Even though it was almost eleven, thirty minutes after the park closed, there were no signs the Blades’ barbecue was close to winding down. Arsen grinned as his crew crossed the street to the park. They quickly moved along the row of bushes to disguise their shape, then seamlessly blended in with the rest of the club.
“How’d it go?” Chet asked as he offered Berk and Phil a beer, Greg doing the same for Zane, Arsen and Gage.
The men opened their beers and drank thirstily. “Fine,” Gage replied first. “I don’t know how many we actually killed, but we put a hurt on them. There was an explosion as we ran for the van that sounded really big.”
“So the flaming arrows of death worked?” Greg teased.
“Like a charm,” Berk grinned. “Gage took out both guards with arrows.” He turned and looked at Gage. “I thought that fire arrow scheme of yours was a disaster waiting to happen, but you pulled it off better than I would have believed.”
Gage grinned at the praise. He’d only been a Blade for a couple of years and it felt good to have earned the unflinching praise of the old-timers.
“Can you teach me to shoot one of those things?” Berk asked, drawing his hand back like he was shooting a bow and letting go with phew sound.
“Sure. I’ll let you use mine until you find out if you like it.”
The Blades didn’t go in for a lot of patches advertising accomplishments. In Arsen’s opinion, it just raised questions by outsiders, but they did have a wall of fame at the clubhouse and Gage was going up on it as soon as they could get his name engraved. Normally it took a two-thirds vote by the club, but the first person who voted against his name going on the board had better be ready to defend his reasoning.
Arsen finished his beer. He wanted another, but he had to ride and he hadn’t had anything to eat, so he let it go for now. “Let’s wrap this up,” he ordered.
They were still packing everything away when the park manager showed up. “I came by to let you know the park is closed,” the man said.
“The time got away from us,” Arsen said as he dumped ice and water into the grass. “We’re out of here as soon as we can pack up.”
The man nodded and pulled their rental sign from the holder and walked away as the five men on the raid looked at each other and smiled.
***
“Fuck,” Arsen groaned as he stepped into their house and closed the door. “It feels good to be home.”
Quinn turned to face him. It was a bit after midnight, but she was anything but sleepy. “How many?”
“How many what?”
“How many did you kill?”
“Me personally? I don’t know. Between the five of us, we put ten magazines into them. That’s a hundred and fifty rounds. I don’t know how many are dead versus how many we only wounded, but we put all of them down.”
“Berk said the fire arrows worked?”
“Yes. We set their bikes on fire, then gunned them down when they came out. As we were running for the van, we heard a couple of explosions. A small one then a much bigger one. We didn’t stick around to find out what they were.” Quinn nodded then looked down.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I thought this is what I wanted. I wanted you to kill them, to wipe them out. But now that you’ve done it…”
“What?”
“I don’t know how I feel about it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you killed how many people today? Gunned them down in cold blood.”
“It had to be done. I didn’t want this. I tried to avoid doing it, but those assholes left me no choice. You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t shed a tear over the murdering bastards who killed my wife and parents. Have you forgotten what they did to you?”
“No!” she snapped, her eyes flashing, but then looked down again. “But where does it end?”
“It ends here. I ended it. Even if we didn’t get them all, and we probably didn’t, we have hurt them so badly they’ll probably never recover.”
She looked up at him. “You don’t think all the Horsemen are dead?”
“I doubt it. I think there are more members than we saw. I’m also assuming not everyone we shot will die.”
“So what prevents them from coming at you again? And again? And again, until there is nobody left?”
“What are you talking about? If they’re smart, they’ll leave us alone, but if they want to fuck with us again, we’ll fuck them right back. We got away clean, Quinn. The only evidence we left behind was Gage’s arrows and some empty shell casings. We were all wearing gloves, so no fingerprints, no nothing. It’s done. You won’t have to worry about them again.”
“What about you?” she asked. “Do I have to worry about you?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them, and she saw his face go hard.
“You’re welcome to leave anytime you want. So long as you keep your word, you’ll never have to worry about me.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
“Are you sure?” he snapped.
“I’m sorry, okay?” she cried. “I’m just not used to all this…violence! I was a Rider for two years and nobody got shot! Nobody’s bike or clubhouse was set on fire! People weren’t trying to kill me!”
“Until they did,” he said softly. “I gave them their chance to walk away, but they didn’t take it.”
“If they’d pulled out of the molly business, you would have let it end there?”
“If they’d just stopped counterfeiting, and turned over whoever it was that gunned down my family, I would have let it end there. But they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do that. You heard them! They wanted to trade you for the drug business. What kind of sick fucker makes an offer like that? The world is a better place now than it was this time yesterday.”
She stared at him. Until now, she’d looked at Arsen as more of a business man, but she realized he was as ruthless as any man she knew…and that scared her a little. She chewed her lip, trying to sort out how she felt.
He saw the fear in her eyes. Fear of him. “If you want out, I won’t try to stop you. We’ll pay you your shares, and I’ll make up the other half out of my pocket.”
“How much?” she asked.
“Two shares normally pay about ten thousand a month.”
She flushed. Ten thousand a month! That was more than three times what she was making at the motel. “Do you want me to go?”
“I want you to stay,” he said softly. “But I won’t try to stop you if you want to leave. I saw how you looked at me. Answer me honestly. You’re afraid of me now, aren’t you?”
She wanted to deny it, but she was afraid he would see right through the lie. He’d been able to look into her soul since the beginning and know just what to do or say. “A little, maybe.”
He nodded. “Thank you for being honest with me.” He paused until she met his eyes. “I’m the same guy I was yesterday, Quinn. You weren’t afraid of me then, were you?”
“No,” she said softly.
“Then don’t be afraid of me now. I’ll never hurt you. You can leave any time you want, and I won’t try to stop you, but I want you to stay. I want to find out if we have something.”
“Do you think we have something?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Last night I would have said yes. Today, especially now, I don’t know. I do know if you leave, we’ll never know.”
“You want me to stay?”
“More than I can tell you, but it has to be your choice. I would rather you leave now than for you to stay because you are afraid of what I’ll do.”
“If I leave, what will you do?”
“I’ll help you pack your clothes, pay you your full share, and buy you a plane ticket to any place you want to go. What happens after that is none of your concern.”
“And if I stay?”
He smiled. “If you stay, I’ll take you to my bed and make love to you until we’re both exhausted.”
She gave him a ghost of a smile. “And if I don’t want to be taken to your bed?”
“Then I’ll be disappointed as I sleep alone.”
Her smiled widened as she wondered why she thought tonight had changed him. “Take me to your bed.”
He smiled at her as he took a step forward. To her credit, she didn’t flinch or take a step back, and he bent, placing an arm behind her knees and shoulders before he swooped her up in his arms.
She smiled as he carried her across the room. Every time she faltered, every time she was wracked with self-doubt, he was there, willing and able to pick her up and carry her until she was ready to stand on her own two feet again. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, thankful he hadn’t run out of patience with her.