Page 75 of Grave Games

Looked like Father Time was catching up to the once-invincible Hades Colgrave. Too bad he wasn’t moving fast enough.

I watched as Hades rolled to a stop at the curb, no more than fifteen feet from where we’d taken cover. Out of the corner of my eye I watched Zee push his woman behind a tree and covered her with his body, while Hades heeled his hog’s kickstand in place and took off his helmet.

Nice. Perfect target for the two snipers put in place just for the occasion. Thanks, asshole.

“We don’t exist in a vacuum, Uncle H.” Tyr rose from his graveside seat. Arthur’s father also started to rise, red-faced and wild-eyed. But his wife and remaining sons all but tackled him back down, the wife making a high, wailing noise that told everyone who heard it that she couldn’t handle another loss in her family. “We’ve got LEO climbing all over us right now. Or maybe your sight’s not so good anymore and you didn’t notice the gauntlet all of us had to run just to get here?”

I almost smiled. Running the proverbial gauntlet was exactly what the police had set up for us. They hadn’t even tried to be subtle about it—a fleet of cruisers parked along the road, with what seemed like half of Chicago’s uniforms standing out on the street to watch us parade by. K-9 units were there as well, standing at the ready with their hungry-looking dogs on tight leashes while a helicopter circled overhead. There was even a SWAT team of tactically geared-up bravos swaggering around looking like they’d like nothing better than to shoot everyone on sight just for breathing.

No Gravedigger enjoyed society’s so-called rules on principle, and we liked the enforcers of those rules even less. But for the moment they could be used to keep the peace while we had our noncombatants—women and children—here in the open.

“LEO? Jesus fucking Christ, you little piece of shit.” Hades’s voice sounded remarkably like the chopper he straddled—deep, gravel-rough, and able to resonate for what seemed like miles. It was one of the things that had always helped him command attention; he sounded in charge, so it was easy to assume thatin chargewas what he was born to be. “Your old man must be spinning in his grave, listening to his oldest son cower behind fucking LEO.”

Tyr’s expression remained impassive, almost bored. No way was he stupid enough to rise to that bait. “The only spinning he might be doing is over how his mouth-breather of a brother ran his once-great motorcycle club into the ground. How does it feel, H, knowing my dad will always be the better leader, and you’ll always be the feeble, scheming pretender sitting on his throne?”

Rage rippled over Hades’s bulldog face, and I could see his jowls quiver from where I stood. “I’m sure it’s going to feel fucking blissful once I put you in the grave with him. I put him there myself, boy, so since you got my kid, I suppose we’re even.”

“Fuck,” I muttered, my gaze bouncing to Tyr, who’d gone statue-still.

“My old man bought it behind bars, H.” Tyr’s voice was neutral, perfectly calm. Anyone who knew him understood that was the only warning Tyr gave before becoming a self-sustaining mass-casualty event. “You trying to make yourself look all big and powerful when we both know you don’t have the juice to pull off an execution like that?”

“Oh, I pulled it off, sonny, because I own one of the guards on his block, thanks to his little girl’s amateur-hour sex tapes.Little Gigi would be kicked out of her Ivy League school faster than you can say three-wayif her proclivities came to light, so her daddy made it so that your old man got wolf-packed in the laundry. I’ve wanted to tell you about it for so damn long, because it really was one of my finer moments. How does it feel, knowing he died by my hand?”

“Probably the same way you felt when you heard your son, your legacy, died by me and mine. Doesn’t make us even, though,” he added even as Hades’s blocky bulldog face twisted with hate. “Colgraves don’t believe in ‘even.’”

“No, we don’t,” Hades agreed, nodding. “The only thing we believe in is total annihilation.”

“You’d best get ready for that eventuality, then,” Tyr advised him, and smiled a smile that would have made the Devil himself back away. “See you down the road, Uncle.”

“No, you won’t,” came the grim reply. “You won’t even see me coming.” Then he seemed to do a little double-take before an evil smile curled his mouth. “Looking good, Ginny girl, just like your mama before she got all used up and dried out.”

Ginger’s sneer of disgust was a sight to behold. “Her looks and health got used up by you, you bastard, with all that shit you shot her up with. Is that what you have to do to keep a woman, H? Drug them up on heroin so much they’ll accept even you into their bed?”

Hades’s expression twisted viciously. “You’re a whore just like your mama.”

“Don’t talk to her. Don’t even look at her or say her name,” Tyr cut in, his expression turning almost demonic. “And take my advice—enjoy today, Uncle H. It’s the last peaceful day you’re going to have on this earth.”

“Right back atcha, sonny.” With a fierce rev, Hades unexpectedly shot forward, popped the curb and executed a half-donut in the sod to rooster-tail dirt and grass toward Tyr and Ajax, who stood a few feet away. Tyr didn’t flinch, while everyone else cried out and scrambled for cover. All he did was stand there, watching his uncle and his crew retreat.

I pulled Shiloh up from her crouched position, then looked to Tyr. “Baby—”

“Go. I know you need to get to work. I’m just going to go over to speak with Arthur’s parents, then I’ll stay with Mabel and the girls. I’ll be fine.”

God, I loved this woman.

“I want every run accompanied by two of your best enforcers,” Tyr announced the moment I reached him. “Also, troubleshoot every business dealing we currently have to see how it can possibly be attacked, and come up with ways we can shore up our defenses. Lastly, no one moves on their own, even during downtime. My uncle is a coward at heart. That means he’ll strike at soft targets, and when we least expect it.”

“There goes my overnight trip to Vegas,” I muttered, glaring after Hades. “Fucker’s stopping me from getting hitched to Shiloh, and that’s something I won’t forgive.”

“A wedding and a funeral all in one day?” Ajax said, deadpan. “You know they already made a movie about that, right?”

“Go,” Tyr said, surprising me. “No fucking way does my uncle get to take that from you, so go and do what you need to do. You have twenty-four hours. After that, I need you back here doing what you do best.”

Something loosened in my chest, and I realized it was relief. I was going to be able to make Shiloh mine for all time, after all. “You got it, brother.”

*

Four months later

---