Page 39 of Old Flame

“Get the women back to the bikes,” Lick said to someone. “Micah will get Dolly when we get to the front parking lot. He’s going out that way.”

A door opened, and we went through it. There was a chill in theevening air when we stepped outside.

“Who has Pep?” a man asked.

“I have my own damn self, Country, and if you try and touch me, I will break your arm,” she replied.

Lick’s chest rumbled with a laugh. He was so relaxed as he continued to carry me. He’d just killed a man. There was blood on my face, dress, and arm, but he appeared as if nothing had happened.

“Who is Lick carrying?” a voice asked, one that I knew so well that it was embedded in my soul.

I sucked in a breath as relief sank over me. He was here. I needed to see him. He’d be able to tell me things. Explain all this. But as I scanned the area around us, I couldn’t see him.

Where was Rome?

16

Tex

I waited for someone to tell me who the fuck Lick had in his arms. That raven hair was too fucking similar to Salem’s.

“Salem,” Pepper said as a tiny smirk played on her lips.

I’d heard the gunfire. The blood drained from my face, and I felt as if ice had replaced my veins.

“She’s fine. Just a little shook up. Seems that Lord son of a bitch wanted to take her home with him.”

“Lord? That was the fucking Landiagos? Did he touch her?” I seethed as the ice morphed into boiling rage.

I hadn’t realized I’d stopped walking when Pepper turned around and looked back at me.

“Come on. You can’t go back and kill him now. Micah let them go with a warning. The warning being Hatter and some ugly dude with a tattoo on his face. The Hatter guy was the first shot you heard. He was holding Salem when Lick put a bullet in his head.”

I ran my hand through my hair, trying to get some grip on the spiral of shit in my chest and head.

Hatter was Lord’s motherfucking brother. His only brother alive. The older two had been shot three years ago. He’d want revenge. He’d wanted Salem.

My eyes swung back to Lick as he reached the parking lot where we’d left our bikes. Lord hadn’t taken her because of Lick.I should have been in there, but, dammit, I hadn’t known Salem was there.

“Oh, and her boss was killed. Seems the gallery owner was helping the Landiagos smuggle in drugs, and he kept some. That’s why they were there. For Kendrix. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess she’s never seen anyone shot,” Pepper continued.

I turned my attention back to Pepper. A single high heel shoe dangled from her fingers. That was odd, but I didn’t care why.

“She was here with her boss?” I asked. Why the fuck this mattered I didn’t know. The man was dead.

She nodded. “Yeah. They came in once or twice every week. They weren’t dating. Not that he didn’t want to. He had a thing for her, but she was either blind to it or ignored it well. Regardless, she saw his dead body on the ground with blood seeping out of his mouth. It’s going to be hard on her. She’d just began a fresh start too…” Pepper trailed off.

“Time to clear out,” Micah’s voice called out as he walked from the exit over to Dolly, who had been walking in front of us with Jars and Nina.

I watched her run to him, and he opened his arms for her to bury her face in his chest. I’d feared that his love for Dolly would make him weak. Seemed it had done the opposite. He was more focused now. Unlike Liam, who I knew was ready to hand the role of president over to Micah. His family kept him away more often than he was there or here. The fact that he even made it to church anymore surprised me. Every time I left Devil’s to head back here, I wondered if it would be the last time I called him Prez.

I waited until Micah caught up to me before falling into step beside him and Dolly. There were several things pressing on my mind right now, but one sat at the top spot.

“What are we going to do with Salem?” I asked him point-blank.

He glanced at me over Dolly’s head. There was a small pucker between his brow as he frowned, like he didn’t know who I was talking about. He’d just had a man shot over her.

“Is that the bit—woman Lick saved?”

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