Zach (Hell's Handlers MC 1)

Enough listening to the asshole. “The fuck you want in exchange for our man?” Zach called out.

Shark’s gaze swung wildly as he tried to locate the speaker. He had the crazed, glassy-eyed look of someone hopped up on something. That would be to their advantage if it slowed his reflexes, but it could swing the other way if it made him impulsive and rash.

“Who the fuck’s interrupting me?” Shark’s voice grew shrill and it sounded like the banger was nearing an all-out hissy fit.

“I fucking interrupted you, asshole.” Zach stepped forward from the group. If he could divert some attention to himself, maybe his guys could figure out a way to end this.

“Zach.” Copper’s warning voice filled his ear.

Shark started to pace in front of the open door. “You want to know what I want in exchange for your friend. You mean this friend?” He reached in the door and yanked a very roughed up Maverick outside.

Zach’s finger flexed against the trigger, but he couldn’t pull it because Shark shoved Mav in front of him human-shield style and held a wicked looking knife to his throat.

God damnit.

“I’m thinking you wasted your time coming here, bikers. I’ve had a shitty week and Maverick here has been great. He let me work all my frustrations out on him.” Shark cackled like some kind of witch as he jerked Mav from side to side. “I’m not ready to give him up.”

Both Maverick’s eyes were bruised and swollen to twice their normal size. His head lolled to the side, blood dripping from both his nose and mouth. Shirtless, his torso looked like it had been used for a punching bag. For a moment, Zach wondered if he was drugged, but it looked like he was just in severe pain.

Shark was a big man, and he held Maverick up with ease. The knife at his throat dug into Mav’s flesh, leaving a shallow gash dotted with blood. It was impossible to assess the extent of his injuries, but they appeared severe.

“See his fucking arm?” Rocket whispered through the com link.

“Fuck me,” Copper said. “Shark’s a fucking dead man. No matter what happens in the next few minutes, Shark dies today.”

Zach couldn’t agree more. Maverick’s left forearm was one of the few parts of his body free of ink. He left a wide space of clear skin around his Hell’s Handlers brand. That skin now looked charred and infected. Whatever Shark had taken to it had completely destroyed the brand and the surrounding skin. If he had to guess, it was a fucking clothes iron.

Zach’s heart clenched in his chest. The brotherhood of the club was everything to Mav, who grew up bouncing from one miserable foster home to another his whole childhood. No matter how grave his other injuries, the destruction of that brand would be the most devastating.

Rule was, no brand, no club membership.

Somehow, an exception would have to be made.

“Enough bullshit,” Zach called out, taking three steps toward Shark. If he could piss the gang leader off enough to distract him and get him to loosen his hold or remove his focus from Mav for a moment, one of his brothers could take Shark out. “You don’t fucking need him and we aren’t leaving without him. Why not hand him over before we shoot you in the face and burn your palace to the ground, princess?”

Shark laughed again and Zach clenched his teeth. Hopefully, Shark would survive long enough for them to have a little payback fun with him.

“The interrupter. You know, I still didn’t get to finish what I was saying. Hey, Mav? You think I like being interrupted?” He shook Maverick like a rag doll, scraping the knife across his neck and making a second shallow cut.

“Fuck,” Jig said into the com. He was somewhere behind and to the left of Zach. “We need to move this along. He ain’t looking good. One wrong move and he slits our boy’s throat.”

“Just get on with whatever the hell it is you want to say so bad,” Zach yelled.

A creepy smile curved Shark’s mouth. “I couldn’t fathom how I lost the bet. How did a bunch of idiots find me out here, off the grid?” The smile grew. “Then I got my answer. And I feel better knowing that you are all, in fact, a bunch of stupid fucks.”

“What’s the answer then?” Zach asked.

“It’s coming.”

In the next second, Zach’s entire world came crashing to a halt as Toni walked out of the woods and into the clearing.

Actually, it was more like she was dragged out of the woods literally kicking and screaming.

With a gun to her head.

Chapter Twenty-Four

“Can’t take it anymore, babe. Get your ass out of the car.” Special K, the prospect assigned to babysit Toni while the rest of the men rescued Maverick, shoved his door open and exited the truck.