Page 121 of That Girl is Trouble

Axe clenches his jaw, his hate-filled eyes fixed on Rossi. “You hurt her, and you’re a fucking dead man.”

He chuckles. “Patrick? Remind Mr. Donovan of what happens when he threatens me.”

Tuque Guy—Patrick—removes his leather gloves and slides a set of brass knuckles on each of his fists.

“Wait!” I plead.

But Rossi steadies my head, forcing me to watch as Patrick lays into Axe. Blood spews from Axe’s mouth, pained grunts falling from his bloody lips with each hit.

“Stop!” I sob. “Please! You’re—you’re going to kill him.”

“Patrick,” Rossi says coolly.

The punching stops.

Axe lets out a shaky breath, and his chin falls to his chest, the tension unwinding from his muscles as he’s granted a reprieve from the pain.

“What do you want?” I say, my voice quaking.

Axe tilts up his head, and behind all the blood and bruising, that softness I love slides over his features. The look he has just for me. With my eyes, I promise him that it will be okay. Help is coming. We just need to buy some time.

“That’s an excellent question. Donovan and I were just chatting about that.” Rossi jerks my head up, forcing me to look at him. His grip on my hair tightens, and he presses my face a little closer to his groin, making my stomach lurch. “The Soldiers of Sin. An interesting bunch, aren’t they? Much more resilient than I originally gave them credit for. I’ve caused some serious disruptions over the past two years, and they just keep fucking coming back. It’s admirable, really.”

He lets out a deep sigh. “I’m a proud man, but even I’ll admit when I’ve made a mistake. I’ve been doing this all wrong. Instead of trying to eliminate the Sinners, I should have been considering how to utilize them. Which is where you come in.”

I frown in confusion. “What do I have to do with this?”

“I’ve decided to expand into the narcotics business, and your boyfriend’s already got a good little system going. Impressive, actually. He’s hungry, but not greedy. Keeps his business small enough that it doesn’t make waves with the feds, but big enough that everyone’s getting paid. High output. Excellent return on investment.”

“Kill me, Rossi,” Axe grunts, his voice low and threatening. “You’re gonna have to. ’Cause this will never be yours. The Sinners don’t work for anyone, and we sure as fuck aren’t gonna be bending a knee to the likes of you.”

“Yeah, you keep saying that,” he says.

There’s a click near my head. The sound a gun makes when it’s getting ready to fire a bullet. Cold metal presses into the side of my face, and I go still.

“How about now?”

Axe stays silent, his eyes darting to me and then back to Rossi, his jaw tensing as he stares at the gun being pushed against my temple.

“I wonder how many broken fingers she could take. Or bullets. A couple in the knees, maybe. Though that might limit her ability to actually be on her knees. And, well,” he grins, staring down at me, “Katherine on her knees is a sight for sore eyes, wouldn’t you say?”

The warehouse is dead quiet. So quiet I swear I can hear Axe’s heart beating. And then he says, “What are your terms?”

“Forty percent. More than reasonable, in my opinion. You agree, and you walk out of here alive, business intact, and your whore’s head still on her body. We have a deal?”

“Yeah,” Axe grits. “We got a deal.”

Relief floods my chest when Rossi pulls the gun away from my face. But he doesn’t release me from his hold. My mind whirls to the knife in my boot, to Preacher, who’s still not here, and to Graves, who told me to wait but I didn’t listen.

“Smart. Very smart,” Rossi says with a chuckle. He brushes his finger down the curve of my cheek and over my bottom lip and gives me this look. The same look he was giving that painting in his entranceway. The same stare he gave me when I was wearing his ring around my neck. Possession. “Fascinating, isn’t it? A man like you—powerful, dangerous, violent. You’d rather die than yield to me, but then I drag her in here, and you fold in less than a minute. That makes her special, doesn’t it?” He cups my face, his attention still fixed on me. “I like special things, Donovan.”

“I’ve agreed to your terms,” Axe says. There’s a crack in his voice that makes my stomach bottom out. Maybe he feels it too. The sudden threat. The meaning behind Rossi’s words.

“And I’m a man of my word. I won’t kill her. But I’ll admit, I’m still a little sore about the other night. Call me petty, but I’ll require compensation for that. And your sweet little whore is going to be your payment. Open your mouth for me, will you, sweetheart?”

I lunge away, but Rossi grips my hair hard and forces my face to his crotch.

“Don’t you fucking touch her!” Axe yells. “I’ll fucking kill you. I’ll—”

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