Page 27 of Asking for Trouble

He crumpled to his knees with a whine that deepened into a guttural groan. While he was vulnerable, I kicked him in the sternum and then pinned him there with my boot when he fell onto his back on the asphalt.

Someone cocked their gun to my left, but I heard Nova growl, “You’re dead before you pull that trigger.”

Silence and stillness reigned.

Only then did I crouch, still half raised by Otto’s body beneath my right boot, and wave my gun in his face. “What’s this about a girl?”

“I-I need the girl, man,” he stuttered. “It was part of my deal with the Raiders.”

Tension rose behind me like a tsunami wave bearin’ down on my back. The White Raiders were an Albertan gang with no ties to British Columbia that any’a us knew about. Why the fuck would they be enroachin’ on our territory?

Occupyin’ the Sea to Sky Highway leadin’ tip to toe along the province and then deep into the States all the way to Mexico meant we were used to protectin’ our territory. But the Raiders were small fish suddenly swimmin’ in our shark invested waters. There was zero fuckin’ reason they should think they could take down our crew.

“What’s a BC boy got to do with Alberta bikers?” I asked, grateful Z was lettin’ me take the lead, ’cause I wasn’t capable’a backin’ down when this asshole was a direct threat to Blue.

“I tried to blackmail the prez,” Otto admitted pitifully. “I knew he’d been looking for his daughter, and when I figured out I’d found her, I reached out.”

I laughed, the sound meaner than I’d ever heard it. “Let me guess, that didn’t go to fuckin’ plan?”

“He told me I wanted to live, I’d do a job for him.”

“The robberies,” I guessed.

He nodded, eyes rollin’ wild as loose marbles in his skull, then fixin’ on somethin’ behind me.

Someone.

Zeus squeezed my shoulder but didn’t say a word, just lendin’ his intimidatin’ as fuck presence to scare the man outta his mind.

“Why?” I asked, lowerin’ my gun ’til it was pressed between his eyes.

He swallowed hard but didn’t answer, so I pulled back and drilled a round into the concrete beside his ear. He writhed, his hands flyin’ up to cup his ears.

“Why?” I roared, leanin’ down into his face.

“He needed money to fund the move!”

“The move?”

“Fuck,” Otto cried out when Zeus handed me his wicked curved knife, and I pressed it to his throat. “Fuck! The move to BC. They’re here, forty fuckin’ minutes south in Newstone.”

Fury emanated from Zeus like heat waves buffetin’ my back.

A rival club movin’ forty minutes from Entrance was as good a declaration’a war as them showin’ up with guns at our doorstep like these idiots. And based on the rage I felt from Zeus, this was more than just a mistake.

This was a deliberate insult, a personal vendetta.

They were gunnin’ for us.

And, it seemed, they wanted Blue.

“Why do you want the girl?” I demanded.

He blinked at me like I was the dumbass pinned to the ground by a boot heel and a knife point. “She’s the president’s kid. Rooster Cavendish’s daughter, Faith.”

I almost reeled back, but Z was there, clampin’ his hand over my shoulder to steady me.

“And she’s married,” he continued, spittin’ the words. “To their VP, Hazard.”