I wasn’t about to let this asshole get the best of me.
I reared my hand back, and then I took all the anger that had been building up in me and slammed my fist right into the guy’s throat. His knees immediately buckled, and he started gasping for breath as he dropped to the floor. That’s when I realized that the sonofabitch I’d been fighting was none other than Antonio DeLuca. “You gotta be fucking kidding me! You’ve been in here the whole fucking time?”
He didn’t answer.
He couldn’t.
He was still trying his damnedest to catch his fucking breath.
I used the moment to turn to Viper and say, “Get the wife and kids out of here. They don’t need to see this.”
Viper nodded, then gave Hawk the go-ahead to remove them from the room. Once they’d been escorted out, I stepped over to Antonio and towered over him as I snarled, “You’re nothing but a fucking coward! In here hiding like a goddamn pussy while your men are out there fighting your fight.”
“They’re... doing what... they were hired... to do,” Antonio gasped. “Something you didn’t do.”
“No, I simply refused to finish a job you started.” I leaned down and picked up my gun from the floor, then aimed it at DeLuca’s head. “You should’ve just let her go and cut your losses. You shouldn’t have tried to kill her, and you really shouldn’t have fucked with my daughter. You got greedy.And greed kills.”
Without giving him a chance to respond, I pulled the trigger and put an end to Antonio DeLuca once and for all.
EVERLEIGH
“He had a lot of guards,”Kiersten muttered.
“Yeah, he did,” Country answered. “But they’re no match for the brothers.”
After sharing a heartfelt reunion, Country and Kiersten followed Davies, Matteo, and me back out to Billy’s truck. On the way out, we’d seen one of the guards who’d been shot, and I couldn’t stop envisioning it being Billy, who was sprawled out on the ground with blood pooling around him. It was a thought that led me to ask Country, “So, you think they’ll be okay?”
“Absolutely,” Country answered as he sped toward the clubhouse. “Gotta remember, this ain’t our first rodeo.”
“Yeah, but this is the first time my dad has been involved.” Kiersten sounded just as worried as me as she told him, “At least, like this.”
“Billy’s gonna be fine,” Country scoffed. “You got nothing to worry about there.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I still don’t get it.” Taking his eyes off the road for just a moment, Country glanced up at the rearview mirror as he asked, “Why the hell would you go to Antonio’s place without telling someone? You had to know we were going to handle it.”
“That’s exactly why I went,” I explained. “I didn’t want you to have to handle it.”
“But that wasn’t up to you.”
“Maybe not, but it wasn’t right that you guys were being forced to put your lives in danger when it was me that Antonio wanted.”
“First, no one forces the Sinners to do anything,” Country snapped. “And second, that asshole kidnapped my ol’ lady. Didn’t matter why he took her. There was no way in hell we were gonna let him get away with that shit.”
“When you put it like that...”
“Exactly,” Country huffed. “You put yourself and us in danger for nothing.”
“I wouldn’t say it was for nothing,” Kiersten glanced over at Matteo as she added, “She found Matteo, and he unchained me and helped us get to you. That’s something.”
“Maybe, but it wasn’t worth putting her life in danger.” Country glanced up at his rearview mirror once more, then added, “And I’m pretty sure Billy’s going to agree with me on this one.”
“Yeah, he looked pretty upset.” Kiersten turned back to look at me as she warned, “You might want to prepare yourself.”
“Prepare for what?”
“You’ll see.”