AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The man did as he was told, because hired thugs were never as dedicated as someone with skin in the game.
I turned to Chester. “Where’s Aprilia?”
“She’s mine,” he responded stubbornly.
Suddenly, the bathroom door flew open, and Aprilia stepped out. “Fuck you, I’m not yours and I never will be.”
She ran over to me and allowed me to carefully check her over. Her wrists were bound with tape, so I made quick work of tearing it off. “Are you okay?”
She nodded.
Chester stood and frowned. “You sent me the heart to let me know you wanted me, and I came.”
“You’re a fucking liar,” I spat out. “You were already here, trying to get your hands on Aprilia. I saw you behind our clubhouse last week, squeezing your fat ass under the fence.”
“I like to keep an eye on what’s mine. That’s all. You never should have tried to make her one of your club whores. Aprilia wasn’t made to wear cheap leather with a biker club’s name on it. She was meant to be my reward for years of service to our don.”
“He cancelled that arrangement. That means the deal is off the table.” Although it made my stomach churn, I reminded him, “Don Diavonte accepted Nicco’s claim on Aprilia. He’s not going to be happy to learn that you went rogue and tried to abduct her.”
Aprilia stepped closer to him. She was practically shaking with anger. “You tricked me into opening the back door of the restaurant and then your hired thug grabbed me. Did you actually think that was going to endear you to me?”
“How you feel about me is irrelevant,” he snarled. “You’d learn to like me in the end, I might even have considered letting you go if you gave me a daughter.”
I opened my mouth to set him straight, but Aprilia flew at him, pounding on his chest. Before the surprised man could respond, she started clawing at his face, leaving red streaks behind. “You sick bastard. I’ll claw your fucking eyes out until you understand that I belong to me and no one else.” She even tried to knee him in the groin.
Suddenly, he flipped her around until her back was pressed against his chest, I saw the glint and realized he had a small knife at her throat.
“Let her go, you fucking moron.”
“No,” he shot back with a smug look on his face. “I managed to turn the tables on you. Now, I’m calling the shots. I want you all face down on the floor with your hands behind your backs.”
I figured we were all scheming about how to get that knife out of his hand. Needless to say, we weren’t moving fast enough for him.
“I said get down.” He jerked his chin toward the middle of the floor and shouted, “Now!”
I caught Aprilia’s eye, and she gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. Fuck. Once he had us down, he truly would be calling all the shots. Aprilia was signaling that come what may, she didn’t not want this asshole walking off with her.
“You’re making a big mistake, Chester,” I warned him. “The man who has a rightful claim to her will track you down and skin you alive for threatening her life. You ain’t leaving this room alive with Aprilia. However, if you let her go right now, I give you my word that you and your men can walk out of here and our club won’t retaliate against you at all. We don’t get involved in mob business.”
His voice turned cold. “I know you won’t because you’ll be dead. The only question is if the woman you’ve sworn to protect will die as well.”
“You won’t kill her. We both know she can’t have your children if she’s dead.”
The knife he was holding pressed more firmly against Aprilia’s pale skin. I almost lost my mind when a drop of bright red blood beaded up against the edge of the knife and ran down her neck. “If I can’t have her, nobody can. If you think I’m fucking bluffing, just try me.”
Something about the look in his eyes made me think he was as serious as a heart attack. I quickly held up both hands in a gesture of submission. “Stop. I’ll do whatever you say. Just ease up on that knife.”
“I knew you’d eventually see reason,” Chester sneered.
“We’re wasting a lot of time talking here. Could you two sort your shit out already? It’s been a while since I carved a man up and I was kinda lookin’ forward to it,” Blade said, his voice eerily quiet.
Chester snapped his head around to glare at Blade. “Do you have any idea who you’re talking to? When Don Diavonte finds out that you attacked me, you’ll be dead before sunrise.”
I surged forward while Chester’s attention was on Blade and grabbed the hand holding the knife. I yanked his hand away and kept hold of it as I punched him square in the face with my other hand.
Aprilia took advantage of his distraction and ducked away and ran behind me, I took a deep cleansing breath and seriously considered killing him where he stood. I turned my head and looked at the knife that was still in his hand stained with Aprilia’s blood. It would be all too easy to wrench his hand up and plunge the knife into his throat. But killing the man in cold blood would achieve nothing, so I resisted the impulse, but just barely.
Instead, I wrenched the knife out of his hand and punched him in the face a few more times. When he was limp and bloody, I tossed him to the ground and kicked him in the ribs for good measure. Staring down at him, I grumbled, “Glad we got that out of the way.”
