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He got off a shot, then fell face first and skidded across the kitchen floor.
The bullet he’d fired slammed into Gia’s thigh. The blow nearly knocked her to the floor, but she didn’t feel pain. She staggered, fought for her feet and brought her gun up again, still holding it in the two-handed, thumbs-forward grip she’d been taught.
Keeping the Beretta ready, Gia went over—her leg had become a solid piece of lumber, but it still didn’t hurt—to kick his gun away and check his pulse. She hadn’t seen the entry point, but he’d fallen forward, not backward; that suggested a hit too low to be quickly fatal.
As she touched him, he tried clumsily to grab her ankle. She jumped back and shot him twice in the head.
Less than five minutes ago, she’d never shot anything but a target. Now she’d killed two men. At least one of them was a cop.
Huh.
A flint of pain began to spark in her thigh. Before it ignited a bonfire, she limped away from the second body and began a careful tour of the house to make sure no other dangers lurked.
Chapter Nineteen
Zaxx sat behind the wheel of his truck, his leg going so fast the whole thing shook. Tommy sat in the passenger seat, dozing lightly, his body rocking with the rhythm.
Asshole. Sleeping at a time like this.
He supposed he couldn’t really blame him. Fucking hours they’d been sitting here, down the street from Danvers’ house, waiting for him to come home. Day had broken, and Danvers had never shown.
He wasn’t at the station, either. Or at Red’s, the local cop bar. The Horde had teams at those places as well.
Badger, Tommy, Double A, Dom, Cox, Darwin, Saxon, Showdown, and Len had all ridden with him. Vengeance for Zelda had become a club mission, and Zaxx was surprised, touched, and also pissed off about it. The support was unexpected and welcome; he’d had no idea his sister was so valued by the club—hell, he’d had no idea he was so valued by the club, despite the Flaming Mane on his back. The support was also necessary, for himself and for the Horde; he understood that. They were hunting down cops; if Zaxx had tried to do it on his own, he would very likely have failed and probably pulled all kinds of woe down on himself, his sister, and the Horde. He was glad he wasn’t alone.
But holy fuck, doing this by committee was going to send him on an express train to Crazytown. Everything was a conversation, when all Zaxx wanted was to act, to find that fucker and hurt him. Hurt him for hours, for days. And then kill him.
First, though, he’d smash the fucker’s dick the way he’d smashed his hand. And use that goddamn nightstick on him, too.
Where the fuck was he?
His phone buzzed. It was probably nothing more than a status check, and he was sick of that stupid round-robin thing Badger insisted on, every team checking in every twenty minutes. He was tempted to ignore it, but that would send up a flare.
Besides, maybe it wasn’t a status check. Dom had used the endless night for intel, and he’d texted once to let everyone know he was almost certain he’d ID’d the other guy—Bennett Donahue, Danvers’ former partner, who’d been booted from the force three years ago. He’d been accused of raping four women in custody, all arrested on traffic stops. And he had bright red hair.
Zaxx remembered that story; it had dominated local news for months and made national news a few times. The case had gone to trial but ended in a hung jury, and the DA had elected not to retry him. So the guy was free and working private security now.
Saxon and Cox were watching Donahue’s house.
Or maybe this new text was about Zelda. Gia had texted twice, a few hours ago to let him know that Zelda was awake and doing okay, considering, and then about an hour or so ago to tell him she was taking Zelda to his place and would wait for him there.
There was something truly surreal about Zelda being back at his trailer, probably lying on the sofa, right where he’d found her last night. As if life could simply bounce back to its former shape after all this.
He picked up his phone and checked the screen. It was from Badger. Zaxx’s frustrated sigh cut off as he read: Isaac just called. Gia’s at Z’s house and has trouble. Everybody get back to the meetup point. We’re headed home. NOW.
Gia had Zelda with her. Gia had taken Zelda to his place. There was trouble at his place.
And Danvers knew who he was, who Zelda was to him.
Fuck. Fuck! What a fucking idiot he was! He’d been thinking all night that Danvers had gone for Zelda like this because of what he had done to the shithead’s hand. How had it not occurred to him, not once, that Danvers would go for him as well?
“FUCK!” he yelled as he started his truck. “MOTHERFUCK!”
Tommy burst from his doze, grabbing the door handle, ready to go. When Zaxx pulled onto the street, he asked, “What’s up?”
“He came for me. Danvers came for me.”
“What?”
