~ ~ ~
Tripp was on his back. I cut to the right and a gun went off again. That bullet was probably meant for me, but my quick move saved my life. In reality, I was now going after Tripp. I collapsed before him, watching him touch his shoulder. There was blood seeping through his shirt already.
“You’re not dead,” I whispered.
“Fuck, no,” Tripp groaned.
“Not yet,” Dmitry said.
“Tripp, I love you,” I said. “I’m sorry this all happened. Stoney called me. He said you tried hurting everyone there. He came to get me…”
That’s when everything hit me.
Terror ran through my body. I leaned forward and kissed Tripp. Then I stood. Tripp called for me and was already fighting back to his feet.
I looked at Dmitry. He was sweating. He may have been smart, but he was out of his normal element for sure. He wanted to kill us, but he just couldn’t pull the trigger yet.
“That’s why Rocky’s dead,” I whispered. “He found out.”
“And if you figured it out, then you’re going to join him,” Dmitry said. “I’ll give you one chance to shut your eyes and turn around. Then you can take the bullet just like your daughter did.”
“Winter!” Tripp yelled.
I was lunging at Dmitry again. There was no stopping me. My mind replayed every damn moment with Endo. His money, greed, manipulation. The way he made me feel, the things he did to me.
Dmitry could have shot me. Instead, he swung the gun and smacked me in the mouth. Hot pain shot through my jaw and I left my feet for a second. I came down, my knees bent and twisted, and I was on the ground. I pushed with my hands and turned, on my ass, looking up at Dmitry.
Now he had the power again with a gun on each of us. Tripp’s shoulder bled. He lifted his hands and balled them into fists. He was going to fight a man with a gun? He had already beat a man with a knife, so why not?
Endo and Stoney were tied together in this, with Skull X. With Dmitry. That meant the President of the Red Aces was a two faced guy. Working for two crews at once. Which meant Stoney set up Rocky to be killed. While I didn’t love Rocky, it wasn’t right. He sent Rocky right into the dark shadow of death.
“Now,” Dmitry said, “let’s get back to our business here. Tripp, nice meeting you. Great fight. You’ve got solid feet and solid fists. Winter, I wish we could have met under different terms. I would have loved to fuck your brains out. But sometimes fate just dictates… eh, who the fuck cares? I take what I want, when I want. And I’ll never stop. Know that as the last words you hear. Nothing will ever stop me.”
I braced myself to actually die. I looked at Tripp, wanting him to be my last sight.
I heard a gunshot boom through the warehouse.
Tripp wasn’t dead though.
I wasn’t dead either.
I slowly turned my head and realized… Dmitry’s face was missing.
37.
(Tripp)
Dmitry fell to the ground. I saw Winter looking at him, trying to process what had just happened. I sure as hell didn’t shoot the guy, but someone did. The need to protect Winter took over again and I jumped toward her. I grabbed her, hugged her, and spun her around so she couldn’t see anything.
I held her tight and rubbed her back.
“It’s okay, darling,” I whispered. “It’s all going to be okay. I’m right here with you.”
Winter let out a soft sob. I squeezed her tighter.
From the shadows of the warehouse, I saw a figure approaching. Tall and wide, I realized it was Stoney. A gun in his hand, a sad look on his face. He was in a black t-shirt and had no leather cut on. Nothing to represent himself as the President of the Red Aces MC.
“I’m not going to kill you,” Stoney said.
Winter jumped and tried to turn. I held her close, never wanting to let her slip away from me again. I needed her. Without Winter, I had no purpose to exist. I was better off taking that bullet Aldo owed me for losing that fight.
I stroked her hair and kept my eyes locked with Stoney’s.
“It’s done now,” he said. “You two need to get out of here. Police are on their way.”
“What the fuck did you do?” Winter asked. “You piece of shit.”
“Yeah,” Stoney said. “That’s right. That’s what I am.” Stoney looked at Dmitry. “He had a good plan. It all came together perfectly. Especially when I got him to grab Autumn and Andrea.”
“You helped with that?” Winter asked.
“Christ,” I whispered.
“It was the bargaining chip,” Stoney said. “And once we had things in place with Endo, we were going to destroy the Red Aces. I’d play it off that I was hurt, killed, kidnapped. Whatever it took. Then I was going to get a different kind of cut. A different kind of power.” Stoney looked at me. “But it all got fucked up. Rocky started asking questions. Poking around my personal shit. Getting in my way. He followed me one night when I took a woman from the bar. I did it as a diversion. I dumped her at her apartment and met Dmitry. Rocky confronted me and I told him I was working something. I told him Dmitry wanted to meet up. That I had a plan to kill Dmitry. Rocky was on board. So I sent him off, telling him the MC would be there to get his back.”
“They were never involved,” I said. “You set him up to get killed.”
“That’s right,” Stoney said. “That’s how much this all meant to me. I let my best friend fucking die.”
“You killed him,” I said. “You did it. You set up your best friend to be murdered.”
“Yeah, I did. So fuck it. Who cares? It’s all a mess anyway. The guys pegged me. Dmitry must have tipped them off. He found out that Endo was gone, which meant everything we’d been working on was gone.”
I started to open my mouth but shut it.
Why would someone from Skull X take out Endo if he was so important?
I held my question back.
I heard the cry of sirens.
Stoney at least had been telling the truth about that. The police were on their way.
Nodding, Stoney looked around. “I never wanted it all. It just fell into my lap. Fighting, drugs, always working for something that seemed to be nothing but death. This fucker screwed me. So now he’s dead. You won the fight, Tripp. You won it all. Now get out of here.”
“What about Autumn?” Winter asked. “Did he…”
“I don’t know anything else,” Stoney said. “Just get out of here. I’ll pay my debts as needed. I killed Dmitry. Let the police come find me. This is your only chance to get away from it all. Both of you. I never meant for it to be this.”
“But you meant something,” I said. “You were going to team up with Skull X and take down your own club. And that would have included Winter. Either way, you lose.”
“I lose,” Stoney said.
I pulled at Winter. “Come on, darling. We have to go right now.”
We charged toward a side door. I kicked it open and we went outside. It was pitch black. The sirens were getting closer, louder. I held the door open, trying to figure out what to do. I needed to get to my car. I could take the risk and run with Winter.
Or we could hide…
A gunshot rang out.
I looked back and saw Stoney on the ground.
He’d shot himself.
“What was that?” Winter asked.
“Nothing, darling. Get ready to run with me.”
I took her by the hand and started to run. We moved along the back of the building and then around the side. We started to run faster, cutting in and out of a few of the emergency lights that weren’t burned out hanging off the building. When I looked at Winter, she looked at me. Her hair danced behind her, her blue eyes looked simply beautiful against the light when it was there. She was everything to me now. She was what fate was made of in life.
Then she smiled. Shit. In the face of danger, death, people wanting to hurt us and kill us, Winter smiled at me. The most beautifu
l smile I’d ever seen in my life. There was no turning back, not like I ever had a chance. From the moment I met her, everything changed in my life.
We made it to the front of the warehouse and the flashing lights were off in the distance. The police would come and find Dmitry, Stoney, and Kane dead. With any luck, they’d play it all off as some kind of turf war over money, drugs, and women.
Maybe they’d find my blood on the floor and my ass would get dragged into things. None of that mattered though, just as long as Winter made it out of all this safe and alive. I’d do anything to make sure she’d be protected.
“Don’t stop moving, darling,” I said as we ran across the street.
I saw my car. I somehow still had the goddamn keys in my pocket.
I opened the passenger door for Winter. I hurried around and opened my door. I stuck my key in the ignition and turned it. For a split second, I wondered if Dmitry had been smart enough to disable my car… or bomb it…
The car started with ease, just like it was built to do.
All we had to do was back up and back track through the lot and find an access road that would lead to one of the main roads. The police would never find us. They’d be too far concentrated on the dead bodies in the warehouse and what it all meant.
I looked at Winter. I grabbed her hand and kissed it. “Darling, I love you.”
“I love you, Tripp,” she said. “Just get me out of here. Get me out of everything.”
“Done.”
I put the car in reverse and looked up in the mirror.
I saw the silhouette of a car a second before the headlights came on.