Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Fuck me, and Maxine was right. He does have rich people hair.
“Let’s go, asshole,” I tell him, then realize his ears are probably still ringing and he’s probably half deaf. Shit. I grab his collar, haul him out. And maybe because he’s not dead yet, the cowering stops. Now will come the negotiation when he’ll offer us money, maybe threaten us.
Before he can start playing the rich asshole, I give his cheek a friendly little pat. “I ain’t gonna kill you!” I yell at him.
Relief fills his expression. Then his eyes narrow on my face, and I’m guessing he recognizes the scars from that demonstration Crash and I gave.
More important that he recognizes me from somewhere else. Grinning, I shout, “All them money troubles you’ve been having?” I point my thumbs at my chest. “You can thank me! I took down all your fucking buddies and dismantled your Cage!”
His expression hardens and he begins shaking his head. I catch his face again, make sure he registers every word that comes next.
“And it was Cherry who figured out how to find you! You remember her? Tased your prize bull’s balls?”
I can see he remembers her—and is real fucking irritated knowing that a little redheaded virgin took him down.
Though I’d love to smash his goddamn teeth in, I give his cheek another friendly pat. “But like I said, I ain’t going to kill you! Nah. I’m going to walk up those stairs, and lock that door for…oh, maybe fifteen minutes. Because this basement seems a hell of a lot like the Cage. And if you refuse to fight—well, shit. Your choice is to fight or else get a bullet in the head. So which will it be?”
Jaw clenched, rage reddening his face, he tells me, “I will not fight. And you will pay for this.”
I laugh. That’s the best he’s got? “All right, man.”
Turning, I head for the stairs.
“Wha— Where are you going?”
“I told you that I’m not killing you!” I call back, then bump Handlebar’s fist as he comes down. “But I am starting that clock. And you know the rules, Mr. Pearce—two men enter, one man leaves.”
And Crash gave me a future. Now I can give Handlebar this.
I head up to the kitchen and don’t bother to lock the door. Blowback and Gunner are waiting there.
“All done?”
“Except for the cleanup,” Gunner says, then eyes the basement door. “What about Papa?”
“There won’t be much left to clean up.” I pull out my phone, tag Bull and tell him to bring Maxine in. I’ll need to get the body off the porch.
But I think she’ll want to see the rest of this.
46
Maxine
Bull drives me to the farmhouse, but my heart doesn’t stop pounding until Stone meets me at the truck and pulls me in so tight against him.
“You aren’t going anywhere near that house,” he tells me. “But I want you to see that it’s done. We’re just waiting for Handlebar to finish up.”
I nod against his chest, then he turns me around to hold me against him, both of us facing the farmhouse. Every breath I take smells faintly of fuel.
Carrying a gas can, Hashtag comes out of the barn. “That van in there must have a million dollars worth of equipment in it,” he says, sounding awed. “Are we burning that, too, or should we break it down and sell it off?”
“Burn it,” Saxon orders. “If we start selling equipment that might be traced back to us, that million dollars won’t be worth shit.”
“It’s been a lot longer than fifteen minutes,” Zoomie says, frowning toward the house. “Do we need to go in and pull him out?”
Behind me, Stone shakes his head. “Give him another minute.”
My heart jumps into my throat when Handlebar emerges from the house, fists covered in blood. I make a sound and take a step forward, but Stone pulls me back.
“That’s not his blood, angel. And he’s all right.”
That seems true. Though the big man isn’t exactly smiling, somehow he looks a hell of a lot happier than he did only an hour ago.
Duke and Gunner head into the house carrying more fuel. Handlebar comes closer, wiping down his hands with a cloth that Hashtag douses with more gas as soon as he’s done with it.
Handlebar pauses in front of us, his gaze locked on Stone. “I appreciate that, brother.”
“I figured you would,” Stone says gruffly, then takes my hand. “So let’s finish this.”
Handlebar walks with us toward the farmhouse. We stop at the end of a trail of fuel that Blowback pours for us...a trail that leads back to the house. Stone pulls out a lighter from his pocket.
“Ready to watch it burn?” he asks me.
I’ve been ready for so long. It seems like forever since the moment I stood inside a tavern, preparing myself to meet a fighter who I didn’t know but was determined to save, and realizing that the next step I took would be the one that lit the match to burn down the nightmare I’d found myself in.