Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
He didn’t bother standing and eyed Lindsay with curiosity that made my fists twitch.
“Guess Paul’s outta the picture, and you’ve already moved on. Good for you, sweetheart. Shame about the coma. Doesn’t seem like you were together long, so I imagine he thought he’d cash in and maybe finally get a taste.” He sneered, licking his teeth. “Course, cheating voids the winnings…but not the debt. That’s yours now. One way or another.”
His hungry eyes raked over her body, lingering on her tits and making it hard for me to keep from lunging across the desk and rip his throat out.
Lindsay blinked. “I don’t—wait. Paul?” She cringed. “No. I’ve never…he was the manager of the Juniper Grove, where I volunteer. That’s all. I barely know him.”
He snorted. “That why you were at the hospital?”
“Yes, to tell him that we found out he was stealing from the center. Not for anything else,” she said, disgust coloring her tone.
The boss looked at me then, his eyes cold. “And you? You walk in here like you own the room. As if you’ve got nothing to prove and nothing to lose. That’s not how gamblers act. That’s how sharks circle. It can only be one of two things—either you’re cheating or you’re sending a message. And I don’t like either one.”
I didn’t speak, just continued to stare him down in silence.
“So here’s how it’s gonna go,” he continued, his voice like gravel over broken glass. “You’re gonna forget about your winnings. You’re gonna disappear. But first, someone’s gonna pay me what I’m owed. Since Paul’s out cold, and this girl is on your arm now, that someone is you.”
Lindsay shuffled closer to me, and I slipped my arm around her, resting my hand on her hip and giving it a reassuring squeeze.
“Don’t give a fuck how you get it. You’re the money guy, right? Treasurer for the Iron Rogues? Steal it from your club if you have to. But you’ve got two hours to come up with it.” He jerked his chin toward Lindsay. “We’ll hang on to your girl in the meantime. Call it insurance.”
I went still, and the air in the room dropped several degrees.
“And if I don’t?” I asked, voice low and flat.
He smirked. “Then she stays. As payment.”
His eyes raked over Lindsay’s body, slow and greasy. “She looks like a fighter, but they all beg eventually.”
He leaned back and waved one of his goons forward. The guy reached for Lindsay, grabbing her arm as though he was about to yank her away.
That was when I moved.
I slammed my forearm into the bastard’s throat, sending him crashing into the bookshelf behind him. Then I pulled my Glock and pressed it to the skull of the other asshole who’d made a move toward my woman.
“You touch her again,” I growled, low and lethal, “and I will decorate this whole fucking room with your brains.”
The boss slammed his chair back against the wall as he jumped to his feet. His eyes wide and furious. “You think you can threaten me? You think one MC pussy gets to come in here and make demands?”
My smile was pure ice. “Shoulda thought twice about running games in Iron Rogues’ territory without permission. And thought even harder before you threatened my woman.”
He laughed. “So what? What are you gonna do about it, motherfucker? You’re outnumbered. Outgunned. You walked in here with no backup and think I’m supposed to be scared?”
Everything paused when shouting started outside the room.
Then there was a bang. And another before the door burst open.
Fox sauntered in first, calm as hell. Maverick and Savage flanked him, both holding suppressed weapons with casual ease.
The guy I’d flattened was back on his feet, and he rushed over, grabbing Lindsay and spinning her around before putting a gun to her head.
Fox didn’t flinch. He just raised a brow.
“Suggest you let her go,” Fox drawled. “Or they’ll be digging your teeth out of the floorboards.”
The boss snarled, shoving his desk aside and pointing a pistol at my chest. “You think I won’t do it? Get the fuck out before I put your accountant in the ground.”
Fox chuckled, slow and deadly as he walked over to stand just beside the fucker’s desk. “Really don’t get it, do you?” He looked at Lindsay, then back at the boss. “You don’t see the storm you just stepped into. Bastards who touch what’s not theirs—especially when it belongs to an Iron Rogue—have issued their own death sentence.”
Maverick smirked and added, “And you’ve seriously underestimated what Phoenix is capable of.”
My eyes locked with Lindsay’s, and when she nodded, I took that moment of distraction to move. She ducked, fast and smooth, and I shot the bastard behind her in the shoulder. He screamed and dropped the gun as he staggered backward. Then I rushed forward and cracked the guy’s skull against the wall with the butt of my weapon.