“Since when does an ol’ lady get involved with club business?”

Cruz didn’t hesitate, “When that business involves her and her family.”

“Shit,” G.T. leaned against the door. “You sure about this Princess?”

“If it means getting my boy back, I’m ready.” My voice sounded steadier than I really felt.

“I’m gonna need to rough you up a bit. There’s no way that Babs is gonna think this bitch overtook you. She already looks like she was in a fight, gotta give you some marks, Babe.”

I nodded.

As far as we knew, Babs bought the bait. We even added me yelling some choice words through the phone muffled by a small towel to emulate being gagged. I gave Mel my leather gloves after padding her hand up with a towel, she bitched and complained that it hurt, but I didn’t give a shit. It was stupid of me to cut her fucking shirt, but luckily she had a bag of clothes in her trunk to change into.

Laying in the backseat of Mel’s car, I held on tight to my gun. If anything went wrong, I’d shoot to kill in a heartbeat. Babs wanted Mel to bring me to an old warehouse about ten miles off the beaten path. Already giving the location to the brothers, Cruz said he’d have all the guys in place. I had a towel to tie around my mouth, and when we got closer I was to put the gun at my back and slip my hands in the loose knot that Cruz made for me.

We just needed to see Cooper, and then the guys could come in. I just needed to buy a little bit of time. “Don’t do anything stupid, Mel, or the guys will find you and kill you in a heartbeat. You follow what we tell you; you’ll walk away alive.” I was full of shit, but she didn’t know that. For some reason, she trusted me; maybe thinking she was smart was a dumb idea.

“Will I get the money?” I rolled my eyes. What the fuck?

“Yeah, Mel. You can take the money and start off somewhere new, but don’t contact Cooper again.” I threw in the last part to edge the knife home, but it didn’t faze her.

“Got it.”

“You’d better not set her off, Mel. I mean it.”

“I won’t. I swear.”

As the car came to a stop, I placed the towel back inside my mouth, put the gun away, and laced my hands behind my back slipping it into the knots. I even squeezed out a few fake tears to add to the blood from my cut cheek, courtesy of Cruz.

The door flung open as Babs stood their laughing. “I didn’t think you’d pull it off, Mel. I thought she would have killed you by now.”

“Nah, I kept the gun on her and made her get rid of hers.” Mel’s cocky attitude was working well.

“Looks like you two got into it,” Babs said skeptically more than likely knowing I could take Mel in a fight hands down.

“She tried to get the gun away, but I hit her in the back where Liv shot her. She went down for the count.” Well played Mel, well played.

Babs seemed to have bought her replay of events as she began to look around. “Brothers around?”

“Nope. She wanted the boy so damn bad; she came alone.”

Babs laughed hard. “For an ol’ lady, you sure are a moron.” Babs pulled my arm having me climb out of the car. My mind wandered to how she knew I was already an ol’ lady. She must have better Intel on me than I thought, but just as that thought came into play, Liv popped into my head. Liv must have been feeding her information. I wondered for how long.

As we entered the big building, the smell of mold and musk invaded my nose. With my head snapping alert, I searched around as far as I could see to find Cooper, but when I didn’t see him anywhere, my stomach dropped.

Babs threw me into an old chair in the middle of the room as I continued to search every dark corner around.

“Can I have my boy so I can go?” Mel asked like she was pissed off having to wait.

“Sure. Go through those doors. He’s right there.” Mel walked to the doors opening them wide. Two shots rang out through a silencer, as Mel fell to the ground, dead. “She really is a few bricks shy of a full load.” Babs walked over to Mel and began pulling her by the arms, dragging her to the end of the room. My eyes stayed focused on the door where Mel was supposed to go through. “Clear!” Babs yelled as Liv walked through the door holding Cooper.

“Mommy!” he yelled, my eyes softening to him. But when my eyes landed on Liv, her once beautiful face was void of emotion. It was as if the person looking at me was someone I’d never met, let alone let run my studio or trust.

Babs started laughing. “That will be the last time he calls you that. See Liv, and I are gonna take him as our own. You’ll never see him again. Well that and you’ll be dead. But I don’t want to scare the poor boy.”

“Surprise,” Liv said with a deadpan. “You think I was gonna let you come back and take everything that I worked so hard for these past two years. Bitch. If you’d have just stayed the fuck away, none of this would have happened.”

This bitch was fucking crazy. I didn’t take jack shit from her. It wasn’t hers to begin with.

With my mouth still loosely gagged, I stared Babs down. She must have seen the questions rising from my eyes. Babs began talking, as she walked around the chair I was sitting in, gun pointed at me. I kept my eyes trained on my boy, but I was aware of where she was at all times.

“You remember Luke?” I stared in confusion racking my brain with the name, but nothing came to mind. She laughed. “Yeah. I didn’t think you would since you whore yourself out all around town so bound and determined not to fuck a brother… yet you fuck anything outside making you exactly that. Including my man.” Her man? What the fuck is she playing at?

“I can see by your wrinkled up little forehead that you’re trying to piece the puzzle together. So let me help you.” The butt of her gun slammed down on the shoulder that was shot a couple weeks ago, sending shooting pains throughout my arm, but I didn’t move or make a sound. Inside I wanted to scream like bloody hell, it was healed, but still tender.

“Luke was a bartender at Damon’s.” My mind instantly knew who she was talking about. The brown-haired, brown-eyed hunk of a man I fucked in the back room of the bar a very long ago. He was barely a blip on my radar. How the hell did I know he was her man? It was a onetime gig. “I see you remember him. He’s hard to forget.” Her fist collided with my stomach, but I remained impassive. Cooper, on the other hand, began to squirm. I just needed to wait for the right time, so Babs was in front of me instead of behind.

“See, he was actually my fiancé when you decided to fuck him. And you want to know how I know it happened?” She continued pacing, rage seeping out of her. “Because he fucking told me. He said he didn’t want my pussy anymore… that you’re ‘vice grip’ pussy was what he wanted,” she barked out. How the fuck could he want me after one time in my fucking pussy. Seriously?

But she wasn’t done. “Said he knew a buddy of his that was a hang around for the Ravage MC. Said since you were the Princess over there, he was gonna join. I couldn’t let that happen.” I stared at her. “He had to be dealt with.”

The pieces of the puzzle started falling into place, but they seemed minuscule in the grand scheme of things. I fucked her finance; she wanted to get back at me, so she created this elaborate scheme to do so. This chick was fucked in the head, more than I initially thought.

She walked around to the side of the room and clutched her gun in her hand. I took this as an opportunity to loosen the rope from my wrists.

As she walked towards Cooper, I halted, watching. “See, Liv here.” She ran her hand over Liv’s face lovingly, making me want to puke. “She and I had common ground. Hatred for you. Although her hatred is purely professional, it’s still there.”

As she walked towards me, I slowly grabbed my piece; I was done with this dog and pony show. In one swift move, I aimed and shot Babs right between the eyes as she dropped into a heap on the floor.