Knight (119 page)

“You want a goddamned Martini?” Keep jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Nine dollars. Gin or vodka, hotshot?”

“I’ll fucking shoot that smart ass mouth if don’t tell me where the hell Noir is.”

“Ain’t no one named Noir here.” Keep didn’t blink. “You better jerk that gun off somewhere else.”

“Brew-
fucking
-Darnell. Where is he?”

“Dead.”

“Bullshit. I saw him with my own eyes.”

Keep crossed himself—backward, but close enough. “Then it’s a goddamned miracle. Risen from the grave just to give it to your girl all night while the rest of us are trying to sleep. Someone call the fucking Vatican.”

The gun pressed into Keep’s forehead.

Brew stepped from the shadows, his weapon raised and jammed into the base of Goliath’s skull.

“Lay off of him.”

“Oh!” Keep nodded. “
That
Brew-fucking-Darnell. Yeah,
that
Brew was behind you the whole time.”

 Goliath gritted his teeth. I gripped the stair banister. A bullet to his head wasn’t enough to drop the raging beast. A man like Goliath never used his brain before. All that mattered was the violence surging in his veins.

A mix of rage and brutality curled his lips. He wasn’t on any drugs tonight. His addiction to me fed his insanity.

He’d claw his bloodied carcass across the country if it meant wrapping a gnarled hand over my ankle and dragging me to hell.

“Gotta say, bro, you got a bad habit of mixing Anathema with your shit anymore,” Keep said. “We’re still recovering from your last shootout.”

“Yeah. I know.”

Keep nodded. “We all have our vices.”

“This one will end quick.”

“Where the fuck is Martini?” Goliath sneered. “I’ll crack your fucking skull, you son of a bitch.”

“You don’t get to say her name anymore.”

The monster snorted. “I’ll say her name all I goddamned please. I’ll scream it as I’m fucking the shit out of her over your motherfucking corpse.”

“
Charming
.” Keep clapped his hands on his thighs and stood. Goliath’s gun raised, but Brew’s warning grunt stalled his finger. “Need any help with this?”

“Nah.” Brew said. “Goliath and I got a lot to discuss, man to man.”

“The warehouse is empty.”

“Perfect.”

My heart pounded as Brew drove the gun against Goliath’s skull. No way he’d let Brew march him to his death. Goliath spun to attack, but Keep got him first, driving his fist into his gut. The monster howled, but the layers of muscle and fat protected him from collapsing. Keep sneered.

“You hurt that girl.” His growl matched Brew’s aggression bite for bite. “You’re fucking with the wrong brothers if you think we’re gonna let you get away with that shit. Not after what we’ve been through.”

Brew jerked him forward. Keep cracked his knuckles.

Maybe this would be it? They’d haul Goliath away. Do the dirty work. Bloody their fists and take out their guilt on a bastard more like their father than either of them.

I wouldn’t have to worry. I wouldn’t have to figure out a way to fight him off myself.

It’d be over.

And I’d be free.

Pixie’s door swung open.

The ache in my chest blistered into such panicked pain I thought the gun took me out.

Rose stormed into the bar, shouting for Brew and demanding answers as she entered the clubhouse. She froze as Goliath grinned.

“Christ, Sweetheart, wait a goddamned second—” Thorne stalked after her and came to a dead stop as Goliath’s aim switched from Keep and settled the threat into the center of Rose’s forehead.

A still second passed—a shared heartbeat before the absolute chaos exploded in the bar.

“Brew?” Rose’s voice cracked as Goliath’s monster form towered over her.

Brew’s gun might as well have been a plastic toy. Keep dropped the bat he seized from behind the counter. Thorne was quick on the draw, but his weapon aimed over Rose’s head delayed firing.

Too late. He lost his shot, and everyone snapped with the recoil.

It wasn’t a stalemate.

It was an unwinnable war.

Brew’s expression twisted into a pained, contorted rage, like the bullet already slammed within Rose. The scarred wound in his shoulder made sense now. He had already taken a bullet for her, and he’d scar the rest of his body to spare her any more pain.

Thorne’s dark hair fell over his face like an armored helm, shielding the sinister grimace that wasn’t a normal human reaction. His gun never wavered.

“You better start praying.” His words iced the bar. “Point that fucking gun under your chin unless you want to die in a world of pain.”

Thorne curled an arm over Rose and drew her back. Goliath fired, deliberately aiming to the ceiling. Rose screamed, but Thorne got the warning. He released his hold, Keep swore, and Brew stepped away.

“She doesn’t move.” Goliath grinned at Brew. “Who is this little bitch?”

“I’m not a bitch,” Rose said. Keep hissed for her to shut up. She didn’t listen. “And you’re a dead man if you don’t back off.”

“She’s pretty.” Goliath licked his lips. “Can you suck cock, little bitch?”

It was the wrong fucking thing to say. Rose flinched and borrowed some of Thorne’s aggression.

“Do you even have one?”

“Cute.” Goliath surged forward and tapped the barrel against her head. “Cute, but fucking dumb.”

“You think this is the first gun I’ve had pointed at me?” Rose trembled, but she forced the hardness in her voice. None of the men defending her bought it, but it kept her calm. “They’re going to kill you if you don’t let me go.”

“And if I kill you?” Goliath stole her to the center of the room. I ducked against the stairs. The sheathed knife dug into my side, rubbing against one of the worst welts he had caused.

No way in hell I was letting those vile hands touch Rose.

“Who is she, Brew?” Goliath asked.

Brew didn’t hesitate. “She’s my daughter.”

It was the second time he said it aloud, and it still didn’t sound right. Rose clenched her eyes shut as Goliath laughed. The weapon tangled in the curls of her hair.

“Your fucking
daughter
?” He glanced her over. “Christ. This shit just gets better and better. She looks
just
like you Daddy!”

A second gun joined Thorne’s first. Brew had more control over his single weapon, but I had a feeling Thorne could shoot and take out both of Goliath’s eyes in a single burst of fire. Question was if he’d be fast enough before Rose got hurt.

“You’re running out of time,” Thorne warned. “She’s got nothing to do with this.”

“Brew’s been fucking my old lady.” Goliath groped at Rose and snickered. “Martini’s the same age as your kid. What the hell is wrong with you, man?”

“Martini ain’t complaining,” Brew said.

“You broke her in for me. That’s fine, hope you enjoyed my whore. I’ll take her now, show her what a real man does to a cunt who thinks she has a right to leave.”

“She’s not going anywhere with you,” Keep said.

Goliath shrugged. “Then I’ll take Brew’s little bitch, and we’ll call it even.”

Now Rose panicked. Thorne whispered for her to stay still, but I knew how intimidating the tightness of Goliath’s bulk was. He held her too close, squeezed her too hard, and meant every hideous threat he uttered.

Brew called to Rose as the tears stained her cheek. His voice broke over her name.

I’d never let it happen.

Failing Rose destroyed the man Brew was, and he spent months collecting his jagged pieces. He’d never be the same. The burdens of guilt wouldn’t fade away. Whatever second chance I offered would mean nothing if anything happened to the one girl he let slip into a world of darkness.

He’d be lost.

I couldn’t let him endure that pain. Goliath was here because of me, and the incarnation of my mistakes would never again threaten another woman.

I stood. The clip of my heel against the stair echoed like a gunshot, and I demanded the attention of the bar. Brew swore. Not enough bullets existed in his gun to save both me and Rose from the demons darkening our souls.

I’d make the choice easy for him.

“Goliath.” I greeted him without my smirk, without the cool wink or the lick to my lips that so often placated him. The game was over. “I’m right here. Let her go.”

“There you are.” Goliath grunted like a bull in heat. He shoved Rose to the floor. The girl clamored backward and Thorne scooped her into his arms. “Been looking for you, bitch.”

“You want me?”

“Not a matter of
wanting
, cunt.” Goliath gestured me close. “It’s about taking what’s fucking mine.”

I didn’t bother apologizing to Brew. My split-second glance caught only his shaking head and trembling gun.

Goliath seized my wrist. He spun me to his chest, groping my breast as he nodded at Brew.

“Kept her warm for me?” He gripped too tight, but I didn’t yell. He didn’t like that. “You fuck her?”

Brew’s voice stung like the gunshot he reserved for Goliath. “All night.”

“Fucking whore.”

Goliath’s hand surged to my throat. The memory of Brew’s embrace disappeared in the cold threat of Goliath’s cruelty. He tightened his fist over my scarf and tugged. The knot squeezed, and my vision immediately blurred. A gasping breath did nothing to earn his mercy. Goliath ripped the scarf away only to pull my hair back and expose the tattoo on my neck for Brew to see.

“My. Fucking. Property!” Goliath yelled. “This cunt is mine. These lips are mine. Every goddamned scar on her body is mine!”

My voice crested in a breathless courage. “Not anymore.”

“For-fucking-ever, bitch. You promised me!”

“And you believed me.” My fingers curled, tracing the outline of the knife hidden in my pocket. I layered my voice with the artificial sweetness he remembered—the trembling, submissive warble I offered with a pout and a promise of pleasure. “Baby, you’re my one and only. Baby, you know I love you. Baby, I’m scared, put the gun down.”

“Martini—” Brew gritted his teeth. “You’re not helping.”

“For two years I’ve been
lying
to you, Goliath. And for two goddamned years
you ate it up
.”

Brew hissed. “Shut up, Martini!”

“I’ve been afraid of you since the moment I met you. You’re a monster, Goliath. I’ve never loved you. I’ve never respected you. Any obedience you got from me was fake, and every night you spent next to me I fell asleep planning a way to slit your throat.”

I laughed.
Honesty
. Who fucking knew it’d feel so damn cathartic?

Brew, probably. Revealing a lifetime of secrets was an adrenaline rush—the high I craved when I first met Goliath and offered my body in exchange for his torment.

Goliath trembled. His rage built, strengthening him like an injection of pure violence. He stared at Brew as his hand squeezed my throat.

“I’ll kill you, Noir.” Goliath shuddered with fury. “Then I’ll take your old man’s fifty grand and count it out over the bed while I whip your goddamned touch off her body. Then when she’s bloody and raw and screaming your name I’ll spread her legs and—”

He didn’t finish the sentence.

I freed the knife from my pocket and slammed my arm back, jutting the blade into his side and ripping through the very same muscle and strength that once held me prisoner.

Not now.

Not anymore.

Not ever again
.

Goliath roared, but the drugs blinded him to everything but searing aggression.

The blow to my head cast me to the ground. I blacked out before I smacked the floor and woke as his foot connected with my ribs. But Brew launched at him, tackling the beast before he even wrenched the knife out of his side. Rose yelled for Keep, and they hauled me behind the bar as Thorne and Brew knocked the gun from Goliath’s hands.

Keep’s lost baseball bat rolled at my feet. I reached for it, but the blood dripping from my fingers slipped the wood from my grasp. Rose took my hand. Her widened eyes—Brew’s eyes—met mine.

“You don’t have to fight,” she whispered. “Brew’s not gonna let him hurt you anymore.”

Maybe she spoke for herself or maybe she meant to help me. I understood either way.

I clutched the bar and forced myself to stand. Brew faced away from me, and Thorne approached only to hide Rose from what was going to happen. Keep called my name. I ignored him.

I had to watch. It was my sin to bear too.

Brew wound the ends of my scarf around his fists and slipped the pink silk over Goliath’s thick throat. The silk tightened as the blood poured from the wound in his side. His hulking body contorted and fought for air, but even a man of his size, strength, and tenacity couldn’t survive the scarf I was forced to wear every day of my miserable life.

He heaved once, then it was over.

The body dropped. The scarf fluttered to the ground over him, drenched in blood and no longer needed to protect me from the word it obscured.

I collapsed, sliding down the wall behind the bar.

He was dead. And I had no alcohol to toast over his body.

I reached up and took the closest bottle.

Gin.

Jesus Christ, it always had to be
gin
.

I tossed the cap away and took a swig, but the sharp tang didn’t bother me so much. Brew fell to his knees beside me. I offered him the bottle. He pitched it away, taking me in his arms and seizing a kiss instead.

That was better than gin.

“You okay?” He whispered.

“Someone roughed me up, spit me out, and tossed me on the rocks.” I touched his cheek. “But I’m okay.” Blood covered my hands. Keep gave me a towel. Nothing would get that stain out. Maybe it didn’t have to be cleaned. I cleared my throat. “I’ll be okay.”

Brew turned, locking eyes with Rose. “Bud?”

Rose looked from Thorne to the body on the floor. She pinched her eyes shut.

“Not now, Brew. Changed my mind. Not now.”

“Rose, come on.”

Thorne whispered. He pulled Rose close and kissed her forehead. His arms flexed the angry bands of tribal ink over his biceps. Bursting from between the sharp angles and curves, a dozen blossoms stretched from his shoulder to his wrist.