Reprisal (Tidals & Anchors MC 2)

“Give me the gun, Swing,” I said softly, holding out my hand. He clenched his jaw tightly and lowered the gun. With an angry grunt he handed it over and I exchanged a glance with Tumbler.

“You know, you sound just like a caveman every time you make that noise,” I remarked with a smile.

“If I was a caveman, I would’ve clubbed you all to death by now and gone after the ‘leader’ of my pack.”

Tumbler shook her head and I sighed. This wasn’t the Swing I had heard so much about; a friendly, dangerous ladies’ man; no, this one was an unfriendly and even more dangerous would be killer of anything in his path right now.

It was kind of sexy in a really deranged kind of way.

“Wait. You said that you killed her sister,” he said, glancing at me. “Was it the person wearing the mask?”

I nodded.

“Yeah. Fuck that,” he said, raising the gun again and pulling the trigger.

I let out an impulse scream and covered my ears. A .357 magnum was a loud ass gun and in an enclosed space like this, it was even louder. Saylor’s body dropped like a rock and Tumbler looked sick. Not only was this gun loud, it was extremely powerful and ripped half her face off.

The semi-silence that followed was almost unbearable. With the exception of the occasional retching sound coming from Tumbler, I felt like I had just stepped into a bad dream. How was I supposed to tell him that now he had a price on his head for killing one of our MC members? What’s more, would he even care?

“Here, you can have this back now,” he said, holding my gun out toward me.

I took it from his hand and he went over to the other side of the stage and set down, letting out a long sigh.

“Before you say anything, I know what this means. I know what my actions are leading up to, but all I ask is that you let me finish this before it has to be done,” he said quietly.

“Normally this is the kind of thing we vote on,” I said, walking over to him, “but I don’t think we need it. You’ll get the time to do what needs to be done and it’ll give me time to think about what to do with you.”

Swing chuckled, but nodded in agreement. “Guess I should say sorry about the mess.”

I shrugged and hopped up onto the space next to him. Crossing my legs together, I swung them back and forth gently, glancing over at Saylor’s body. I’d have to get her out of here and the place cleaned up before we opened in a couple hours, and Tumbler obviously wasn’t in any position to do it.

“Clean it up and we’re even. Doors open up soon which means the girls will be here any moment. If they see brains splattered all over the ground and what’s left of her face staring at them, I’ll lose all my dancers.”

He nodded at me and looked down for a moment, before pushing himself to his feet.

“Got a mop?” he asked, with a small grin.

I laughed and shook my head. “You know, you’re not really as scary as you like to pretend you are.” Swing followed close behind me as I took him to the closet space a few doors before my office and shoved a mop and bucket toward him. “When you’re done with that, I’ll be in here. Can you send Tumbler back please? I’m afraid she’ll lose her shit once you start swishing brain matter all over the floor,” I said, rolling my eyes.

His small grin returned as he leaned on the mop, pushing the bucket out onto the floor. I ran to my office and peeked through the blinds to watch him. Tumbler was sitting at one of the tables in the corner now, her face in her hands, and her shoulders shaking slightly. I knew that she was close to Saylor; they had been good friends since Saylor had earned her cut, but rules were rules and she knew that.

I watched him as he set up the bucket by Saylor, and then walk over to Tumbler. She glanced up at him and nodded as he approached, before he sat down across from her. I saw him wince; even from where I was, before he took one of her hands and held it in his. I don’t know what Swing said to her and I would never ask, but it seemed to have worked because she straightened herself up and smiled at him. Then I watched as they both cleaned up the mess he had made, including disappearing with the body out back, before coming back in and making sure that it looked like nothing had ever happened.

I watched him nudge her and say something, then smiled as she laughed and they high fived each other. I watched him put his arm around her shoulders as she grabbed the mop and pushed the bucket back toward me. That was the last thing I saw though. I let go of the blinds and plopped down into my chair hoping they hadn’t seen me watching them. And even if they had, so what?

I just wanted to make sure that he—she was okay.

Seven

Swing

I walked into Alaska’s office and laid down on the couch. Stretching out on my back, I tried to get as comfortable as possible while I thought about something- the obvious fact that she was starting to develop a crush on me. I could tell by the way she always found a reason to put her hands on me and how carefully watching me with her little biker babe buddy.

I thought it was insane to be honest. I had been sent to kill her, killed the wrong person, and then she came and saved me before I died. That was the craziest fucking scenario I could ever think of and to have her starting to get a little piney over me made it even weirder.

Not that she wasn’t sexy, because she definitely was. Long wavy black hair, narrow blue eyes, tattoos all over her body, and full lips that curled up at the end when she smiled. For someone as dangerous as a motorcycle club president, she was awfully tiny but something told me that she wasn’t someone you would fuck with lightly.

I rolled onto my side and stared at her. She had her legs up on the top of