Page 159 of Dagger

Jesus fuckin’ Christ.

The clubhouse gates loomed ahead, what was left of them anyway, and I had to swerve to avoid the ten-foot-round pothole, and the blown-up vehicles directly outside.

A muscle ticked in my jaw.

I didn’t give a fuck if any Sinners had been killed—they got what was coming—but those gates were electric and had built-in security cameras. They cost the price of a small house, but now they were mangled, with a hole in the middle of the bars and the metal twisted into weird shapes.

What was left of them opened as we approached, and despite being pissed the fuck off, I almost chuckled at the loud clunking noise they made.

If it wasn’t gonna cost a small fortune to fix, I would’ve laughed my ass off. Except that wasn’t going to happen; in fact, when we rode into the compound, I cursed under my breath because the place looked like a scene from an action movie.

First, my eyes were drawn to Cash, who straddled Bear’s chest and was taking turns with each fist to punch the Sinner’s face, which incidentally was mangled to fuck.

My men were beating the fuck out of the remaining Sinners, and unfortunately for them, there were way more of us. Except for Cash and Bear, there were four or five men smacking the snot out of one rival MC member, and it was fuckin’ glorious.

Henderson stood blank-faced beside the lead commando and his team, who were in a gun-pointing stand-off with Hendrix and his men, while Elise—to my fucking horror—was up in Henderson’s shit, screaming.

I pulled up a few feet away with the boys at my back, then I switched off my engine, removed my helmet, and jammed it on the handlebars before dismounting. Abe waved Mason on, who drove the van carrying the girls on until it stopped atthe clubhouse doors. Mase folded out of the driver’s seat and unlocked the back doors at the same time as Layla came racing out, ushering the girls inside.

My neck twisted and I took in Elise’s proximity to Henderson. A familiar burn began to raze through my chest, and I sucked in a breath, trying to calm my ass down before I lost my goddamned mind.

A hand clamped onto my shoulder, and Atlas’s voice rumbled, “Keep it together, Dagger.”

“What’s she doin’ up in his shit when there’s guns pointed at her?” I questioned, slipping my Glock from my cut. “It’s fuckin’ crazy. All these years without her, and I’ve never once breathed easy. I missed her like I’d miss a fuckin’ limb. Then, one day, God puts her in my path again, and she goes and puts herself in the middle of afuckin’shoot-out!”

Heads turned at the end of my rant, probably because I bellowed it as I approached. My stare fell on Bear, who Cash had dragged onto his knees, and I altered my trajectory to stomp past him before pulling my arm back and clocking him across the jaw.

His head jerked to one side, and he snarled something under his breath.

“You’ll wait, asshole,” I muttered, leaning down to get in his face. “Got big plans for you and the rest of your pervert brothers. Oh, and, dude, the girls are safe, and your dirty little compound has gone up in flames. When the fire crew investigates, they’ll deduce that your drug-addicted brothers got high and fell asleep while leaving a smoke burning, and the place caught fire. Case-fuckin’-closed. Not that you care, seeing as you left their asses out there swinging. Your pop was a moron too, but at least he was loyal to his men. You’re just a waste of everybody’s goddamned time.”

Bear lifted his eyes to meet mine, and they narrowed.

I turned to the lead commando who stood with Henderson, gun aimed at Leesy. “Lower your weapon.”

“We don’t take orders from you,” he retorted.

I swung my arm up and butted my gun against Henderson’s temple. “Tell ‘em to lower their weapons, or I’ll shoot your fuckin’ brains out.”

The air filled with clicks as the commandos took their safeties off.

“What’s it gonna be?” I inquired, my eyes boring into Robert’s.

Fear flashed behind his eyes. “Do as he says,” he ordered begrudgingly.

The commandos slowly lowered their guns.

My stare swung toward Cash. “What the fuck’s goin’ on? I leave you in charge for two hours, and I come back to fuckin’ carnage,” my hand snaked out and grabbed Elise’s wrist, pulling her behind me, “and the next man to point a gun at my woman gets their ass kicked.”

Henderson’s eyes flickered spitefully. “Good God, Elise. You really scraped the bottom of the barrel with this one, didn’t you? I’m surprised you’re not begging me to take you back.”

Leesy’s body locked, and her hands clenched to fists by her side. She leaned around me toward Henderson and shrieked, “You’re ahuman fucking trafficker. Who in theworldcould be lower thanyou?”

I turned around to face Leesy, crowding her into submission. “Baby,” I crooned, curling my fingers around her jaw. “Go inside.”

She threw a hand out toward her ex-husband. “Jesus Christ, Johnny. Can’t you just kill him already? He’s a fucking oxygen thief.”

“Do as Prez says, Ma,” Atlas boomed. “Soph’ll be having a conniption.”

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