Page 93 of Chaos Bound
“Drop your weapons,” Viper directed.
“Or what?” Holt cocked an eyebrow. “If you kill her, you don’t get your money.”
“It’s not her I’m going to kill.”
A gunshot cracked the silence. Tank cried out in pain, his weapons falling as he crumpled to the floor. Naiya glanced down and saw Viper’s gun aimed where Tank had been standing.
“Tank!” Holt stared at his friend in horror.
“I know everything about you, Holt Savage,” Viper said. “I know you inside and out. I know what scares you, what gives you nightmares, what keeps you up at night. I know how many times I can whip you before you pass out, how much pain you can take. I know how to make you scream and how to make you cry.”
“You bastard,” Naiya choked out. “He never did anything to you.”
Viper looked down at Tank writhing on the ground and sneered. “Did you know he cried for you in my dungeon?” he said to Tank. “It was your name he called over and over and over again. It was you he imagined coming to rescue him. It was you he missed more than seeing the sun or feeling the rain or breathing the fresh air. At the very end, he gave up because he thought you had abandoned him.” He shot a second bullet at Tank, missing only because Tank rolled to the side. “If you die, I’ll destroy T-Rex in a way the dungeon never could. And it has been too long in coming.”
“No.” Shaggy leaped from the chair, the ropes that had held him secure falling to the floor with the wet bandanna. Taking advantage of Viper’s surprise, Naiya spun around and jammed her knee into his crotch. Viper grunted, and Naiya slammed a well-placed fist into his solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him as she mentally congratulated herself on her thorough knowledge of anatomy.
Before Viper could recover, Shaggy tackled the Black Jack president from behind. Naiya jumped to the side and Viper fell the ground, battling a ferocious Shaggy. Naiya grabbed Viper’s gun from the floor and aimed at the two men rolling on the ground as Viper’s bodyguards closed in.
Naiya heard the door slam. And then the sound of boots. She looked up to see Sinners pour into the room, Jagger in the lead. Within minutes, the Black Jack bodyguards were disarmed and on the floor, while the fist fight between Shaggy and Viper raged on.
“Never seen him fight like that before,” Jagger mused. “It’s like he’s possessed. If I’d known he had it in him I woulda sent him out on some of the more dangerous missions.”
“He’d better not fucking kill him.” Holt, still fully armed, stood on Naiya’s other side.
Shaggy rose up over Viper and smashed his fist into Viper’s blood-streaked face. Viper slumped back on the ground, eyes closed, his body struggling for breath.
“Everyone out of my way,” Shaggy gritted out as he drew his weapon.
“He’s mine.” Holt stepped forward. “He owes me a debt.”
“He owes me a bigger debt.” Shaggy’s body shook, whether from adrenaline or emotion, Naiya didn’t know, nor could she tell whether his cheeks were wet with sweat or tears. “He destroyed the woman I loved. He raped my daughter. I won’t rest until I pull that fucking trigger. My family needs to be avenged.”
“As do I,” Holt said.
Naiya caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and barely had time to shout a warning before Viper surged to his knees. “He’s got a gun.”
Two shots rang out through the mayor’s office. Two bullets pierced Viper’s heart. His mouth opened and closed again, and he dropped his weapon before his massive body sank to the floor.
Naiya looked over at the mayor, huddled in the corner. “You can take that as a no,” she said. “And you can officially declare Viper dead.”
THIRTY
Holt parked his bike outside the Sinner’s Tribe clubhouse for the very last time. After the dust had settled, and the Black Jacks retreated to deal with the loss of their president, he had a long talk with Jagger, and they agreed it was time for him to leave.
Naiya slid off the bike behind him, her new riding leathers creaking as she followed him to the crowd of Sinners waiting by the clubhouse to say good-bye.
“They’re giving you quite the send-off,” she said. “After two days of partying I thought most of them would be comatose this morning.”
“The party was the send-off. This is the good-bye.” Holt threw an arm around her shoulders. He had no plans about what he wanted to do or where he wanted to go. Only that he wanted to be with Naiya, and since she had interviews at forensic labs all over the country, he would take the opportunity to explore his country before making a decision about where to put down roots—if he was putting down roots at all.
With her trust fund vesting in a few short months, Naiya was in no hurry to get back to work. She wanted a chance to be free, to live life without fear of Viper or the Jacks, to travel, see the sights, and think about whether she wanted to pursue a career in forensic science. She’d given up her apartment, sold her stuff, and paid a last visit to Maurice to say good-bye. Holt hadn’t been happy to let her go to that bastard’s apartment alone. He’d sat on his bike outside Maurice’s building, counting off the minutes as he imagined all the things that could go wrong. But, of course, nothing happened. Naiya returned in one piece with a look of satisfaction on her face that was as close to a smirk as he’d ever seen. She seemed at peace with herself about that situation, which was all good with Holt, at least until she told him later that she’d punched Maurice in the face for being a two-timing bastard, and then it was even better.
“I was surprised you kept up with us.”
Naiya snorted a laugh. “I didn’t have a choice. You have some very pretty women at the club. I didn’t want to leave you drunk and alone with them.”
“After watching you beat on Viper, I’d be afraid to even look at another woman, darlin’.”
