Page 67 of Queen of Anarchy (Dirty Broken Savages 2)

They’re standing in a tight group, all of them hard-faced and tense looking.

My heart crashes against my ribs at the sight of them, my whole body lurching as if I’ve been hit with an electric shock.

Once, they were nothing to me. Just four assholes who were stopping me from getting the shit done I needed to get done. People who held me captive too, who I wanted to get away from as soon as I could. But everything is different now.

A kind of raw relief floods me at the sight of them, and I feel my eyes prickle with tears, as if I’m about to break down into sobs just because I’m so fucking glad they’re here.

Julian shoves me roughly toward the men, and I stumble a little, my body still waking up with that pins and needles feeling from being in one place for so long. My captor’s gun is still drawn, still aimed at me, but I feel better being away from him and closer to the guys.

“You should control your woman better,” he says, drawing the words out with his usual smug demeanor. Like he couldn’t care less, but is leveling the threat anyway. There’s a cold edge to it, though, breaking through that calm tone. “If I catch her interfering with my business again, I won’t just give her a warning. I’ll kill her on sight. Are we clear?”

He says it like he could be talking about anything, but I know he means it. I have a moment to wonder how the guys convinced him not to kill methistime, but then I see a half open bag of cash sitting on the table nearby.

“Are we clear?” Julian asks again, putting a little more force into the question this time. “Your money is as good as anyone else’s to me, but there’s not a high enough price to make me let her get away with this shit twice.”

That answers that question, then. They paid him off to let me go. And judging from how big that sack of cash is, it wasn’t a small amount.

Gage and Ash reach out and put their hands on me, pulling me closer to the huddle of the four of them. Just their touch makes me relax, and even though this situation is tense as fuck, and we’re still not out of the woods yet, having them nearby makes me feel so much better.

“Yes. It’s clear,” Gage says, and his voice is just as cold and even harder than Julian’s.

Knox is looking around the room like a restrained predator. A lion in a room full of prey, barely being held back by a stronger hand. He wants to rip some heads off, and it’s only the possibility that we wouldn’t make it out of it alive that’s holding him back, I bet. That, or Gage telling him not to do anything stupid. He looks like he wants to anyway.

“Good,” Julian says, matching Gage’s intensity. He doesn’t move toward our little group, doesn’t move at all, but there’s something about the shift in his attitude that seems to make him take up more space all of a sudden. “I don’t want to start trouble with you. The Kings of Chaos are respected in Detroit, and you do good business. I don’t want a war. But you’d better not start trouble with me. I’m willing to let this go… this time. But if it happens again, I won’t be.”

Gage’s green eyes burn with hatred as he looks at Julian and inclines his head. The same hate and anger radiates from the other men too. Even Priest seems like he’s one wrong move away from exploding in someone’s face.

“Fine,” Gage says. “Then it’s done.”

Julian nods. “It’s done.” He glances to one of his thugs off to the side. “Show them the door.”

The guy steps forward, jerking his gun toward what must be the front hallway. We fall in line, all the guys closing in around me, trying to keep me safe.

As we head for the door, I glance around, and my heart stutters when I catch sight of Hannah. There’s a staircase in the front room that leads to the upper part of the house, and she’s at the very top, peering down at our little procession.

Her eyes are wide and sad, and she has her arms wrapped around herself again, like she needs a hug desperately.

Even after everything Julian just said, I want to go to her. I want to pull her into my arms and take her with us. I want to rescue her from this shit somehow and help her. I’m frozen in place, looking up at her, and Ash grabs my arm, dragging me forward. His face is grim, his fingers tight on my wrist.

There’s no other choice but to leave, and I hate it.

I fuckinghateit.

We get out of the house without being shot and head for the car the guys arrived in. I slide into the middle of the back seat as usual, with Knox and Ash on either side of me. Gage starts the car, and we pull away from the large house. Once we’re a good distance away, I finally let myself take a deep, shuddering breath, relief crashing over me. It’s mixed with too many other emotions to name, both good and bad, and they clog up my chest until it feels like there’s no room left for my internal organs.

My body aches from head to toe. I’ve got bruises from the fight with Julian’s goons, along with a lump on my temple from where one of them hit me to knock me out. My wrists are fucked up from struggling, and my arms are sore at the sockets from when I tried to wrench them free. On top of that, my head is a full on fucking mess.

Everything I learned today is still swirling around up there, and the memories of being held by Lorenzo and Ivan and the rest of their fucking friends are still too close to the surface.

I want to go back for Hannah more than anything. I want to tell the guys to turn around, tell them I need them to help me get her back. I don’t trust Julian as far as I could fucking throw him, and even though she’s been with him for this long and he hasn’t killed her, that doesn’t mean he’s treating her well.

I can’t get the memory of her hunched posture and frantic eyes out of my head. He’s not doing right by her, and she’s afraid of him. My sister is alive and scared, trapped in a marriage with the son of a man who almost murdered her.

If we go back to the house, Julian will have us killed on sight, just like he promised. Hannah’s last hope, the last person who will fight for her, will be gone.

But I need to dosomething.

The guys are quiet as we head back to the house. Gage’s hands are white-knuckled on the steering wheel, like he’s barely holding himself back. Knox keeps cracking his knuckles next to me, glaring out the window like he also wants to tell Gage to turn around and head back, even if it would be suicide to start that fight with Julian right now. Ash is tense and sullen, and he keeps reaching over to touch me with one hand while he flips a coin over and over again in his other hand, like he needs something to keep his fingers busy.

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