Page 28

CHAPTER 28

Kilo

I leaned my head back against the door and watched as my brothers joked and scrolled through their phones. Relay was asleep. That fucker could fall asleep anytime, anywhere. Code was looking around, grinning. He was excited for this to all go down. Too bad he didn’t know what was going to happen or he wouldn’t be so happy about his part to play in tonight’s deception. I chuckled to myself.

“What?” Overdrive asked. He was sitting along the wall, under the window. Time was passing too damn slowly. We both wanted this to happen, now.

“Just picturing Code’s face when you give him what you brought.”

Overdrive chuckled this time. “Maybe I should go get that for him.” He shoved to his feet, shooting Code a wicked grin as he walked past and into the dining room.

“What?” Code asked.

“You’ll see,” I told him. He didn’t have a chance to answer because the door I was sitting against rumbled as someone knocked on it.

We all froze, except Overdrive, who stepped further into the kitchen so he wouldn’t be spotted. The girls had curtains, so that would hopefully prevent most of us from being seen anyway.

Shoving to my feet, I motioned for the guys to wait and craned my head to look in the gaps between the curtains and the window sill. My eyes narrowed and I muttered under my breath. It was dark outside now, though it hadn’t been that long since I’d dropped the girls off with Roger. I was hoping to get a text soon that the Viking’s Rampage was there.

It was hard to focus on what I needed to do when all I could do was worry that Camila was safe. Taking my eyes off her at a time like this had my protective instincts up a thousand percent. Even though I trusted my friends to take care of her, Roger was a chef. Not a warrior. Forcing myself to concentrate, I motioned to the others to be ready.

Opening the door, I grabbed the man standing on the porch and yanked him inside the house. I shut the door and slammed him back against it. “Didn’t I tell you to leave Camila alone?” I growled.

Shawn’s eyes widened as he stared at me, then panic set in as he saw my brothers, who were crowding my back. I didn’t need to look over at them to know they weren’t happy to see this fucker. Neither was I. And judging on his expression, Shawn hadn’t expected to see eleven pissed off bikers inside Camila’s house.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Bolo asked.

I’d told them, after the fact, about Shawn the douche. They knew this wasn’t a part of what we were here for tonight, but I wasn’t about to miss the opportunity to teach this fucker another lesson. Clearly the first hadn’t stuck. I slammed my fist into his gut.

Shawn grunted and crumpled at my feet.

“Seriously?” Relay asked. It wasn’t hard to tell that he had less than zero respect for this guy.

“My seven-year-old niece can take a better hit than this guy,” Strike said with a grin.

The rest of the guys laughed.

“What do you want to do with him?” Ruck asked. “We probably don’t have much time before this kicks off.” Ruck was always the voice of reason when the rest of us went too far off track with the plan. Corralling us was one of his skills, though he claimed it was more like herding cats.

“We should just kill him,” Relay suggested. There was a glint of excitement in his eyes as he crowded next to me so he could stare down at Shawn.

Overdrive walked into the room and sniffed the air. “What the fuck is that?”

“He pissed his pants,” Bolo replied with a grin.

“Good thing they have tile flooring,” Flir said with a shake of his head. “That would be impossible to get out of carpet.”

“You’re telling me you don’t have something to get stains and odor out of carpet?” Drifter asked, arching a brow.

“Well, yeah, I do,” Flir replied.

“Of course you do,” Bolo said.

“Can we focus on this piece of shit?” Ruck ordered.

“I’m not opposed to killing him,” I said, giving Shawn a menacing look, but I put my arm out to keep Relay from bending down and snatching him up. “I already warned him not to come around again and he didn’t listen.”

“If we do, then we’ll have to leave his body here. Then we’ll come back and get it later,” Ruck said. He motioned toward the door that led into the backyard.

“I’ll fucking scream,” Shawn managed to choke out.

“Of course you will, pussy,” Relay snorted. He folded his arms over his chest and gave me a grim look.

I didn’t need him to say the words. I could read his expressions by now. He was wondering why I wasn’t allowing him to kill this guy that he considered less than a man. Why I was holding him back. I dropped my arm and scowled at him.

Shawn pulled his phone out of his pocket, jabbing his finger at the screen as he tried to dial the cops. He was shaking so hard he was struggling.

It gave me enough time to grab the device out of his hands. Dropping it on the floor, I crunched it with the heel of my boot. “You have one opportunity,” I told him. I squatted down, getting in his face. It wasn’t easy to ignore the stench because he seriously had pissed his pants. The urine was creeping toward the toe of my boot. At least he was smart enough to be taking this seriously now. “You can stay here and die.”

“I’ll take option two,” he said. His face was pale, eyes wide as he stared at me.

“You haven’t even heard it yet,” Flir pointed out.

“What’s worse than option one?” Shawn asked, but he sounded unsure even as he said it.

“I beat the shit out of you, then you leave town. If I ever see you in Phoenix again, I’ll kill you.” Honestly, I wasn’t going to kill him. The guy was an asshole who didn’t know what the fuck boundaries were, but he wasn’t quite bad enough to warrant a death sentence. He clearly wasn’t dangerous, just a perpetual annoyance. Not that I was going to tell him that. I wanted him scared shitless. Which judging by the smell, he wasn’t far from.

“Option two,” Shawn said, looking resigned.

“What did you even come here for?” I asked.

“I just wanted Camila to give me another shot,” Shawn admitted. When my eyes narrowed, he stuttered. “To apologize.”

“Sure, fucker, sure.” I shoved to my feet then kicked out, satisfied when my boot connected with his jaw. The lights went out immediately and he slumped back against the door. It wasn’t much of an ass kicking, but I wasn’t going to keep beating on this guy when he was unconscious. I might if we had the time, but even from across the room I could sense Ruck’s impatience. We had a plan. This wasn’t a part of it. Finishing this quickly would ensure that we didn’t inadvertently fuck up the plan for Kruzman. That was more important than Shawn.

“Now what do we do with him?” Overdrive asked.

“Tie him up in one of the kitchen chairs,” I told Relay. “And gag him. We’ll release him later.”

Bolo and Relay dragged Shawn off and Overdrive went over to the bag he’d brought inside. He dug around inside and pulled out fabric, grinning at Code. “This is for you.” Now that Shawn was taken care of, it was back to business as usual as far as OD was concerned.

Code frowned at it. “For what?”

“Tonight.”

“What is it?”

Ruck snatched a wig out of Overdrive’s hands and tossed it to Code. “You’re playing the part of Camila tonight.”

“What?” Code asked, shocked.

“You had that great idea of a dress and wig,” Overdrive said with a grin.

“Put it on, Kid,” Drifter ordered.

Code looked between us all, for once shocked into silence, and then slowly put the wig on his head. Flir reached over and straightened it until the hair laid flat. Code glared at him. “Leave it alone, man.”

“It wasn’t straight,” Flir replied with a shrug.

“Looks good on you,” Strike said with a snicker.

“Wait until he puts this on.” Overdrive held up the dress.

“Jesus. Where did you get that dress? Your eighty-year-old grandmother?” Code sneered.

“Aw, is it not pretty enough for you, Code?” Bolo joked. “He needs something that shows off his chicken legs.”

“Fuck off,” Code muttered. He looked over at Ruck. “Do I really have to wear that?”

“Yup.”

Code heaved a sigh and scowled at us all as he snatched the dress from Overdrive and marched upstairs. We all pulled our phones out, ready to take pictures as soon as he came back down the stairs. He wasn’t going to live this one down. Hype and Merc were unusually quiet, probably so no one suggested they put that shit on. They were too muscular. Code was still lanky, even though he had muscles, he matched Camila’s frame a little better, albeit with an extra six inches of height. But they were smart not to push their luck.

Code’s scowl deepened when everyone started taking photos of him. “Erase that,” he barked at Bolo.

“Not a chance, Kid,” Bolo replied, tapping against his phone.

“What are you doing?” Code asked, sounding a bit frantic.

“Nothing,” Bolo said with a shit-eating grin.

“Don’t send that to anyone!”

“Too late,” Bolo replied,

Though Camila might have been offended to think someone would confuse Code for her. That was what we needed the darkness for. It was going to help us lure Kruzman and his killers out to the desert. We’d do whatever it took, even make Code dress in drag. Whether he liked it or not.