I watched as my words sunk in, not knowing how she would cope with that information, but needing to be upfront with her about it.

No more secrets.

She eventually nodded, and I let out a thankful breath.

Once I took care of this, we could all move forward.

***

I’d just settled Evie into her bed when I got the call from King. “Gambarro’s flying into Sydney tonight. His driver is picking him up and taking him out to his country house. I’ll round the boys up, and we’ll meet him on the way to his house. Can you meet us at the clubhouse in about an hour?”

“Yeah, but can you send Nitro or Devil to watch over Evie? I don’t want to leave her alone and chance one of his guys coming to finish off the job they started this morning.”

“Good call, brother. I’ll send Nitro,” King promised and hung up.

Evie’s gaze focused on me, and she gave me a questioning look. “Are you leaving now?”

Fuck, the pain I could hear in her voice made my stomach roll. To think I could have fucking lost her today. “Yeah, baby, I’ll head out once Nitro arrives. He’ll make sure you’re okay.”

Her hand reached for mine. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“It’s the least I can fuckin’ do . . . for getting you into this mess.”

“No, I got you into this mess, remember?” She gave me a small smile.

I nodded, and tried to lighten the mood. “Yeah, that’s right, and it also means I won’t get to play with you and my toys for awhile now.”

She tried not to laugh, but couldn’t quite help herself. However, the pain in her ribs stopped her, and her eyes welled up from the pain. “You and your fucking toys,” she muttered, and a grin spread across my face.

I leant close to her face, and promised, “As soon as your pain eases, I’ll be fucking you for days to make up for this.”

“That’s going to be a lot of days,” she murmured.

“Yeah, I’m betting on it, sweetheart.”

***

The dark road stretched out ahead of us, not a car in sight. The silence of the night blanketed us; the only sound to be heard was the rumble of our bikes. King had rounded ten of us up for this job, but I’d made it clear back at the clubhouse that this was my gig. I would be the one to cause Gambarro’s last breath.

His car was visible up ahead, and I gave the signal to hurry this shit along. We all picked up speed and a couple of minutes later we circled his car and forced it to pull over. I had no doubt Gambarro would be well protected, and I hoped like hell all of us left here in one piece tonight, but the other possibility was one all of us entertained when we participated in club business like this.

As the car came to a halt, we all trained our guns on it, waiting. It took a few minutes before one of the back doors opened and a gun was fired at us, narrowly missing King. He got pissed, and being the crazy asshole he was, he ran towards the car after dodging the bullets.

Fuck.

I couldn’t let him go down for this, so I followed him. King reached the car first and he yanked the door open. As he did this, I covered him, and shot at the guy who lunged for King from the back seat. His body slumped out of the car and King shoved him out of the way. He pulled Gambarro out and pushed him hard up against the car.

“Well, hello there, motherfucker,” he greeted him before turning to gesture at me, “I’ve got someone here who wants a word with you.” He stepped out of the way and allowed me full access to Gambarro.

Adrenaline ran through my body, every nerve ending alive with the anticipation of bloodshed. I’d been surprised as fuck Gambarro didn’t have more than one guy besides his driver with him. Devil had restrained the driver, and I was almost disappointed this had been so easy.

Gambarro’s empty eyes flashed at me. “I see you got my message,” he snarled.

“I got both your fuckin’ messages, asshole,” I snapped, my fingers itching to pull the trigger of the gun I had trained on him.

“I only sent one. I trust it got through to you.”

I clubbed him with my gun. Not hard enough to knock him the fuck out, but just hard enough to cause him some pain. Pain he fucking deserved.

His head snapped back into place and blood ran down his face. “Have at it, asshole. You kill me, and you and your club won’t know what the fuck hit you,” he threatened.

“Fuck you!” I roared as I clubbed him again, this time a little harder, causing him to lose his balance and stumble. He didn’t fall, though. When he straightened, I took in the blood now covering his face.

Fuck yeah.

“Kick, let’s move this along,” Hyde suggested. He was right; we needed to get this done and then get the hell out of here.

I lifted my gun and aimed it at his forehead. “The world will be a better place without you in it. I fuckin’ hope you rot in hell.”

My gun sounded, and Gambarro dropped. He hadn’t even flinched at my words. So cold and dead on the inside, I bet he’d probably spent his life wondering each day if it would be his last. A lot of people would rejoice at the news of his death.

I stepped away from his body and turned to King. “Are we cleaning this up?”

He shook his head. “No.”

His meaning was clear - this was a message, and we would let it speak for itself.

“Alright, boys, let’s get the fuck out of here!” King yelled out, rounding everyone up. He jerked his chin at Devil. “Let the driver go. It’s not his fault his boss was a prick.” King never failed to surprise me; this kind of decision was rare.