Chapter Six
Melissa
Jimmy didn’t want to stay at the offices for the rest of the day. If I had known what would happen back at the house, I would have begged to have stayed and worked. When we arrived, there were five men already inside. One was Tate, who stood near the bar. He gave me a grim look. Another guy I didn’t know sat on the couch in the living room with a cold pack on his face. He straightened when Jimmy and I entered, fear present in his eyes as Jimmy stopped right in front of him.
“Tell me who they were,” Jimmy demanded.
“No one I knew, but they did have vests on them.”
Smiling and doing the jig was out of option; instead, I schooled my features into a bored expression and looked at my nails.
“Vests?” Jimmy tensed.
The guy nodded and then winced. “Yeah, biker vests.”
Through clenched teeth, Jimmy bit out, “Did you catch the name on the vests?”
“Didn’t get a chance. They came in fast and took us out. I had mentioned there should have been more men.”
It was fast.
I didn’t see it coming, so neither did he.
Jimmy pulled a gun out and shot the man between the eyes. Blood sprayed everywhere. I screamed and tried to run from the room, but two men grabbed me.
“Be calm,” Tate whispered into my ear, but I couldn’t be calm. I saw the man’s brains on the wall behind him.
“Shut up!” Jimmy yelled.
Gulping back my emotions, I shook as Tate and the other man held me to my feet. If they hadn’t had me in a firm grip, I would have been a pile on the floor.
Jimmy had just shot someone.
Between the eyes.
In front of me.
Blood. So much blood.
Leaning forward, I gagged.
Jimmy was in my face, his hand connecting with my cheek. Pain radiated through my face. “Get yourself together,” he ordered.
Closing my eyes, I nodded and took in a deep breath, only to regret it when the coppery scent of blood filled my nose. I clenched my teeth together, straightened, and opened my eye. While my stomach rolled and I felt bile in my throat, I stood tall, shrugging off the men’s hold and glared at Jimmy.
He turned and snapped, “Fucking useless prick.” He stepped up and kicked the dead guy’s leg. “I want the feed from the alley. Marshal is taking too long. Melissa, sit down”—he pointed to a chair not far from the dead guy—“and get me the goddamn fucking feed. I want to know who these bikers are, and I want them to know they can’t mess with me.”
“Can I at least go into the kitchen?”
“No.” He stalked over to me, grabbed me by my hair, and dragged me to the chair, pushing me into it.
I bit back my frustrated anger and picked up the laptop in front of me, before sitting back, avoiding the dead man to my left.
While I worked on the computer, Jimmy paced the room, talking and yelling at his men about how stupid they all were.
Putting the room to the back of my mind, which was something I could always do when I worked, I flew through the system—one I’d designed for him—and pulled up the recorded footage of that morning in the alley. As I watched it, I noticed right away the jolt in the film. I smiled. It meant one of the Hawks men put the video on a loop. We had nothing.
Jimmy wasn’t going to like it.
Did I care? No.
“They messed with the camera in the alley and put it on a loop. We have nothing on who they were. We don’t even have you guys arriving with Della.”
My whole body relaxed in relief.
What I thought would happen was for Jimmy to fly off the deep end by screaming and ranting, so when he just stood there and stared at me, my heart picked up in a double-time pace.
“You knew them,” he stated.
Fuck!
Snorting, I placed the computer down and said, “How could I know some bikers?” I folded my arms over my chest and gave him a raised brow.
“Boss, I watched her the whole time she was away. She didn’t approach a biker,” Tate said. I hadn’t known he’d followed me and now he was lying for me.
Jimmy ignored Tate and asked, “Who was that friend you saw again?”
“Julian?” I laughed. “I told you he’s as gay as they come.”
“What was the problem you had to fix for him?”
Yes, Jimmy had been stupid enough to not ask anything more once I told him Julian was an old friend who was gay. Then again, since he had Tate following me, Tate would have told Jimmy something, but what?
Shit, I wasn’t sure if what I said would be the right thing. Still, I had to try.
I caught Tate’s shake of his head out the corner of my eyes. Licking my suddenly dry lips, I said, “Ah, his parents were giving him shit about being gay, and he wanted help to humiliate them.”
Jimmy’s eyes narrowed. My pulse jumped and raced as he came slowly my way. Leaning over me, I pulled my head back, to look up at him.
“You’re lying to me.”
“I’m not.”
He studied my face. His hand went around my neck where he tightened his grip. “What was the problem you had to fix for him?”
“H-his parents,” I gasped out and gripped his wrist, trying to pull it away from my throat.
“Boss,” Tate tried and took a step towards us, only to stop when Jimmy looked to him.
With his face back in mine, he spat, “Try again, what problem did you fix when you were away?”
A throat cleared. Guns were drawn and cocked, the room filled with eight bikers and Della.
Oh God. Della was with them? Why did they bring her? She shook as she stood close to a biker with a beard and tattoos over his arms. I didn’t know his name.
“That would be us. She fixed a problem for us.” Dallas’s smirk was sinister. “And now we’re fixing her problem.”
Jimmy straightened, grabbed my arm and hauled me up in front of him. “Where are my men?”
Pick snorted. “You mean the pussies outside? All taken out, and looks like you got a problem on the inside as well.” He lifted his chin to the dead man on the couch.
“What do you want with my wife?” Jimmy asked, ignoring the comment about his men.
“She’s not your wife. She’s mine. You forced her to marry you by threatening her people. We don’t take to threats well,” Dallas said. His eyes flicked to one of Jimmy’s men. “Move again, I’ll have my brothers kill you.”
“You can’t just come in here shooting the place down,” Jimmy commanded.
Dodge laughed. “You’re wrong. We can and we will. All you gotta do is hand her over to us and we’ll leave.”
That was a lie and I knew it. They wouldn’t allow a man like Jimmy who prayed on young girls to live.
Jimmy sneered. “No fucking chance.”
“I guess we’re in a standoff then, ’cause we ain’t leavin’ without Dallas’s woman.” Billy smiled. He had his gun pointed on Tate.
Jimmy pulled his gun around and pressed it against my temple. “I doubt you’ll want to damage poor Melissa. Let me walk freely from this room with her and I’ll let her go once I am safely away.”
“No,” Dallas clipped.
Jimmy cocked his gun. “Yes.”
“You won’t harm her,” Della said.
Jimmy turned his glare to her. “Sorry to see you’re still living, Mardella. It won’t last, I—”
“Fuckin’ enough,” Dallas boomed. “I ain’t here to have a goddamn tea party and talk shit out. Hand Melissa over and die quickly or let it run its course and die slowly. Which is it?”
My Viking man, never a patient man.
“Things go my way in my house. No doubt I have more men coming my way.” One of Jimmy’s men nodded. “So you see, soon you’ll be surrounded—”
A gun blasted.
Jimmy screamed and released me, dropping to his knees. I jumped sideways and landed on the chair, closing my eyes, but not before I saw the bearded biker taking a gun from Della.
“Don’t kill Tate,” I screamed, and clenched my eyes tighter.
“Who in the fuck is Tate?” Dallas called out as another gun went off.
“Hope it’s not the one I just shot,” Dive said.
“Me,” Tate called.
“Right, brothers.”
More shots rang out through the living room. I buried my head in my arms and curled my legs up. People dropped, things broke, and men screamed.
Please don’t let Dallas get shot. Please.
Silence.
The room fell into it.
“Tiny.” His tone was gentle. I opened my eyes to see Dallas crouching beside the chair. “Darlin’, we gotta go.”
“You came.” I blinked.
“Yeah, woman.”
Launching out of the chair, I threw myself at him. He caught me and stood tall, wrapping his arm around my body. My feet weren’t on the ground as he held me tightly, but I didn’t care. I knew Jimmy and his men were dead. It was weird how pleased I was over the fact, but all that mattered then was being in Dallas’s arms and knowing he, with his brothers, were the ones to save my arse.
My problem was over.
I was free.
And just knowing it had me smiling, my heart warming, and my body relaxing.
As Dallas carried me from the room, I heard Dodge say, “Make sure we leave no trace behind. You’re comin’ with us.”
Out the front, I stiffened in Dallas’s arms and asked, “Della? Everyone?”
“She’s good. Handle got her out after she shot that fucker in the foot, and my brothers are all good.”
“Great,” I replied and kissed his neck. It was the first time I’d touched my lips to him. Nothing had felt more right.
“Dallas,” Dodge called. Dallas planted me on my feet, but hooked his arm around my shoulders, turning us to see Tate was with Dodge as they made their way over. “She’s gotta go shopping.”
“What?” Dallas barked.
“She needs to be seen on cameras that she’s been out shopping, havin’ a good time. Tate will take her. Get a story together. They went to lunch first, like she left right after walking out with Jimmy, lunch at a place with no cameras near. Got Beast looking into it.”
“I don’t trust him—” Dallas started in a harsh tone, only to stop when I touched him.
With a hand on Dallas’s chest, I looked up to him and said, “He’s fine. I promise. I trust Tate.”
He clenched his jaw, his eyes flicking all over my face. Finally, he nodded. After he had made sure we had the address to the hotel, he pulled me against him and kissed me hard. It hurt, from the bruising on my face, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I took notice of the feel of his lips, the teasing touches of his tongue playing with mine. The way his hands were first gripping my shoulders to him, only to slide down to my arse, forcing my body closer to his.
Every movement, every extra racing beat to my heart was locked into my mind because right then, nothing could top it. After all, it was our first shared kiss.