Page 156 of I am Dressed in Sin (Death by Daybreak MC 2)
I will shoot Gaz without hesitation and worry about dealing with Cat later.
My fingers have just barely grazed the side of the weapon before Gaz is wrapping an arm around my throat from behind and dragging me backward. I react on instinct, swinging my left arm down and back until my closed fist makes contact with his crotch. Almost immediately, I bring my hands together and throw them over my shoulder, shoving at his face. I spin in his grip, but then suddenly, I’m trapped inside the confines of his arms and my mind is going blank.
Did Beast teach me how to get out of this position? I wonder, but I don’t exactly have time to think on it. Gaz shoves me back violently until I hit the edge of a bookcase, leatherbound volumes toppling off the shelf and crashing into my skull.
Gaz wastes no time in throwing a closed punch at my face. I just barely manage to swing to the side, tripping on some of the fallen books as my brother snatches my ankle and yanks hard enough that I fall on my belly.
I’m able to turn onto my back, but that’s it. He’s on me again, straddling my pelvis and launching another hard punch. This one hits me right in the mouth, and I feel my teeth cut the inside of my cheeks, drawing blood. White-hot pain slices through me, briefly blinding me to my horrible reality.
Out of pure instinct, I reach up and dig my nails into his face, forcing him to grab my wrists and putting a stop to another skull-shattering blow.
“What the fuck is going on in here?!”
A familiar voice booms out, this shock of lightning that seems to electrify both me and Gaz. In an instant, he’s climbing off of me and stumbling to his feet.
“Gaz, what the fuck?” Cat snarls, moving into my field of view. My father looks at me, bleeding and dazed on the floor. Then he looks at his son, also bleeding but not quite so dazed. What a clusterfuck.
“Gidget is involved with the mafia,” Gaz says, bending down and reaching into my pocket before I can stop him. He rises to his feet, brandishing the needle and the bottle of silver liquid that Grey gave me. “She drugged the kegs and laced our product with supplies from Grey Wolfe; I don’t know what this is, but she was trying to inject anyone that was still conscious with it.”
My eyes go wide as Gaz hands the items over to Cat. My father looks at them then back up at his son.
“That’s bullshit,” I choke out, blood dripping from my lips as I manage to drag my tired body into a sitting position. “Gaz attacked me and Sin in the clubhouse after the bomb went off.” Fuck, it sounds so weak. I should’ve said it first. I should’ve spoken first. “He’s been working with the mafia since before Queenie and Posey were murdered.”
My father’s face … I wish I could explain the look of it. But that would take wordsmithing skills far greater than I possess. He looks like someone who’s just had his heart ripped out and shoved up his own ass.
“Here,” Gaz encourages, taking his phone out of his pocket and offering it up to my father. What he might have on there, I have no idea.
Cat doesn’t make any move to take the phone.
“Gidget’s been fucking a bunch of men in the club to get their help. She arranged this hit today.” Gaz throws his hand out toward me for emphasis. “I’m not sure who’s all in on it, but at the very least, your pretty boy officers.”
Cat is staring at us now. Just staring. There’s a realization in his eyes that scares me. He sees it. He sees the betrayal in at least one of us. Probably both.
“Daddy, listen,” I plead as Gaz scowls at me. “Let me have a chance to explain before you decide anything. Please.” I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve referred to this man as ‘daddy’ past the age of five. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
“Look.” Gaz turns his phone toward my father’s face, and whatever it is that Cat sees there shuts him down. He goes cold. Ice-cold. Glacial. He holds out his hand for the phone and Gaz gives it to him. “Do you think anyone from Grey Wolfe could get on this property? It’s surrounded. Somebody in the club planted that bomb.” He points back at me. “She was never held prisoner by the mafia; she was part of it all.”
With a groan, I finally push up to my feet, swaying a bit as I put a hand on the edge of the bookcase to steady myself. I’m standing there looking at my father, wondering if this is it, if this is what everything in my life has been leading to. I’ve wondered for a long time now if Cat wouldn’t be the one to kill me. When I took off with Grey that day, I expected this ending. Dreaded it, ran from it, denied it, but expected it. Then when it seemed I could step back into the fold without him being the wiser, I relished it.
