Author: Jaci Burton

Walt laughed. “Just like last time, eh, Teresa? You were a little fighter then, too.”

Her entire body went cold. “What did you say?”

“Don’t, Walt,” Russ said. “I mean it. Don’t do it.”

Walt ignored Russ; instead he kept his gaze trained on Teresa. “We needed Russ bound to the Fists, and what better way to do that than to take something from the Thorns?”

She turned her gaze to Russ. “What did you do, Russ?”

But Russ continued to stare at the ground, refusing to meet her gaze.

Walt continued. “You see, Russ saw things as we did, that there were possibilities for the Fists and the Thorns to expand. But your brother didn’t see it our way. Unfortunately, the Thorns are loyal to Joey. Russ, on the other hand, liked our distribution idea, so he came over to our side. The only thing was, we wanted him to stay in the Thorns for a while, working the inside, scraping away at their loyalties to Joey.”

Teresa laid a murderous look on Russ. “You son of a bitch.”

“Oh, it gets better, Teresa,” Walt said, his voice soft as he continued to move his hands over her legs. Tension coiled and tightened her muscles to the point of pain.

“You see, we needed Russ to prove his loyalty to us. And that meant something big.”

She shifted her gaze to Russ again, a flicker of understanding beginning to swell inside her. It couldn’t be. Russ would have never done that.

She turned her gaze back to Walter, who grinned. “Yes, I think you do know what happened that night your bike broke down.”

Cold nausea roiled inside her belly. “No.”

“Oh, yeah. We needed Russ to take what he’d always wanted, to hurt his best friend in the worst way, to prove to us he was loyal to the Fists. What better way to do that than through you?”

Tears blinded her, that night coming back to her in vivid detail. The two men holding her down, pulling off her clothes, violating her . . .

She would not cry. Not in front of this son of a bitch. She refused to say anything.

“So Russ ‘fixed’ your bike and we followed you that night, and Russ made sure Joey would be in no position to come to your aid. And when your bike broke down, we were there to . . . help.”

Her body began to shake, her stomach violently ill as Walt continued to slide his hands up her legs. But instead of fear, waves of hatred rolled off her. Hatred for what these two men had done to her, especially the betrayal by one who’d continued to look her in the eye and call her a friend all these years, who claimed to love her. He’d betrayed her in the worst way possible.

She twisted around to look at Russ. “You make me sick, you son of a bitch. I want you dead.”

Russ squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m sorry, Teresa. I’m so, so sorry. You don’t know how much I regret what I did that night.”

Fat tears fell onto Russ’s hands as he kept his head bowed, his shoulders shaking with his silent misery.

Teresa had no sympathy. She was immune. His tears were meaningless to her. She wanted him to suffer like she’d suffered all these years.

But now she knew. And knowledge was power.

“So you see, once Russ had done that, we knew he was going to be loyal to us. And it’s taken some time, but we finally hatched a plan to take down Larks, who was against the merger of the two clubs. Larks wanted to take the Thorns out by force, to muscle in on their territory and destroy the club. My idea was a merger—strength in numbers. Larks never was a smart guy, too much emotion involved, too involved in wanting to take down your brother and eliminate the Thorns entirely. We needed the extra muscle and influence the Thorns provided, so it was obvious that Larks would have to go, too. We decided to pin his murder on Joey and, with Russ’s help on the Thorns side, unite our two organizations to become even stronger.”

Unbelievable. She’d been a pawn and nothing more. “For drugs. You’ve done all this for drugs. You hurt me, my brother, even someone you claimed was your friend. And you talk about loyalty? Loyalty means nothing to you. This is all about greed.”

Walt shrugged and stood. “It’s all about free enterprise and moneymaking, sweetheart. We’re businessmen.”

“You’re scum.”

Walt laughed and stood, smoothing his hand over her hair. She refused to flinch even though his touch made her skin crawl. “Soon to be rich scum once we have access to the river.”

He was going down. Somehow, someway, she was going to make that prick suffer for everything he’d done. And his weak-willed moronic partner Russ would be right next to him when it came time to pay. She had to keep her head clear and figure out what his angle was, buy some time and see if she could somehow finagle a way out of this.

“So why am I here?”

“Your friends AJ and Pax have to go. They’re feds and they’re a danger to my operation. Russ took care of Pax and we have AJ cornered outside somewhere, separated from the Thorns, who are being kept busy by my guys. He’s hiding out, no doubt making plans to storm our location. He must have seen us bring you in here, and it’s only a matter of time until he comes to your rescue.” Walt pulled out a pistol and cocked it, looking down at her with a grin so menacing it made her recoil. “And when he does, we’ll be ready for him.”

Teresa looked down at the gun in Walter’s hands.

She was dead. And so was AJ.

That wasn’t acceptable.

IT WOULD BE DAWN IN ABOUT AN HOUR AND A HALF. AJ NEEDED the cover of darkness to sneak up on the Fists, so if he moved it was going to have to be soon.

He already knew it was a really stupid idea to take on eight guys by himself, but he’d be damned if he was going to sit on the rocks and do nothing when there was even the smallest chance he could save Teresa.

He pulled his Glock and checked the clip. Half full and one extra in his pocket. That wasn’t going to take him far, but it was going to have to do. He’d just have to make damn sure every shot counted.

He inhaled and let the breath out slow and easy, focusing on what he had to do. First the two guys outside. He’d move around the backside of the cliff and take them out by surprise. Now would be a great time for a silencer, but he hadn’t exactly left the house tonight thinking he was going to need to be armed for a stealth attack. He had his gun and a knife and he’d make do. If gunshots brought the others running outside, that would just make them easier targets to take down one by one, and he’d use the cover of darkness as his advantage.

He turned to move down the hill, spotting headlights along the road below him. He crouched down along the rock surface and watched as the dark SUV crept across the road leading to the Fists location.

More Fists?

The SUV stopped just before it rounded the corner toward the main road and cut off its lights. All four doors opened and figures in black poured out, followed by a limping, hunched-over Pax.

AJ exhaled a sigh of relief to see his friend alive. Obviously wounded, but dammit, he was alive.

And he’d brought the goddamn feds with him.

AJ started scrambling down the hill, thankful that down was lightning fast compared to up. Pax was the first to spot him, pushing down a rifle that one of the feds lifted in AJ’s direction. By the time AJ hit the ground, he was wheezing and out of breath, his legs burning from his thighs all the way to his shins.

Pax tossed him a bottle of water and AJ gulped it down, leaning against the side of the hill.

“Glad to see you’re not dead. But you look like shit,” AJ said. Pax was pale as a ghost, blood coating his jacket and shirt. And he didn’t look all that steady on his feet, either.

Pax grinned. “Takes more than a bullet to stop me.”

“Still think you’re Superman, don’t you?”

Pax ignored the comment. “They wanted to airlift me to a hospital. We need to get Teresa first.”

“How’d you find us?”

“Damn van they took her in is leaking more oil than Hansel and Gretel dropped bread crumbs. Feds arrived right after they took her, so once they stopped the blood oozing from my shoulder we just followed the oily crumbs. Found the Thorns, who filled us in on the status of the gunfight. Said they’d lost you somewhere, but they’d spotted the building and salvage yard and figured that’s where everything was going down.”

AJ nodded and filled him in on what he’d seen up at the salvage yard. Pax grimaced. “Fucking Russ. I can’t believe he’s working with the Fists.”

“Nothing worse than a traitor in a motorcycle club. Joey’s not going to be happy.” AJ was relieved Joey wasn’t here. Loyalty was paramount in MCs. Without it, a club fell apart. Punishment was swift and severe for those who broke that loyalty.

AJ sketched out the layout of the salvage yard and building. “We go driving up that long road and they’re going to know we’re coming,” he said. “And they might kill Teresa before we get a chance to get inside.”

Pax looked at the hill. “So the best way is to climb up and surprise them.”

AJ didn’t relish the idea of making that arduous trek up the hill again. “Probably.” He looked at Pax. “But there’s no way in hell you’ll be able to scale those rocks in your condition.”

“No.” Pax turned and patted the hood of the SUV, then grinned. “But I can sure ram this baby down their goddamn throats when the time is right.”

TERESA TOOK EVERYTHING IN, NOT KNOWING WHAT INFORMATION might be useful, or when she might be able to make a move. Sure, she was outnumbered. She was a woman, physically weaker and held captive by eight men. They had the guns and she was tied up. But she refused to yield. Not this time, not ever again. She was going to fight them and do whatever she could to save AJ. She would even go so far as to manipulate Russ if she had to. She’d seen the guilt on his face. She could use that to her advantage.

In fact, that was probably a good idea. Guilt was a great motivator. She thought about Pax lying there in the cold darkness, wounded and bleeding, and what he’d given up for her. She thought about AJ walking into a trap and possibly getting riddled with bullets in an effort to save her. All it took for her eyes to well with tears was thinking about the men she loved. She let the tears flow and wept openly—and as loud as she could.

Just as she’d suspected, Russ came over to her and sat next to her. “Teresa. I’m so, so sorry.”

She continued to weep. Russ awkwardly patted her back. She wanted to throw his arm off. His touch made her sick. How many times had he hugged her since that night five years ago, how many times had she allowed his hands on her? He’d raped her, had violated her for no other reason than to secure his spot in the Fists. What kind of man did that? His touch made her sick. She fought back the shudder and let her tears continue to fall. Russ wiped her cheeks with a handkerchief.

“If I could take it back, I would. I screwed up, Teresa. I shouldn’t have done this. I should never have agreed to do anything with the Fists. I fucked everything up.”

She tensed, wanting to scream at him about what he’d done to Joey. Russ had set up his best friend. He was going to sit back and allow Joey to go to jail for murder. He had no honor, no loyalty. She wanted to kill him with her bare hands. Instead, she had to play this game, to appear pathetic and weak when she was anything but.

He was bent near her now, whispering. She lifted her head and met his gaze, hoping she looked suitably miserable. “I don’t want to die, Russ.”

His eyes widened. “You’re not going to die.”

She sniffed. “They’re going to kill me. I know everything now. They’re going to use me to draw AJ in here, then they’re going to shoot me.”

He shook his head. “No. No, they’re not.”

“Russ, think about it. Use your head. The only reason I’m still alive is because I’m bait. I’m going to die here tonight. I don’t want to die, Russ. Help me, please. You owe me that much.”