Page 49 of Pike
I smiled. “Deliver it like a fucking man, then,” I spit the words at him.
The punch came quick, but I expected it, and I braced myself as well as I could for the hit. He didn’t know about the ribs when the fist landed, and pain exploded through my torso, but I ate it and let out a slow breath.
I didn’t give him shit and that pissed him off even more.
His next hit was a backhand, the ring on his hand sliced through my cheek. He grinned, satisfied he’d left his mark. “You talk too fuckin’ much. Too bad your sister didn’t.”
“Still pissed she didn’t give you what she wanted, huh?” I smiled, taunting the little man so desperate to feel big.
“Shut the fuck up!” There it was, the panic I was looking for. That edge of uncertainty that made his voice wobble.
I laughed out loud, the sound echoed all around me as I took in the rows of empty shelves, the bay doors that told me this was some kind of receiving area for big rigs. “I thought you wanted to be king, Vendetta. This is what you wanted, right?Start a war and end up dead just like your former Prez. What a fucking legacy.”
His hands fisted at his sides. “You think we’re scared of yourlittleclub?” It was a cheap shot, and it told me more about him than he realized.
I didn’t need to hit back on that point because the Steel Demons were a goddamn institution. We didn’t need to swing our dicks, they swung on their own. “You don’t have to be scared for the damage to land. You’ve hit us a few times, a few dings here and there, but we haven’t hit back. Not yet.” I let those words hang in the air, settle into the men who watched us carefully. “Not really.”
He shifted. It was nearly imperceptible, but I heard it and more importantly, I saw it. He was worried.
“You want to be nothing but another flash? You keep this shit up and you won’t even last as long as Blade.” I shook my head the way he did, sighing heavily as if I gave a fuck what happened to him. “Forget about the girl and you get to live to fight another day.”
He snapped, bracing his feet wider than shoulder distance apart and throwing another punch that landed in my gut. Another hit my ribs. Again. Two more landed against my side.
I let my body hang freely, smiling as I took the hits. They hurt but not as much as my fucking ribs. I kept smiling though because I knew who Vendetta was now, he wasn’t a leader. He was a little fuckin’ boy playing at being a leader. “Hey man, I’m just lookin’ out for you. You’re gonna lose men you can’t afford to lose while you rebuild your MC.”
“Shut. The. Fuck. Up.” He roared the words in another display of ego and impulse.
I shrugged with a smile. “Keep going and there won’t be an MC to save.”
Fear flashed in his eyes but only I saw it.
And I pushed. “You guys willing to die for a man who wants to kill a little girl? Trust me, it’s a war we’ll gladly fight if we have to.” In fact, it was a war I welcomed, and I knew in that moment that I’d be the one to kill Vendetta myself.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chloe
Iwoke up the next morning in an empty bed. For a moment I lay still, staring at the ceiling, listening for sounds that wouldn’t come. No shower running. No boots stomping across the floor. No low voice telling me to go back to sleep. He was gone.
I reached for my phone on instinct, hoping for something—anything. A text. A missed call. A tiny sign that he was thinking about me. The screen glared back blank and cold. Nothing. My stomach tightened.
He should have arrived by now. Why hadn’t he called?
“Mommy?” a sleepy voice mumbled from the doorway. Gemma padded in, dragging her doll by the arm, her hair a wild mess.
I forced a smile and said breezily, “Good morning, sweetheart.”
“I miss Mr. Pike,” she said.
“He had to go back to Steel City, baby. Auntie Faith needed his help with something important.”
Gemma’s face scrunched up as she tried to process that. “I know. But he’ll come back, right?”
I crouched down and smoothed her hair away from her face, nodding like I believed my own words. “Of course he will. He just has to finish his work first.”
She accepted the answer the way only a child could, with a small shrug. “Okay.” Then she leaned against my shoulder. “Can we have pancakes? He was going to make pancakes today.”
“Pancakes it is,” I said brightly, even though my insides were lead.
