Page 38 of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

“We’re not negotiating for the girl,” Iceman explained coolly.

“I’m here for the girl. That was the whole point of this little powwow. This fuckwit isn’t doing anything for me. The girl is mine by rights.”

“The girl is mine,” I stated flatly, speaking up for the first time.

Random sneered at me. “You can’t claim what’s mine, and I already put my mark on her. How do you like seeing my marks every time she’s naked? You like knowing I did that? I branded her. She’s mine.”

“Seems you marked someone else too who got claimed by another,” I antagonized him just as he thought he was doing to me. “You not being able to keep a woman at your side isn’t really our problem. What is our problem is when you try to take a woman against her will, especially when she belongs to me.” My glare moved from Random to Vanquish and back again.

“Ah, so little miss Liza’s been telling stories then?”

I could see through the beating he took and the swollen features that the man at Random’s feet was Frank. He didn’t look that great, but I had no doubt he’d survive if all went well. He nodded to me, and then closed his eyes, waiting. He clearly knew something we didn’t.

“As I already said, we’re not here to negotiate with you about the girl. She’s off limits to you.” Iceman’s voice was cold and hard as he spoke. Random laughed, but I could have sworn I saw Frank’s lips quirk up in a tiny ghost of a smile. It was a peaceful look until it wasn’t. In the next second another man, younger than Random and Vanquish by at least ten years, moved forward and pulled a gun on Frank. With no hesitation he pulled the trigger and plastered Frank’s brains all over the parking lot in front of him. His body slumped forward with the impact and one lifeless eye stared up at me. Sickness swirled in my gut. It wasn’t the dead body that did it. It wasn’t that I had known Frank in some way for years. It was that I was going to have to go home to deliver this news to Liza.

“What the fuck?” More than a few voices shouted that. Vanquish took the kid down to the ground and made him face the corpse he’d just made while a heavy booted foot held his face in place, one cheek to the asphalt.

“Who the fuck ordered that?” Guy shouted, and then turned to Random. “You can’t even keep your own men in check?”

“Fuck,” Random spit out. “Little shit’s my brother by blood.”

“Little shit just cost you,” Guy stated and then he too pulled his gun and the trigger with not a single moment of thought. Random dropped right in front of us, and rage soared through me. Before I could blink, Guy had downed Vanquish too. Both men were taken out right before my eyes, but not by my own hands. We stood and watched as Guy’s men took out the rest of Random’s crew before he turned to us. “I know you wanted your vengeance. You got it by baring witness. Our business with you is done here. The women are no concern of ours. We’ll clean up our own mess, including the one we made in Reno today.”

We had just been dismissed and I honestly didn’t know what the hell to do with my anger. I wanted to put my fist straight through Guy’s face, and it must have shown because he simply stood there, as if waiting for it, before Shameless took hold of my arm and pulled me away from the man. “Let it go,” he rumbled gruffly close to my ear. “We need to get Liza’s brother back to her right now.”

We ended up having to rent a small U-Haul truck to get my bike and Frankie’s body to the clubhouse. Once everything was secured I followed the guys back to Spearfish, the whole way wondering how the hell I was supposed to break the news to Liza. Sure, she was angry with her brother about the position he’d put her in twice over now, but he was still her brother. I could see it in the way she spoke about him. She loved him even though he was a fuck up. Hell, maybe that’s what I would tell her. He hadn’t fucked up in the end. He wanted to trade his life for hers even though that would mean he never got to see his kid be born. He died for his sister, and he did it gladly. Maybe that wouldn’t be a comfort for her just yet, but later when the pain of his loss was less, it would mean something.

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