“Jesus Christ, Gabe. What the fuck?” Q demands, his eyes wide.
“I got no answers,” I say and keep going.
As much as I don’t want to deal with a dead body in my club, only one thing matters—that body doesn’t belong to Scarlett, and I need to find her as soon as fucking possible.
There’s another body up ahead, before the door that leads to the service corridor that lets out into the alley. A man’s. I slide to a halt, thinking it’s Moses. But it’s not.
Rolo.
Blood stains his lips as he coughs, pressing a hand against his chest. “Call me an ambulance.” He hacks up more blood. “Fucking hurry.”
Q stops beside me as security swarms us. “Jesus fucking Christ. What the fuck is going on here tonight?”
“Where is she?” I drop to my knees beside Rolo and grip him by the collar. “Where the fuck is she!”
“Same guy who shot me took her. Through there.” He nods at the door.
“Fuck!” My voice echoing in the hallway, I release my hold on him and run for the door. Right now, I don’t give a fuck about Rolo. I don’t know how all this fits together, but the only piece that matters is Scarlett.
Where is she?
One of the security guys jumps in front of me. “Let us go first, Mr. Legend. We’re armed. You’re not.”
“Find her!” I yell as he shoves the door open, but as soon as he steps through it, he freezes.
“Well, fuck. See? I told you this was going to get complicated.”
The voice makes my blood run cold.
Moses.
I walk through the doorway, prepared to see my worst nightmare.
And there Scarlett is, standing in front of Moses like a human shield, with his gun to her head.
“Jesus Christ, Moses. She’s got nothing to do with this. Nothing to do with what I owe you.”
“Congrats on winning the fight, Gabe,” he says with a lift of his chin. “But you seem to have disobeyed your orders, boy.”
My stomach drops to my feet as I realize what I’ve done. The same fucking thing I did to the first woman I loved—put her in grave danger.
But I’m not letting Scarlett take a bullet like Jorie.
“I have your money. All of it. Just let her go.”
He taps the barrel against Scarlett’s temple. “Tempting. But, no. You see . . . I suspected you’d never take that dive, no matter what was on the line. Turns out, I was right.”
“Moses—”
He interrupts me before I can say another word. “Tell all your little friends to put their guns down, or you’re not gonna like what happens next.”
Running on instinct here, I make the call. “Guns down.”
Moses tilts his head to the right like he’s waiting.
I glance around and see that they’re all still trained on him. “Everyone, put your fucking guns down. He will shoot her.”
Moses smiles, and every muscle in my body tenses when I see her shiver and a tear roll down her cheek.
Don’t cry, ladybug. He’ll have to kill me first.
“You’re learning, Gabe.”
A few seconds later, metal scrapes against the concrete as guns touch the floor behind me.
“They’re down. Let her go, Moses. For fuck’s sake, don’t you dare fucking hurt her.”
He studies me. “How much you win tonight?”
“I don’t know. A lot more than I owe you.”
“And you’ll give it all to me if I let her walk away right now?” he asks.
“Every fucking cent. I don’t give a shit about the money, Moses. All I want is her.”
His smile widens. “You really do love her, don’t you?”
“Yes, I fucking love her, and I will beg you on my goddamned knees if I have to. Don’t fucking hurt her.”
“I saved her, Gabe. Why the fuck would I kill her now? I could’ve just let Rolo do that, but instead I capped his ass. Of course, it was self-defense. Wasn’t it, princess? You can thank me anytime for doing you a favor.”
My gaze cuts to Scarlett’s pale face and back to Moses’s disturbing smile. “What the fuck kind of game are you playing here?”
“As far as I’m concerned, the game’s long over. Now, I’m gonna walk out of here, untouched. That’s the only way nothing happens to her. You hear me? I came to watch the fight. I wanted to see just how right I was about you, in person. It’s just not the same if you don’t see it yourself.” He jostles my whole world in his arms. “One hell of a fight, boy. You really delivered.”
“What?” Confusion ricochets through my brain like a stray bullet. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You won me a lot of money tonight, Gabe. Seems we’re finally even. That is, if you back the fuck off and let me open that door to the alley. I’ll be gone in under a minute. You’ll never see me again.”
Nothing he’s saying makes sense. “You won tonight? I thought you wanted me to lose. You were betting on Bodhi to win. You told me—”
“Exactly what you needed to hear to decide you didn’t give a fuck about what I wanted. How much more determined were you to win, Gabe? You think I don’t remember you? Think we don’t share the same Mississippi mud in our veins? You think I didn’t listen when Jorie talked about you? By the way, not to speak ill of the dead, but you’ve really upgraded here. This one’s a prize. Besides, I ain’t into killin’ women anymore either. Haven’t been in fifteen years. Only reason I ordered Jorie taken out was because I thought she told you about the truck. I thought that bitch played me so you could rob me. I was wrong about that, obviously. And I do have regrets.”
My jaw drops. There’s too much information coming at once.
Moses bet on me.
He wanted me to win.
He killed Jorie because he thought she told me about the truck.
He lied to me and manipulated me.
Holy fuck.
“You motherfucker!” I roar, but he jerks the gun to Scarlett’s head again.
“Don’t fuck up now, Gabe. That Jorie shit is old and cold. Dead and buried. You got a lot to live for now, and so does your little princess here.”
Scarlett’s lips move. She finds her voice, and surprisingly, it’s steady. “Please let him go, Gabe. I believe he won’t come back. He saved me from Rolo.”
Moses shifts the gun away from her temple an inch. “See, she’s a smart one. I don’t need to come back. I got what I came for. You just bankrolled me a new life, Legend. Now it’s time for me to go claim the woman I’ve been wanting all these years. She’s gonna be expensive, which is why I needed you to win this fight.”
My gaze moves from Moses to Scarlett and back again.
He played me. Jesus Christ. What in the actual fuck is going on right now?
I take a breath, staring at Moses’s face for any hint of a lie. I can’t trust him, but I can’t let him take Scarlett out of the building either.
“Scarlett’s not leaving with you. You open that door, you’re not taking her with you.”
Moses’s chest shakes as he laughs. “I don’t need your woman. Boy, didn’t you just hear me? I’m going to get my own. And just so you know, before you decide you’re gonna hunt me down and kill me dead for this, know something else. Without me, you wouldn’t have even gotten this opportunity.”