Never Have an Outlaw's Baby (Deadly Pistols MC #3)(141)

Then one of the shadows signaled. Smoke seethed out my nostrils.

Vlad and our boys were waiting, right next to the SUV parked conveniently in the back for our escape. They helped us all over the gate. I got in the back with Gioulio, sat on his worthless carcass like a sack of potatoes, and we were off.

Just in time too.

Three police choppers descended on the mansion with their searchlights going the instant we were about a mile away. Soon, the ashes of Gioulio's empire were bathed in cherry red, glacier blue, and blinding white lights, dead and haunted to the authorities as the ruins in ancient Rome.





9





One More Reckoning (Sabrina)





I woke up weak and sweaty. The pain was all gone. Amazingly, inexplicably vanished. I thought I was going to die, and I had to check myself several times to make sure I hadn't.

No ghost would ever feel she'd just survived a direct hit from a freight train.

I floated on a steamy high, thick and hot and invincible, the way you feel after getting over a bad illness. My memory took a few more seconds to follow.

My heart remembered everything that happened, and soon gave me some new pain to chew on.

Jesus. I'd really tried to kill him, hadn't I?

I'd saved him from swallowing the crap in the bottle and poisoned myself. I hadn't meant to, but as I slumped into the comfortable silk sheets, I wondered if I deserved it.

Everything feels like a distant dream when you're coming off a serious fever. But right now, the only thing I had to reach and hold onto was this weird and wonderful thing I'd built with Anton. I smiled when I thought about it, marveled at how it must've been unbreakable.

Somehow, I survived. We survived.

I couldn't understand it. Nothing made any sense, but my brain didn't lie. He hadn't squandered a second when he realized what was happening with the poison. Anton rushed me to the bathroom, kept me from dying until the doctor came.

It was more than lust, more than using me as a tool. I saw his love, his kindness. I felt his truth every time I took a new breath.

We'd both made mistakes. Our hearts were cruel, and they needed to be to survive the savagery constantly hammering away all around us.

Anton almost killed me by tearing out my heart with his betrayal, plus a little help from my twisted uncle. I'd tried to murder him for it, and I'd nearly died when I realized my mistake and my regret.

Sure, the poison was responsible for almost sending me into an early grave. But really, it was grief, brutal regret that I'd nearly destroyed the man I loved over a battered heart and a lie.

I still wanted to throw myself at him, tell him how sorry I was.

That didn't compare to the need I had for his lips, his embrace. I'd let him suck the last poison from my heart with every fiery kiss. Gioulio's toxin had faded and gone. Soon, I knew the rest of the venom he'd injected into my brain my entire adult life would go with it.

Anton. I needed to see him. I struggled to sit up, throw my feet over the bed to the cool floor.

I smiled when I was able to stand. Back when I was collapsing in his arms, puking out the poison while he held me, I never thought I'd stand and breathe again.

A window was cracked, letting in the cool autumn air. It was either dusk or just before dawn, judging by the little blue splash on the horizon. I didn't have a clue without something to tell the time.

I staggered to the bathroom and washed my face. The cool, refreshing water helped bring me back to life, made me halfway human again.

I was about to come out when the bedroom door burst open. Something heavy hit the floor, and someone was coughing outside.

“Shit!” Anton's voice.

A second later, he grabbed the bathroom doorknob and jerked it. I still had it locked. “Babe? Are you okay in there?”

I gave it a little push and flung it open, then fell into his arms. “I just woke up,” I said, suddenly more energized by having his arms around me.

“Damn. I was hoping to have you in bed for the big surprise so it didn't give you too much of a shock. Nobody ever said this shit was gonna go perfect...”

I didn't understand what he was talking about. He held me, walked me out of the bathroom. I stopped when I saw his brothers standing against the wall. Lev and Daniel looked at us both, serious expressions on their faces. They wore matching black tactical suits like Anton.

Then I saw the bastard at their feet. Uncle Gioulio lay on the floor, squirming like an honest-to-God eel. His hands and legs were both bound by black cords. He turned his head, saw me, and started to struggle, grunting through his efforts.

The tape over his vile mouth prevented him from saying anything. For a second, my heart tried to have a flash of sympathy, but all the things he'd said and done came crashing home. The Russians weren't perfect, but they hadn't feigned love. They hadn't poisoned me. Anton and his brothers didn't twist my emotions the way he did – and he was f*cking family!

My hand tightened in Anton's and he squeezed my fingers hard. We stomped over. I watched my man lean over the battered creature on the floor. In one fluid swipe, he ripped the tape off his mouth.

Uncle Gioulio coughed, looked at me, and swore. “Fuck. Don't let them do this to me, Brina. You can call it all off, save your uncle.”

I shook my head. Amazing. I'd never seen him act so pathetic.