AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She slaps and pounds on my back all the way to the car. The others are going to meet us at The Haul, so we can figure out a plan of action for the retaliation we know is coming. I doubt the Russians are smart enough to back down, even when they have no chance of succeeding.
“Garrix!” she yells.
“Little killer, did you really think I’d risk your life like that?” I tease her. I sit her in the back seat of our SUV and fasten her seatbelt. Her eyes go wide at the countdown ticking away on my chest. They’re beautiful when she’s scared.
French climbs into the front passenger seat. We shout out the final numbers of the neon red countdown on my chest as we pull out of the backlot of the church and peel onto the one-way street. “TEN, NINE, EIGHT?—”
“GARRIX!” she yells.
“SIX, FIVE, FOUR,” we continue shouting.
“What the fuck is going on?” she snaps.
“TWO, ONE—BOOM!” we finish, laughing our asses off. She sits in the backseat, stewing in her anger.
“Ma Cherie, the bomb was fake,” French snickers. “It was the only way we could think of on short notice to get the Russians to comply. Garrix would never put your life at risk. He’d sooner cut off his own hand than strap a live bomb to himself a third time.”
“A third time…do I even want to know?” she asks, rolling her eyes.
“Another time, when we don’t have company,” I promise her. “Look behind us.”
Multiple cars race up the street, gaining on us. They’re not from Nuova Notte or The Brigade. I instructed everyone to take different ways home in case something like this happened.
“Those are probably the guards and brothers that ran away before things got interesting,” French drawls. “Cowards.”
“Yeah and now they’re going to try to pick us off… and I’m still handcuffed,” Maddalena grouses.
“Like some metal could stop you?” French pulls a beretta and a hunting knife out of the glove box and hands them to her. “You’ll make it work if it comes down to it.”
“I got you, wife. No one’s killing us before we go on a honeymoon,” I promise her and myself. And this time I’m not breaking it.
A van gains on us, squeezing out around the left side of our SUV. French reads my mind and holds the wheel, allowing me to lean out of the window and shoot their front tires out. They skid and the car crashes into a parked mail truck.
“Ten points,” French offers, unimpressed.
“Seriously, just ten?” I ask him. “That’s federal property. I should get at least fifteen.”
“You just caused property damage and maybe some broken bones. Amateur hour,” he retorts in a bored tone.
“On the right!” Maddie shouts, ducking down before a spray of bullets hits the car.
I accelerate, then cut it off as I turn down another street and lose our tail. We need to get out of the city, somewhere safe, where we can regroup.
“Maddalena, isn’t your grandfather the Prez of the Rogue Stallions MC?”
“How do you know that?” she asks before she and French answer the question in unison, “I know everything about you.”
“Stalking is my boy’s love language,” French announces proudly. “Did you know he asked me about you the day he officially met you, Maddalena? He told me I wasn’t allowed to accept any more gifts from you?—”
I smack his shoulder and give him a stern glare. “Shut the fuck up and navigate.”
“Well, we know I’m not really your type, French.” Maddie laughs.
“No, you’re not. I prefer my partners not to put a knife to my neck.” He cackles like a lunatic.
She raises a brow at me. “What? It was so hot, I had to tell my best friend about it.”
The next hour and a half of the ride upstate is more subdued. Maddalena tries to get out of her handcuffs with a knife tip, a hairpin, and sheer will, but nothing works. French updates the Vettores and The Brigade about our change in plans. We need to get together to plan how to take the Yedinstvo out, permanently. I refuse to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life or to have Maddalena in danger. No one hurts my woman and gets away with it. I don’t care if I have to take them out one by one myself.
