God, how can five words cause my heart to speed up and my palms to sweat in a good way?

“I’m glad, darlin’. You deserve all the happy in the world,” I respond and wrap her in my arms.

I can’t believe I waited this long to make her mine. Hell, I can’t believe it took me this fucking long to figure it all out, but now that I have, I am not letting her go. I’ll have to stop breathing before that happens.

***

I am a nervous fucking wreck when I leave Piper alone with Storm and Phish. Phish replaced Rap when he was patched in. And, Phish passed Russian Roulette so I know he will put his life on the line for the club and whomever we tell him. It still does not ease my nerves in the least. But it is what it is, and if I want my revenge, I have no choice but to leave my girl. I have discovered it is one of the hardest fucking things I have ever had to do in my life.

“Sucks, doesn’t it, brother,” Braxxon says as we straddle our ladies.

“What?” I ask, as I throttle upwards and kick my kickstand up.

“Bein’ in love,” he replies, and ZZ laughs from beside us.

Does my own brother not know me at all? He knows I have been looking for love, and I think I have fucking found it. My leather clad ass is sitting on cloud nine.

“Maybe for you,” I snort. “But… this feelin’, fuck this feelin’ I got is somethin’ else.”

ZZ chuckles again and we all pull out. A row of us travel down the desert highway to the location our pop gave us. We have me, ZZ, Lucy, Pyro, Braxxon, Smokey, and Rap. All of us are deadly as a motherfucker with our guns, but more so, me and Lucy are ready to fucking lay some lead. I think deep down Lucy begged to be here because she feels like shit for the things she said to my girl. And she should. It was some fucked up shit. She had no right to interfere with mine and Piper’s friendship.

I would have told Braxxon no when he told me she was coming, but the girl can work her metal and lead, and even though I am fucking deadly as sin with my guns, the more the fucking merrier in these situations.

When we reach our destination, we stop around the corner and throttle down our bikes. The element of surprise will cost them their lives, but they forfeited their right to breathe when they took my girl.

“You ready, Sniper?” Lucy asks as we climb off of our bikes.

I pull her to me in a bear hug and squeeze. I do this to let her know all is forgiven so she will have a clear head when we go in. She may have fucked up, but she is doing her best to fix it, and hell if I want her getting killed over the thought of me still being pissed.

I’m an asshole but not that big of one.

“I’m ready, Luce. Cock your pipe, babe.” I chuckle as I do the same.

“All right ZZ, lets round ‘em up,” my brother says, while he holds his gun in the air with his finger on the trigger.

ZZ goes in front of the door, motions for us to line the concrete wall of the old, beaten down building, and when he kicks the door open, I move in first. In seconds, bullets are zooming in our direction, and my arm flies behind me to shove my brother against the wall of the entryway. “Stay the fuck there,” I growl. He is not getting wounded on my watch. When I am sure my brother is against the wall, I reach for Lucy and grab her wrist to jerk her behind me. “Stay on him,” I order and start moving towards the fuckers trying to kill us. ZZ, Pyro, Smokey, and Rap are on my ass and firing around me. I’m not wasting bullets until I can see these motherfuckers. And, besides, I don’t waste. I aim to kill. I never miss, and I don’t plan on missing this time around either.

These fuckers are dead. The rat fucking bastards.

Again, I curse myself for not knowing Spanish. It would come in handy right about now. These fuckers are yammering in a language we don’t understand, but then I realize something. Lucy’s dad is Hispanic.

“What the fuck are they sayin’?” I yell over the gun fire.

She laughs. “They are tryin’ to figure out how the hell we found them. Stupid fuckers.”

All of us roar with belly laughter as the gunfire continues. I still have not fired my metal. I am waiting until I get closer. My stealth towards them will be my reckoning.

But as our fucked up luck has it, we run out of wall to walk along, and now we are in an open room with nothing but pillars all around. We run towards them and duck behind them. Lucy is on my brother’s ass, and I am cursing him silently for trying to get away from her. He knows better than that. I helped train the bitch. She will take a bullet for him.

My brother can be the dumbest fuck ever.

My prepay rings, and on instinct, I dig for it because of Piper being at the house, and of course I have a fear that something else might happen. When I look at the number, I see it belongs to my pop. I hit the on button and chin it with my shoulder blade.

“Kinda busy, Pop,” I roar over the gunfire.

“The drug lord isn’t there. He’s with about eleven or so men back at Petra’s place. Kill them fuckers and rest up while I keep an eye on these fuckers.”

I don’t say anything as I hang up, and I don’t let my brothers know what is up because these assholes might call and warn their boss man we know he is back at Petra’s.

A bullet wings by my head, and I curse under my breath for letting my pop sidetrack me. I never get distracted from a gun war. Dammit!

“Luce, shoot that one over in the right corner. He keeps wingin’ at me when I peek around,” I roar.

Lucy shoves Braxxon against the pillar and moves around the side of it, takes aim, and fires. When I hear a body slump, I look around and see the fucker bleeding from his forehead. “Thanks, doll,” I holler.