Thirty-One

Genesis

When I got home from taking Dad to his doctor’s appointment, the sight of another strange car in the driveway concerned me. Kye would have texted me if we had company, so I was curious to see who was here with him and Jagger. The doorknob turned without me needing a key, and that was unlike Kye—at least when he had Jagger here with him.

“RUN, GENESIS!” Kye shouted from inside, and I shoved the door open in a panic to see Kye standing on the other side of the living room with a gun pointed at a man I didn’t recognize while the man pointed a gun at Kye.

I didn’t notice anyone else until Winter stepped from the other corner of the room, dressed as trashy as she had been the last time she was here.

“Get out of here!” Kye yelled at me.

I took in the situation and made a quick scan of the room to make sure Jagger wasn’t in here.

“Oh, look, just who I wanted to see,” Winter said, placing a hand on her hip and glaring at me. “What he sees in you, I have no idea.”

She swung her gaze to Kye, who had his eyes locked on the man with a gun pointed at him. My heart was pounding so hard that I could hear it in my ears.

Winter slowly walked toward me with a smirk.

“Get away from her, Winter,” Kye warned her.

She paused and glanced back at him, then laughed. “You should have learned your lesson about threatening me,” she told him. “I don’t take it well.” Then, she turned back to me.

I forced myself to breathe evenly and focus on her movements. I could do this. I wasn’t scared of her.

“Please, Baby Doll. Please, run out of that door. I swear I’ve got this,” Kye pleaded with me.

“I can’t leave you,” I told him, not taking my eyes off Winter.

“Aww, how sweet. Stupid but sweet,” Winter said.

When she was close enough, she reached out and tugged on my hair. “Is this real?” she asked, then jerked harder.

I slapped her face as hard as I could, and she stumbled back. The taunting gleam that had been in her eyes morphed into something much more sinister.

“Bitch!” she said through her teeth as she reached for something at her side.

The glint of shiny metal caught my eye just as she grabbed my arm and spun me so my back was to her chest. I only had a second to think before she moved the knife in her hand toward me. Shutting out everything else, I recalled every lesson I had learned and took her arm, then jerked my body forward as hard as I could. Winter flipped over me and landed on her back with a loud thud. Still holding her arm, I twisted it while she cried out, and then I straddled her body before slamming my fist into her face five times in the angle I’d been taught until she went limp beneath me.

Before I could look up to check on Kye, there was a crash as others came into the house behind me. Snatching the knife that now lay on the floor beside Winter’s unconscious body, I jumped up and spun around to see Gage staring at me with his eyes wide and a guy who I hadn’t officially met, but recognized from seeing his face in the media. The younger Hughes son, Trev.

Trev was grinning.

Still holding the knife, ready to cut someone, I turned to see the man who had been holding a gun on Kye splayed out on the floor as blood pooled around him. My eyes snapped up to Kye just as he reached me. His gaze was searching my face.

“Fucking hell, Baby Doll,” he gasped, taking the knife from my hand before pulling me against him.

“Did she just kick the bitch’s ass?” Gage asked from behind me.

“I think she did,” Trev said with awe in his voice.

Kye pulled back and grabbed my face in both his hands. “You weren’t supposed to be back yet.”

I wanted to laugh at that. My heart was still racing, and there was a man bleeding out on our rug.

“Jagger!” I said, suddenly panicked.

Kye shook his head. “He’s not here. Trinity has him.”

Although I was flooded with relief, I was confused. “What? Why?”

“Because we set these two bastards up,” Gage supplied.

Kye pressed a kiss to my lips and let out a weary sigh. “I think I just died three damn times in less than five minutes. You were not supposed to be here. Fuck, if anything had happened to you …”

“But it didn’t because she’s fucking Harley Quinn,” Trev said with a surprised-sounding laugh.

“I was thinking she was more like Natasha Romanoff,” Gage drawled.

Kye shot them an annoyed glare, then turned his eyes back to me. “What the hell was that?” he asked.

“Might want to tie the bitch up and gag her while she’s unconscious,” Gage suggested. “It’ll just be easier and less dramatic.”

“Trev, can you handle it?” Kye asked, moving me away from Winter’s body. “How did you know how to do that?” he asked me again.

“Self-defense classes. A year ago, girls were getting raped late at night near campus. I figured I’d make sure I could protect myself,” I explained.

Kye narrowed his eyes. “Why the fuck did I not know about the rapes? You never told me.”

“Because you would have worried about me, and there was nothing you could do. Besides, if I’d been attacked, I would have been ready.”

Kye pulled me against his chest. “I would have come to Savannah, found the fucker, and killed him. The rapes would have ended.”

I wrapped my arms around him. The sight of that man holding a gun to his head was going to haunt me for a while. I closed my eyes tightly, thankful he was safe. That Jagger wasn’t here. Sure, there was a dead man in our living room, but I was okay with that. Other than we would need a new rug.

“We should teach her to shoot. Take her to jobs with us. No one would see her coming. It would be deadly as fuck,” Gage drawled.

Kye’s arms tightened around me. “Shut the fuck up, Gage,” he snarled.

Gage laughed loudly. “Damn, this is fun. I can’t fucking wait to watch the security feed so I can see her kick the bitch’s ass.”

Just as he said it, a phone started to ring.

Gage reached into his pocket and pulled it out. “Boss,” he said in greeting. He flashed me an amused grin. “Yeah. Okay.” Then, he ended the call and nodded to the dead man. “Six and Mattia are headed to clean up the mess. Red’s coming to haul him out. We need to get back to the house. Blaise is meeting us there,” Gage informed them.

Trev stood back up just as Winter began to make a groaning sound. “Just in time,” he said, grinning like he found this all amusing.

“Boss said to bring badass here back to the house too,” Gage said with a wink.

Kye let out a heavy sigh. “Can I have a minute? I’m still fucking running on adrenaline and terror. Just let me hold her, and you two stop talking.”

Gage shrugged, then turned to Trev. “She’s awake. Get her on her feet. We have to go pick up Huck and make the delivery before we get to go eat.”

Winter staggered, then began to struggle against Trev’s hold on her.

“Easy there, or I’ll let our very own Black Widow knock you out again,” he warned her.

Kye held me as the other three left the house out the back door. I stared over his shoulder at the dead man.

“What was all this?” I asked him now that we were finally alone.

Kye ran his hands over my hair and kissed my forehead. “A setup. We needed proof that Winter had been involved in some lethal, laced drugs getting into the club. We also needed to know who she was connected with that was supplying them. Blaise decided since Winter was hung up on me, I would be the bait. You were supposed to be gone for another hour. I was going to track you on your phone, but then things went sour—and fast.” He shook his head. “They weren’t supposed to show up here. I told her to meet me at the motel we … well, hooked up at in the past. Problem was, I had gone to threaten her after she came here the first time, so she didn’t believe I wanted a booty call. They showed up here instead. I knew Levi had my security cameras on the screen, watching them in case anything went wrong, and they saw them show up here. You just arrived a few minutes too soon.”

He held me tighter. “Dammit, Baby Doll, you could have been shot. That bitch could have had a gun on her.”

I reached up and wrapped my hands around his wrists. “But she didn’t, and I wasn’t.”

“I wanted us to stay here. I know you wanted it. But it’s not safe enough. I need you and Jagger safe.”

“Where is safe?” I asked, already thinking that if this was what could happen, I didn’t want to bring danger this close to my parents’ door either.

“For now, the main house. Where I live—or did before we started this,” he said.

“Where we had breakfast?”

He nodded.

Right now, I didn’t want to argue or think about the details. I just wanted away from the dead man in the living room, and I wanted to hold Jagger. For several hours.