intoxicating. But I would try one last time.
 

Kagan shrugged. “I could stand here and pretend I don’t know what you’re talking about. Is that how this is supposed to go?”
 

“Lying slut,” Jinx said. “I knew she’d end up fucking us over.”
 

“Shut your mouth, Jinx,” Kagan said, plastering a smile on his face.
 

“You want me dead, or any of my crew, you’re going to have to shoot us yourself,” I said. “You have the balls to take care of that right here?”
 

Kagan took a step forward. He put a hand up to stop Jinx from advancing toward us. Kagan narrowed his eyes and got close enough to me that I could smell garlic on his breath.
 

“It’s noble, what you’re doing,” he said. “The Den, the gym, the fight sponsorship. A real respectable operation. But you didn’t really think you’d be able to hang on to all of it without protection.”
 

“I have all the protection I need right here.” I pointed my gun straight at Kagan’s chest. Jinx stiffened beside him but didn’t move. I sensed Colt and Sawyer moving into position behind me.
 

“Your Uncle Blackie never thought you were cut out for that patch you’re wearing. We had a long talk about you once. He said you think too much with your dick. Now, I thought that was a little harsh of him to say. Turns out he was right.”
 

My fingers stiffened on the trigger but my hand was steady. “You’re going to get on your bikes and you’re going to ride the hell out of my town. Or I’ll end it right here. I’m not a murderer but I’ll do what’s necessary to protect what’s mine.”
 

Kagan cocked his head. “Oh. You’re a killer, Sly. You know what’s in your heart. But your club is going to turn on you. They’ve already had a chance to see your weak spots. The girl, right? She tried to kill you and yet you’re standing here trying to protect her.”
 

I took a step forward and grabbed Kagan. My Irish temper threatened to get the best of me again. I couldn’t stand the thought of Scarlett even being in this asshole’s thoughts another second.
 

“Easy, Sly,” Colt said. “We’re going to ride them out of here.” I loosened my grip on Kagan.
 

Something happened then.  I don’t know what spooked Jinx, but he drew down on Colt. A single shot cracked the air and a cloud of red haze shattered my vision.
 

Chapter Twenty-Four