To that, Torin, Reece and Ian all shoot me a side-eyed look. One that asks a single, annoyed question – seriously, man?
I guess I forgot to mention that part to them when I was telling them about Evelyn.
Whoops.
Still, Torin turns his attention back to the Aces and says, “Sounds like she was having a good time. And she’s begging for more, so she’s obviously not there against her will.”
“I don’t give a fuck what she liked! She’s my wife, and I will burn this entire city down if you don’t give her back to me!”
“Evelyn made her choice, and it wasn’t you,” I tell him. “It was never you, but she was desperate and needed your help. That’s the only fucking reason she ever let you touch her.”
“I’m going to gut you!” he yells at me. “Give her back to me! Now, you little pussy!”
“Maybe you should keep watching that video to learn a few things about Ev’s pussy. You never knew how to get her off, you selfish bastard,” I reply.
That turns out to be the last straw that breaks the jackass’s back.
He breaks free from his buddies, but I’m ready for him. It took Reece months to teach me to fight, even though I was an eager student. I shift my hips and slightly bend my knees, dropping into a stance I had hammered into me until it’s automatic. Timing it perfectly, I haul back my arm and nail him with an upper cut to his chin before he lays a finger on me. The way he flies backward, even coming off his feet, is comical, like some slow motion shot from a superhero movie.
Once he lands on his ass, it takes him several seconds to recover before he can stagger to his feet again. When he comes at me again, still dazed, I hit him with a right cross that sends him spinning back to the ground. The hard-headed bastard stumbles to his feet and lunges at me again, getting a knee in the face for his persistence. I get in a few more hits before his friends try and intervene or maybe help him out, just as the sound of sirens draw our attention to the sheriff’s car that squeals into the Savage Asylum parking lot, blocking most of our one and only entrance.
Jade, our sheriff and Torin and Chase’s stepsister, gets out of the driver side in her brown uniform and aviator glasses over her eyes while a big man in the same uniform jumps out of the passenger seat. Both have their guns out and aimed.
“Is there a problem here, gentlemen?” Jade asks as she circles around the Aces and comes to a stop on the side of the Kings while her partner stays positioned at the back of the group.
“You pussies called your little sheriff bitch?” Lowell shouts and then spits blood at our feet. “How fucking weak. You should be fucking embarrassed!”
“Lowell Rogers? Is that you?” Jade asks. “You’re wanted in Carteret County on a long list of charges including breaking and entering and kidnapping.”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” he scoffs.
“Do the rest of you want to stick around long enough for me to run your records or search your bikes?” she asks.
When no one moves an inch, Jade tells her deputy, “Wyatt, search the bikes.”
“Ah, fuck this shit. You’re in over your head here, Lo,” one of the guys with long, wavy brown hair says before he swaggers back to his bike and puts on his helmet. The other four men quickly follow suit, leaving Lowell alone as his buddies peel out of the parking lot, weaving around the sheriff’s car to hit the road.
“That makes our job easier,” Jade says. “Just search his bike.”
Wyatt puts his gun back in his holster and then walks over to the red Suzuki Hayabusa. The key is still in the ignition, which he uses to unlock and lift the seat. He pulls out a clear plastic bag full of a variety of pills and holds it up. “Looks like he’s running an illegal pharmacy out of his crotch rocket.”
“Turn around and put your hands behind your back,” Jade orders Lowell.
He eyes her with her gun and the four of us for several silent moments, before he finally shakes his head and turns around. “Fuck you, assholes. You’re gonna pay for this, especially you, motherfucker!”
“You have the right to remain silent, and I suggest you do so,” Jade tells him.
“Evelyn is married to this dipshit?” Torin asks once the handcuffs slap around Lowell’s wrists and Jade leads the deflated man to the back of her car.
“Yes, but only because he agreed to help pay her mother’s medical bills,” I explain. “He’s an abusive asshole.”
“Maybe we should’ve put a bullet in him instead,” Reece grumbles.
“Want me to ask Jade to hold up?” Ian offers.
“No, we can’t ask her to watch us kill a man in front of her,” Torin mutters. “He’ll rot in jail. The Aces obviously care about their own self-preservation more than him, so they probably won’t try any sort of retaliation.”
The three men then glare directly at me for so long, I figure they’re about to ask for their cut back and boot my ass out.
Instead, Reece and Torin finally break into a chuckle as Ian grins while shaking his head at me.
“What you did was pretty bad ass, kid,” Reece says. I’m back to “kid” now that it’s just our group within earshot.
“You sent him the video of you fucking his wife? I’m honestly surprised you’re still alive,” Torin says as he clasps my shoulder.
“I probably should’ve mentioned that part at the table, right?”
“Doesn’t change anything,” Ian huffs. “Those assholes aren’t shit.”
“The Dirty Aces are just the bastards who didn’t want the Ace of Spades to completely die out after we burned them down. And do you know why we burned them down?” Torin asks me.
“No. That was before I started prospecting.”
“They were in business with the man who killed my wife and my unborn son.”
“Oh, shit,” I mutter. I didn’t know Torin was married before Lexi.
“Did they deserve it?” Torin asks. “Who the fuck knows? I wasn’t in the right state of mind at the time and was only out for revenge. It’s a slippery slope, and that dickhead Lowell may not be much different from me, so you better hope he stays in lock up for a long fucking time.”
“Even when he gets out, you and your girl will need to be damn careful,” Reece tells me. “Cynthia and I know all about the dangers of abusive exes when they finally get released. All that bastard is going to do is think about getting her back and killing you every day of his sentence.”
“If he comes after her again, I’ll kill him,” I say simply.
Today, sending him to jail, will be the last courtesy I give Lowell. If he’s stupid enough to keep coming, I’ll have no choice but to put him down once and for all.
A few years ago, I would’ve never been able to take someone else’s life.
But now? Now, after prospecting with the Savage Kings, I know that sometimes the right thing to do means crossing a few ethical boundaries. But those lines are well worth crossing to save the people you love.
Evelyn and Rita have been through enough shit over the years. I’ll be damned if I let that asshole hurt Ev again.