Page 25

I recognized that voice and that nickname, so I slammed on the brakes.

The man holding onto the mirror beside me went flying just as I heard a loud thump on the roof.

Suddenly, Donner, the same man I’d tied up just a few days ago, flipped over the windshield and landed on his stomach across the hood.

There were a few long seconds when it felt like he and I were the only two people left in the world as he stared at me with murder in his eyes. Without even blinking, I slid my left hand down the side of the steering wheel and hit the lever just behind it.

“Aargh!” the man screamed as wiper fluid sprayed into his face, and I burst out laughing when the windshield wiper smacked him on the chin.

Jodie was laughing maniacally again, and I wondered if I’d somehow lost touch with reality. There was an unconscious man on the floorboard behind me and a crazy biker sprawled on the asphalt a few feet away, laughing like a loon at the angry man sprawled across the hood of the truck.

“I’m really not sure what’s going on right now,” I admitted.

“I don’t know either, but I haven’t laughed this hard in years.”

Another man I didn’t recognize ran outside and waved me toward a car wash bay. I turned off the wipers so I could see to drive, although it was difficult to maneuver the big truck with a very large man cursing at me on the hood.

Once we were inside, the door dropped down behind us. I shut the truck off before I twisted around to look in the back.

“Is he still out?” I asked.

“No, I’m just trying to get into this foot fetish thing we talked about earlier.”

“By stepping on his face?” I asked. “What the hell, Jodie?”

“At least I took my shoe off first, right?”

◆◆◆

NAVY

“Shit! No no no no no!” I yelled as I jumped up from my seat behind the desk.

“Well, fuck!” Ajax said, just as shocked as I was to see Dali and Jodie walking toward the door of the car wash. “Calm down. The guys will take care of it. We can’t go running off half-cocked.”

“Fuck that! She’s not supposed to be here,” I whispered frantically as I scrambled to pick up the burner so I could alert the guys.

I was still looking down when I heard Ajax gasp and then let out a string of curses. I looked back at the screen in time to see Dali hop into the front seat of my truck just as Diablo picked up her cousin and tossed her into the back before he crawled in after her.

Luckily, no one in the truck seemed to notice when Donner and Lurk crawled into the bed of my truck and laid down right before Dali took off out of the parking lot.

I was running out the front door, hoping I had a chance to wave her down, not even sure if that was the right thing to do, when she pulled a U-turn in the middle of the intersection and took off back toward the car wash.

Ajax was right beside me as I ran toward my motorcycle, and within seconds, we were weaving in and out of traffic on our way to catch my truck.

I was riding the line between cars while I waited for traffic to clear enough for me to shoot across the intersection when I saw Dali jump the curb and go back to the car wash.

“Calm down! They’ve got her!” Ajax yelled over the hood of the car between us. He pointed toward the car wash before he yelled, “Look!”

I looked up just in time to see my truck slide into the bay and the big metal door slam down behind it. I was finally able to take a deep breath - my first since I saw her take off with the man we were hunting in the seat behind her.

Finally the light turned green, and Ajax and I shot forward, leaving the rest of the traffic behind us. I barely took the time to put down the kickstand before I got off the bike and headed into the building, terrified of what I might find but hopeful that Dali was okay.

Even if she was injured, at least she was in my brothers’ hands. They’d take care of her until I could. I had no doubt about that.

What I found as I rushed through the office toward the side door that led out into the wash area was absolute chaos.

Donner was bent in half, spraying his face with a hose, Lurk was sitting on his ass next to Jodie, laughing like a maniac, and Dalisay was seated behind the wheel with a shell-shocked expression. I hurried over and yanked the door open before I reached in and pulled her into my arms.

“Dali, baby, are you okay?”

“I think I just got kidnapped.”

“What?”

“No, I know I just got kidnapped. Jodie worked on her foot fetish, but he bit it and made her scream, and Donner thinks he might be blind. Even if he is, he’s still gonna kill me.”

“Uh huh,” I murmured, understanding that Dali was in shock and probably didn’t even realize she was babbling. “It’s okay, babe.”

“That asshole pointed a gun at me!”

“Did he hurt you?”

“No, but he bit Jodie. She’s probably got rabies.”

“Uh huh.”

“Why do you keep saying that? Are you in shock?”

“Are you?”

“No! I’m perfectly fine, but the majority of your friends are certifiable and there’s a pile of mostly dead men over there,” Dali said as she pointed somewhere behind me. Before I had a chance to look, she whispered, “I’m sorry I fucked up your truck!”

“What?”

“I was trying to scrape the laughing guy off the door before I figured out he was one of your friends. I may have run him into a motorcycle.”

“Huh?”

Dali reached up and patted my cheek aggressively before she said, “Focus, Navy!” I didn’t have time to react before she looked to the side and said, “Someone get him a chair. I think he’s in shock.”

“I’m not in shock! I was fucking terrified that you were terrified, and now you’re rambling on about fetishes and rabies! And I don’t give a flying fuck about my truck. I just want to know if you’re okay.”

“There’s a stack of men over there bleeding out into the floor drain, Navy!” Dali yelled.

“Fuck them! I don’t care about them, Dali; I’m worried about you!”

“I’m fucking fine!”

“That means she’s really not fine,” Ajax said from somewhere behind me. “And when they say it like that, it means you should probably shut the fuck up.”

When Dali nodded, I lost it and pulled her closer so I could wrap my arms around her. I had only been that terrified once before and spent seven years in prison afterwards. Right now, I’d walk over hot coals and spend another seven years locked up as long as she was okay.

Dali squirmed out of my hold and looked up at me before she whispered, “I have a feeling that tonight is going to be one of those nights when you disappear without giving me any details.”

“Probably.”

“If that’s the case, I think I’m going to hang out with Jodie and make sure she doesn’t start foaming at the mouth, okay?”

“As long as you’re home when I get there, you can do anything you want.”

“Good. Because I think I really need a glass of wine. Possibly an entire bottle.”

“Drink as much as you want. I’ll carry you to bed when I get home.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”