Never Have an Outlaw's Baby (Deadly Pistols MC #3)(26)

The * trailed off. My heartbeat quickened, taken back to that night when Freddy, Joker, and my last chance at a normal life died.

Murdered. Killed by this animal staring at me like a tiger. Hungry, taunting, and merciless.

“What?” I whispered. “How could you –“

“Don't play dumb. I know you were there, bitch, and so was that old man rotting away in a nursing home. So was your old boyfriend, Joker, now the Deadly Pistols' Veep. He's moved up in this old world, and left you in the f*ckin' dust by the looks of it.”

God damn, he was good. Ripping open old wounds and rubbing salt in deep.

I kept my eyes glued to his, trying not to shake, not to cry, not to open up any weaknesses that would risk my Alex.

“Aw, come on, keep the waterworks off. I ain't here to patch up shit between f*ck buddies. I'm here because you're bait.”

The only thing I'd ever hated more than this man was the single ruthless tear that finally escaped, rolling down my cheek. He reached out, catching it on his fingertip, staring at it like a bug he'd just caught.

My stomach turned when he raised a finger to his mouth, making a show out of licking it off. “Fuck, that's good. Makes me wanna do all the shit I came in here squawking about, especially with Betty G being so goddamned f*ckin' hungry tonight...”

He held up his switchblade, shifting his fingers to the side, so I could see the name scrawled on it in a cursive script. Betty G.

Jesus, he was talking about his f*cking knife like a person. Psychopath confirmed.

My eyes were bigger than the saucers stacked in my cabinet, just several feet away.

If he took a step toward Alex's room, I'd have to make a run for it.

I'd run, fling the cabinet open, or pull one of the knives from the block, whichever seemed easiest...

“Shit, little mama, don't worry your pretty head. I ain't here to f*ck with you and the kiddo unless you say no to anything I tell you. That, doll, is a very, very, very f*ckin' serious offense.” Smiling, he stood up, running the finger that had been in his mouth across the edge of the blade.

He winced, exaggerating his pain. “Ouch! Betty's been sharpened up. Bitch almost cut me, and I can't have her making me bleed all over your carpet.”

“Why?” I whispered, hearing my own voice from a hundred feet away. “Why are you here? I haven't seen or spoken to Joker for years. You have to know that's true.”

I couldn't take him toying with me a minute longer.

“Yeah, and thank f*ck for that, Summer. He won't see you coming 'til you're right on his doorstep, shoving his kid in his face. He'll trust you. He'll open up. And that's when you'll find out every f*ckin' thing I want to know about his club and feed it back to me, straight down the pipe.”

It all made sense now. And I wished to holy God it didn't.

“Don't, please,” I said, shaking my head, feeling more brutal tears rolling down my cheeks. “I'm not a spy. I just want to be left alone.”

He looked at me for a long second, his face turning white. Then he tipped his rough head back and laughed, so loud he made Alex cry harder in the other room.

“Okay, okay, okay.” Hatch shrugged. “Have it your way. I'll kill the kid first and throw your worthless f*ckin' carcass on top of his.”

I lunged, wrapping my arms around his boot, before he could even take one step toward my baby's room. Alex screamed, bawling louder in the other room, as if he could sense the evil coming.

“No, no, no, please! I didn't mean it that way. I'll do anything you say. Anything. Just please...don't go in there.”

Hatch stopped, his boot halfway raised above my fingers. He looked down at me.

“Give me your f*ckin' phone. Right now.”

I looked around, moving my shaking hand down to my pajama pocket. I pulled it out and handed it to him. His nasty face got nastier, twisting into a sadistic smirk as he hurled it against the wall so hard I heard it splinter. It left a dent in the wall, going out with a flash, before the pieces bounced on the carpet.

“Here's your new one,” he said, stuffing a newer, crappier flip phone into my hand. “You use that shit to check in with the only number on it. You see it ring, you drop whatever the f*ck you're doing, and f*ckin' answer. Even little Alex. Understood?”

“Yes,” I said, nodding painfully.

Yes. Somehow, someway, I'm going to f*cking kill you, I thought to myself.

“Awesome. You're pretty smart for a bitch without a man,” he growled, turning around. “You leave tomorrow for Knoxville. We'll tell you the place you're staying when we hear you're on the road, and then you'll get the orders I know you're waiting for with baited f*ckin' breath.”

“Okay. I understand,” I said, each word drying my throat like a desert.

“No, that's the shitty part, Summer, I don't think you do.” He looked at me as I blinked in confusion, his mismatched eyes shining. “I'm gonna walk out that door, get on my bike, and f*ckin' leave you with your brat. You just stay on the floor for the next hour before you start cleaning up the mess.”

I stared at him dumbly as he licked he gazed straight through me. “This is the part where I get to have some fun, and show you how f*ckin' serious this is so you don't do anything stupid.”