Indulgence (295 page)

“Keep talking,” I said, more calmly than I felt. My blood
was pumping furiously through my veins now.

“It seems this was a hit organised by Gambarro.”

“Motherfucker!” I roared as I turned around and punched the
brick wall behind me.

“I’ve got the boys finding out where Gambarro is. We think
he’s still out of the country but have to verify that. You stay with your
woman, and we’ll let you know once we have the info.”

“Thanks, brother.”

We ended the call and I stalked back inside.

Gambarro would fucking pay for this.

*****

“Evie,” I said softly, trying to wake her up. She’d been
exhausted and had been drifting in and out of sleep for the last couple of
hours while we’d been waiting for the all clear.

Her eyes fluttered open, then shut, and open again. She gave
me a small smile before wincing and placing her hand to her side. Before she
could speak, I placed my finger to her lips. “Shhh, baby, don’t try to speak
because it will probably hurt.”

She had fractured some ribs in the accident. Besides that,
she had whiplash but nothing else. She’d been lucky considering a car had
rammed her, causing her to slide into the path of a truck. The good fortune of
the day had been the quick thinking of the truck driver who had swerved to miss
her, and, in doing so, had only clipped her car.

The doctors had done x-rays and verified it was only her
ribs and that in time they would heal by themselves. They’d dosed her up on
strong painkillers and had told me I could take her home soon.

Thank fuck.

She ignored my advice not to speak. “When can I go home?”
she asked, her face contorting in pain with every word.

Loretta was standing on the other side of her bed and
grabbed her hand. “They’ve said you can go home in the next hour or so. They’ve
just got to get your discharge ready and your pain medication.”

“Thanks, Mum.” She hissed through the pain.

I frowned at her insistence to talk, and she just pulled a
face back at me. My woman was too damn stubborn sometimes.

The doctor came back to us with a smile. Looking at Evie, he
announced, “You’re good to go. The nurse will have your medication in a minute.
If you experience any of those symptoms I mentioned to your family, you need to
come straight back to the hospital.” He waited for her response, and when she
agreed, he nodded and left us alone.

I eyed her mum. “Can you give us a minute, Loretta?”

As she left, I raked my gaze over Evie again. Gambarro would
hurt for this.

At her questioning look, I said, “Sweetheart, this wasn’t an
accident. This was retaliation for me getting your dad’s debt wiped. The guy
who organised this will pay, I promise you that.” Her eyes widened, but before
she could say something, I silenced her again with a finger to her lips. “I’m
gonna take you home, and when I get the call from King, I’ll organise for one
of the boys to come over and watch out for you while I go and take care of
this.”

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.

With a deep sense of satisfaction, I headed home.

Killing someone like Gambarro rated highly on my ‘I’ve-had-a-good-day-at-work’
scale. I would never be convinced that ridding the earth of scum like him was a
bad thing.

Especially not when my family was threatened.

Evie

Holy mother of God!

The pain shot through me as I tried to suck in a breath and
shift in the bed. My eyes flew open and I stifled the cry trying to push
through my lips.

“Baby, are you okay?” Kick’s voice cut through my haze of
pain.

I turned my head and found him standing next to the bed, his
body bent at the waist, face hovering over mine. His distress at my agony
warmed me, that he cared so much, but at the same time I hated to see him so
worried. I tried to ease his mind. “I’m okay, but I need some painkillers,
please.”

He nodded and said, “Good. I’ll be back in a minute.”

I watched as he strode out of the room.

My man loved me.

Everything he did for me showed me just how deep that love
was.

And I couldn’t wait for him to get those matching rings.

When he came back, he had water and pills. Kneeling on the
floor next to the bed, he asked, “Can you sit up?”

I shook my head, fearful of the pain that shifting would
cause. I’d had hardly any sleep and I’d finally found a position that caused
the least amount of pain; I didn’t want to chance bringing more pain on.

“Okay, don’t move,” he said, as he passed me the
painkillers. “I’ll hold the water for you.”

I took the pills and he brought the glass of water to my
lips and helped me swallow them. After he’d placed the glass on the bedside
table, I gave him a small smile. “Thank you,” I whispered.

He leant over and placed a kiss on my forehead. “I’m sorry.”
His words were simple, but I heard every last drop of pain and sorrow in them.

I gulped back the tears that threatened. Rapidly shaking my
head, I said, “No, this isn’t your fault, Kick. Don’t you dare take that
blame.”

Kneeling again, his gaze grew serious, and my gut tightened,
sensing where this conversation was headed. “You never need to worry about
Gambarro again.” His words were hard, and I knew from his tone and the way his
entire body had tensed that he was worried about my reaction. He needed me to
accept his actions.

“Good,” I said, and watched as the worry eased out of his
body. “And, baby, I will always feel that way about anything like this. I trust
everything you do because I know it comes from a place of love and a need to
protect those you love. Never doubt my love for you and belief in you.”

He stared at me, and I saw the war waging in his soul. Kick
was essentially a good person, but sometimes in life, things touched you and
stained you in a way you could never recover from. They caused an irreversible
shift in the way you saw the world around you, and in the way you dealt with
the things that happened to you from that point on.

Sometimes, the path your journey veered on to led you to do
things you’d never have considered previously.

And sometimes, in the hell you’d been delivered into, the
end justified the means.

So I watched as he waged war, and I reached my hand up to
lay gently against his cheek. “This is it, Kick. Can you feel it?”

He frowned. “Feel what?” he whispered, clearly confused at
my obscure words.

“The moment where you know once and for all that there is
nothing you could do that I wouldn’t accept,” I explained and waited for it to
sink in.

“Fuck,” he murmured, “I don’t fuckin’ deserve you.”

“Yeah, you do,” I said as I curled my hand around his neck
and pulled his face to mine. He willingly gave me his lips and I kissed him
with all the love and passion I felt for him. When we ended the kiss, I said,
“Now, I do believe you have some rings to buy.”

He grinned and raised a brow. “Oh, you think so, do you?”

It was my turn to raise a brow. “Questioning the woman who
will be your wife one day soon is not a smart move.”

Chuckling, he agreed. “You have me there, sweetheart. I
learnt a long time ago that questioning the woman I love isn’t a smart move.”

“When was that?”

“I was seventeen at the time. It was the day I asked you to
the senior dance, and you said no because I’d questioned a decision of yours to
stand up for Joe Jensen the day before. You practically held me to ransom over
that fuckin’ dance, and in the end I had to backtrack on everything I’d said
about that dickhead and pretend I fuckin’ liked him to get you to agree to go
with me.”

I couldn’t hide my surprise. “I thought you only asked me to
that dance because you had no one else to go with.”

His eyes turned soft. “No, baby, I asked you because I
really wanted to take
you
. I wouldn’t have become friends with fuckin’
Joe Jensen if I didn’t have to.”

My ribs might have been in pure agony and my body and mind
might have been exhausted, but this new knowledge buzzed through me, causing
extreme happiness to settle in me.

Kick Hanson had loved me since he was seventeen, and he
still loved me eighteen years later.