Page 52 of Ruthless

"Word gets around fast."

"That's what's good about our world, brother," Rod snorted. He was with the Sentinels. "We look out for each other. How'd she get away?"

"We haven't talked yet. Her priority is getting to the hospital to her friend."

"How is the woman?" Tanner asked with genuine concern. "She was beat pretty bad."

"Not sure about her condition." My main concern had been in finding Ginger. "I appreciate your help. Now I just have to find that prick."

"You want help with that?" Tanner asked. "You got a last name?"

I shook my head. "Thanks, but I want to take care of him myself. I wouldn't mind a heads up if you hear anything, though. I'll text you a last name when I get it." Maybe, with luck, Della had a picture of Daryl.

"You got it, man. What about the Kings?"

I frowned. "Are they going to be a problem?" Tanner had a history with them, so if anyone would know, it would be him.

His expression said that it was a possibility. "Depends on why she was being taken to them. Wicked is crazy. It doesn't take much to flip him out."

I digested that, running my hand over the bottom half of my whiskered jaw. "Daryl was after money. A grand. Della said he beat her because she didn’t have it."

"Drug money?" Rod inquired.

"He was tweaking when I saw him last, so yeah, I think so. We think he owes Wicked money and were hoping to settle the score by offering him Ginger."

"Fuck, brother. If there’s one thing I know about Wicked it's that he would never take a woman as payment. You owe him cash, he wants cash back." That gave me a sense of relief, but then Tanner continued. "But you still might have something to worry about. Wicked is unpredictable, he doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes. If he thinks you took something that was meant for him, he might retaliate."

"Doesn’t sound too smart," I responded.

Rod snorted, flicking his cigarette butt away. "He's an asshole. Uses whatever excuse he can to cause trouble. We should have ended him when we had the chance." His comment was meant for Tanner if the glare he turned on him was anything to go by.

I didn't want to get involved in their business or their disagreements. Apparently Tanner didn't want to get into anything with Rod by responding to his remark. Moody and I exchanged knowing looks. He was a quiet man; his name fit him, although “furious” would have been a better fit, because he seemed to stay perpetually angry. Something had happened to him in his past, something that he never spoke of, and it was festering inside him. It was something deep and dark, and I wondered if whatever it was would eventually destroy him.

"So, how did the job go?" Tanner questioned, defusing the tension between him and Rod by changing the subject. "Saw on the news Duponte got away but the Feds managed to capture some of his key players."

I nodded, satisfied as fuck that the girls had been rescued but it didn't surprise me to hear about Duponte getting away. He was a lucky bastard. "We were in and out before they knew what hit them. Just missed the Feds," I smirked.

The job with Jace had gone down without a hitch. We'd arrived at Duponte's estate just as it had turned dark. It was immediately obvious that the man had grown lax in security, probably because he’d avoided detection for so many years. He’d managed to stay one step ahead of the law, he always had a fail proof escape plan in place that worked out no matter where they were. It hadn't hurt that he was never in one place for more than it took to hold one of his auctions. His guards had apparently grown sloppy and lazy, too, under the same fucking misconception that they were untouchable. Well, that night their arrogance had been their undoing.

We had found two goons, stoned on weed and overly relaxed, guarding the guest house where the girls were kept. The whole point of guarding something was to be alert for potential trouble, and they'd been too easy to approach, divert, and take control of. Moody and I had left them out cold and tied up in the bushes behind the house. Jace had had no trouble extracting the woman he'd been hired to rescue. We’d been waiting for him at the van when he'd shown up carrying a woman, dressed in a shimmering evening gown and heels, laid over his shoulders. He'd dumped her in the back and we'd been pulling out of the construction site next to the estate when four black SUVs with lights off had pulled onto the driveway leading to the house. The Feds had arrived early.

Jace had dropped us off at Froggy's, where we’d left our bikes. When I'd turned my phone back on there'd been a message from Stevie about Ginger, and Moody and I had immediately set off for Deltona to get her. Jace was on his way to deliver the politician's daughter back to her family. It'd been the easiest thirty grand I'd ever made.

"Looks like your lovely lady is coming back."

I glanced towards the apartment building to see Ginger striding toward us, her legs encased in faded jeans that revealed the shape of her thighs. The heeled boots gave her the appearance of being tall and leggy. My dick twitched at the tightness between her legs. There was no way she could be wearing panties. She'd taken a shower, her hair had been braided into a thick rope, and was hanging over one of her tits. The cutouts on her yellow tee revealed her graceful shoulders and sexy collar bone.

Her scent reached us before she did.

Fresh and sweet.

Pure and inviting.

It turned my dick hard as stone.

The sound of a bike revving up drew my gaze to Tanner. "I guess we'll take off, brother," he said. "We'll keep in touch." I gave him and Rod a chin lift that they reciprocated before turning and taking off.

"I'm going, too," Moody added. "I was going to head out to Nevada after tonight, but I'll hang around for a while. You know how to reach me." He started his bike.

---