Page 22 of Pain (Kiss of Death MC #6)

Roscoe’s gaze darted between us before he smirked. “Your precious president has been paying me off for months. Cutting me in on whatever you’re running through those docks.”

I glanced at Knuckles, who just looked amused. “That true?”

“Partially,” Knuckles didn’t look concerned in the least. “I followed Tonio’s instructions because we thought he was the muscle for a rival wanting to cut in on Miles’ family business.”

“OK. I’ll buy that.” I nodded. Knuckles always had shit going on I wasn’t privy to and had no desire to know about. “I assume this is all related to why you were holding off on doing anything to those assholes outside the gate?”

“Yep.” Knuckles’ grin didn’t quite reach his eyes. Except in a malevolent kind of way.

“Look.” Roscoe sat up a little more, braced on his good arm.

Blood still oozed from the three times I’d shot him, but fuck the bastard anyway.

“Like I said. I am the law in this town. I can guarantee one hundred percent you’ll never have to worry about police involvement in your operation at the docks.

All I’m asking for is five percent of what comes through. ”

Gunnar, Knuckles’ right hand and his daughter’s man, moved beside our president. “In case you missed it, buddy, you’re not in much of a position to negotiate. You’re really not in a position to demand protection money.”

“My boys’ll be here soon. Every single man I brought here to starve you guys out is loyal to me.”

“They’re loyal to the money you pay them,” Knuckles said. “Which means they’ll be loyal to the money I pay them. Then they’ll stay loyal to me because if they don’t, this whole incident gets out and every one of them will be on the bad end of a public relations nightmare.”

“I might have threatened to cut them into little pieces if they didn’t take the money and go.” Gunnar looked entirely too smug, but it fit the mood.

I pegged the second Roscoe realized he’d written a check his body was going to have to make good on, and that he saw his death in the immediate future. “Was all this about money?” I asked, suddenly curious. “Just… your greed? Why hurt Nadine?”

“Go fuck yourself.” Roscoe spat blood in our general direction.

Knuckles and Gunnar exchanged a look. Then Knuckles shrugged. “He targeted your woman, Pain. How long he lives is up to you.”

Yeah. I didn’t need to know the why of it as long as I knew he was working alone. Which, sounded like he was.

A harsh battle cry caught me by surprise as Roscoe managed one last Hail Mary, likely in an attempt to take at least one of us with him.

Gunnar was closest, and that’s who he hit as he threw his body in our general direction.

I have no idea how he moved as quickly as he did with the injuries he had, but imminent death has a way of turning people into superhumans for brief moments and I suppose this was Roscoe’s.

Gunnar hit the ground. Hard. I heard a sharp pop and the younger man gave a snarling grunt of pain. Knuckles grabbed Roscoe by the scruff of the neck and hauled him off Gunnar, flinging him back to the ground where he’d previously lay bleeding.

“Fucker,” Knuckles muttered, then pulled his own suppressed pistol and shot Roscoe in the head.

“Fuck,” Gunnar gasped. “Fuckin’ hell.”

“Lie still, Gunnar.” Nadine was at his side, her nursing instincts kicking in despite the scene she’d just witnessed.

“Hurts worse.” He sounded pained, and when he sat up I could see why.

“Your shoulder’s dislocated.” I knelt beside him next to Nadine and felt the injury. Nadine gave me a wide-eyed look, and I knew she knew what was coming next.

“Tell me something I don’t know.” Gunnar didn’t fight either Nadine or myself as we examined him.

“OK. How about this. Do you know how I got my road name?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

I still fiddled with his arm and shoulder, probing gently as I adjusted my hold on his arms to get the leverage I needed going in the right direction. “Do you know why they call me Pain?”

Gunnar glanced over her shoulder at me briefly before the pain was too much to hold the position. “No. How-- AHH!”

I gave a sharp tug on his shoulder, popping it back into place but causing a momentary burst of blinding pain.

“Because I don’t believe in giving dumbasses pain medicine when fixing their stupid mistakes.” I grinned down at the other man. If looks could kill, no defibrillator in existence would have been able to bring me back.

“That wasn’t my fault! How was I a dumbass?”

“After all that,” Nadine said, “the most important question you have is ‘How was I a dumbass?’” She shook her head. “No offense, but I think that kind of speaks for itself.”

That got hoots from the other guys around us.

Hawk and Riot helped Gunnar to his feet before clapping him on the shoulder.

The other shoulder. Tiny just shook his head and took out a couple of big cadaver bags from the cage.

Hawk helped Tiny get shovels as well as topsoil and sodding in big plastic totes ready to tear up and replace the ground where Roscoe had bled.

“That was mean,” Nadine said as she wrapped her arms around my waist. She’d picked up the plastic bag she’d dropped when Roscoe had backhanded her and was clutching it tightly between us.

I shrugged. “If he’s pussy enough to bitch about it, I’ll see if I can get him some good stuff to help him sleep.” I might have said that a little louder than strictly necessary.

“Fuck you, Pain.” Yeah, I was gonna have fun with this.

“Pain,” Nadine scolded. “Stop it.”

“What?” I gave her my best innocent look.

“Don’t give me that. You know exactly what. Gunnar was the victim there.”

“Of course, he was. He still screamed like a girl.”

“Because you jerked his shoulder back in place without warning! If you’d told him to take a deep breath, this was gonna hurt, he wouldn’t have screamed like that!”

I looked at her for a long moment. “You can still count it.” That got more laughs all around.

“What’s that?” I asked, fingering the sealed, thick plastic pack she held between us, though I already knew the answer. I just couldn’t believe she’d gone out for this.

“Birthing kit.”

“Of course, you left to get a precip kit,” I muttered.

“Because why the fuck not?” I didn’t even try to hold back my irritation.

“What the fuck, Nadine? I told you I am not, under any circumstances, delivering Tillie’s baby.

She will not have an emergency where I have to deliver the child here.

I will take her to the fuckin’ hospital myself if I have to. No. Hard fuckin’ limit.”

“Pain. We’ve been through this. It’s a precaution we need to take.”

I shook my head. “Nope. Nuh-uh.”

“Pain.” Her voice had a warning to it. Which might have been what I was going for, because it was turning me the fuck on.

“What?”

“Shut up. Take me home. Fuck me. In that order, Pain.”

I laughed then, feeling lighter than I had in weeks. “Come on, honey. Let them take out the trash. I need to get you home and look you over. I’m not sure how much more my heart can take of this shit.”

Nadine smiled up at me. The wicked gleam in her eyes was its own aphrodisiac. “Yeah. Let’s go play doctor.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me.

My new life made going to prison worth it.

And I’d be all the more protective because of it.

Nadine was the one person in the world who could bring me to my knees.

Funny thing was, I went voluntarily. If that meant I worshipped at her feet every fucking day for the rest of my life, nothing would make me happier.