Page 29 of Shattered King

Hunter

“What time’s the meet?” Jude asked, arms crossed over his massive chest. “You think he’ll show?”

“If he wants her, he will.” I rubbed a hand across my chest. “And from what I hear, he does. Badly.”

Something didn’t feel right, but I ignored it, ignored that weird tingle between my shoulder blades, that niggling sense of wrongness, and buried it down as deep as it would go. I didn’t trust my instincts for shit right then. Not when my emotions were all over the place.

A vision of her upturned ass, curvy body pressed against the bathroom wall as I thrust into her, filled my head.

She’d given me no resistance.

I’ve never wanted another man the way I did you.

“You should stay here,” Van said, cutting through my thoughts. “You’re too close.”

“Not happening. Pierce is mine.”

“Let Zeke take him out of commission. We’ll hand him over to whoever puts their hand up first. Pierce has a lot of enemies. Let someone else clean up the mess. Your hands stay clean, and that fucker gets put in the ground. Win, win.”

My brother played the part of the businessman well, covered the ink and the scars with his suits when he needed to. But under it all, he was ruthless, a street thug—just like me, like most of us here. He wouldn’t lose sleep over his part in Pierce’s death. None of us would. We weren’t average guys, and we didn’t do an average job. That would never change, no matter how you dressed it up.

Zeke rubbed a hand over his beard then dipped his chin, black eyes locked on me, telling me he was on board with the plan.

I shook my head. “I want him first.”

Van cursed, jaw going tight.

“When I’m done with him, we’ll put out the call.”

Neco stood, shoulder propped against the wall. “There gonna be anything left to hand over?”

“I don’t like this,” Van rounded his desk and got in my space. “I just got you back. This isn’t the time to take risks.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “Taking Lulu was a huge fucking risk. You’re not thinking clearly. And why the hell does Pierce want her?”

I shrugged. “Don’t care.” Liar.

“She’s getting off easy, clean and clear. More than she deserves,” Neco growled.

The air in the room shifted, the temperature dropping several degrees. “You think she’s in serious danger from Pierce?” Jude’s rough voice rumbled across the room, eyes hard as stone.

At least once our lives, we’d all picked up someone we loved off the floor, cleaned off the blood—or in some cases, a hell of a lot worse. So I understood his concerns.

“He won’t get the chance,” I said. “She’s bait, nothing more. We get to the drop, Pierce sees her, shows himself. Zeke takes him down. We take him for a ride and a nice little chat. Hand him over. She’s at her aunt’s by nightfall.”

And then I’d walk away. I had to try and let her go. Let the rage go, before it ate me up. I’d said and done some shit in that cabin, here at the office, I wasn’t proud of. Lashing out, trying to hurt her like she hurt me. Being around her was fucking toxic.

Van shook his head. “Since no one will listen the fuck to me, let’s go get this done.”

Zeke pushed away from the wall and left without a word. He needed to get to the drop off before the meet. Take point and wait. The rest would follow and take position out of sight before Lulu and I arrived.

A short time later, after everyone had left, I took the stairs to the holding room. After today, Lulu didn’t exist for me. She’d be a bad memory. Nothing she could say to me could make up for the years I spent inside, but I still wanted an answer from her, wanted to know why she did it. If she’d done it for money, that was something I could at least get my head around. People did shady shit for money all the time. But from what I’d seen, and the small amount of intel Neco had dug up since she surfaced, she hadn’t been living large. The opposite. She’d been working for her money. Going by the Hooters tank she’d been wearing when I picked her up, they weren’t well-paying jobs.

I didn’t get it and, fuck me, I needed to before she walked away for good, for my own piece of mind.

I entered the code, pushed the door open, and froze.

Lulu was lying on her side, body still. Her legs were bent, knees tucked into her chest, hands together under her cheek, like she’d been praying and had fallen asleep again. My gaze lifted, against my will, to all that thick red hair fanning out across the pillow.

Fucking beautiful.