Luke’s words carried silence with them. Silence in the men in the room who were presented with yet another death.
They didn’t hold onto that for long. At least Cade didn’t.
“You need to tell me what the fuck you’re tangled up in. Right fucking now,” Cade demanded, crossing his arms over his chest, obviously deciding to ignore Luke’s presence altogether.
I wanted to cross mine right back, to make a statement. Kind of hard to do with the burning pain in my arm. “Why do you think it’s me who’s tangled up in something? It could’ve been an unlucky coincidence.”
Cade gave me a wide-eyed look. “There are no coincidences when it comes to you. Especially when there’s drive-by fuckin’ shootings involved.”
“He’s got you there,” Lucky muttered.
I silenced him with a glare.
The uneasy silence was broken with a loud banging on the door, which of course meant every male in the room whipped out a gun and just overreacted in general.
I rolled my eyes, pushing up from the sofa. “Chill, commandos. I ordered pizza.”
Lucky was first to lower his gun and make his way to the door. “Great, I’m fucking starving.”
Luke, who had all but arm-wrestled Cade to stand between me and the door, glared at me. “You ordered pizza?”
“Getting shot makes me work up an appetite.”
“I’ll give you two-point-five seconds to show me a pie or I’ll shoot you,” Lucky said from the door he’d just opened, obviously not to someone wearing a Domino’s uniform.
Of course, that meant all guns were raised once more.
“I’m looking for Rosie.”
I groaned.
The deep and irritated voice was familiar.
I stepped around Luke and Cade who both wore matching scowls when I managed to do so without either of them snagging me.
“It’s okay, Lucky. I know him. You can let him in.”
Lucky turned to raise his brow at me. “Okay, but I’m guessing he’s an unexpected visitor, which means he gets no pizza,” he whined.
He stepped back to let our newest arrival in, the men eyeing him warily, Luke with open hostility.
Well, everyone but Gage, who grinned at me. “I knew you coming back would mean I got to have some fun.”
“Who the fuck is this?” Luke demanded.
I ignored that too. “Lucian, what are you doing here?”
“The team’s dead,” he said in answer, voice blank and somehow breathless. Not from the distance up our stairs after the elevator crapped out. He was a fit guy. Had been before, and now with the veins in his biceps pulsing and exposed by his Army-green wife beater, it seemed that he was more so.
Breathless from running. Not upstairs but obviously all the way from Venezuela. From some very bad fucking men.
I was a little breathless myself. Death was there, standing at Lucian’s back.
Or maybe he was there all along.
“All of them?” I choked, remembering Arnie’s declaration about winning back his childhood sweetheart once he’d gotten his shit together. Richie talking about how his dad was his best friend and they were going to go fishing when he finally stopped killing assholes.
Lucian nodded once. “They made us.” His eyes went to my shoulder. “Fuck, they’ve found you.” He stepped forward, as if to brush his fingers over my collarbone. Luke made short work of that stupid gesture, pulling my uninjured shoulder gently into him, positioning me so I was slightly behind him.
“You wanna keep that arm, I suggest you keep it to your fuckin’ self,” he growled.
Lucian looked from me to Luke, understanding. There was no anger, no jealousy from a lover who’d been pining for me. It wasn’t like that with us, not really. We’d both used each other for different reasons.
“Not here to fight. I’m here to warn Rosie.” His eyes went to the men scowling at him—apart from Gage, obviously—each with hands resting on their weapons. Cade was still holding his. “Looks like you don’t need warning.” His eyes went to Luke. “Or protecting.”
“She’s never needed protecting. She does a pretty fucking good job of that herself,” Luke clipped. His eyes went to me. “Thought you said this shit was staying in Venezuela?”
I gave him my best wide-eyed puppy dog look. “Well I did think that. I don’t know everything. I’m not Beyoncé.”
“Someone needs to tell me what the fuck’s going on. Now,” Cade demanded, stepping forward.
“I’m gonna need to bounce,” Lucian said. “I’m runnin’ from one lot of guys with guns. Don’t need any more on my tail. Looks like you’re covered, Zee.”
Cade lifted his gun. “You’re not goin’ anywhere.”
Lucky moved swiftly to stand in front of the door, grinning and winking at Lucian. “Sorry, bro, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.”
Lucian kept his mask on. He didn’t scare easily and didn’t look perturbed by the sheer weight of hostile glances focused on him.
“Lucky, let him go. He has nothing to do with this,” I ordered.
“Do not fuckin’ move, Lucky,” Cade clipped.
Lucky moved his eyes from me to Cade. “Fuck,” he murmured. “I can’t figure out which one of you is less likely to kill me if I listen to the other one.”
“I’m the one with the gun, and I’m your fuckin’ president,” Cade ground out.
“But Rosie stabbed me once for telling her that I liked her better with bangs.”
I rolled my eyes. “It was a graze, harden up. And no one except J-Law looks good with bangs.” Then I moved my eyes to Cade. “You’re not going to get anything from him that you won’t get from me. I know you need to throw your power around in high-pressure situations but also, don’t be an asshole. Lucian was doing the right thing coming here. He risked his life for me, so how about you let him go on his way? We’ll take care of this.”
Cade gripped his gun. “Yeah, we fuckin’ will.”
There was a tense moment, and then Cade finally lowered his gun.
Lucky stepped back, looking relieved that he didn’t have to make the decision.
Lucian turned to me. “I’m disappearing. You’d do well to do the same.”
“I don’t disappear,” I told him. “I was kind of born to stand out. Plus, I don’t run. I fight.”
He didn’t look insulted. “Then you’re an idiot.”
Luke stiffened beside me. “You just got lucky when Cade lowered his gun. You call her an idiot again, you won’t be lucky anymore. And I won’t lower mine, not until after I’ve used it.” His voice was steel and full of promise.
“You can’t fight this shit,” Lucian said, speaking to the room. “Not even with a motorcycle gang at your back. They’re bigger than that. You can’t win.”
“Well we don’t lose, ever, so it looks like it’s going to be interesting,” I said.
Lucian shook his head. “Good luck.”
Then he was gone.
“Pussy,” Lucky muttered. “Running from a fight.” He looked at me. “So you’ve pissed off a couple of drug dealers. We’ve handled worse.”