Page 50 of Queen of Blades

Bringing her attention back to him, she sighed. “I’m not stupid. He lived rough. It was inevitable. I just wish…” She couldn’t finish her sentence. There were a lot of ways she’d have preferred for the night to have gone down, but it was useless to talk about. Reality was what it was.

“I think I lost him,” Paul changed the subject, and she couldn’t have been more grateful.

She glanced over her shoulder and scanned the road behind them. There were plenty of cars on the highway. “How do you know?”

“I just do,” he said as he cut across the lane and took the first exit. “We’ll take the back road to be sure.”

“What happens now?” she asked.

It couldn’t be good for anyone that the head of the motorcycle club was gone. He didn’t have a big piece of the pie, but he definitely had his fingers in a lot of the dirty business in Oklahoma. Her dad may not have had a seat at Paul’s table, but they absolutely knew about him and worked with him.

Paul sighed. “The same thing that would happen if any of the syndicates lost a head. Someone else will step up to fill the void, or the organization will fold. There will be a war over his turf if that happens.”

Racking her brain, she couldn’t imagine who would fill her father’s shoes. They had a hierarchy and whatnot, but even that was fucked up considering Dwight, the vice president, was slated for jail time. Not that it was unheard of for a club to have a president behind bars, it just wasn’t ideal—especially in tumultuous times.

“This just went from bad to worse, didn’t it?” she asked as she ran her fingers along her forehead, trying to stave off a migraine.

Paul’s head bobbed left and right as he seemed to consider her words. “Maybe.”

“A turf war is a maybe?”

“That’s only if Snoopy’s crew can’t get their shit together. Otherwise, we’re in the same position we were in before.”

Shaking her head, she pinched the bridge of her nose. “So, on top of a possible war, there are still bounties on our heads?”

“Yeah.”

“Fantastic.”

He smirked and shrugged. “I can handle it.”

She rolled her eyes. “You aren’t invincible.”

Paul snorted. “You don’t know that. I haven’t died yet.”

27

Paul

ThehauntedexpressiononHarper’s face was burned into Paul’s brain. He’d see it in his dreams for the rest of his life. It was the worst sight of his life. She didn’t deserveanyof this. After all her hard work to escape, this was the last thing she needed.

When they finally arrived at the house, he scooped her out of the car. Resting her head on his shoulder, she wrapped her arms around his neck. There was no fight in her anymore. Tonight had truly wrecked her.

It made his chest hurt. Such a wonderful woman shouldn’t be caught in the middle of a war. Her life shouldn’t be at risk after she’d done everything within her power to avoid it. Harper didn’t deserve this headache.

Paul looked forward to slitting the throat of the person who did this to her. It wasn’t about avenging Snoopy. He couldn’t give a flying fuck about that guy, but breaking Harper’s heart—that was another kettle of fish entirely. He’d take care of it for her. No one hurt his woman and got away with it.

Once in the house, he carried her to the bathroom, where she let him clean the blood from her skin. Afterward, he took her to the bedroom and helped her out of her jeans. She pushed him away after that and crawled into the bed. Tucking her in, he kissed her forehead and hoped she wouldn’t have too many nightmares.

Closing the door softly, he let out a breath. It would be a long-ass night. He wouldn’t get much sleep. The house was locked up tighter than Fort Knox, but he wasn’t about to get too comfortable. There were too many questions left unanswered.

When the phone in his pocket vibrated, he entered the kitchen, hoping to let her sleep uninterrupted.

Tapping the screen, he brought the cell to his ear. “Yeah?”

“This is really interesting,” Eddie said.

“How so?”

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