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So, taking another deep breath, I released his neck. I stepped away. I moved around his massive form and I got back into bed.
Duke stood there for a long moment, taking deep breaths, head ducked to look at the floor, trying to pull it together.
Then he turned, went to the door, and left.
And I tried really hard to not hear that door slam sound like a missed opportunity.SIXDukeI gave her what she needed.
At least, that was what I was trying to convince myself as I walked away from her. She had been through some shit and she was scared and alone and confused. Her body craved comfort and a touch of a man who didn't want to hurt her.
That was it.
The fact that since the second I had pulled her into my arms all I could think about was doing exactly what we had just done, yeah, that was in no way part of it.
I walked into the hall, still hard, still fighting the urge inside to go back in that room and continue what we started.
The last thing she needed on top of what she had already been through was regret.
"So, do you think your attraction to her is healthy?" Renny's voice met me as soon as the door closed.
My head snapped up to see him standing a few feet down from my room, leaning against the wall, his leg cocked up, his foot on the wall. "Fuck off, Renny," I said, not able to muster more than a quiet demand as I brushed past him.
But Renny, he was a a wolf following the scent of blood, of ever-weeping wounds. He saw the weakness in me and his own damage made him hunt, made him poke, made him try to bring mine to the forefront.
"Just saying," he said, following behind me as I moved into the main room where a bunch of the other guys were standing about. "Don't you think she fits a certain... type? Maybe it is your old conditioning coming back to..."
"I said fuck off!" I roared, turning and slamming my hands into his chest, making his much more slight frame go back several feet.
His chin tipped up and I knew shit was about to go down yet again.
But right that second, two things happened.
Somewhere outside, someone yelled, "Get down!"
And then there was the unmistakable rapid-fire sound of machine gun fire.
The entire room ducked at the first sound.
My eyes went to Renny who was already reaching behind his back, pulling out two guns, tossing one at me. I grabbed it on the fly, checking the clip as we both moved toward the back door.
You could tell immediately by looking around the men who had grown up around violence from the one who found themselves simply drawn to it as adults. The hardened ones, the guys like me and Repo, Reign, Cash, and Wolf all moved to the exits, bodies tense, every instinct to face it. The other guys, the newer ones, the ones who were softer, they stood around looking at each other, waiting for instructions.
I was actually impressed by the fact that Renny reacted as he did.
His childhood, while violent in some ways, was not street violent.
But something about the way he could close himself down made him calm and calculated as he took my six as we went outside to the unrelenting sounds of bullets slamming into the trees, the side of the compound, Repo's classic cars in the back field.
"Side yard!" Shredder yelled as he saw us start to fan out, crouched down beside Vin's body who had red blooming from his chest like a corsage.
"Shit," I hissed, raising my gun in the direction Shredder instructed and, the darkness complete, squeezing off a round without seeing any kind of target.
Reign, Cash, Wolf, and Repo moved out from the front yard, doing the same as me as I started moving outward, Renny behind me.
"Duke watch..." Shredder stood, raising a gun in our direction. But the rest of his sentence was cut off as three bullets slammed into his chest and stomach, making his body jerk backward with each impact, red spurting out of him.
My guts twisted as I tried to turn.
But I was a second too late.
And it made me think a thought that I thought I would never think.
Thank fuck for Renny.
By the time I turned, Renny had already put a plug between the fucker's eyes, his body flying backward toward the ground, dead before he even hit.
Then, silence fell.
The machine gun fire was gone.
Our own firing followed.
Everyone paused, looking around, trying to tell if the threat was gone or waiting for us to step into the open.
"Shred," I said under my breath and Renny nodded as I ran across the field toward our fallen men.
Vin was gone.
His wide, familiar chest was completely still. His eyes were open and I reached with one hand to close them as my focus went to Shred.
