AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What the fuck?” he grunts when I barrel into him.
He’s bigger than I am by a lot, but I caught him by surprise, knocking him off balance. I keep going, lashing out with a punch that connects to his jaw. It hurts like hell, my knuckles stinging, but I do it again, barely even registering the pain.
“Don’t youever touch—”
Someone yanks me off him, and my threat ends in a grunt as I’m suddenly hauled backward and locked in a tight embrace.
“Let me go!” I demand, struggling against the muscled arms that hold me. “Let me—”
“Stop.”
Dante’s voice is low and deadly, and it breaks through the red haze in my head. I realize in a rush that Maddoc and Logan are standing on either side of us, the three Reapers facing off with what looks like at least a dozen of the West Point gang.
Somewhere in the middle of my attack on the guy groping Chloe, the music was cut. Heavy silence fills the space, club goers all turning to look at us as the two groups square off.
“What the fuck is this shit?” Austin growls, stepping forward as he all but spits the words in Maddoc’s face. “This is what you bring to my house? This is how you disrespect us after I let you in?”
Maddoc’s jaw ticks, his entire body like a coiled wire, and I swallow hard. None of them have their guns drawn yet, but I can see several of Austin’s men reaching for concealed weapons, and I know it could all explode in an instant.
Oh fuck. What have I done?
“It was a mistake,” Maddoc says, his voice low and even as he stares Austin down. “A simple misunderstanding. It was nothing, McKenna. We’re willing to let it go.”
“Starting a fight on my turf isn’t nothing. It’s a fucking insult!”
And if his men start shooting, it will be more than that. It will be blood and chaos and terror in a packed club like this.
“Like I said,” Maddoc repeats in a calm tone undercut with steel. “We’re willing to let it go and walk away as a gesture of goodwill… this time.”
Austin scoffs. “You mean you’re begging us toletyou go. That’s not goodwill. That’s the kind of weakness that I’m going to wipe out in Halston.”
Maddoc raises an eyebrow. “Do you honestly think we’re the ones The Six will be looking at if something goes down at the clubyourun? You know they wouldn’t appreciate you drawing the attention of law enforcement.”
Austin spits on the floor. “Yeah? Well, fuck The Six.”
Maddoc smiles grimly, as if Austin has just said something epically stupid. But all he comes back with is, “We haven’t forgotten that you’re trying to fuckusover, but your call, McKenna. What’s it going to be? Am I going to take my people out of here without trouble, or…?”
For a second, I think the West Point leader might actually be bloodthirsty enough to risk his own people by escalating things just for the hell of it. There’s a manic gleam in his eye that makes him look seriously unhinged.
But then he huffs out a breath and shoves his gun back into the waistband of his pants, yanking the curvy brunette into his side and groping her as he gives Maddoc one of his shark-like smiles again. All teeth and pure threat.
“I’ll allow it,” he says with an arrogant smirk. “This time. Go.”
Maddoc doesn’t say a word. He just turns on his heel and grabs my arm, yanking me away from Dante and dragging me from the club as Logan and Dante bring up the rear.
The crowd closes behind us, the music starting up again before we’ve even made it to the door.
I look back as Maddoc pulls me along, desperate to see if Chloe is okay.
My throat closes up, tears pricking my eyes as I stumble along in Maddoc’s wake.
She’s not okay.
She’s not hurt. She’s still alone and untouched up on that fucking pedestal. But her sad, scared face as she watches me go guts me to the core.
She looks just as hopeless, just ashelpless, as I feel.
The minute we’re outside, all traces of Maddoc’s calm demeanor disappear, and he explodes in a string of curses that only cut off when he roughly shoves me into the back of the Escalade. That surprising gentleness he showed when he helped me calm down earlier is nothing but a distant memory now.
