Page 111 of Toxic

“Okay,” I whispered. It was a tortured sound. Losing Toxic. Losing my ranch. It was all too much and it made my stomach knot and twist. I swallowed past the lump in my throat as tears continued to track down my cheeks.

“You’ll sign over your ranch to me. I’ll pay you what I offered. I’m a fair man after all. Then we’ll go our separate ways.”

Fair. He was fucking cruel. This all started because of money. He wanted what was underneath my land and didn’t care who he had to kill in order to get it.

“Agreed?” he prompted.

“What else can I do?” I whispered. “Agreed.”

“I look forward to meeting you in person, Billie.”

The line disconnected and I sat the phone down on the table. There was silence for a few seconds, then I wiped the tears from my cheeks and gave the men standing around the table a smug grin. “Told you he’d believe me. Take that Mrs. Delaqua.”

“Who?” Isla asked with a laugh.

“The lady who ran the kid’s plays. She told me I hadotherskills, but that acting wasn’t one of them.” I gave her a smug smile.

Toxic squatted down until we were face to face and gave me a firm look. “Remind me not to ever believe it when you pull the crying routine, Lightning.” He stood, plucked me out of the chair, and sat down with me in his lap. “Fucking still killed me to hear you sobbing like that.”

“How did you do that?” Isla asked, looking impressed.

Shrugging, my cheeks heated as I admitted, “I just thought about if I’d actually lost Toxic last night.” I swallowed as more tears sprang to my eyes. If I’d been told that I’d care about him this much after such a short amount of time, I’d have laughed in the person’s face. But I did. I loved him. Watching him disappear out my front door to confront armed killers in the darkness, alone, had nearly undone me.

“Good job,” Lockout told me, giving me a grateful look. “And it’s a good thing you sound like every generic white guy,” Lock told Smokehouse with a grin.

Smoke rolled his eyes. “It was a gamble to have me talk to Brently.”

“He would’ve thought it was a set up if he didn’t speak to one of his men,” Toxic said, his hand rubbing soothing circles on the top of my thigh as he held me close.

“Itisa set up,” Butcher pointed out with a malicious grin. “Now we just have to wait until tomorrow.” He rubbed his hands together. “Then we get to have some fucking fun. Selfish asshole here kept the party to himself last night.”

“You never answered your phone,” I pointed out.

Butcher opened his mouth to answer, but Toxic cut him off.

“Iget to have fun,” Toxic corrected him. He scowled over at Lockout. “The two of you aren’t ruining it for me again. If anyone deserves to kill Brently it’s me. I’m the one he sent these fuckers after.”

“Pretty sure it was your lady,” Daryl pointed out.

Toxic shrugged, the movement jostling me a little. “Exactly. She’s mine. He came after me. I get to kill him.”

Lock sighed, as though it personally aggrieved him to allow this. “Fine. You get to kill him. But he won’t be alone, and you’re not going to be either. It’s going to be a free for all for the rest of his men.”

“Acceptable,” Toxic said, agreeing to Lockout’s terms.

I shook my head. “You guys are weird.”

“Why?” Riptide asked with a chuckle. “Because we’re arguing over who gets to kill people?”

I nodded, looking around at them. They’d already reassured me that they’d left Hush, Idaho, Static, and a few of the others back at the clubhouse to watch over the families. The rest had come to the rescue. I knew it was because Toxic was in trouble, but it still did funny things to my insides that they’d come to help me as well. Lockout, Warrant, and Daryl hadn’t left my side until all the gunfire had stopped and the silence had crept back into the night.

It was obvious, judging by this conversation, that they would have rather gone to join the fight, but they’d stuck close to me. I was grateful. But what was more, I felt like Ibelonged. Whether it was true or not, I was choosing to believe it.

“Decided to bring your helicopter out instead of the bike, huh?” Toxic asked, grinning at Lockout.

“Had to go pick this asshole up,” Lockout said, pointing his thumb at Warrant. “He wanted to join in the fun.”

Toxic had mentioned that both he and Lockout had been pilots in the military, but I had no idea he had his own helicopter until it had landed on my ranch last night.

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