Page 40

CHAPTER 40

Billie

T he sun was just coming over the horizon as I sat down at my newly righted dining room table. Tears were streaming down my face and my hands shook so hard I could barely dial the number on my phone.

Isla sat to my right, staring down at the table with a grim expression while petting my hair as sobs tore from my throat. She didn’t seem very practiced at offering comfort, yet still, it was helping.

“Yes.”

The man who answered the phone sounded…polished. I didn’t know how else to explain it. “You won,” I croaked.

There was a pause, then he spoke again. “I’ll need you to explain what that means.”

“You can have Cholla Summit Ranch,” I cried, slamming my fist into the wooden table. “You didn’t have to do this.” A few more sobs slipped out.

“I see my men were able to convince you,” he all but purred into the phone.

The arrogant tone of his voice made me angry, but what could I do? “You killed him,” I hissed at him. “You didn’t have to do this!”

“Are you talking about the man who made this go on for far longer than it needed to?” When I didn’t respond, he said, “Good. This was his fault to begin with. This could have been handled without all the bloodshed.”

I didn’t point out that they’d started the bloodshed by beating up my grandpa. “I loved him,” I said with a shuddered breath.

“I’m going to need to speak to Jeremiah. Not that I don’t trust you, but you’ve been a real pain in my ass. You understand.” It wasn’t a question.

Without a word, I handed the phone over and listened as the deep voice standing behind me spoke with Brently. Isla leaned forward and patted my hand, as if this kind of thing happened every day and she wasn’t surprised to be caught up in it. She’d come with the others when they came to help us. And now we were here.

“You’ll meet me,” Brently said into the phone. “My men will bring you to the spot. You’ll come alone. Otherwise, anyone with you will die beside you.”

“Okay,” I whispered. It was a tortured sound. Losing Toxic. Losing my ranch. It was all too much and it made my stomach knot and twist. I swallowed past the lump in my throat as tears continued to track down my cheeks.

“You’ll sign over your ranch to me. I’ll pay you what I offered. I’m a fair man after all. Then we’ll go our separate ways.”

Fair. He was fucking cruel. This all started because of money. He wanted what was underneath my land and didn’t care who he had to kill in order to get it.

“Agreed?” he prompted.

“What else can I do?” I whispered. “Agreed.”

“I look forward to meeting you in person, Billie.”

The line disconnected and I sat the phone down on the table. There was silence for a few seconds, then I wiped the tears from my cheeks and gave the men standing around the table a smug grin. “Told you he’d believe me. Take that Mrs. Delaqua.”

“Who?” Isla asked with a laugh.

“The lady who ran the kid’s plays. She told me I had other skills, but that acting wasn’t one of them.” I gave her a smug smile.

Toxic squatted down until we were face to face and gave me a firm look. “Remind me not to ever believe it when you pull the crying routine, Lightning.” He stood, plucked me out of the chair, and sat down with me in his lap. “Fucking still killed me to hear you sobbing like that.”

“How did you do that?” Isla asked, looking impressed.

Shrugging, my cheeks heated as I admitted, “I just thought about if I’d actually lost Toxic last night.” I swallowed as more tears sprang to my eyes. If I’d been told that I’d care about him this much after such a short amount of time, I’d have laughed in the person’s face. But I did. I loved him. Watching him disappear out my front door to confront armed killers in the darkness, alone, had nearly undone me.

“Good job,” Lockout told me, giving me a grateful look. “And it’s a good thing you sound like every generic white guy,” Lock told Smokehouse with a grin.

Smoke rolled his eyes. “It was a gamble to have me talk to Brently.”

“He would’ve thought it was a set up if he didn’t speak to one of his men,” Toxic said, his hand rubbing soothing circles on the top of my thigh as he held me close.

“It is a set up,” Butcher pointed out with a malicious grin. “Now we just have to wait until tomorrow.” He rubbed his hands together. “Then we get to have some fucking fun. Selfish asshole here kept the party to himself last night.”

“You never answered your phone,” I pointed out.

Butcher opened his mouth to answer, but Toxic cut him off.

“ I get to have fun,” Toxic corrected him. He scowled over at Lockout. “The two of you aren’t ruining it for me again. If anyone deserves to kill Brently it’s me. I’m the one he sent these fuckers after.”

“Pretty sure it was your lady,” Daryl pointed out.

Toxic shrugged, the movement jostling me a little. “Exactly. She’s mine. He came after me. I get to kill him.”

Lock sighed, as though it personally aggrieved him to allow this. “Fine. You get to kill him. But he won’t be alone, and you’re not going to be either. It’s going to be a free for all for the rest of his men.”

“Acceptable,” Toxic said, agreeing to Lockout’s terms.

I shook my head. “You guys are weird.”

“Why?” Riptide asked with a chuckle. “Because we’re arguing over who gets to kill people?”

I nodded, looking around at them. They’d already reassured me that they’d left Hush, Idaho, Static, and a few of the others back at the clubhouse to watch over the families. The rest had come to the rescue. I knew it was because Toxic was in trouble, but it still did funny things to my insides that they’d come to help me as well. Lockout, Warrant, and Daryl hadn’t left my side until all the gunfire had stopped and the silence had crept back into the night.

It was obvious, judging by this conversation, that they would have rather gone to join the fight, but they’d stuck close to me. I was grateful. But what was more, I felt like I belonged . Whether it was true or not, I was choosing to believe it.

“Decided to bring your helicopter out instead of the bike, huh?” Toxic asked, grinning at Lockout.

“Had to go pick this asshole up,” Lockout said, pointing his thumb at Warrant. “He wanted to join in the fun.”

Toxic had mentioned that both he and Lockout had been pilots in the military, but I had no idea he had his own helicopter until it had landed on my ranch last night.

“Well, you have your first kill now,” Isla said, patting my shoulder. “You should understand.”

“Not really,” I said after a moment, then laughed when she frowned at me.

“Really?”

I gave her an apologetic look. “I’m pretty sure the only reason I didn’t puke afterward is because I really needed to get Gus somewhere safe before he tried to kill us all.”

“Does that count as her first kill?” Butcher asked out loud. “The bull did all the work.”

“So does your gun. Besides, I shot someone inside the house, too. Daryl saw it,” I pointed out, crossing my arms over my chest. As soon as the words popped out of my mouth, I gave Toxic a look of disbelief. “You guys are making me just as crazy as you are.”

He chuckled and squeezed me. “Welcome to the family, Lightning.”

The rest of the men, and Isla, laughed and started teasing Butcher about the fact that killing with a bull was just as legit as killing with a gun. They didn’t seem to care that I’d shot a man first. The interest was now in bull related murders.

I focused on Toxic and laid my head on his chest. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he countered, then frowned down at me. “Remind me to have a talk with you about following orders. Stay inside the house means don’t go outside. It definitely doesn’t mean sneak into an area where there are four gunmen and release a homicidal bull on them.”

Looking up at him, I searched his gaze, then gave a sheepish smile. “Worked didn’t it?”

He snorted at that. “And we’re going to need to have a talk about that fucking bull, too.”

“He’s fine,” I said, defending my animal. “He just doesn’t like strangers. He’s never harmed me or anyone who I’ve introduced him to.”

“Good thing I didn’t meet him on the first day. I’d have put a bullet through his head.”

“He’s out in the fields with his ladies ninety percent of the time,” I argued. “Gus won’t be a problem in the future. In fact, now he gets to live out the rest of his life here, safe. I can’t send him to the butcher after he saved us all.”

Toxic grunted. “Fine, but if he steps one hoof out of line with you, he’s hamburger.”

I grinned up at Toxic. “You’re seriously so overprotective.”

“Overprotective?” he growled. “A fuck ton of men just snuck onto your ranch and tried to kill you. I’d say I’m the right amount of protective.”

Cupping his cheeks, I kissed him. “Thank you,” I whispered. I shook my head in disbelief. “You didn’t have to do any of this. You didn’t have to get involved. Not only have you taken care of my ranch, but you’ve taken care of me, and saved my life. I don’t really know how to repay you for that.”

“You’ve already given me what I want.” When my brows drew together in confusion, he clarified, “You.”

“I don’t understand you,” I admitted. “You could have any woman you want-”

“The only one I want is you. And you made me work hard for you, Woman,” he said with a growl.

I laughed. “I didn’t really think you were doing all this for…me. I thought you were doing it for Keely. Because she asked for your help.”

“That’s what got me out here in the first place,” he said with a nod, “but you’re why I stayed.”

“This is so fucking sweet,” Smoke said, interrupting us. He was mockingly clutching at his heart. Everyone laughed at that.

“Oh fuck off,” Toxic told him, still staring into my eyes. “Otherwise I’ll have the sneaky little hellions spy on you and give me a list of all the sweet things you say to your old lady.”

Smoke, and all the others, shut up pretty quickly.

“But seriously,” Lock spoke up, dragging our attention away from one another. “We’re glad to see that you’ve finally found your old lady.”

“Finally admitted she’s yours,” Ricochet added.

“More like finally convinced her he’s worth being with,” Smoke pointed out.

Toxic flipped them all off, but he was grinning as much as they were.

Shaking my head again, I looked over and found Isla smiling at me. “What?”

“You’ll get used to the way they interact,” she said.

“Like you’re any better?” Hellfire asked her.

“Fair enough,” she said with a laugh. “But she’ll still get used to it.”

It shocked me last night when Toxic’s voice had come out of the darkness. He’d walked into the lights from the helicopter and at his back were six more of his hulking biker brothers, all armed to the teeth. Isla had shown up a few minutes later, after checking the perimeter.

Now they were all piled in my little farmhouse. They were huge men, and it was making me realize that my home wasn’t big enough. Not if we were going to have gatherings out here. And not if we were going to have more than a kid or two.

My eyes widened at the realization that my brain was now on board with what my heart and body have wanted the entire time. I might have admitted to him before that I loved him, but now I was picturing a future with him. Visions of white weddings and chubby cheeked babies were starting to pop up. But this wasn’t over yet. Dread tightened in my chest.

“I don’t know if I want you to go,” I admitted, looking up at Toxic again. His brothers and Isla were all busy taunting each other, so no one was paying attention to our conversation anymore.

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“To confront Brently tomorrow. I-I don’t want any of you to go.”

“Billie,” he said, tone patient, “we have to go. I can’t let this fucker live. We’ll always be waiting until the day he sends more of his men after us. And he will.”

“I know,” I whispered. “I just can’t stand the thought of anything happening to you. To any of you.”

“Nothing will,” I reassured her. “If last night didn’t give you an idea of what we can do-”

“It did,” I said, interrupting him. “I don’t doubt your abilities. I’m just scared.”

He kissed me, easing the worry that was building up inside of me. “Don’t worry. By nightfall tomorrow it’ll be over.”