“I don’t want you to leave the house without him with
you.”
“Nothing is going to happen. He’ll take care of me.
All you need to be concerned about is getting the job done.”
Tiny had told her what Butch found out from Gonzalez.
She knew something was going to happen while the boys were away, she just
didn’t know what.
“I wish I was home with you,” he said.
“I wish you were here as well. It won’t be long, and
we’ll both be safe and so will the club. Come back to me in one piece.”
“I will. Love you, baby.”
“I love you, too.”
When she got off the phone with him, she walked into
the kitchen to make dinner. The time passed easily with all of them enjoying
their time.
By nightfall, Baker helped to bathe the kids. She left
Angel to finish talking with Lash on her cell phone.
“Today has been the best day of my life,” Baker said.
“Your kids are perfect.”
“Thank you.”
“Lash!”
Angel’s scream filled the air.
Eva didn’t give Baker chance to rush after Angel. Gut
instinct had her running downstairs, and she followed the noise of Angel
screaming.
Rounding the corner and entering the kitchen, she saw
a large man holding Angel against his body while she fought to get free. She
stamped on his foot multiple times. Eva watched, amazed, as Angel flung her
head back hitting him in the nose.
The man was dazed for several seconds. Angel made to
get away. The guy grabbed her and slammed her against the counter hard. Angel
disappeared from view as she collapsed in a heap on the floor.
When she saw the man go to kick Angel, Eva was pulled
out of her trance. Charging at the man, Eva threw her weight at him.
He shoved her off him, slamming his fist into her
face. Reeling back from the attack, Eva crashed against the cooker, knocking
the pan onto the floor. He charged at her, but Baker knocked him back.
Getting to her feet, Eva watched as Baker unleashed
his fists, slamming them into the guy’s face. Seeing her cell phone on the
floor, Eva crawled over to it and picked it up.
“Hello,” Eva said, wincing at the pain.
She put her back against the cupboard and watched as
Baker hit the man with one of her saucepans. Their attacker went down in a heap
on the floor.
“Eva? What’s going on? Where’s Angel?” Lash asked,
panicked.
Angel smiled at her, getting to her feet.
“We’re okay. Baker just saved us.” Baker stood at her
feet and signaled for the phone. She handed it to him without a fight.
“Someone just came in through the back and attacked
Angel. Before I got a chance he hurt Eva. Both women look okay, and I’ll keep
an eye on him.” Baker was silent for several moments. “He’s alive but
unconscious.” He nodded. “Okay, I’ll do that.”
He closed the phone and handed it to her. “Do you have
anything for me to tie him up? Lash and Tiny want him alive to question.”
“I’ll get the rope Tiny keeps on hand just in case
this happens.” Eva got to her feet, wincing. She was going to be bruised from
where he threw her against the cooker. Walking out of the kitchen, she went
into
Tiny’s
office. She typed the key into the safe
and pulled out the rope.
Walking back into the kitchen she saw Baker lifting
the man up and placing him on one of her sturdy wooden chairs.
Handing him the rope, she saw Angel was sitting at the
counter, holding her stomach.
“Are you okay?” Eva asked.
“I put the safety gate in place for the kids. They’re
watching a movie, but if you want to check on them you can.”
Eva nodded. She was going to make sure they were both
okay before she went to the kids. Worrying the young ones was not a good idea
for her.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Angel said.
Not believing her, she walked toward Angel and lifted
her shirt up to see the bruises forming over her stomach.
“Really, Eva, I’m fine. It just hurts that’s all. He
wasn’t the nicest of men. Being thrown against a counter takes some time to get
accustomed to.” Angel tried to make a joke of it.
“I want you ladies out of the kitchen.”
“That bastard attacked us. Don’t you think we’ve got a
right to know why?” Angel asked.
“Whatever you’ve got to say can be discussed with
Tiny. I’m not about to have my ass handed to me within days of the job. I want
you both out of here and away from this.”
Seeing Baker wasn’t going to budge, Eva helped Angel
out of the room. Together they made their way upstairs to the bathroom.
Eva went to pop her head around the corner. “I
wouldn’t do that if I was you,” Angel said.
“Why?”
“You’ve got a bruise all over your face. It’s not
particularly pretty, and the kids are going to ask questions.”
“Okay, you talk to them, and I’ll go and get the
bathroom ready for us.”
She passed the kids without looking in. Eva listened
to Angel talking to all of them. Opening the bathroom door, Eva looked at her
reflection and winced. Her jaw was starting to come out, and her face looked
slightly swollen from the attack.
“See what I mean?” Angel asked.
“Yeah.”
Together, the two women started to go over their
bruises and make sure there was nothing wrong with either of them.
“Tiny wants Lash to take over from The Skulls in a few
years’ time,” Angel said.
“I know.”
“We’re not ready for that.”
“Then it’s a good job you’ve got a couple of years
before you need to start worrying. Tiny won’t give the club over to you until
he’s sure that you’re ready to take over.”
She lifted Angel’s shirt up and over her head. She
wore a red lacy bra. The only person who’d buy Angel something so sexy was Lash.
Eva couldn’t help but smile at the charming couple.
She saw the bruise on Angel’s arm and across her side
from the fight.
“You’re going to be okay.”
“I hope the club will be okay. I think Gonzalez has
finally started to attack.”
Eva couldn’t argue with her. She only hoped they all
survived the end of it.
****
Tiny stormed into his house with Lash and several of
his men behind him.
“Eva!” He yelled her name, needing to see that she was
okay.
Baker rounded the corner. “She’s upstairs. I’ve not
let either woman near this bastard. I got them out of the way for you.”
Going down the long corridor, he rounded the corner to
see the man tied to one of Eva’s fancy chairs. The man was awake and showing no
signs of remorse in his eyes.
Walking toward him, Tiny straddled the chair and
raised his fist. Slamming his fist into one side of his face, he did the same
with the other.
“Who the
fuck are
you?” he
asked.
The man didn’t say anything. His gaze was distant as
Tiny lashed out again. He kept hitting out, but nothing came of it. The man
wasn’t talking to him.
“You’ve got to let him go,” Devil said, pulling him
off the bastard. “There’s no point in killing him until we know what he knows.”
Shoving Devil off him, Tiny turned and glared at him.
“This is my fucking house and my town. You don’t get a say here, so back the
fuck off.”
“Tiny?” Lash asked.
He turned to look at the other man. Lash looked like
he was struggling to keep himself contained.
“What?”
“He’s the one who was here to help us. Don’t turn this
around on Devil.”
“We’ve got to do this right, as otherwise we’re never
going to know the truth. I want to fuck over Gonzalez as much as the next
person. There’s ways of making a man talk. You’re going to kill him before he
can say anything,” Devil said.
Tiny was past trying to find the truth. Gonzalez had
sent this bastard to kill his woman. All he wanted was blood.
“I can get it out of him,” Whizz said, drawing their
attention to him.
“What?” Tiny asked. He was so fucking angry.
“I can get what we need out of him.”
Whizz entered the kitchen and moved toward the man’s
side. Tiny watched as Whizz searched the man’s pockets pulling out a kit.
“Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t think to check him,” Baker
said.
“Don’t worry about it. Go to our women and get the
kids. I don’t want them to be here for this,” Tiny said.
Following Baker out of the kitchen, Tiny waited at the
bottom of the stairs. Baker was carrying Tabitha while Eva carried Miles. One
side of her face was bruised to fuck, and Angel looked worse for wear. Fuck, he
shouldn’t have left them. He knew it was a bad idea, but he hadn’t listened.
“Baby,” Lash said.
Angel went into his arms. “I’m sorry for worrying
you,” she said.
“You don’t have to be worried about anything.”
Pulling Eva away from the other two, Tiny reached out
to touch her cheek.
“What happened?”
“I was with Baker getting the kids ready for bed when
I heard Angel shout. I didn’t think, and I ran downstairs to help her. I’m
sorry.”
He pressed a kiss to her good cheek. “You don’t need
to be sorry. I’m going to find out who he’s working for and then I’m going to
get rid of him.”
“Be careful,” she said.
“I’m always careful.”
Tiny walked her out toward the car. Giving Baker a
nod, he watched them leave. Going back inside the house with Lash, he closed
and locked the door. Nash and Zero went and checked to make sure all the
windows were locked.
Entering the kitchen, he found Whizz had set up the
counter with the guy’s instruments. This was not a side of Whizz he’d ever seen
before. This was all new to him as well.
“Can I start?” Whizz asked.
“Yes.”
While he’d been talking with Eva, someone had arranged
a plastic sheet underneath the man.
“Who do you work for?” Whizz asked, tearing off the
tape covering the man’s mouth.
“Fuck you.”
Whizz used his fist, slamming his knuckles into the
man’s face.
“Who do you work for?”
The same response came. Whizz used his fists over the
guy’s body. When that didn’t work, Tiny watched as Whizz picked up the scalpel.
The first slash went across the man’s face. Over and over, Whizz worked the
man, piercing his body a bit at a time working him as a butcher worked a piece
of dead meat. The only difference between the piece of meat and this man was
the man was still alive.
The man screamed, and when Whizz started to pull
fingernails, the man cracked. His name was Everett, and he’d been sent to Fort
Wills by Gonzalez. He was ordered to attack Eva, kidnap her, and take her to a
secure location.
The more Tiny heard, the angrier he became. Everett
was supposed to take her, torture her, rape her, kill her,
then
deliver her back to Tiny at the clubhouse bit by bit.
When he could stand no more, Tiny went to kill the
man. Lash got there first. With a twist of his hands, Everett’s neck was
snapped.
The sound echoed through the room.
“Gonzalez has turned the tables on us,” Devil said.
“Yeah, he’s going for our women now.” Tiny stared at
the man. The last time he killed one of Gonzalez’s men, Tate had ended up in
the hospital. He hoped more than anything that it didn’t happen this time.
“What are we going to do?” Butch asked. “He’s going to
be expecting Everett to call. What do we do when he doesn’t answer?”
Devil’s cell phone rang, interrupting the moment.
“Shit, I’ve got to take this.”
Tiny stared at the body. He didn’t want to put the
club women or his own woman at risk. This was going to get worse if Everett
didn’t call back.
“I need to think,” Tiny said.
All he could see was Eva, raped,
beaten,
and being delivered to him bit by bit. He couldn’t let that happen. She was the
love of his life, and it would drive him insane.
“I’ve got to go back to Piston County,” Devil said,
appearing back in the kitchen.
“What?” Tiny asked, turning to glare at his friend. He
wasn’t in the mood to be playing around. This shit had been bought to Fort
Wills because of Devil. His wife had been in danger because of Devil and his
crew.
“They’ve found Kayla. She’s been pinned to the gate of
the clubhouse. I’ve got to go back and identify her body.”
Kayla Howard was Lexie’s sister and the real mother to
Simon, Devil’s son.
“You can’t go back now. You’ve got to stay here so
that we can deal with what’s just happened.” He pointed at a dead Everett.
“I know, and I’ve got shit to take care of.”