Rufie stopped clapping, removed the steel pipe from where he’d tucked it under his armpit, and grinned. “Still not keen on physical contact, ’eh, Trip?”
I shrugged. “I’m not into rough foreplay.”
He brayed with laughter, an ass laughing like one. I was going to enjoy scraping his face over the ground. One concrete facial coming right up.
Flicking his goons a quick look, he grinned wider. Had he always looked like a gibbon when smiling? Huh. “Look at Tripwire here. Tough as shit and clueless as cum.”
I raised my eyebrows at the metaphor.
He laughed again, adjusting his grip on the pipe with deliberate showmanship. I was going to plant that pipe so far up his ass he could use it as a straw.
“So you came alone?” He scanned the area behind me, expression mocking. “Thought you’d bring at least someone to hold your hand, Trip.”
“Don’t need my hand held to fuck you up,” I said.
The guns pointing at me somehow seemed to point harder. The morons holding them looked frenzied.
I knew almost all of them. All of the ones I knew hadn’t liked me much.
“Loco always said you had balls bigger than Gibraltar.” Rufie swung the pipe in an arc beside his thigh. “Gonna be fun smashin’ ’em in. Although, not too much. You’re gonna need ’em.”
“Am I now?” I made a show of returning my gun to my jeans’ waistband, a wordless I-don’t-need-this-to-deal-with-you display. “Why’s that?”
Rufie snorted. “Someone wants them all for himself.”
“Now that sounds—” I pulled a contemplative face, “—stupid.”
Rufie narrowed his eyes. “I’m gonna enjoy fuckin’ you up, Trip. But first…” He nodded.
I heard them coming at me before I saw and felt them. Five. Three of them were Trinity members who hated me. I took two out before they could touch me. The third slammed into me, ramming me to the ground. The fourth smashed his foot into my ribs as the other fucker scrambled off me. I curled around the kick, yanking the dick down, even as my ribs sang with white-hot agony.
The fifth guy swung a kick at my head. I jerked out of his foot’s path just in time, but it was close.
Three on one.
It should have been easy for me. Instead, I kept thinking of Ronnie.
And the plan Lila and I had laid out back in the safe house. Fuck, I had to be patient now.
It took them forever, but they finally overpowered me but not before I broke more than one nose and various ribs. Blood flowed on my tongue, coppery and familiar.
Two of them hauled me to my feet, the third gripped a fistful of my hair to yank my head backward as he removed the weapons I carried. All except the chain, which hung hidden in the leg of my jeans, snug against my left inner thigh.
“That took longer than I thought it would,” I said, watching Rufie strut toward me.
He sneered. “Even now, your fuckin’ ego thinks you’re king shit, Trip. Gonna show you how wrong you are.”
“Go for it.”
He stopped directly in front of me and smashed the pipe into the side of my face. My mouth exploded with blood. My vision detonated with black stars.
Fuck.
I thrashed, fighting against the three dicks holding me. Laughter scraped at my ears, echoing around the cavernous warehouse. Rufie’s. The Trinity members with him.
Mine.
“What the fuck are you laughin’ at?” Rufie snarled, shoving his face close to mine.