Page 116 of Queen of Anarchy (Dirty Broken Savages 2)

“That works fine,” Gage replies. “We’ll supply the alcohol for the bar, assuming you want one. It only seems right that we contribute something to this.”

“Well, you’re contributing your guy,” Julian says, looking smug as fuck. “But I won’t turn that down. I hear you have excellent suppliers.”

“The best in the city,” Gage agrees with a tight smile.

Julian smiles back, and the animosity between them simmers even hotter under the surface.

“We’re inviting our family, of course,” Julian continues. “But also a lot of the important families in Detroit. We want this to be a big production to draw attention to our alliance. Both of our enterprises have reputations and a certain amount of power, and people should know we’re joining forces.”

Gage nods, doing a better job than I ever could of pretending that he actually takes anything Julian says seriously. “Good. It will bring opportunities for networking and also warn away anyone who might have been sniffing around before. Taking on both of us will be much harder than going after one or the other.”

“Exactly. I’m glad we have an understanding here.”

“We do.”

Julian seems satisfied, slipping back into his usual smooth smile. He glances at his sister as if to ask if she has anything else she wants to add. She doesn’t reply or even really look at him, so he just shrugs.

“I think that’s that, then. We have everything we need. Date, time. Color palate.” He smiles over at Natalie. “Now we just have to wait for the big day.”

“We’ll be ready,” Gage says as he reaches out to shake Julian’s hand. There’s no hint of deception in his voice, but the other Kings and I know what hereallymeans. It’s not the wedding we’ll be ready for, but the plan we have in place to free Hannah during the ceremony.

Julian, secure in his own smugness and the thought that there’s no way this could backfire on him, shakes Gage’s hand. He doesn’t try to do the same to Knox—which is good because, knowing Knox, he might try to break Julian’s hand just for the hell of it.

We all get up to leave, making our way around the couch and back toward the hall that leads to the front door. As I pass by where Hannah and Cody are sitting, she finally looks up from her lap and our gazes meet. I try to let her see the promise in my eyes. That wewillget her and her son out of here. That she doesn’t have to put up with being treated like this for too much longer. Soon she’ll be free of Julian and his cruel coldness.

It’s just a split second, too fast for anyone to notice, but it fills me with hope as we leave the house, heading for the car.

“Holy fuck, IhateNatalie,” Ash mutters under his breath, shuddering as he walks toward the back of the vehicle. “She’s such a bitch.”

“Ugh, she really is. The way she was talking to Knox like he’s some kind of animal. I wanted to punch her in the face,” I grumble as I climb into the back seat with him. I end up in the middle, framed by Knox and Ash.

“No punching,” Gage reminds me firmly. “That’s not a part of the plan.”

I make a face at him. “I know that, Dad. That’s why I didn’t punch her. I just thought about it really hard.”

Knox belts a laugh, then drags me into a kiss right there in the backseat of the car while Gage gets us moving. “It’s kinda hot that you wanna defend my honor,” he murmurs, low and deep in my ear.

I snort and settle against him, giving in to that possessive urge for just a bit.

“Anyway.” Gage drums his fingers on the wheel. “This is good. They’re going to invite a lot of the big families in Detroit to this thing, and that will only help our plan. They’re all paranoid, especially with what happened to Ivan still pretty fresh in everyone’s minds. As soon as they think they’re under attack, it will be chaos.”

“We should go over the plan a few more times,” Priest comments. “Just to make sure we all know it by heart. We don’t want any mistakes while this is happening.”

“You worry too much.” Knox drapes an arm around my shoulders, letting it hang low enough that he can toy with my nipple through my shirt, playing with the piercing and making me shiver. “It’ll all be fine. I’ve run it a bunch, and as long as we’re all where we need to be, we’ll get Hannah and her kid out with no problems.”

“Did you pick up the supplies?” Gage asks.

“Picking them up tomorrow,” Knox says, giving my nipple another tweak. “It’ll all be ready. Someone’s gotta swing by and get my tux though.”

He grins at me, and I feel a rush of heat at the memory of how he made me fall apart in the fitting room of that nice tailor shop.

“It’s a nice tux,” I say, then hiss in a breath as he tugs on my piercing.

“So we’ll have everything we need, and we’ll be in place,” Gage continues. I’m sure he knows what Knox is doing in the back seat, but he doesn’t even mention it. He’s entirely focused on what’s to come, single-minded as always when it comes to protecting the people he cares about. “River, Priest, and Ash will be standing by, ready to grab Hannah and Cody and go. You’ll run out the back and around to the side street where the car will be parked and drive off. I’ll meet you at the rendezvous point. Hopefully, we’ll be a good distance away before the smoke clears. We’ll get your sister and her son out of town and claim they escaped during the attack and we don’t know where they are.”

A few minutes later, we pull into the driveway at the house and spill out of the car, still talking and going over the plan.

I head up the walkway toward the front door, where I can already hear Dog yapping from inside. “Jesus. You’d think that mutt hadn’t spent most of his life living alone in an alley,” I scoff under my breath. But at the same time, it’s nice to know I was missed. That we all were.

But before I can make it to the front door, a sharp pain stings my neck.

I hiss out a breath and raise my hand to the side of my neck, thinking I got stung by a bee or something. But when I draw my fingers away, they’re red with blood.

“Fuck. There’s a shooter! Get down!”

Ash barrels into me, knocking me off my feet and bringing me down to the ground, landing heavily on top of me.

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