My irritation at Alder had reached the point of explosion as I stepped out of The Baker’s Cottage. I definitely needed to get the fuck out before I went back in there and grabbed Katie, told Alder to fuck off, and got the hell out of town. But when I looked down the alley, instead of a straight shot to my parking spot in the back, I saw Bishop’s smug face behind the windshield of his truck.

Irritation turned to curiosity, but that didn’t stop me from beelining it in his direction.

“Thought you were coming back tomorrow,” I said as I hopped into the passenger seat. “Alder know you’re here?”

“You really think my brother would send you to a job site when Katie’s at risk?”

No. Probably not, which finally turned my anger into a feeling close to excitement. Mission time. “So, what’s the situation?”

“We found Rock.”

Motherfucker. The man who’d grabbed Katie, who’d caused her to burn her hands, who’d stolen my gun. The afternoon was looking up. “Where?”

“He’s at the Soul Suckers clubhouse over the county line. We’ve got about forty minutes before he’s set to leave. Some sort of errand for the Pres. Parris promises he’ll be alone.”

Parris. Deacon’s friend, former Marine, and a member of a motorcycle club himself, though not the Soul Suckers. I didn’t care for any of them, though—didn’t matter the colors on their backs. Not after all that had happened in the last few months. But Alder and Deacon trusted Parris, so I’d follow their lead… Until he proved me wrong.

I buckled in as Bishop pulled out of the alley. “Katie’s going to know something’s up if Anabeth comes strolling into the restaurant.”

“She won’t be,” he said, his words clipped and concise. “Finn’s keeping an eye on her at my place.”

His youngest brother, former addict, and the man who’d almost killed Anabeth back in high school. True, it’d been somewhat accidental—no way the kid could have known she’d react so badly to whatever drug they’d been doing at the time—but that didn’t mean Bishop had forgiven him. Or trusted him.

“You sure that’s a good idea?”

“Fuck no, but she’s sick, and I wasn’t leaving her in Vegas. Deacon’s on the roof keeping an eye on Main Street while we take care of this shit, and Camden’s MIA, so Finn gets the job.”

Ah, so Alder assigned him there. No wonder Bishop was so pissed about it. “So this will be a quick job—in and out.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely. No way am I leaving Anabeth alone overnight.”

Good, because Katie wasn’t spending a whole night without me around either. “So what’s Alder’s plan?”

“Alder isn’t laying out the rules today. It’s you and me.” Bishop held out his fist, giving me the chance to bump it as he roared down the highway. “We do this our way. Show up, grab the guy, beat the fuck out of him, and get your gun back. Easy.”

“Nothing’s ever that easy.”

“Yeah, well, we’ve got women to get home to, so we’re going to have to make it that easy.”

The plan went better than I would have expected. Rock left the clubhouse just as Parris had said he would—at the right time and all alone in his car. No bike, which made our job that much easier. We followed a good distance behind him until he reached a secluded part of the highway, then Bishop played bumper cars with him until he finally drove off the road.

Step one: easy.

My first sighting of the burns on his face—the ones Katie had caused when she hit him with that hot pan—made me both oddly proud and irrationally pissed. Bastard deserved a hell of a lot more for grabbing her, but she’d held her own. Of course, if I’d been a little faster or more observant, we likely wouldn’t have been in a situation where she’d needed to defend herself anyway.

Fuck, that guilt was a heavy burden to carry.

I’d make it up to her, though. Gloves on and scowl in place, I tightened my grip on my gun and hurried to the car door with Bishop right on my heels. He’d gone in first when we’d taken out the fucker holding Anabeth hostage. This guy had hurt my girl, so it was my turn to lead the mission.

A job I didn’t take lightly. “Get the fuck out of the car, or I’ll burn you out.”

Rock opened the door, holding his hands above his head and looking like a man who knew his number was up. “You don’t want to do this, man.”

“Do what? We’re not doing anything. We’re not even here, are we, Bishop?”

“Nah. Not at all. We’re just a figure of your imagination working on getting a little payback.”

“See?” I said, keeping my gun trained on him as I shrugged. “We’re not really here. Consider us like the conscience you obviously don’t have—you came for my woman, so whatever we do to you? It’s justified. I mean, not that we’re going to do anything, since we’re not here and all.”

“Nope,” Bishop said, popping that P like a motherfucker. “Not here. So anything we do? Never happened.”

Rock looked from Bishop to me and back again. “He didn’t tell us anything about the girl, just to grab her and bring her to him.”

“He who?” Bishop asked. Not that I needed the confirmation. I knew the words Rock was going to say before he opened his mouth.

“Baker. He ordered the job.”

“And you carried it out.” I gave him a grin. “Or you tried to, really. Nice burns, by the way. Bet they hurt like a bitch.”

He didn’t like that. “Fuck you.”

“No thanks. My dick gets enough attention.” I nodded at Bishop, the signal that it was time to get down to the business of why we were there. “Where’s the gun you stole from me?”

Rock’s face went blank, a sure sign he was about to lie his fucking head off. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You think he’s telling the truth, Bish?”

“Not even close.”

“Yeah, me neither.” With every bit of strength I could muster, I kicked Rock in the knee, enjoying the satisfying crunch of his joint as my boot made contact. Getting even happier when he fell to the ground with an anguished sort of scream. One that wasn’t anywhere near as painful to listen to as Katie’s had been the night she’d burned her hands. I wanted more from him, and I’d get it. Just as soon as we accomplished our goal. “Where’s my fucking gun?”

“In the car,” Rock said with a gasp as he curled into the fetal position and clutched his knee. Bishop headed to the other side of the vehicle, tugging on his gloves before opening the passenger door and ducking inside to search. Me? I wasn’t done with Rock yet.

“Bet you wish you’d grabbed it when we came up behind you, don’t you?”

“Won’t matter,” he said, uncurling from his position and groaning as he tried to straighten his leg. “Whether I take you out today or one of the other guys does it tomorrow—you’re done.”

I leaned over, shoving my gun right in his face. “I think you’re the one who’s done, friend. The only question is how quick we’ll make it. Why did Baker want the girl?”

“Don’t know. He’s had a hard-on for her for years but said he couldn’t get her in Boulder or some shit.”

Denver, but I didn’t need to correct him. “He never mentioned his relationship with her?”

“What relationship?” he said, almost laughing. “The guy wanted her—said she owed him something. That was all I needed to know. I don’t plan the jobs, I just get the shit done.”

“Not this time.” I looked up as Bishop came back around the car.

“Looking for this?” He handed me my gun—my favorite Beretta—then pointed his own at Rock. “I think we’re done here. Unless our friend has anything else he wants to say?”

“Yeah.” Rock sat up and leaned against the side of the car, looking awfully pale. “You Justice fucks are all dead. Pistol’s going to raze the whole fucking town when he finds out. Maybe not your women, though. He might give them a pass.” He looked right at Bishop. “I hear he likes to make the redheads bleed.”

I saw Bishop’s face change, nearly felt the rage come over him. No way was I making him sit back and watch me do what he wanted to. Katie had gotten her own revenge—so long as the guy was in the ground, I’d have mine. “Take it, B.”

Bishop fired one shot—a clean hit to the center of the forehead. Job done. Rock slumped to the side, most likely dead. Though if he wasn’t, he would be soon enough.

“How are we handling cleanup?” I asked as I holstered my gun and tucked my Beretta into the back of my jeans. After checking it was unloaded, of course. No sense being an idiot and shooting myself in the ass when I had work to do.

“I say we take him out to the gorge and let his car go over the edge. An unfortunate accident for an unfortunate human.”

“You don’t think the bullet wound will be a little obvious?”

He shrugged, completely casual as he said, “We’ll leave the seat belt off and make sure the fucker burns at the bottom.”

That meant going to the bottom with him. “That’s a long hike down.”

“It’s gonna feel like a longer one coming back up, so let’s get moving. Trunk?”

I nodded. “Trunk.”

We hefted Rock into the trunk of his car, working together to keep the bloody parts away from our clothes. Once done, I slammed the lid and held out a fist to Bishop. “I’ll lead. You keep my six clear.”

“I do love riding your ass.”

If I didn’t love the man like a brother, I’d likely throw him into the gorge. But that would take time—one thing we didn’t have enough of. I wanted to get back to Justice, to Katie, and I knew Bishop felt the same about Anabeth. Which was why it took me completely off guard when he pulled me to a stop before I could get behind the wheel of Rock’s car.

“You know I’ve always got your back.”

As if I’d ever question that. “Yeah, man. I know.”

“No, I mean…” He glanced at the car then back at me. “If shit goes sideways here, I’ll be pulling off to get out of the way.”

Meaning if it looked like I’d get popped with a dead body in the trunk, he wouldn’t be sticking around to help me. It wasn’t personal—it was preservation. We wouldn’t leave a man behind, but we would make sure the mission got completed. I knew he’d do whatever it took to get me back out. “I know that too. We’re good.”

“Truth time? If you go down, I’m getting Anabeth the hell out of Justice. With Camden gone, there just aren’t enough trained men around for me to risk her.” He grabbed my arm, holding tight. Looking me square in the eye as he said, “And I’ll take Katie with me.”

Something inside my chest lurched. If anything went wrong, if I ended up in jail, Katie’d have no one to protect her. Bishop knew that…probably better than most because he’d just gotten Anabeth back right in the middle of all this shit. We’d already had to kill to keep his woman safe. Him promising to make sure mine would make it through under his guard? There were no words for how much that meant. Save for five.

“All in, all the time.”

He nodded once and let me go. “Let’s get this shit done. I want to go home.”