NINETEEN
Giovanni’s
Seven
Toni was showing off her spectacular hickey on her left boob when Trey walked into our shared office. “Um.” He froze in place. “Am I interrupting something?”
“Oh!” Toni hastily shoved her double Ds back into her shirt, smiling apologetically as I fell into hysterics. “Sorry, sugar. I just had to show it off. You know how it is.”
A smile spread across Trey’s face as he approached. “Sure I do.” Then he turned to me. “Hey.”
“Hey.” It was the first time I’d seen him since the incident at Neptune’s. As his eyes roamed over my features in an intimate caress, I suddenly felt anxious again. Oh God, why was he still here? What was he going to say?
Noticing the sudden change in mood, Toni rolled away on her office chair to hide, no doubt to eavesdrop from the safety of her own desk. But Trey took one look at her and Toni’s shoulders slumped. “Okay, fine.” She sulked like a child being told she couldn’t have the last piece of chocolate until tomorrow. “I’ll give you some privacy and wait outside.”
“Thanks,” Trey said to her retreating back. When he turned back to me, my anxiety spiked. I was all alone with him, with no one to help me if something went wrong.
“Seven, you kill me, you know that? I come in here mad, but once I set my eyes on you, all that anger disappears.”
I honestly had no idea what he was talking about. “Trey, look. You’ve been a great friend. But—”
“A friend?” He took a step towards me. “Is that all I am to you? After everything we’ve been through? Even after that amazing night together?” What else was I supposed to call him though? I had decided that I no longer wanted to lie to myself anymore. But in trying to rectify things, I’d be hurting him instead. “I thought about what you said,” he continued. “And I think you’re wrong.”
“Wrong?”
“I knew there would be a risk when getting involved with someone you work with, but I couldn’t help myself with you. That night we spent together proved it. It was like everything felt normal again, like before the flares. Didn’t you feel it too?”
Admittedly, the only thing I felt after that night was regret. I shouldn’t have strung Trey along like that, giving him a piece of me that had already been claimed by someone else. After everything I had done, I knew I had to go through with this, no matter how awkward it would be between us at work. “I don’t know how to say this, Trey. You’re a good guy, but—”
His head dropped and he laughed bitterly. “There’s always a but, isn’t there?” I offered him a smile in response. “Come on, Seven. You have to admit we’re good together.”
In a reality far different from this one, it was possible. But not in this world. Not when there was someone else walking on this earth whose presence alone gave me heart palpitations. “I think you’ll make a woman really happy one day,” I told him.
Trey shook his head. “Why can’t she be you?”
“She can’t be me.” Because my heart already belonged to someone else.
Sensing he was losing ground, Trey moved in, making me suddenly feel claustrophobic by his immense size. He grabbed a hold of my hand, squeezing it tightly as if he could physically stop me from leaving him.
Before he could say anything, the sounds of angry shouts alerted me that something was going on downstairs. “What the hell is that?”
Trey craned his head out the window that overlooked the factory below. His eyes quickly scanned the area. “I don’t know.”
More shouts sounded then, followed by a crash of metal. I pushed Trey away from me, heading for the ground level.
Men dressed for war held scary looking firearms in their hands. They surrounded G, giving him no space to move. Who the hell were these guys? And what were they doing here?
Around them, the machines were damaged, pieces of it torn off and scattered across the floor. Had that been the crashing sounds I heard earlier?
There was more though. The fabric from that machine was ruined. A week’s work of labor that took many hands and many hours to make was gone in a blink of an eye.
“Last chance,” said the man who I assumed was the leader. He was the only one out of the bunch who wore slacks and a button-up shirt while the others wore black. Through the collar of his shirt, I could see that he wore a bulletproof vest beneath his clothing. “What’s your answer?”
What was his answer to what? G spun around, fury a dark mask over his features. “Fuck you!”
All the leader had to do was nod once before all hell broke loose. I ducked as shots were fired in all directions and screams echoed in my ears.
“You bastards!” G called out, going for one of the armed men. My eyes widened as G was struck hard.
“Noo!” I rushed towards him. “G, are you okay?” At first glance, I thought that maybe he’d been knocked unconscious but then he turned his head slightly, the fire in his eyes still burning hot like lava.
“Seven,” he whispered feverishly. “These men—” I held up a hand to keep him from explaining. I now knew who they were.
I’d heard rumors circulating about the Phantoms—the dangerous men who raided businesses and forced them to pay protection money. I just didn’t think they would target Giovanni’s. The Phantoms were no more than bullies in the post-flare world, trying to use coercion, force and threats to impose their domination over others. “I know. I know. It’s okay,” I soothed gently. “I’m going to fix this. But I need you to stop yelling, okay?” The more G protested, the more damage they would do to the factory. “Just trust me to handle this.”
Suddenly, hands gripped me and I was being yanked away. G reached for me. “Don’t touch her!”
Spinning, I glared at the man who had grabbed me. “Why are you doing this?”
The leader’s eyes were cuts of amber. “Your friend forced my hand.” His voice was a low, menacing growl as he tightened his grip more firmly on my bicep.
“He doesn’t owe you any money!”
“Oh, but he does,” he replied in a deathly calm voice. “And until he agrees to pay, we will continue to burn this motherfucker down.”
Burn? At first, shock blasted through me. But then fury simmered to a boiling point, hate matching hate. “You won’t get away with this.”
The leader of the Phantoms looked completely unfazed by my threat. “Try to stop us then.”
I struck out, blinded by rage. My fist hit bone in an agonizing crack but he only grunted before he backhanded me hard enough to have me stumbling back on my ass. Now my face and my hand were blazes of pain.
Trey jumped forward then, going for a right hook, but the man with amber eyes blocked it easily and landed his own punch. I could hear the sickening breaking of bone before Trey went down, crying out before the leader pressed the barrel of a pistol against the back of his head.
“Don’t move,” Amber Eyes growled. His eyes cut to me. “Try something again and I’ll make sure he suffers.” He bent his head over Trey’s, close enough to whisper in his ear. The words were faint, but I could hear the threat loud and clear. “Ever had the barrel of a gun up your ass, pretty boy?”
A cold sweat broke over Trey’s skin. His face was a mirror of pain as he gripped his side. Then he was being dragged away by one of the others before I could shout for him.
Five loud pops ripped through the air to my left and I turned just in time to see a body drop to the ground. The man’s body jerked once before falling still. A pool of blood spread around him. Oh God. I recognized him as one of the lead hands. “You son of a bitch.” How could they do this? How could they storm in here and kill in cold blood?
More shots rang out and in my mind, the image of more bodies falling to the ground flashed. The Phantoms were more dangerous than I could’ve ever anticipated. I heard they were ruthless, but this was horror on a whole other level. How was I going to stop this?
The blaring sounds of the security alarms went off and everyone, including the Phantoms, stopped to look around.
Amber Eyes released me to scan the area, eyes darting over the entire factory all at once, but when he couldn’t find anything, he turned to G. “Turn it off.”
“Fuck you,” G spat back.
Toni. It had to be Toni who had set the alarm off! The distraction gave me a chance to break free. I ran for all that I was worth, ducking and swerving as Amber Eyes yelled after me. Shots were fired, narrowly missing me by inches.
Help! I needed to call for help! But where had I left my phone?
The office.
Bullets whizzed by me as I sprinted back up the stairs. Praying that a flare hadn’t suddenly come on, I held my breath as I burst into the offices, grabbing my phone before ducking behind a desk. The ringing seemed to go on forever. “Dammit, Lucky!” As I held the phone up to my ear, my eyes darted around for any trouble. “Pick up your goddamn phone!”
I wanted to weep with relief when I heard his voice on the other end of the line. “Lucky! You have to help! Giovanni’s is under attack! The Phantoms—” Sounds of footsteps sounded behind me and I suddenly fell silent.
“Whoa, whoa, calm down, Seven. I can’t understand anything when you’re speaking that quickly.”
“I need you,” I breathed, sick with helplessness and fear.
“I’m coming. Are you okay?”
“Y—yes.”
“Stay that way, babe. Just hold on until I get there.”
“Wait!” I whispered fiercely before he could hang up. “Some of the others . . .” I didn’t have to continue. He understood. Some of the others were already dead.
Over the line, I could hear the sounds of an engine starting. “Don’t do anything to provoke them, okay? Just wait for Glory MC to arrive.”
“Okay,” I promised. And then the line went shut.
Lucky
Before heading to Ward Two, I sent off a mass text to the rest of Glory MC.
These motherfucking Phantoms never gave up, did they? Since finding their headquarters, they had scattered like rodents. Now it seemed that they were looking to take back their power.
“Tell me exactly what the fuck we’re walking into,” the vice-prez of Glory demanded as we skidded to a stop in front of the textile factory about thirty minutes later.
Shots rang out from inside, echoing loudly in the night air. “Does that answer your question?” I pushed past him and pulled my pistol out.
“Fucking A.” Hastie followed, mirroring my movements. “The Phantoms are here?”
“You wanted that face-to-face, right? Well, I got you one.” Hastie shook his head, lines of frustration creasing his forehead. “But Seven’s in there. So I need to get her out first.”
“This is so fucked up,” he muttered. “All right, let’s do this.”
As more shouts sounded from inside, I didn’t dare waste any more time. Hastie pushed through the doors, charging in as the rest of us followed. Immediately, shots were fired. Screams echoed in my ears. Adrenaline surged through my body as my eyes scanned the surroundings, noticing the damage and the bodies littering the floor. I froze, scanning for a blonde.
A man in white caught my attention first. He stood out like a neon sign as he stood over a man I assumed was Giovanni.
Suddenly the man in white barked out an order and a rain of fire came down on Glory MC. I ducked to hide behind a big machine. I didn’t know what its intended use was but it was doing a good job of shielding me from the bullets at the moment.
“Find Seven,” Hastie ordered, ducking as a bullet went flying by his head. “We’ll take care of this.”
Fine by me. “See that guy?” I said, motioning towards Giovanni. “Don’t put a bullet in his head.”
“Why?”
“He’s the owner of this place. It’d be nice if I didn’t have to tell Seven you killed her boss.”
Hastie nodded. “Roger that.” He popped up and fired off some shots just as I darted out from behind the machine, desperate to locate Seven. She had to be somewhere in the offices upstairs if she had gotten good enough reception to call me.
Up here, many of the rooms had locks and I prayed that she was safely hiding in one of them. I scanned each room, moving onto the next one when it came up empty.
A cry caused ice to fill my veins. Bolting forward, I found Seven being pinned down by one of the men in a dark room. The front of her top was ripped opened, exposing her chest and another man hovered over her, undoing his pants.
Rage filled my vision. I wasted no time, popping three bullets into each of them. As they dropped before me, Seven gasped, tears streaming down her face. “Are you okay?” I asked her.
“Oh God, what took you so long?”
“I came here as fast as I could.” Rubbing her tears away with a hand, she used the other to try to keep her top together. “Here, wear this.” Removing my cut, I draped it over her shoulders.
“Thanks.” She glanced down briefly at the two men at her feet. “I didn’t get a chance to use this.”
“Use what?”
When she lifted up an object in her hand, I realized it was a letter opener. “You were going to fight off two Phantoms with a letter opener?”
She let out one choked laughed. “It was better than a stapler.”
Her jokes may have been lame, but I’d never been happier to hear the laughter in her voice. “Come on. We need to get out of here.”
Just then, my phone beeped. I pulled it out to see I’d received a text from Hastie: All clear. Boss is safe. That was a relief.
“Where is G?” Seven asked. “Trey and Toni must be around here, too.”
“We’ll find them. We have the place surrounded. And G is with Hastie right now.”
“I want to see him.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Down below, there were a lot of dead bodies. I didn’t want her seeing that.
But Seven was already stepping over the two Phantoms I had just killed. I called after her, but she didn’t stop.
On a curse, I followed her until we reached the bottom of the stairs. She stopped when she reached the carnage and I gently took a hold of her arm. “Come on. I’ll take you to see G if you want. But you don’t need to see this.”
“There’s so much blood.” Devastation filled her words but she did allow me to pull her away.
“Your boss is through here.” The moment she stepped into the room, Giovanni looked up, an expression of relief flashing over his features. They embraced, and I was thankful that Hastie had managed to follow my instructions earlier.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Did they hurt you?”
“No, I got away. But that man—”
“That man, their leader, is currently being taken away by Kitt,” G said.
“You didn’t kill him?” I asked Hastie.
He shook his head. “I wasn’t sure whether or not to.”
With his hands tied around his back, the leader of the Phantoms didn’t look so invincible now. I didn’t like the way he was eyeing Seven. And when her eyes met his, flashing with hatred, I knew he’d hurt her.
“Keep him,” I said without thought. “I want some time with him.”
With a nod, Hastie conveyed the message to Kitt and the sergeant at arms pulled the Phantom away, leaving the rest of Glory MC to deal with the dead.