Page 65 of Bride for the Bikers

“On it!”

Fuck, my legs are burning. There are footsteps behind me, but no time to see who's following.

“Lightning? I got it! Got him stopped on the seventh floor! Trying to jam the door.”

“I'll have your fucking baby, Snark,” I tell him and jam my phone in my pocket.

Tenth.

Ninth.

Eighth.

Seventh.

I burst out of the stairwell, just to see Mesner running from me, heading for a door labeled “STAFF ONLY.” Good job, Snark.

I tear open the door and find familiar territory. It's the hall for the chandelier access ramp. Sweet fucking irony.

And Mesner, with nowhere else to go, is backing up on the narrow catwalk, aiming his gun at me.

He fires, and it clicks. Again, and it clicks again.

He's out.

Fuck, that's the kinda sound I like to hear. I step onto the catwalk with him. Shake it a little, make it rattle. “Give up, Mesner. There's nowhere for you to go.”

“What the fuck do you want from me?” he screams hysterically.

Far below us, the ballroom is still being cleaned up. The fountain's still in pieces, and while the glass and debris has been swept into piles around the remains of the fountain, a lot of the structure is still exactly where we dropped it. And where the chandelier was attached, there's just a gaping hole, thanks to Nitro's explosive charge.

“Honestly? I wanna see you fucking die. I'm fucking done chasing you around, and I'm never, ever letting you fucking threaten Harper again.”

“Lightning.” Thunder's behind me, but I'm not gonna stop now. And I don't even think he wants me to. Just letting me know I've got backup.

For every step I take, Mesner backs up one. He must see the grim determination on my face, because he's given up begging. He throws his useless gun at me, but it isn't even close. Just strikes the glass dome and bounces as it slides down towards one end.

He reaches the end of the ramp. All that's left is the hole. “Stay away from me!”

“After what you did to Harper and her family? And so many other fucking people?” I close the final step and grab him by the collar of his shirt, lifting him clear off his feet. “Fuck you.”

I drop him.

Six floors worth of air gives him just enough time to scream before he hits the shattered remains of his precious fuckingchandelier. A steel rod goes straight through him, leaving him hanging there, dripping onto the remains of the glass. His eyes and mouth are wide open, trapped in shock.

Done.

“Let's get the fuck outta here.”

36

HARPER

“I hopeit's not too weird that I call you Nate instead of Dad.”

He sits across from me in the Screaming Eagle’s common room, with Mom at his side. They’re on one of the couches, while I’ve settled into an easy chair. The big TV's off, and it's the middle of the day, so most of the bikers and sluts are out. I'm not sure I want Nate and Mom here when evening comes and things get a little wilder.

“That’s fine. I think we’re going to have to figure this out step by step. I'm still processing all this myself. I’ve been on my own for a long time. Thinking of myself as a father is still pretty strange.”

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