V
A hand shaking my shoulder woke me with a start.
“What? What’s happening?”
Nicole was standing over me, her face taut with worry. “There’s men at the gates.”
I sat up, instantly awake. “What kind of men? Dad?”
“No, those rough looking guys who stopped us out on the street. They’re banging on the gate and demanding to be let in.”
“Shit.”
The Blood Legion and Leon Millen, no doubt. What had happened?
I reached out and grabbed both my phone and gun from under my pillow. Swiping through the phone, I located Dylan’s number. Had Dylan and his crew been giving the Blood Legion a hard time, despite me telling them to let them have the business?
I called his number, and he answered on the first ring. “Verity?”
I didn’t bother saying hi. “Any idea why I’ve got half of the Blood Legion trying to break down my gate?”
“What?” He sounded as surprised as I was.
“Yeah, those sons-of-bitches are hammering on my gate like they’re trying to escape a zombie horde. I thought you might know something about it.”
“Nope. Not me. We’ve been doing exactly what you said and letting them have the business as long as they promised not to hurt anyone else. Not that we haven’t been getting complaints about it, but as far as we know, there hasn’t been any more physical violence.”
“Dammit.”
What the hell did they want, then?
“You want me to come over, bring some of the guys?”
I didn’t like accepting help, but it was just me and Nicole in the house. The memory of being stopped in the street the last time was still fresh in my mind, including the threats they’d made to Nickie, and I didn’t want to take any risks.
“Yeah, okay. Thanks, Dylan.”
“I’ll be there in fifteen. Be careful.”
I hung up, and then placed a second call. It wasn’t something I’d normally do, but I had the feeling this was going to turn ugly.
Quickly, I pulled on my standard outfit of maternity jeans and a loose shirt, then Nicole and I ran downstairs. I checked the security cameras for the front gate. Sure enough, there were Leon and his friends, with a couple of ridiculous sized, souped-up trucks behind them.
“What are we going to do?” asked Nicole. “Do we wait for Dylan to get here?”
“They’re only going to get more pissed the longer we leave them out there. I need to find out what they want.”
I went to the intercom and pressed the buzzer to allow me to speak to them. “Leon,” I said, watching the camera to make sure he’d heard me. He turned toward the speaker and then looked up at the camera. “What are you doing here? I gave you what you wanted.”
He leaned in. “Callum Hooper is dead.”
I frowned. “Who?”
“Our main guy on the inside. The same one who threatened your guy. You want to tell me what the fuck is going on?”
“I have no idea,” I said honestly. “I don’t even know who this guy is.”
“No? Well, we also have another one of our guys inside being charged for his murder.”
“So they had some kind of beef with each other inside? I really don’t see what this all has to do with me.”
Should I let them inside or not? I didn’t want to. Hell, every part of me screamed to keep them locked out, that it would be safer for us, but then I couldn’t control what they’d do to X on the inside. They had contacts that I didn’t, and even if the main guy had been killed, it didn’t mean there weren’t plenty of others willing to carry out Leon’s dirty work.
Had X been responsible for killing this Callum guy? I wouldn’t put it past him. After all, killing was his job. Rare anger toward X bubbled up inside of me. Why would he have taken that risk when I was doing what I could out here to get him free? I’d given away part of my business to keep him safe, and he was playing God while behind bars. I thought I knew him better than that. He was supposed to have been keeping his head down while I found proof that would set him free. If someone discovered he was responsible, it wouldn’t matter if I proved he’d never killed Harvey Baglione. He would go down for Callum Hooper’s murder instead.
No, I was making too many assumptions. I didn’t know for sure that X had killed Callum. Leon said himself that another guy had been accused of the murder, even though he denied the killing. If it had been X, he must have had good cause. He wouldn’t do anything rash to risk our future. He’d only do something so drastic if he thought his own life was in danger, wouldn’t he?
Whatever had happened, I needed to talk Leon down. He had the contacts inside, and if I didn’t convince him X had nothing to do with this guy’s death, I didn’t doubt he’d use them.
I leaned in and spoke into the microphone. “I’m opening the gates.”
Nicole hissed at me. “What are you doing?”
“I don’t have any choice. Keeping them locked out only makes me look uncooperative and guilty.”
“Ah, shit.”
“Don’t worry,” I tried to reassure her. “Dylan and his men will be here soon. They’ll have our backs.”
“Yeah, right up until the point our father shows back up, and then we’ll both be screwed.”
I knew she had a point, but I couldn’t worry about our dad right now. We had more immediate problems on our hands.
I leaned in and hit the button to open the gates.
The moment there was enough space, both of the big vehicles barreled through onto the property. Leon hadn’t bothered to climb back in, and he strode along beside them. A number of other men jumped out, leaving the doors open. I recognized several of them from when they’d ambushed us on the street, and another from the church the other day. With shaved heads and covered in tattoos, these guys looked like they meant business.
I approached Leon, my hand on my hip where I could feel the shape of my gun beneath my shirt. “I don’t know what you expect from me, Leon. I know nothing about what’s going on inside.”
“I want payment for my guy’s life, that’s what I want.”
“Money?” I said.
“We want more business. Things are gonna be tough for our gang inside without Callum and Shawn to run things.”
“This is bullshit. You don’t even know it was my guy who killed him.”
“Shawn would never have done anything to Callum. They’re white brothers. They had each other’s backs for years. Then your guy comes on the scene, and now this. We’re gonna be feeling Callum’s loss for years to come, so you better make things right.”
A low roar of approval rose from his men at his little speech.
I gritted my teeth. “I’m not giving you anything. We had an agreement. I haven’t broken it.”
Leon’s lip curled. “Fine. If you won’t give us any more business, we’ll take a life for a life.”
“What?”
“You heard me,” he said with a snide smile. “We could make some extra dollars with one of you two. Men will pay good money to do whatever the fuck they want to you.”
I bristled, my fingers tightening around the handle of my gun. “You stay the hell away from us. What do you think my father’s going to do if he saw you’d been trying to pimp out one of his daughters?”
“Yeah, where is your father lately? Seems to me like he’s left you ladies in the lurch. I’m wondering if he’s got himself in a bit of trouble. Maybe he’s never coming back, and this whole city is open to a takeover.”
“You’re wrong. He’ll be back, and he’ll kill every one of you if you hurt either of us.”
Frustratingly, Leon laughed. “You know what, I think that’s bullshit. I think he’s not coming back, and you two are in way over your heads.” He looked to the men beside him. “Now, which one of these two bitches is gonna be payment for Callum?”
“You’re not taking either of us,” I snarled, my hand edging beneath the hem of my shirt, ready to pull my weapon. I didn’t want to start shooting, but I wasn’t going to let this asshole lay a finger on us either.
They looked us both over. “Not the one with the tattoos,” said the man standing beside Leon. “She’s getting fat. Take the young one, instead.”
“No! Don’t you fucking touch her.”
They ignored me, and the guy who’d commented stepped forward. I pulled my gun, but instantly found three more weapons pointed directly at my head. Nicole let out a shriek, and then more of the men were moving, stepping in behind us. One of them grabbed her, pulling her arms behind her back, though she wriggled and fought against him. There were too many of them—eight against our two. I couldn’t shoot all of them. If I even tried, I’d end up dead.
“You fucking bastard,” I snarled at Leon.
He laughed. “Come on, let’s get her out of here.”
“No!” Nicole yelled.
The man who had hold of her joined in the laughter and started to pull her toward the front door. He barely made it through the open doorway. A gun jammed to the back of his head, and a figure moved into view.
Dylan.
“You heard what the lady said. Let go of the girl.”
Leon curled a lip. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”
Dylan’s gaze flicked to me. “I work for the Guerra family, and I’m sure as hell not going to have some asshole come along and try to take liberties. Now let go of Nicole or I’ll blow your friend’s fucking head off.”
Leon nodded at the man who had hold of Nicole. He must have released his grip, as she yanked out of it and hurried to stand back at my side.
“You okay?” I asked her.
She nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Leon,” I said, straightening. “Our business dealings are over. Don’t come anywhere near my family again, or I’ll make sure you’re the ones who end up pimped out. Got it?”
He didn’t get the chance to answer. The screech of a fast-moving car on the driveway caught everyone’s attention. I’d left the gates open when the Blood Legion had driven through.
“What the fuck?” said Leon. He exchanged a look with his men, and they moved outside to see who the new arrival was.
I quickly hid my weapon, nodding to Dylan to do the same, and went to join Leon outside.
A familiar figure climbed out of the unmarked car. Detective Caraway, and he wasn’t alone. Three other police officers were with him, and all four of the officers were pointing their weapons at the gang. I’d known they were coming. I’d called the detective to tell him what was happening before I’d let Leon through the gates.
“What the fuck is this?” Leon demanded of me. “I should have known you were in the cops’ pockets.”
“Hello, Detective,” I said, ignoring him. “These men are part of a gang called Blood Legion. They’re also responsible for the attack on Mr. and Mrs. Albrech who run a store downtown.”
The detective nodded. “We’re already familiar with Leon and the Blood Legion.” He directed his next statement at the white supremacist. “You been causing trouble again, Leon? Armed, too? You know that’s a violation of your parole.”
I hadn’t known he was out on parole, but this was good news. The asshole would end up inside and out of my way, though I hoped he wasn’t going to be put into the same jail as X.
Leon must have had the same thought. He pointed a finger at me, and Detective Caraway grabbed his arms and yanked them behind his back.
“Your boy inside is going to die,” yelled Leon, as he was dragged away. “You hear me, bitch?”
My stomach twisted. Had I just signed X’s death warrant?
“Don’t worry, Verity,” said Dylan, glancing over at me. “We’ll get him out before anything happens. I’ve finally found the cleaner.”