“It doesn’t matter who we are, all that matters is why we’re here,” the guy with the gun snarled as he raised it at me.

“Why you’re here is pretty fuckin’ clear,” I snapped. My brain worked overtime trying to figure out how the fuck this was going to go down.

He smirked. “Nothing’s ever as it seems.”

What the hell?

My finger twitched on the trigger of the gun, but I refrained from pulling it. I needed to confirm who they were. However, before I could do that, Scarlett pulled the trigger on her gun, and all hell broke loose.

She shot at the roof, but it spooked the two guys and the one with the gun also fired his. Thank fuck my reflexes were quick – I ducked in time to avoid being shot.

“Fuck, Wilder, can you restrain her?” I yelled.

“I’m already on it,” he threw back and I blocked out their arguing as I did my best to defend all three of us.

I lifted my leg and kicked the guy in front of me as hard as I could in the stomach, which pushed him backwards into the one with the gun. He dropped the gun, so before either had a chance to recover, I moved to kick it out of reach. They were scrambling to get to their feet, and the panic I read on their faces put my mind at ease. It looked like I was about to get to the bottom of who sent them.

Standing over them, I aimed my gun again, and demanded, “Tell me who the fuck you work for or - ” I directed my gun at one of the guy’s dicks, “ – shit’s about to get real fuckin’ messy.”

Fear sliced across his face and he held his hands up. “Stop! It’s Julio…he sent us.”

“Why?” I asked, keeping my gun aimed at his dick.

He opened his mouth to speak, but his mate silenced him by slitting his throat from behind with a knife I’d never seen coming. As the guy slumped back with blood oozing from his throat, his mate shoved his body to the side so he could stand. Everything happened so fast – one minute I had the situation under control, and the next the tables had been turned.

I did the only thing I could in that moment – I shot him.

As his breath was stolen from him, so too was our chance at gaining new information about Julio.

I raked my fingers through my hair and turned to face Wilder. He held Scarlett around her waist, but now that the threat had been erased, he let her go.

“You good?” I asked her.

“Yeah, but damn that’s a mess,” she said, nodding at the dead men and blood on the floor of her apartment.

Wilder stepped over the bodies and closed the front door. Eyeing me, he said, “We need to get this shit cleaned up before any cops turn up.”

I called Griff. “We need some help here, brother,” I said when he answered.

After I filled him in on what had happened and he told me J and Nash were on their way, he said, “This complicates shit.”

“Yeah.”

“We need to start calling in favours, Scott. Once Julio figures this out, we’re gonna need our backs covered.”

Fuck.

Not the way I wanted shit to go down.

12

Scott

I stood at the end of our bed and watched as Harlow slid her dress over her head. Something was different about her, but I hadn’t been able to put my finger on it. After I’d dealt with the mess at Scarlett’s home last night, I’d headed straight back to Trilogy and she’d been beside herself with worry. I’d never seen her so consumed with fear before, but hadn’t been able to convince her to share those fears with me.

As she smoothed her dress, she looked over at me. “How long do you think Scarlett will have to stay here with us?”

I’d made the decision to bring Scarlett with us when we left her apartment last night. No way was she safe in her own place. Not until we dealt with Julio. “Hopefully not long.” I hadn’t shared with her the events of last night except to let her know Scarlett wasn’t safe.

She watched me for another couple of moments before finally nodding and saying, “Okay.”

I moved to where she stood and wrapped my hand around her wrist, halting her as she took a step away from me. “Are you pissed off with me for bringing her here?” I couldn’t read her and it frustrated me.

“No.” She tried to pull her wrist free, but I gripped it tighter.

Christ.

Why won’t she talk to me?

Pulling her close, I ran my free hand through her hair. “Harlow, what’s going on? You’ve been off ever since I got back from Scarlett’s last night.”

She sighed. “It will sound stupid.”

“Try me.”

After a moment of hesitation, she finally opened up. “I have this weird feeling deep in my gut that something bad is going to happen to you. Last night I was really worried and then you came back with Scarlett and said she wasn’t safe, and I’m still feeling sick with worry. You never exaggerate things, so for you to bring her here tells me you’re worried, too.”

I let her wrist go. “It’s true, I am worried. But we have this covered¸ so I want you to go to work and try not to think about it too much, okay?”

Her eyes searched mine and then she said, “I will.”

“Can you take Scarlett with you? I don’t have enough men to spare one to stay with her today.”

“I’m happy for her to come to the café with me, but good luck convincing her to do anything.”

She had a point – convincing Scarlett to leave her apartment last night had been a tough gig. “I’ve got an idea of how to talk her into it. Let’s see if she goes for it.”

Loud banging on the front door interrupted our conversation, and I left her to see who it was.

“Mr Cole, we finally meet.” Two cops stood on the other side of the door. I knew they were detectives because I’d come across one of them before.

I planted my legs wide and crossed my arms over my chest. “What can I do for you?”

The short, pudgy one at the front that I’d never met before took a step to enter the house, but I put my arm out to block him. He raised his brows. “We’ve got things to discuss.”

I didn’t budge. “Those things can be discussed here.”

A scowl flashed across his face. “Some new evidence has come to light with regards to your father’s death.”

“What kind of evidence?” They’d come up with nothing solid so far, and I suspected they were simply on a fishing expedition.

His chin jutted as smugness glinted in his eyes. “Evidence that points to your club.”

Bullshit.

We’d made sure there was no evidence.

I kept my arms crossed. “So you’re going to interview me?”

A brief flicker of hesitation passed over his face and he stalled for a second. Not the body language of a confident man. He tried to cover it, but I didn’t miss it. “Not a formal interview yet, but we would like to talk to you about it and - ”

I cut him off. “Either you call me in for an interview or we don’t talk. I’m not talking to you off the record.”

The tall detective at the back who was familiar to me, but who I was having trouble placing, took over. “We’ll be in touch.” Even his voice was familiar, but my memory was a tangled mess and I couldn’t place him. He tapped the short one on the shoulder to indicate they were leaving, and in that moment, I realised he held the power in that relationship.

I called Griff as I watched them leave. “You had any cops sniffing around about Marcus’s death?”

“No. Have you?”

“Yeah. Harlow told me they called around while I was away, and they’ve just shown up again, saying they have new evidence that points to the club. When I called their bluff they caved. They also sussed Mum out, but she didn’t give them anything. I’m just trying to figure out what their game is because we covered our tracks thoroughly.”