“Thanks, Mum.” She hissed through the pain.
I frowned at her insistence to talk, and she just pulled a face back at me. My woman was too damn stubborn sometimes.
The doctor came back to us with a smile. Looking at Evie, he announced, “You’re good to go. The nurse will have your medication in a minute. If you experience any of those symptoms I mentioned to your family, you need to come straight back to the hospital.” He waited for her response, and when she agreed, he nodded and left us alone.
I eyed her mum. “Can you give us a minute, Loretta?”
As she left, I raked my gaze over Evie again. Gambarro would hurt for this.
At her questioning look, I said, “Sweetheart, this wasn’t an accident. This was retaliation for me getting your dad’s debt wiped. The guy who organised this will pay, I promise you that.” Her eyes widened, but before she could say something, I silenced her again with a finger to her lips. “I’m gonna take you home, and when I get the call from King, I’ll organise for one of the boys to come over and watch out for you while I go and take care of this.”
I watched as my words sunk in, not knowing how she would cope with that information, but needing to be upfront with her about it.
No more secrets.
She eventually nodded, and I let out a thankful breath.
Once I took care of this, we could all move forward.
***
I’d just settled Evie into her bed when I got the call from King. “Gambarro’s flying into Sydney tonight. His driver is picking him up and taking him out to his country house. I’ll round the boys up, and we’ll meet him on the way to his house. Can you meet us at the clubhouse in about an hour?”
“Yeah, but can you send Nitro or Devil to watch over Evie? I don’t want to leave her alone and chance one of his guys coming to finish off the job they started this morning.”
“Good call, brother. I’ll send Nitro,” King promised and hung up.
Evie’s gaze focused on me, and she gave me a questioning look. “Are you leaving now?”
Fuck, the pain I could hear in her voice made my stomach roll. To think I could have fucking lost her today. “Yeah, baby, I’ll head out once Nitro arrives. He’ll make sure you’re okay.”
Her hand reached for mine. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“It’s the least I can fuckin’ do . . . for getting you into this mess.”
“No, I got you into this mess, remember?” She gave me a small smile.
I nodded, and tried to lighten the mood. “Yeah, that’s right, and it also means I won’t get to play with you and my toys for awhile now.”
She tried not to laugh, but couldn’t quite help herself. However, the pain in her ribs stopped her, and her eyes welled up from the pain. “You and your fucking toys,” she muttered, and a grin spread across my face.
I leant close to her face, and promised, “As soon as your pain eases, I’ll be fucking you for days to make up for this.”
“That’s going to be a lot of days,” she murmured.
“Yeah, I’m betting on it, sweetheart.”
***
The dark road stretched out ahead of us, not a car in sight. The silence of the night blanketed us; the only sound to be heard was the rumble of our bikes. King had rounded ten of us up for this job, but I’d made it clear back at the clubhouse that this was my gig. I would be the one to cause Gambarro’s last breath.
His car was visible up ahead, and I gave the signal to hurry this shit along. We all picked up speed and a couple of minutes later we circled his car and forced it to pull over. I had no doubt Gambarro would be well protected, and I hoped like hell all of us left here in one piece tonight, but the other possibility was one all of us entertained when we participated in club business like this.
As the car came to a halt, we all trained our guns on it, waiting. It took a few minutes before one of the back doors opened and a gun was fired at us, narrowly missing King. He got pissed, and being the crazy asshole he was, he ran towards the car after dodging the bullets.
Fuck.
I couldn’t let him go down for this, so I followed him. King reached the car first and he yanked the door open. As he did this, I covered him, and shot at the guy who lunged for King from the back seat. His body slumped out of the car and King shoved him out of the way. He pulled Gambarro out and pushed him hard up against the car.