“It’s one of seventy-two plans. It’s not like I can prepare for every possible outcome. Your daughter went out into the real world and got soft. Most kids get a little tougher when they leave the nest, you know,” I point out, eyeing Kara with heavy disapproval.
Where are those flighty survival instincts in her weak nature when I need them to be working? This worked perfectly when she took off like a scared fox with a big mouth, because she thinks she’s a badass.
She’s never been as badass as she thinks she was.
“I forgot how very un-badass she really was until I had to spend a lot of time with her and the built-up disillusions I had of my first love’s dramatic, scheming mind…falls really flat now that I’m all grown up. It’s quite childish in comparison to how real diabolical minds think,” I tell him, my eyes flicking back to his.
With any luck, I didn’t get someone killed.
His finger gets tighter on that trigger, and the playful smile vanishes from my lips as seriousness steals the last thread of my calm.
“At the end of the day, I don’t make friends. I have one thing that keeps me sane, and you don’t want to be the man who kills her off. Do you, Herrin?” I ask, as I cant my head to the side.
Chapter 34
KARA
Why did he bring me here?
Rush really laid a trap that Herrin stupidly walked into? No one makes Herrin look stupid. In the end, anyone who steps into a trap looks stupid. It simply never happens to Pop.
He looks so stupid. Even if he does kill me, he still dies. He’s still the idiot who walked into the clubhouse, expected to take it back over, and died while failing miserably like a village idiot.
Rush did this.
If he knew this would happen, then why is there a gun in my mouth?
Herrin’s less interested in killing me than he is in schooling Drex on who’s top dog. I spent all this time looking over my shoulder, only to realize it was wasted time.
Drex is the dog he wants to humble.
I’m the gnat that flies around dogs’ peckers.
How did I manage to overestimate my value and waste my life worrying Pop would come after me?
There’s a gun in my mouth because I’m expendable, and he’d rather volley insults with Rush. Rush let me walk in here, after making such a fuss about me.
A tear leaks out of my eye, as I see my life on a pathetic loop. Broken. Shattered. Tired. I was built this way—paranoid to the core. I—
“At the end of the day, I don’t make friends. I have one thing that keeps me sane…ish, and you don’t want to be the man who kills her off. Do you, Herrin?” It’s the chill to his eerily calm tone that doesn’t really sound calm at all that has my mind snapping back to the situation at hand.
“If she dies, I’ll have no reason to kill you quickly. Could take me several years to get over a loss like that, and you’d pay daily for her death,” he adds, his eyes unnervingly menacing, as a dark, twisted smirk plays on his lips.
It’s subtle, but I feel Pop stiffen behind me, his grip tightening on me.
It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever felt fear coming off him.
Rush’s eyes move to mine, and he winks. “Don’t worry. He’s a man who knows me well enough to know I mean what I say. Possibly the only man who truly knows just who I’ve become. I’ve got two people I care about. That’s why he never targeted Sledge,” he drawls, eyes lazily flicking back to Pop.
Pop eases the gun back just a little. Rush strikes up a cigar, haphazardly working around the gun in his hand to light it.
There’s a change in the atmosphere. The men lying on the ground are all looking this way, and I can tell they’re waiting to see if Herrin’s going to fold.
“She’s not leaving here with you, because I’m not letting you kill her, dump her body as a message to me, and hide like the coward you are. I respect your son for keeping this club, and reinforcing it instead of cowering in fear,” Rush adds as he flicks the dead match to the concrete.
A plume of cigar smoke engulfs us, and he pulls the cigar back, looking at it. “Your move, Herrin. You’re in a corner for the first time in your life,” Rush says coolly, smirking. “I’ve always felt a little underestimated. Do you plan to kill her and die for several long years with absolutely no chance of escape? Or do you want to let her go with the promise you’ll die today?”
He’s an idiot if he thinks Pop is going to choose to die today.