BLAMELESS: MC Biker Romance (Black Thorns, #3) (36 page)

“That would make it all
your
fault for coming into my diner in the first place and threatening me.”

Does he really think he can manipulate me, like he used to? I’m not that naïve little girl anymore. I know better now.

He rounds the counter, demanding, “You think you’re better than me now, do you? Smarter?”

I stand my ground, eyeing him fiercely. “Definitely.”

His eyes flash with rage, that rage I know only too well from him.

But things are different now. I’m not afraid.

I know what he’s trying to do and I won’t let him succeed. I won’t let him make me into a victim again.

He stops a few feet away from me and looks me up and down.

“You will submit to me here, Sarah.”

“Like hell.”

“Oh, you will. You know why?” He points at my belly. “For the sake of that child you’re carrying.”

“You’re lying. If you hurt me, you hurt my baby. There’s no distinction, you idiot.”

“I’m not planning on hurting you.”

“What?” What’s his game here?

“I want you to submit to me, do as I say, and come with me quietly.”

“What are you talking about?”

He takes a step closer. “I don’t want
you
.”

Oh my God. He’s after Zeb. He wants to use me to get to him.

“Your boyfriend and his club are going to pay for what they’ve done. They’ve ruined me. I’m broke now after that huge drug deal went to hell. No one will do business with me, because my partners have ended up dead or in jail. No one will risk it. I’m blackballed now.”

“If you don’t walk out of here right now, I can guarantee you’ll be joining them.”

“You’ve gotten a lot spunkier, Sarah. Can’t say I like it.” He steps closer and I brace myself. He reaches into his hoodie pocket and pulls something out. A transparent pouch with some white powder inside.

“Is that—?”

“The product Jase had been working on. Coke.”

“Get out of here and take that awful stuff with you!”

“Are you worried, Sarah? About your boyfriend? What he’ll do when he sees it?”

“No,” I growl. How dare he bring that stuff here? After everything Zeb’s been through, fighting to get clean again. It’s disgusting. Sickening.

“I always could tell when you were lying. You’re worried, all right. He’s still in recovery, isn’t he? I’m betting that seeing this will do a number on him. Before you know it, he’ll be doing lines on the counter in this pathetic hole-in-the-wall diner of yours. He won’t be able to find me then. He’ll be too messed up. Then I can finally come out of hiding and get my life back!”

Something snaps in me then at hearing him threaten Zeb’s sobriety, of threatening to rip everything apart again. Before I can stop myself, I’m smashing my fist into his face. Ax taught me how to throw a brutal right hook. It has Eddie grunting in pain and stumbling back.

His eyes are wide with shock as he looks at me.

I’m not surprised. He’s never know me as a fighter. Never as a strong woman who can take care of herself. A woman who isn’t a victim. A woman in charge of her own destiny, who doesn’t let anyone bully her.

“You bitch,” he says as he rubs his cheek and glares at me fiercely.

He lunges at me in the next second.

He’s so predictable. Always with the dirty moves, designed to catch someone off guard.

Fortunately, I know all his moves.

But he doesn’t know mine.

I react quickly, using a move Ax taught me to grab hold of his arm, use his weight against him, and slam him brutally hard into the wall, face first.

“What the hell?” he gasps.

I pull his arm up his back and spit at him, “You think you can still hurt me? You can’t. You’re going to walk out of here and take those drugs with you, before I really do some damage. Are we clear?”

He growls and struggles against me, trying to break free of my grip.

But he won’t be able to. I’m exerting pressure to all the right places.

“Say it!” I order him. “Say it, or I’ll break your arm, you asshole!”

“I’ll
kill
you!”

I push his arm further up his back, making him cry out.

A sudden wave of nausea hits me and it’s a struggle to maintain my grip and fight it at the same time. Oh my God.

I step back quickly as it gets worse, letting go of Eddie as I stagger away from him and sink to my knees, just seconds before I start puking my guts up all over the diner floor.

I hear his footsteps and see his shadow nearing me. Shit.

I can’t do anything. My body’s got other ideas right now. Or, the baby has.

A flash of movement catches my eye and the next thing I hear is a loud thud behind me by the wall I’d been holding Eddie against.

A voice roars through the diner, “You piece of shit!”

It’s Zeb. Zeb is back!

Chapter 38

~Runner~

I drive Torvin face first into the wall again. “You got a fucking death wish? Going after my pregnant girl? You sick fuck!”

Jesus. Walking in here and seeing her on her knees and him stalking over to her sent the most intense wave of terror through me that I’ve ever felt. I knew I shoulda never left her, not even for a few minutes. What if I’d taken a second longer? What woulda happened to her then? What would he have done to my girl? Fuck. Ain’t going there.

And I ain’t gonna be ever again.

This motherfucker’s dying.

Tonight.

Nobody’s gonna take my family from me, least of all him! Sick fucking bastard!

I grip the back of his head and slam his fucking face into the wall. He snarls at me and tries to thrust his elbow back to get at me. But I react faster, gripping his hoodie and using his weight against him to haul him across the diner. He crashes into one of the tables and it gives way under the impact. He groans, sprawled out there in the wreckage.

It buys me enough time to check on Sarah.

I rush over to her and drop to my knees beside her.

She’s not chucking up no more. She’s gasping and tryin’ to catch her breath.

I brush her hair outta her face and ask her, “Can you move, darlin’?”

She nods and chokes, “Yes.”

“Okay. Good.” I pull my phone outta my pocket and press it into her hand. “Take this. Go upstairs and call Ax. Tell him to give Dealer a heads up.”

Her eyes widen. “What? Why?”

I can tell by the look on her face that she already knows the answer, but she don’t wanna admit it, I guess. Don’t blame her. Never wanted her to be nowhere near this kinda situation, or me doing this kinda thing. Ain’t for a sweet thing like her.

“Just relay the message, yeah?” I tell her, gently.

She shakes her head and starts climbing to her feet. I get up with her, supporting her weight. Once she’s steady, she pulls outta my grip and tells me, “No, Zeb. I don’t want you to. Don’t do it. Don’t kill him.”

“You better believe I’m fucking killing him. Told you I would if he came at us. And here he is. I walked in on him ‘bout to lay his hands on you for fuck’s sake!”

“Zeb.”

“Nobody fucks with what’s mine.”

I catch sight of him outta the corner of my eye. The asshole is getting up.

I push Sarah back gently. “Go. Head upstairs and call Ax. Now.”

Her eyes widen as she looks behind me.

I step in front of her, so he can’t get nowhere near her. “Go. Do it, Sarah! Now!” I roar, fiercely. It’s real aggressive. Hate doing it. Makes me sick talking to her this way. But she ain’t gonna go upstairs outta the line of fire unless I do. I know she don’t wanna leave me. She’s worried ‘bout me. Torvin’s a big guy. A
lot
bigger than me. But what she don’t know is that ain’t never stopped me from putting a guy down in the past.

It works and she runs off upstairs.

Thank fuck.

It were a major distraction having her here while I’m tryin’ to concentrate on him. Worrying ‘bout her being so close to that shit-head weren’t helping me to focus.

Guess the universe thinks I need a reminder of that, cuz as soon as she disappears from sight and I know she’s safe, I turn ‘round,
right
into a brutal blow to the gut from Torvin.

Jesus Christ. For a suit, the guy can really throw a punch. It has me choking and doubling over.

He don’t give me a chance to catch my breath.

He fists his hands in my cut and hauls me into one of the tables. The thing don’t break under
my
weight. He tugs on my cut, lifting me up off the table, then slamming me into it again, making my back jar real hard against the wood.

“This what you did to her?” Knowing now how brutally hard the guy can hit brings it home in a sickening way to me just what he put my girl through when they were together.

He smirks and tells me, “No, biker trash. This sort of thing was just a warm up with her.” He slams me into the table again. “And just like her, you won’t be able to stop me. You’re not strong enough. Did you really think a guy your size could take on someone my size and win?”

“Been doing it my whole life, asshole.”

I shoot out my hand and squeeze his neck. He gags as I focus the pressure on his windpipe.

It catches him off guard and right away his grip loosens on my cut.

I slam my arms up and out into his, breaking his grip on me. Caught off guard by my sudden assault, he takes a step back. Just enough for me to rear back and deliver a brutal kick to his gut. He doubles over, cursing me. I don’t waste no time. I only got two advantages here: speed and catching him off guard. Judging by the accuracy of his hits and his technique, I ain’t the only one who’s had training here. He’s had some boxing training. Like Ax. They fight real similar. So, for once, my training ain’t giving me the upper hand.

I jump down from the table. Before he can recover from my blow to his gut, I leap up and spin, hammering him across the side of the head with a flying kick, my well-worn riding boot scraping down the length of his cheek. The blow to the head destabilizes him and he crashes into a booth, grabbing frantically at it to stop himself from hitting the floor.

Normally, I’d continue hand to hand. This shit’s personal. But I can’t risk it. Not with Sarah upstairs. I gotta do this smart and end it quick.

As my fingers brush my pistol holstered at my hip, I see his eyes bug outta his head. The fear in ‘em cuts into me. Gonna be a cold-blooded kill. Again. Ain’t never got to me like this before. But, I guess, cuz of Sarah, it’s brought a softer part of me to the surface. A part of me that ain’t okay with doing this shit no more.

I fucking hesitate.

Jesus Christ.

Next thing I know, he’s pulling something outta his pocket.

My whole body tenses up at the sight of it. I feel my fists clenching in some kinda automatic defensive reaction.

He’s holding a bag of coke up in front of me.

He smirks, thinking victory’s his now. “Came here for you, biker trash. To mess you up to get you and your club off my back.” He shakes the pouch and grins. “Shouldn’t be too hard. Junkies are all the same. They can’t say no to the good stuff. And
this
here? This is the best it can get. Jase manufactured a really great product.”

I shake my head with disbelief. “Guys like you got no fucking honor. There ain’t no level you won’t stoop to. And you call
me
trash?
You make me sick.”

I snatch the pouch from him. “You fucking idiot,” I growl. “You think I’d
ever
even think ‘bout doing this shit again now? You got no idea what you’re talking ‘bout. Cuz I ain’t no junkie no more. I got my girl to think ‘bout now. Got a baby on the way. And they need me. The
man
in me, not the junkie.” I toss the pouch across the diner without a second thought and snarl at him, “So, no. You ain’t got a hope in hell of messing me up, you dumbass motherfucker.”

He lunges at me.

A shot fires and he jerks wildly and screams like a bitch as a bullet plunges into his shoulder. He falls back against the booth again, grabbing frantically at the wound.

Some part of me is hoping somehow, by a miracle, that it’s Dealer or one of the boys. But, as I turn ‘round, I know exactly what I’m gonna find.

Sarah.

She’s standing there, my gun aimed Torvin’s way, a fierce expression on her face that I never wanna see again. She takes a couple of steps closer and tells him, “Hurts, doesn’t it?” She lifts up the side of her robe with her free hand, revealing the bullet scar on her thigh. “I wanted you to feel what I did when you did it to me.”

I walk towards her and hold out my hand. “All right. Give me the gun now.”

She shakes her head, not looking at me, keeping her vicious gaze on Torvin. Shit.