Page 3 of Blue-Eyed Jacks
Except for a murder-one charge.But that never stopped me from trying to make it happen—especially with Shock.
“Enough!”
Nonno’s enforcer, G’s enforcer, hell, myownenforcer jumped on the pile trying to peel me off that fat fuck.It took them and Shock’s man to tear me off—which meant Shock was free to fire a cheap-shot fist into my gut.
I wheezed out air I couldn’t afford to lose.My stomach spasmed as nature tried to fix the lack of it in all the wrong ways.Stars broke out at the corners of my eyes and my knees felt like Jello.But I’d be damned if this was the end.I locked my right leg and sucked in air and blood between my teeth with a hiss.“Cheating fucker!”
Fresh energy surged through me.I broke Bear’s hold and was only tethered by Hang.
Nonno’s man stood between us, but I couldn’t see him…only the rage I’d held onto for sixteen years and Shock’s ugly face.“I’m gonnakillyou.”That was a vow.And it wasn’t the first time I’d thought about it.But it was possibly the first time I’d ever said it out loud.
“You’d like to try.Where’s my wife?”
“Which fucking one?”I spat back.Even amped on adrenaline, and still trapped in a tunnel of red hate, I managed to guard my mouth, or at least not think about the words.
“You know goddamned well which one.Thelegitimateone.Kate.Where the fuck did you hide her?”
The girl at my feet gasped.I was certain her name wasn’t Kate.
She squeaked out a plaintive, “You’re already married?”
Oh my God.What a fucking soap opera.“Yeah, sweet tits, he’s got a real wife.”Shit.I almost outed myself.I hastily tacked on, “Orhad, but her body ain’t shown up yet.”
“You lying motherfucker.She better not be dead!”Shock roared and broke through the line of men between us, trampling on his little piece of ass in the process.
But I was ready for him this time.Using a dirty trick my father taught me, I twisted to the side and used his own momentum to smash his face into the stage behind me.
“Enough.”Nonno waded into the melee, brandishing a shiny new baseball bat.I stuck both hands up in the air.
“That dick jumped me twice, and I’m the one standing!”Iownedmy victory, with witnesses and fucking everything.
Shock tried to get up but got tangled in his woman.He hauled his hand back to clobber her, and Bear caught my eye with a sharp shake of the head.The blow landed, and I felt every ounce of that pain.My men knew why, and both Bear and Skinner flanked me just in case I’d get stupid and try to save the bitch.But I’d learned that lessonyearsago.
“He stole my wife.”Shock repeated to anyone who’d listen.
The girl blubbered in the background, and I couldn’t tune her out.The sobs grew louder in my mind.She was so young and…dumbto let someone like Shock break her that way.Foolish to take up with a biker off his leash like so many were during this event.And too much like my own damn mother for me to forget that from whore to lady, you don’t win by treating them poorly.
I should’ve kept my mouth shut.Ireally should’ve.
“No onestoleyour wife.She fled your dumb ass because you treated her like shit.”
Shock got his feet under him and pointed, singling me out from the crowd.“And how wouldyouknow that?”To everyone else, he pled his case.“He knows that because he helped her leave.He betrayed the brotherhood!”
No, justyou, asshole.
Chapter 2
A Destroyers MC Clubhouse, Skilletsville, Pennsylvania, June 18, 2005—Kate
Today was the day I’d been waiting for since my father sold me to pay off his cocaine habit.Melodramatic?Yes.Illegal?Absolutely.It was so far-fetched, no one believed me.Except for the ones who’d orchestrated it, which meant they enforced their secrets hard.I was only seventeen and branded as a slut for “marrying” the president of the local one-percenter motorcycle club.Even months later, the whispers would start wherever I’d go in Pittsburgh.
“I hear she rode a train.Every member of that club has had a pieceof her.”
“How could she sink so low?She came from money,you know?”
“He’s twiceher age.”
“Her father is a lawyer; you’d think she’d be smarterthan that.”
