“WHAT?” I screech. “But they’ll kill you. Christian won’t stop until you’re dead. You have to go. I know my brother, and when he’s trying to prove a point, he’s ruthless.”
Nic shakes his head, looking disgusted at my suggestion. “I’m not about to abandon my men and serve them up on a silver platter for your brother to take out. If there’s a threat, you bet your fucking ass that I’ll be standing there front and center.”
“But …” I cut myself off, not really knowing what to say but not doubting that a face-off tonight will mean war. It’ll be a massacre, just like the one nearly seven years ago. Both Christian and Nic got lucky that night, but their luck is bound to run out at some point, and if either one of them died tonight, I don’t think I could survive.
Christian is my big brother, he’s my flesh and blood. I love him with everything that I have, but Nic … fuck. I don’t even know what he is to me right now, but the thought of him bleeding out on the ground of some dirty warehouse makes me sick. This can’t happen. One of them has to back down, but they’re both far too stubborn to be the one to bend.
I guess the only question is; when it comes down to it, when the war breaks out right before my eyes, what side am I fighting for?
Nausea pulses through me and I try to keep my dinner down as Nic speeds through the streets. He reaches the Widows clubhouse in record time and just as his car pulls into the drive, the roller door is instantly lifted to find the whole place a flurry of activity.
Tattooed men race around the clubhouse, each armed and dangerous. Three guys hurry toward Nic’s car and I instantly recognize Kairo, Sebastian, and Elijah. Nic gets out of the car, and when their eyes fall to me, they come to a screeching halt.
I get out of the car and as I make my way around to Nic, someone else jumps straight into his vacated driver’s seat and takes his car away like some kind of valet service. “What the fuck is she still doing here?” Kairo demands, seething at Nic as his eyes flick back to me. “She was supposed to be gone.”
“Chill out,” Nic snaps. “She’s fucking bait. Just wait until Christian sees her. It’ll be fucking over for him.”
My back straightens, and as Kairo and Sebastian look back at me again, Nic follows their stares as if only just realizing that I’m close enough to have heard every word.
Nic turns on me, his eyes wide and frantic, knowing that a threat is coming and that he doesn’t have a chance in hell of dealing with me before having to get himself ready. “Fuck you,” I snap, the sting of his words piercing my chest like a steel rod right through the heart. My hand snaps out and the blow across his face is loud enough to echo through the whole warehouse like a gunshot.
I should have run when I had the chance. What was I thinking sticking around and letting him play me like that? I was supposed to be smarter.
Tears fill my eyes and instead of sticking around and playing some twisted role in his little gang war, I turn and run for the door, knowing I only have a matter of seconds to get out of here before ending up right in the crosshairs of a shootout.
I hear Nic come for me and as my name roars on his lips, I glance back just in time to see Elijah catch his elbow and pull him back. “Let her go,” Elijah says, waving me off as though I'm nothing. “We have bigger things to deal with.”
I don’t wait around to hear anymore, just keep running full force ahead, straight for the door, knowing that not tonight, but soon enough, he will come for me again, but this time, it’s going to be different.
I finally reach the door and haul it open before breaking out into the night but as I run down the long drive of the Widows clubhouse, at least thirty cars come screeching to a stop before me, blocking me in with their headlights all aimed at me.
Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.
Then in the blink of an eye, hundreds of Wolves stand before me each with a gun aimed right at my chest.
CHAPTER 9
DOMINIC
Gunshots echo through the clubhouse, and I instantly get flashbacks from seven years ago when I stood in this very spot and defended my men. I did it then, and I’m doing it now. The only difference is, back then, Roni wasn’t running around my fucking clubhouse with some kind of need to prove herself.