Mad Delights (7 page)

Mind made up, she quickly changed out of her after-work clothes and hurried into her closet. She chose black stretch jeans, a black T-shirt and low-heeled boots for the night, before pulling her hair back into a ponytail. From a box under her bed, she pulled out her gun, a SIG Sauer Mosquito with a threaded barrel. She popped in a magazine and chambered a round before screwing on the sound suppressor. She flipped on the safety and laid it on the bed while she buckled on her custom-made gun belt, then she slipped the weapon into it. It rested on the small of her back, too bulky to be comfortable, but its presence was nonetheless soothing. She pocketed another full magazine, grabbed her medical bag then headed out the door.

Chapter Six

Great hulking wrecks of twisted metal and rusting car shells rose up in the moonlight as monolithic sculptures. Romeo, Dax, Boone and Gabby drove up to the fenced gate that should’ve been closed and locked at this hour, but stood wide open in a blatant invitation.

“This is a trap,” Dax muttered, pissed off that he couldn’t keep his president from leaving the safe confines of the compound. How could he do his job when the head honcho didn’t heed him?

“I know,” Romeo said. He flipped out his kickstand with his foot and rose from his bike. He yanked off his helmet and set it on the seat. The other men followed his lead.

“Stay here,” Dax ordered Romeo.

Romeo gave him an incredulous look. “You fucking kidding me?”

“This is colossally dumb of us walking into Mendoza’s territory.” Dax pulled his gun from its holster. “You can bet he’s looking at his video monitor saying hello stupid fuckers, come right on in and
die
.”

“Gabby said quit your whining,” Boone said.

Both Dax and Romeo frowned at Gabby. They hadn’t heard a word from the big man.

As soon as they crossed into the junkyard, a smattering of bullets pinged all around them, bouncing off various objects. Thumps on the ground where other shots hit the dirt were like fragments of meteors. Sounds of weapon fire and the whizzing of the deadly orbs came too close to their heads. The acrid scent of old grease, rust and gunpowder permeated the air. Everything seemed to happen at once. Romeo cursed and ran. He and Dax headed one way while Gabby and Boone dashed to another route. The junkyard became a maze, and the bright moon wasn’t helping them hide.

“God damn it!” Romeo growled. “They have the high ground.”

“Yeah, well, this is
their
fucking place,” Dax replied sarcastically.

They dove behind a crane, and Dax stuck his head out to survey the area. A body popped up along one of the ridgelines and he took aim and fired. The man grunted and fell back. One down, but how many more to go?

“We just want to talk, Mendoza!” Romeo shouted.

Shadows moved and a flow of bullets punched the area above Romeo’s head, showering him with debris.

“Shit!” Dax cried and grabbed his friend to fling him to the ground. “Guess Mendoza doesn’t want to talk.”

“Yeah,” Romeo said. “Ah, Christ, that hurts.”

Dax reared back and stared in horror at the wet stain that grew on Romeo’s upper arm. It had missed his cut by a sliver.

“Fuck, you’re bleeding.”

“No shit,” Romeo muttered.

Dax tried to press his hand to the wound, but Romeo just knocked it away.

“Doesn’t matter. Just a minor wound. We need to find Mendoza.”

A splattering of shots fired again, and Dax clamped a hand on Romeo’s good arm to drag him over to a pile of flattened cars.

Dax ducked his head around the corner of the heap of metal. “I can’t see Boone or Gabby. We need to get you to the hospital.”

“Fuck the hospital. I need to make sure the Shanks didn’t kill Babyface.”

“You can’t question anyone if you’re dead,” Dax said harshly.

“I’m fine, Dax.”

“Of course you’re not fine! You’re fucking shot!”

A series of sounds echoed through the junkyard.
Pop! Pop, pop, pop
. Silence.

Dax cautiously peered around the car again. “What the fuck?”

“What is it?” Romeo asked. He then looked too.

Dax stared in disbelief at Chloe as she calmly walked toward them, dressed like she came from
The Expendables
, all in black with her ponytail swinging back and forth in time to her steady gait. In one hand, she clutched a gun with a silencer as she cautiously looked around. In the other hand, she held a black canvas bag.

“Why the hell is she here?” Dax wondered.

“Who is she?”

“That’s Chloe.”

“My stalker?” Romeo grinned. “I think I’m in love.”

Dax threw him an exasperated look. He didn’t have time for this right now. He quickly suppressed the jealousy that surged through him at Romeo’s statement. He had no reason to feel anything but annoyance and anger that she’d disobeyed his command.

Chloe spotted him and sashayed her cute little ass over to them, as if she were taking a night-time stroll through a park. As soon as she was close enough, he grasped her arm and yanked her behind the car tower.

“Ow! What the hell, Dax?”

“There are men shooting,” he snarled. “Did you not listen to a word I said?”

“I took care of those men,” she said calmly as she removed herself from his tight grip.

“What do you mean you—?”

“Romeo, you’re hit!” she cried. She scrambled over to him to survey the bullet in his arm. “It’s still in there.”

“I know,” Romeo said through tight lips. Pain bracketed every line on his face. “Hi, I’m Romeo Barrigan. Nice to meet you. I hear you’re my stalker.”

She threw Dax the same kind of exasperated look he’d given Romeo. “I’m Chloe Matsumoto.” From the depths of the bag she carried, she produced some gauze. Stamped in red across the package was the word ‘sterile’. She pulled apart the edges and removed the pad inside. Romeo winced as she applied pressure to his wound. “I’m going to take care of you, okay?”

“In a chop-my-legs-off maniacal way or in a medical capacity?” he asked warily.

“Right now in a medical way, but we’ll see how it goes,” she replied, winking.

Dax wanted to gag. Seriously, was she flirting right now?

Romeo blinked and smiled. “Great.”

Dax rolled his eyes.

“How did you find us?” Dax asked. He kept his tone angry to let her know he wasn’t very thrilled at seeing her.

“You said you were going to question the leader of the Shanks,” she answered softly, still focused on Romeo’s wound. “I knew the leader, Mendoza, operated from the junkyard. It wasn’t that hard to figure out.”

“It’s like pulling teeth with you,” he muttered. “Every question you answer has new ones popping up. How’d you know about the junkyard?”

At that moment, Boone and Gabby suddenly appeared behind her. Gabby held a moaning man in his hands. Blood dripped from his obviously shattered kneecap.

“Someone shot the fuckers,” Boone said. His gaze flickered questioningly over Chloe. “This one is still alive, so he should do well for interrogation. Who’s she?”

“I’m Chloe,” she said, smiling brightly. “I’m a friend.”

Dax turned wide eyes on her. “Wait.
You
shot them?”

She shrugged. “I can shoot the wings off a fly if you want me to, but before we get into that pissing competition, help me get Romeo back to my car. I’ll follow you to the clubhouse and treat him there.”

“You’re a nurse?” Boone asked.

“As close as you’re gonna get right now,” she replied. From her bag, she withdrew a small vial of clear liquid and a packaged sterile syringe.

“What’s that?” Dax demanded.

“Just a very small dose of morphine to help manage the pain.” She opened the syringe then filled it with the medicine and injected it into Romeo’s biceps. Almost immediately, his face relaxed as the pain presumably melted away.

“Oh, yeah,” he murmured happily. “I really like morphine. I love you, Chloe.”

She kissed his cheek and he grinned widely at her.

“Okay, enough,” Dax growled.

Chloe dispensed with the used syringe into a small red container. “Let’s get him back to the clubhouse. I don’t want him to bleed to death in this fucking crap yard of junk.”

As Boone helped Romeo to his feet, Chloe met Dax’s gaze. Her eyes were haunting, her lips plump. Sure, she was gorgeous, but that wasn’t what captivated him. Something sparked between them, sucker punching him in his gut and knocking all the air out of his lungs. He swore the earth tilted a little, just enough for his equilibrium to shift. He didn’t know what the hell was happening, but when she turned away to hurry after Romeo, all he wanted to do was punch something.

Never in all his life had he ever been jealous of Romeo—until now. It clawed at his gut that she was here for him. That she only had her eyes set on him. That she was
Romeo’s
fucking stalker.

Dax helped Romeo out of the junkyard and to her car while she and Boone held point, making sure they weren’t ambushed again. Gabby brought up the rear, pulling the injured Shanks member along. They didn’t have Mendoza, but they had one of his men, which was hopefully good enough to find out the information they needed.

“He can ride in my trunk,” she said, nodding to the still bleeding, still moaning man. She popped the car’s trunk and Gabby unceremoniously shoved the prisoner inside before shutting it with a firm click. “Romeo, you can ride with me—”

“No,” he said immediately. “I need to ride my bike back.”

“You can’t ride with a busted shoulder.”

“And I’m not leaving my bike here,” he argued back. “I’ll be fine.”

She glanced at the other three, but Dax knew better than to correct Romeo and not just because he was their president. No member left a bike behind.

“Your shoulder—”

“I don’t feel a thing.”

“Yes, because I just gave you a shot of morphine,” she argued. “You could crash.”

“One little shot of morphine isn’t going to make me crash,” he said, placating. “I’ve been on worse highs, believe me. Just wrap up my shoulder enough for me to make it back.”

Chloe huffed and puffed, clearly not liking this idea at all, but she opened her bag and pulled out some supplies. Dax helped Romeo take off his cut, then she wrapped an Ace bandage around the upper part of his arm. Minutes later, a huge pressure bandage soaked up any blood still leaking.

Romeo nodded his thanks and walked over to his bike. Dax was about to head toward his, but Chloe yanked Romeo’s cut out of his hands.

“I’ll take this,” she said.

“I warned you to stay away,” he admonished. “You didn’t do as I said.”

“I rarely do as I’m told.”

“Yeah, I’m discovering that about you.”

She stepped up to him until he felt her body heat enveloping him. There it was again, that spark that drove him batty. She may have the hots for Romeo, but there was no denying that chemistry flared between them. Suddenly he was more than willing to make her admit that her pussy creamed for him as well.

“I’ll see you at the compound,” she whispered.

“Definitely.” He lowered his voice to the tone more than one woman had described as sexy. “We need to talk about your listening
skills
.”

He made sure to put emphasis on the last word, lacing the statement with unspoken passionate promise. Her eyes widened a little and small gasp escaped her.

He turned, grinning. Making her concede to him would be so much fun.

Chapter Seven

Romeo cursed to himself as he rode back to the Men of Hell compound. Shit, the morphine had taken away the pain, but the drug was causing havoc to his eyesight. The fucking world shifted and changed while he stayed still, only he knew that wasn’t right because he was on a motorcycle. Newton’s laws of motion made sure he was still moving.

Maybe the chick was right. Chloe. Maybe he should’ve ridden with her, but he didn’t trust his bike left in front of a junkyard, even if the owner was MIA. He’d worked hard to get his bike just how he wanted it and he’d be damned if he’d let a little bullet give it as a Christmas present to the Shanks.

He had to admit that if he was destined to have a stalker, he certainly was happy she was beautiful. And it was helpful that she knew her way around a bullet wound. Perhaps he could keep her for a little while, until her obsession with him dwindled. What harm was there if she was devoted to him?

When he finally turned into the open gate of the Men of Hell compound, relief gripped him. Sweat poured out of him and his hands shook with the exertion of not laying his bike down. He managed to flip out his kickstand and turn off his engine, but that was the moment his strength fled.

Dax hurried over to him and helped him off the bike. Romeo’s knees wiggled like jelly, causing him to lean completely against his friend. Boone hurried over to help Dax guide him into the clubhouse, and by then, all the other members had run forward to clear a path on the couch so he could lie down. A few of the club girls leaned over him, clucking like mother hens.

“Oh, you poor thing!”

“Please don’t die, Romeo!”

Chloe bustled over and shooed the women away with a death glare. “Get back. Get all the way back. In fact, never touch him again.”

“Bitch,” one mumbled.

“Say that to my face one more time and I’ll break your fucking nose,” Chloe said coldly. Deadly.

She may be a tiny thing, but Romeo saw a fierceness in her that made his dick sit up and salivate.

The girls must have seen it too. They backed down.

“You should go to the hospital,” Dax told him again.

“I can take care of him,” Chloe said, kneeling next to him with a bottle of iodine in her hand. “Are you allergic to iodine?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” Romeo replied.

Dax laid a hand on her arm. “Wait. Do you know how to dig out a bullet from muscle?”

She nodded. “I assisted in a lot of shooting surgeries when I worked in LA. Luckily, this one didn’t nick any of his bones or the brachial artery. Otherwise he
would
have to go the hospital.”

“Just get the fucking thing out of my arm,” Romeo muttered. “Dax, get that piece of Shanks shit strung up. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”