“And you didn’t want that?”
A tear rolled down Daphne’s cheek, and Margaret grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “Daphne wasn’t going to marry any of those guys there. Me yes, her no. She was going directly to the sixty-seven-year-old prophet. So I had to get her out of there.”
“I’m so sorry for both of you. That life isn’t an easy one.”
“It’s not,” Daphne whispered. “After you two left, they had round the clock guards to make sure no one else left. It had taken this long for us to get up the nerve to go through with this plan. It was the only one we had.”
“I’m happy you called me,” I replied.
“Me too,” Ensley replied. “Are you two okay physically? Are you hurt anywhere?”
Margaret and Daphne both shook their heads. At least that was a good thing.
“Good. We’ll get you to my house and get ya cleaned up,” Ensley told them.
Princess looked at her phone. “Austyn is gettin’ ahold of Ryker’s sisters.”
My sister’s eyes lit up. “Breanna and Ashley?” Daphne asked, the hope bright in her eyes.
“Yeah. We got them set up in a place. We’ll get y’all sorted,” Blaze said turning around and smiling bright. “You’re safe.”
It was Margaret’s turn to have the tear roll down her face.
22
DRYERSON
Once again, Micah and I were stuck in this tin can. Even with the windows down, it didn’t touch the feeling of a bike. Alas, we were here following.
We also had a companion. Booker was in the backseat fucking around on his phone. The kid was only barely out of high school, but we were equals when it came to rank in the club. Since we had to ride in the cage, so did he.
Since this was the first time with us, we needed to get a feel from him. And we could if he didn’t have his face attached to the damn phone.
Three and a half hours later we landed in Savannah. We didn’t have a Ravage MC here or we could’ve let them handle this exchange. Even with that I wouldn’t think Cruz would have it any other way. He was a very hands-on president.
Before going to the contact, we filled up with fuel, wanting to get the hell out of there as soon as we got the guns. Cops were a no-go. Which surprised me that the entire Ravage MC came and not just a select few.
“Why do you think all of Ravage is here? Wouldn’t it be better to just have a few go incognito?” I asked. It was Booker who answered, surprising the shit out of me.
“Raves and Ravage have history. We’ll bring ours, they’ll bring theirs, and we’ll all hopefully get out of there with the guns and no one shot.”
“What the fuck?” I asked, turning around to Booker who, again, shocking the shit out of me? wasn’t looking at his phone.
“It’ll be fine; that’s what Dad says.” Booker was Breaker and Shaina’s boy. “But if it’s not, we’re ready. They want the money, actually need the money, so it should go smooth.”
“Famous last words…” Micah trailed off.
“No fuckin’ shit.”
Booker chuckled. “Everything comes down to the money. We have it. They want it. End.”
The kid was smart for his years, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. He already had a big enough head and was full of himself. Cocky. So damn cocky. That shit would get him killed in this business. I just hoped he learned to tame that shit down before that happened.
Breaker would surely drag his ass back.
“What the fuck is goin’ on?” Cruz barked at the man sitting across the table from him. The man who supposedly had the guns we needed. I distantly remembered Booker saying something about this being easy. Yeah. Right.
We were in a club. A strip club in the front and a large meeting room in the back. We were in the back. All of us except for Ax and Booker? who were outside being guards. Too bad Booker wasn’t here to see his mistake.
The man, Valentino. Yeah, that was his fucking name; like he was out of a damn commercial or something. He was in his late thirties, dark hair and wore sunglasses in the dark space.
He had his people behind him, and I had my hand at the ready to take whoever needed to be taken out, out.
“We have a problem,” Valentino started.
“Yeah, we have a fuckin’ problem if you don’t have my guns,” Cruz bit back.
Valentino sighed dramatically, and I was about done with whatever this bullshit was. The other guys were too. Rhys looked like he wanted to jump out of his skin and break each man’s neck.
I was with him on that one. It was quite easy to do. In and out, that was what we needed.
“You see, friend,” Valentino said.
Cruz hit the table that sat between them. “First, I’m not your fuckin’ friend. I’m here to buy product you said you had. Either you have them and this can be done, or you don’t and we blow your fuckin’ heads off.”
This made the men on Valentino’s side grab their guns. They didn’t hold them up to us, but the threat was there, and we followed suit. No way they’d get the drop on us. Fuck that shit. Already happened once, and there wouldn’t be a second time.
Valentino snapped his fingers, and a goon from behind him brought him a duffle bag. He opened it, and Valentino pushed it to Cruz.
Cruz looked inside. “There’s only three guns in there.”
It was smart he didn’t touch them yet. No fingerprints in case this went south where it was rapidly heading to.
“Our shipment was light, but we have another in three days’ time.” The man didn’t have an accent but who says three days’ time? Wouldn’t it just be three days? Sometimes the stupidest shit rolled through my head.
“That’s not now,” Cruz pointed out the obvious.
“I’ll deduct the payment for those two and give them to you when they come in.”
Right. And we were supposed to believe that shit. The word of a man who had already broken his word. Shit didn’t work that way in this world. Once your word was broken, there were no second chances.
I knew that. The men around me knew that. Cruz knew that too.
I clutched my gun tighter. This wasn’t going to be pretty by the time we left.
“Yeah, you go ahead and do that,” Cruz said surprising me.
“Then we have a deal.” Valentino smiled like a man who knew something we didn’t. Something wasn’t right here.
“When will they be here?” Cruz asked.
“In three days’ time. They will be here. Now the money,” the asshole said, steepling his fingers. Yeah, he really thought this was going his way. At this point, so did I. What the fuck?
“What time?” Cruz asked instead of answering about the money.
“Come on the fourth day anytime and get them.”
Anytime? Seriously? This guy just gave way too much away with that comment.
“Any time? So five am?” GT questioned, sitting next to Cruz with Cooper on the opposite side. The rest of Ravage was standing behind them.
“Sure. Now the money.”
“How about, I give you the money once we get the other guns,” Cruz stated firmly, the tension in the room raising to epic levels.