Page 95 of Guarding Glenda

Looking down, I shrugged. “I think it just grazed me. I wouldn’t be able to walk if it was stuck in there. We gotta keep moving.” I could’ve been wrong and adrenaline could’ve made me feel invincible, but I wasn’t stopping to find out. We were trapped in a hall. If someone came down, it was them or us, and Leigh was on the other side of the door.

“What’s the plan?” Allie asked.

“Whoever’s in there with him knows something happened out here. They’re probably waiting for us.”

“I’ll go first then,” Allie said, turning toward the door.

I grabbed her and said, “What the fuck? I can’t let you get killed for me.”

“I’m not getting killed. Not today, anyway,” she said with a grin. “But you’re a better shot than me, and you have a man. I don’t.”

A man’s voice echoed down the hall. “And whose fuckin’ fault is that? What the fuck are you two doing down here?” Hammer said as he turned the corner.

Allie’s shoulders slouched. “So much for being stealthy.”

Hammer grabbed her arm and got in her face. “Seriously, what the fuck, Allie? You trying to die?”

Her jaw set as she stared up at him. I was about to tell them to break it up when shots rang in the room, pinging the metal door that stood between us and them.

Hammer grabbed us both and pushed us behind him, then flung the door open and ran in. He took a few shots as he did, so I followed–and my breath hitched.

A woman stood behind Leigh with a gun to his temple as he sat cuffed to a shitty metal chair. But that was only part of my shock.

“Lydia?” I asked.

Hammer stood, his gun aimed at her. She winced and I didn’t see any blood, but there was a hole in the shoulder of her jacket.

Leigh’s eyes went wide, but his mouth was a thin line. “Glenda, what are you doing?”

Before I could answer, Lydia said, “Wow. I didn’t expect you to make this so easy.” Her grin was sinister. “Although I planned to kill you first so he could watch, my guess is, if I take any shot, one of you will try to take me out. Decisions, decisions.”

Hammer took a step closer, his gun still high. “What do you want?”

“I hoped for justice, but it’s looking like revenge now.”

My gun was trained on her, too. “Revenge for what? Did one of these guys promise to call you the next day?”

“Oh, look who’s got a smart mouth now,” Lydia said. “Feeling brave with a biker accompanying you? Because you weren’t so chatty before.”

“I don’t need them. In fact, why don’t you leave him alone and come deal with me, bitch.”

Lydia cackled but didn’t lose her focus on the two of us. “If he wasn’t standing there with a gun on me, I’d have no problem. I’m not scared of you. Reggie told me all about you. Weak little Glenda.”

The mention of Reggie made my teeth grind.

“That’s right. I know all about you. You were the one I was looking for, but when I saw him, it became a little game. I mean, look at him,” Lydia said as she dragged the barrel over his cheek. “But yeah, Reggie told me all about you. Couldn’t hold your own in the military. Couldn’t keep him satisfied, so he fucked all the bunnies he could find. He was so bored with you, he didn’t even care if you fucked anyone else.”

My chest heaved.

“Apparently that whole club is a fucking joke. So much so that he came to me. We were gonna take over together. Then this fucker killed him.”

Leigh said, “I’d do it again, you crazy bitch.”

Lydia kept her gun on him but rubbed her hand through his hair. “That’s not what you were saying a few minutes ago.”

“That’s a lie,” I said through gritted teeth. “We heard you both, you fucking cunt. Let him go.”

“Or what?”