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Lifting my boot to his neck, I leaned forward, putting enough force on his throat for it to be a threat. His eyes widened. It wasn’t Eric. I swallowed back my disappointment and let the anger rise. The fucker had managed to escape us again. He was like a damn cockroach.
The man below my boot froze. His eyes hardened and I knew we weren’t going to get anything out of him. Didn’t mean I wasn’t going to enjoy trying.
The man struggled against our hold as we picked him up and carried him back into the house. I was holding his feet and I growled in fury as he tried to get his foot loose so he could kick me. Fucker didn’t know what was coming his way. Or maybe he did and that’s why he was fighting like this. He wasn’t getting out of this alive.
Once we got inside, I left Drew to deal with the guy and went into the attached garage. Picking up the roll of duct tape, I whistled as I walked back over to the kitchen. Drew held him still while I taped his arms behind him and his legs to the chair.
Tossing the tape away, I pulled out my knife. I tested the sharpness of the blade with my thumb. “Was that Eric with you?”
His eyes widened, but he didn’t speak. We’d come so close to catching the fucker. How he managed to keep slipping away was beyond me, but it explained why he’d been in charge of the Texas Syndicate.
We’d learned pretty quickly—thanks to Rat and Ari—that the gang wasn’t exclusive to Texas. They had offshoots all over the country. The California Syndicate, for example, was here in San Francisco. They were how Eric had managed to evade us in every city we’d followed him to. He was drawing on their resources to remain hidden.
Not for much longer. In my gut, I knew this was coming to an end. Eric was going to exhaust the good graces of his fellow Syndicates. They would tire of constantly hiding him.
I watched as Drew landed a couple of punches to the guy’s face and stomach. Blood dripped from his mouth. Drew liked to pound on our enemies. I enjoyed using them like a pin cushion, only my pin was quite a bit bigger.
“If you talk, we’ll make this quick and painless,” I offered as I sliced the edge of my blade lengthwise over his thigh.
His scream was high-pitched as his skin parted and the knife bit deep into his leg. I watched as blood poured, enjoying the sight. My father would be fucking horrified if he knew what his son had become. Not that I gave a shit. Nothing I could ever do would make him proud, so I’d stopped trying. I’d made myself into the man I was today and found a new family. I was happy with what I had.
No one fucked with me, or my family. Not anymore. And Eric had gotten too close to destroying us. He was going to die. But first, his friend here was going to pay a portion of his debt. If word got around that helping Eric led to pain and death, they would stop helping him that much quicker.
I fisted his hair and yanked his head back. “What’s your name?”
Nothing. Damn. Guess it was time to play. Between Drew and I we had him shaking from pain and blood loss by the time his eyes started to dim.
“Last chance,” I told him, watching his face closely. He’d given up at least fifteen minutes ago. When he shook his head, I shrugged and swiped the blade of my knife across his neck.
We watched quietly as he choked on his own blood. Waited until it was over, before we went to the kitchen sink to wash the blood off our hands. I still had some spattered on my clothes, but at least it wasn’t as obvious thanks to my black t-shirt.
“Let’s get back to the clubhouse,” Drew said, eyeing the scene to make sure we didn’t leave anything behind that we’d touched.
I grabbed the roll of duct tape as Drew took a dish towel and wiped down door handles as we left. More than likely Eric or his allies would take care of the guy’s body. They didn’t like the cops any more than we did. They’d try to find us on their own to mete out justice for their dead comrade.
I hoped they did. It would bring Eric directly to us. My eyes swept over the neighborhood as we climbed on our bikes. He was hiding somewhere nearby, I knew it. But sticking around meant we’d get ambushed by The California Syndicate. Not worth it. We’d track him down when he was least expecting it.
CHAPTER7
Marina
Ishifted and patted the bed next to me. The sheets were cool under my palm and I let my eyes open. Trip was gone. Shame came flooding in like a sneaker wave hitting the shore. It came on fast and devastated more than I thought it would. I shouldn’t care that the man I’d slept with had slipped out of bed early so as not to see me the next morning. It didn’t matter how much I tried to tell myself it didn’t matter, it did. I was hurt.
Slipping out of Trip’s bed, I gathered my clothes. I looked around as I dressed, but there wasn’t much to see. I knew from dropping him off yesterday that this room was on loan, so I didn’t expect much.
I hurried downstairs, hoping to get out of here before anyone saw me. The plan was to start walking home and call Kat to come pick me up. We’d meet somewhere along the way.
“Good morning.”
Freezing in my tracks, I cringed, then glanced over toward the owner of the soft voice. There was a woman sitting at a table, drinking a cup of hot coffee.
“Hello.” I started to edge toward the door.
“You came in with Trip last night.”
It wasn’t a question. My cheeks heated as embarrassment snaked over my soul. It was bad enough to be doing the walk of shame. It was worse now that someone was witnessing it.
“Sorry,” she said with a soft laugh. She was somewhere in her forties and had red hair and the prettiest blue eyes. There was a kind smile on her face. “I’m not judging. I just wanted to let you know he and Drew left on business this morning.”
