Page 60 of Biker's Collar: Property of Scrap

It’s the least I can do for her. Wyatt promises me that he’ll keep helping with the Waverly situation and once I take over Vegas… I’ll have enough money to keep Kaylee-Marie in line. There’s promise in this city. A lot of hope if you play your cards right.

Hakeem’s nephews walk on either side of him, all three of them smiling. They walk towards Hakeem’s latest ride, a white Audi SUV with tan leather seats. License plate QHH-5674. They still haven’t seen us. I put my hand on Vickie’s thigh and lookover at her. Hakeem starts the SUV but it won’t get moving until we hear Playboi Carti blasting out of the advanced speaker install.

She looks so fucking scared, especially because she knows we’re going to do it tonight. I just want to make her feel better, so looking over at her, I say the first thing that comes to mind. The truth that I’ve been trying to keep from bursting out of me.

“I love you, Vickie.”

“What the fuck?”

This isn’t the reaction I expected.

“What do you mean?”

“Is now really the right time?”

“I mean it,” I tell her. “And… You’re beautiful.”

“We’ve been sitting in this car getting stinky with Wendy’s fries for the past three hours,” Vickie says, looking prettier when she gets all frustrated with me. “There’s nothing beautiful about this.”

“I disagree,” I tell her, squeezing her thigh again. “And I mean it. I love you, Vickie.”

She looks over at me and scowls.

“You’re terrible.”

“Thanks?” I can tell she wants to say it. I won’t let her hide from me – or drug me and run out the window. I need to hear her say the words. I need her to open up to me so I can have proof that this time what’s between us is real.

“I mean…” she says. “I… I love you.”

“Wow. That looks like it hurt.”

“It’s not easy for me to say how I feel.”

“So you mean it?”

Vickie glares at me. “Yes. I love you. I mean it.”

“You say it like it’s a threat.”

“It might be,” Vickie says, lightening up and smiling. She still looks fucking beautiful. I have no regrets about finding her again and wrapping that collar around this thick ass trouble maker’s neck.

“Let’s put Hakeem in the ground,” I grunt, trying to restrain myself from my true desires, which are more about putting my dick in Vickie than killing some Vegas criminal. “Because I need you… I need you real fucking bad.”

“He’s finally moving,” Vickie says. “Same as always, heading to the apartments.”

“We don’t know that.”

“We do, because we’ve been running surveillance,” Vickie says. “And we’re not worried at all about how easy he’s made this for us.”

“Let’s not call the job easy until it’s done, Vickie.”

“We could get him from here.”

“We would have every cop in Vegas on our ass,” I remind her, trying to be patient with Vickie over her eagerness to see Hakeem dead. Now that it’s inevitable, her energy shifts to reluctant enthusiasm. She might not want to be there for the dirty work, but she wants this man gone.

My promises about what comes next might have a role in her excitement.

“Fine,” Vickie responds with a reluctant sigh. “Let’s follow his ass and hunt him down. I still think this is suspiciously easy.”

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