Sly (20 page)

I took a step back. Colt had the advantage of surprise. He saw the look in my eyes and he took three strong strides toward me. I doubted I could outrun him, but if I could just make it to the hall table . . .
 

As I turned, the front door opened and closed.
 

“Hey, Gunner,” Colt called out. The young kid at the door was new to me. He was huge. Wide through the shoulders with an unruly mass of curly hair. He wasn’t wearing a cut so he was likely a prospect or one of the club’s hangers-on. Whatever he was, he was now in my way.
 

I turned back to Colt and smiled. At the same time I kept moving toward the front hallway. This Gunner wasn’t going to make a move unless Colt told him to. I just needed a few seconds. “What’s going on?”
 

“Sly had to head to the Den to take care of some things. He wanted me to come out and make sure you were okay.”
 

Bullshit. So the choice to make now was whether I kept up Colt’s charade or come up with a better one of my own. The third option would be to find a way to
disarm him. I’d just need a few seconds jump. I kept moving toward the hall table. Head to head, I doubted Colt could outdraw me and the kid just looked like a deer in headlights. A very large, lumbering deer in headlights.
 

I took a step back, not liking my odds at the moment. Colt was in front of me, the kid was directly behind me. They were each moving toward me. Just a few more steps and Colt would have his hands on me.
 

“Let’s sit down and talk,” he said. “Sly will be back in a few.”
 

I nodded. “Great. Then if you don’t mind, I’m just going to let you make yourself at home. I’ve got to grab a few of my things and take off for a little while. I’m meeting Sly later.”
 

I turned and ducked around Gunner. He seemed a little confused. I’d judged correctly. The kid wouldn’t do shit Colt didn’t instruct him to. It gave me the precious few seconds I needed to reach for my purse on the table.
 

But Colt was faster and smarter than I gave him credit for. He got to me and shot a hand out, laying it flat on top of my small leather purse.
 

“Why don’t you let me hold on to that for you?” he said.
 

So this was it. He’d made me. It had been a lie when I said it to Kagan, but it turned out Colt
had
been the one to watch out for. My heart sank. If Colt knew something was up, so did Sly.  The fact that he’d made himself scarce struck a chord of fear and despair in me. My instincts were right all along.
 

“How about I say no?” I answered. I struck low and quick, pushing Colt back hard with my foot as I grabbed my purse and pulled out my weapon. I’d banked on the fact Gunner was just here for show. I guessed right. His eyes widened and he took a step back but didn’t advance on me. Colt recovered fast and made a move toward me but by then I already had my gun pointed square at his chest.
 

Breathe. Aim small. Miss small. Count. One. Two. Squeeze. I could hear the
pop
in my head. Just like so many times before. A cloud of red. There would have to be at this close range. But he wouldn’t feel it. One right through the heart and he’d drop to his knees. Over. Done with. And I’m in the wind forever. The kid probably wouldn’t even have time to react. I could drop him too, or I could just knock him out. I didn’t do innocent bystanders.
 

Colt froze.
You should go for your gun
, I thought. Why didn’t he? His eyes went wide for just a fraction of a second but maybe he saw something in mine. In
that instant, he knew who I was. He had no doubt. I can respect a man who knows he’s about to die and faces it head on. I’d like to think I’ll do the same when it’s my time. And sooner or later, I knew it would be.
 

My heart started to beat again and I met Colt’s piercing stare. Do it or don’t. Make Kagan my enemy or the Great Wolves. Though Colt was the one standing before me, my vision filled with images of Sly. The way he watched me when he didn’t think I was looking. That killer dimple that deepened when I walked into his arms. The feel of his strong hands sliding around my waist and resting at the small of my back when he brought me close to him.
 

My pulse thundered like a sledgehammer as I squared off with Colt. I straightened my back and lowered the gun a fraction of an inch away from his heart. Not now. Not here in Sly’s living room.
 

“I think I changed my mind,” I said. “Let’s go have a seat and talk.” I pointed the barrel of my gun toward the couch in Sly’s front room.
 

Colt arched a brow. Even with a gun pointed at him, after he’d seen what was in my eyes, he didn’t lose his swagger and I could respect that too. He still looked dangerous with dark eyes rimmed with thick, black lashes. He had kind of a sexy pirate quality about him. Circumstances being different, maybe we could even be friends. Except that was looking more and more like a fairytale. The best I could probably hope for was to make it out of this house alive and without having to kill anyone else. My heart sank knowing the chances were I wouldn’t get both.
 

“First though, take care of him.” I tossed my purse at Colt with my free hand. He caught it one handed. “Tie him up.”
 

Colt opened my purse and found my wad of zip ties. I swear, I saw the hint of a smile lift the corner of his mouth. “You know,” he said. “Most chicks just carry lip gloss.”
 

“Right. Turn around, Gunner, give him your hands.”
 

Gunner did as he was told. Colt bound Gunner’s hands behind him just like I’d done to Jinx.
 

“Good. Now, Gunner, it’s nothing personal but I’m going to need you to take a seat against that wall by the fireplace where I can see you.”
 

Colt patted him on the back to let him know it was okay to do what I asked. I kept my gun pointed at Colt as he took a seat on the couch next to the fireplace.
He was casual, resting one booted ankle over the opposite knee, his arm stretched over the seat back. I sank into the chair opposite him with my back to the wall.
 

“Aren’t you going to disarm me?” he asked.
 

I smiled. “That’s a reasonable question. But I think you’ve figured out by now if my plan was to kill you, I’d have already done it by now. Now, I’m giving you a show of good faith that your instructions aren’t to kill me either. What I
would
like is for you to very slowly slide your gun onto the table between us where I can see it.”
 

“You first,” Colt said.
 

I leaned back into my chair and crossed my legs. “Relax, Colt. You’re safer than you realize. As soon as Sly gets here, I’d be happy to explain why.”
 

He reached behind him and slid his gun out, holding the barrel down. He placed it on the table between us. If he was
very
quick, he could still get to it. Except I was quicker and I think he understood that.
 

“I just came here to talk,” he said. “That was the truth.”
 

I nodded. “I believe you. And I have every intention of telling the truth too. But Sly needs to be here. He needs to hear everything from me. How long did you tell him to wait before he could come back?”
 

Colt smiled. A million thoughts raced through my head. I could just carry out Kagan’s contract now. One pop and it was over. Gunner was a problem, of course. But once I left, none of the Great Wolves would ever see me again. I’d have my retirement money, Kagan would have no reason to come after me, and Sly would still have his life. A few days ago, that would have seemed like an easy choice. Now though, I knew what it would cost.
 

Sly’s love for me would turn to stone-cold hate. He’d try to find me. He might fail, but I didn’t know if I could just walk away and never see him again. Not have the chance to try and explain. There might still be one chance left to fix this in a way that wouldn’t hurt Sly, slim as it might be.
 

“Is it Kagan?” Colt said, leaning back into the soft leather cushions of Sly’s couch. My heart tripped. How much did he already know?
 

“Let’s just wait for Sly,” I said. “I don’t want to have to cover the same ground twice. An hour? Is that what you told him? That’s how long I would have
told him. What was your plan? Were you going to have Gunner here knock me around for a while or were you hoping to get to do it yourself?”
 

I chanced a look at Gunner, his face turned white. “I would never have ...”
 

“Save it, Gunner,” Colt said. “Scarlett, I don’t know what you think I am. Or what you think this club is, but nobody was planning on hurting you. That is, not unless you had ideas about hurting one of us. Is that what brought you here? Sly doesn’t want to believe it but he’s sensible. He gets how it looks.  You showing up here when you did.”
 

“Look,” I said. “You aren’t going to want to believe it, but at the moment, I’m the best friend you have. And you may not want to believe this either, but Sly matters to me. A lot. And that’s the
reason
why I’m your best friend. Now, I’m going to let you reach into your back pocket and you’re going to take out your phone and call him. Put him on speaker. My guess is, he’s already on his way. That’s good. Tell him to drive safely. We have a lot to talk about.”
 

“I like you, Scarlett,” Colt said. “It’s kind of obvious that’s a ridiculous thing to say but there’s a part of me that wants to believe you. For Sly’s sake. He’s in love with you, you know? When he finds out the whole truth about who you’re working for, it’s going to crush him. You know that, right?”
 

My heart churned inside of me. Sly had me tied in knots. The rule book was out the window where he was concerned. Up until now, every decision I’d made had been rooted in self-preservation. Now, sitting here wasting time with Colt Reddick, I was putting my life and my freedom at risk. Sly could want me dead. Maybe I’d want the same thing if I were in his place. And yet, a part of me had to believe I could make him understand. I could make them all understand. Because if I couldn’t, there was a very real chance both Sly and Colt would be dead by the end of the day.
 

Colt reached behind him, slow and easy just like I’d warned him. He had his cell phone in his hand as he pulled his arm back. Then two things happened at once.
 

There was movement to the left of me. I saw it in my peripheral vision, from the large glass window overlooking the mountain view.  Colt’s eyes stayed locked with mine as I began to turn. A red laser pinpoint hovered near his ear.
 

At the same time, the front door opened. I didn’t have to turn toward it to know it was Sly. If I
had
turned toward it, it might have been the last thing I ever did. Instead, I dove forward across the table, grabbing Colt by the shirt sleeve. He
toppled over the back of the couch with me as the first volley of bullets shattered that wall-to-wall glass.
 

Chapter Twenty

Sly
 

I took Tiny’s Harley and rode for home. Colt wouldn’t answer his damn phone and that had me worried. Very worried. As I hurtled down the winding back roads, I knew something was wrong. Either the woman I loved or one of my best friends was about to get hurt, if they hadn’t already.
 

No one had accused me of anything. It wasn’t judgment I saw in the faces of my club brothers, but their looks of sympathy burned hot inside me. I knew better. Sawyer was right. If the situation had been reversed, if Scarlett had gone home with Colt, I would have asked the same questions. Now, my own inability to
not
think with my dick may have cost me dearly. But Colt crossed a line. He lured me away from my own fucking house in order to get Scarlett alone behind my back. No matter what else happened, there’d be a reckoning between us.
 

And Scarlett. I wanted to throttle her. I wanted to fuck her. A part of me wished I had just done what she asked and run away with her this morning. She tried to tell me something. Tried to warn me and I was too blinded by lust or love or something in between to see it.
 

I cut the engine on the bike and parked it at the end of my long driveway. Whatever was going on up there, I didn’t want to give anyone the heads up that I’d arrived. I took the gravel driveway at a run. I was desperate to get in there at the same time I dreaded what I would find.
 

I opened the door to hell.
 

I saw Scarlett in profile against the window, her secrets laid bare before me as she pointed a gun straight at Colt. She had Gunner against the wall, his hands tied behind his back. He looked at me and started to say something. Colt turned toward me when I walked in. She didn’t. She was on her feet as my glass wall shattered in a million pieces behind her. Bullets zinged past and I hit the floor, just in time to see Scarlett drag Colt down over the back of the couch.
 

“What the fuck?” On instinct, I flattened my back against the wall and sank down to the floor. They’d have to run across the hallway and behind the couch to make it to the front hallway where I stood and out the door. I pulled my gun out of the holster at my side, thanking God I’d played it safe and armed myself. I looked up.
 

Scarlett became some other person. She was cool purpose and action. She grabbed Colt by the arm and he dove with her behind the couch. Pressing her back against the wall she waited; catching my eye she set her jaw into a grim line. I gave her a quick nod and pointed three fingers toward the floor and counted them off one by one. On three, I stood up, held my arms straight out and shot off a round of cover fire letting Scarlett, Colt and Gunner run to my side.