Surrender To Me

BANE

MY HAND CURLED into a fist as I watched my brother-in-law help Wren from the fucking warehouse. I was set up on an adjacent wharf, keeping tabs on everything that was going on. I knew Cox wouldn’t have been able to walk away from the tip I’d given her. I also knew it had been a fucking risk to even bring her into this. Sanderson was a vicious man. He would’ve killed Wren whether I turned up or not. At least this way, my Little Bird was safe, I wasn’t implicated and never would be if Cox was smart. I was sure she wouldn’t reveal her source for this. She had too much on the line. Then again, so did I.

I waited until James settled Wren into the back of a squad car with a bottle of water, then hit the proverbial red button of the detonator on my phone screen.

The charges I’d set last night came to the party. The explosion that was connected to my fingerwalking thundered through the port, making the seagulls that were steadily circling overhead cry out as they were knocked off course.

The sound echoed around us, flames licking above the roofline of the building already. Black smoke billowed out from the building like a dying beast, my latest shipment of coke going up in smoke with it. I had about two billion dollars worth in there with a street value of fifty billion.

“Was this necessary?” Dagger rumbled beside me.

“Nobody fucks with me, Dagger.” Jerking my head at the destruction of my property, I added, “This will be a message to any motherfucker who thinks he can come in and take what’s mine.” I turned back to the carnage, to the pieces of sheet metal that were strewn across the ground, to the fireball still erupting from the belly of the building to the black smoke swelling high into the sky. Sanderson may have cost me fifty billion in coke sales, but I made sure I would fuck him up even more.

When the text had come through with the address of one of my buildings as the meeting point, I’d called in some fucking favors. Changing over the deed of ownership from me to Sanderson wasn’t fucking hard. All it had cost me was one free year’s membership at the Dollhouse, along with free drinks for that period too. I gladly gave that up to fuck up the man who had taken Wren from me.

Cox would’ve had to have been blind not to see all that coke stacked up in there. The discovery had been made. Now it was time for Sanderson to fucking pay. As my gaze shifted away from my business loss, it settled on Wren. I’d told my brother-in-law to park as far away from the warehouse as he could and to make sure he was out of the blast zone too. He hadn’t asked why he’d had to park so far away, but he’d done as he was told, and thank fuck he did because it saved his and Wren’s lives.

The EMTs pulled in, their sirens screaming, their lights flashing. James was still on his feet. However, the same couldn’t be said for some of his brothers in blue. The blast would’ve taken out a couple of them, but their deaths would be pinned on Sanderson, not me. Not now. I turned my head when I heard Cox screaming at the EMTs to come and help her men. Soot covered her face, her suit jacket ripped and bloody. Her shoes had come off, leaving her barefoot in the rubble.

“We should go,” Dagger said. “Before someone sees us here.”

Nodding, I retreated to my car and got in the back seat. Dagger slid into the driver’s seat.

“To the hospital?”

I shook my head. “It’s too soon. I need to get the call first. I can’t be implicated in any of this.” And Jesus-fucking-Christ did it kill me. I wanted to go to Wren and hold her close, never let her go, but I couldn’t. Not yet, anyway. And until Sanderson was arrested, I had to keep my eyes open. “Back to the club,” I said. “Then, we wait.”

IT TOOK four fucking hours to get the phone call that Wren was safe.

Four.

Fucking.

Hours.

At that time, I’d driven everyone at the club away from me. Even Dagger left me alone, and that bastard was practically with me twenty-four-seven. When I arrived at the hospital, I went straight into Wren’s room. Nobody tried to stop me, and if they had, I wouldn’t have been kept away for long.

I sucked in a breath when I saw her in that bed. White sheets were pulled tightly across her body, the color a stark contrast to the bruising on her face. Both her eyes were swollen shut, the mottled purple bruises around the sockets already coming out. She had stitches on her forehead, a busted-up bottom lip, and her neck was in a brace. My hands curled into fists at my sides, rage bubbling over in my veins.

“Bane,” she said in a breathy whisper. Was she awake? I stepped into the room and waited. “You’re here.” She tilted her face in my direction. Reaching out a hand, she groped around blindly for me. As soon as my fingers touched hers, she sighed. “You’re okay.”

I fell to my knees beside the bed, staring at this woman who was more concerned about my safety than hers. How the fuck could I keep her when my lifestyle and the choices I’ve been forced to make put her in the crosshairs? “I’m okay, Little Bird,” I murmured. “How are you feeling?”

“They’ve got me on some pretty good drugs right now, so not so bad. I just wish I could see.”

“Did they say how long it would be before the swelling goes down?”

She swept her thumb over the back of my hand in a soothing motion. “No, just that it will take time.” Her voice was soft-sad even.

“Who beat you, Wren? Was it Sanderson? If it was, I’m going to hunt that fucker down and make him swallow the muzzle of my gun.” My free hand tightened with barely contained rage, that familiar feeling making its way through my body like a junkie getting their fix.

One small salty tear fell from the corner of her eye, landing on the pillow and staining it pink. “Hawk did this to me.”

“Your fucking brother?”

“Yes.”

My gaze darted around the room, trying to fucking put all the pieces together. “Why?”

“He said it was my life or his. He chose his.”

I winced as the claws of my raging monster raked at the inside of my head. Her brother. Her brother had done this because he was too much of a fucking pussy to own his shit. No, he’d rather let his sister, the only person in this goddamn world who gave two shits about him, take the fall for his fucked-up decisions.

“I will fucking end that motherfucking cunt!”

I braced for Wren’s objections, but they never came. “I don’t care anymore, Bane. I’ve given my brother everything, and all he’s handed back to me is pain and torment.”

Getting back onto my feet, I palmed my phone, drawing it out of my pocket. “I’ll be back in a minute, okay?” Placing a gentle kiss on her forehead, I stalked from the room, down the busy hall, and out to the front of the hospital.

Dagger picked up on the first ring. “Boss? How is she?”

“Fine, no thanks to her fucking brother.”

“Her brother?” he asked. I laid it all out for him, how Hawk had borrowed money from Sanderson to pay me back. The fucker had also negotiated so much more than that because he became Sanderson’s attack dog too.

“What do you need from me?” Dagger asked. The bastard always knew when it was time for action and not words.

“I need you to drag Hawk down to our usual spot and keep him conscious until I get there.”

He hung up and strolled back into the hospital. When I returned to Wren’s room, there was a nurse there checking over her chart. She was a little older, a little rounder, but the compassion on her face was undeniable. She gave me a warm smile as I shuffled over to the visitor’s chair and pulled it closer to the bed.

“You must be her boyfriend,” the nurse said in a whisper. “Your girl is a strong one. She’ll pull through this just fine.”

“Thank you.” I glanced back at the now-sleeping Wren, who had her face turned in my direction. It was killing me not being able to see her blue eyes.

“Do you need anything?” the nurse asked as she turned to leave. Oh, not much… … the usual.

Revenge.

To spill Hawk’s blood.

To dick fuck the hole I was going to put in his skull.

“I’m fine. Thank you.”

“I have a feeling we’ll be seeing each other a fair bit. If you or Wren need anything, my name is

Patty.”Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

With a nod and another smile, she was gone, and all I was left with was simmering rage that seemed to increase with every single beep of Wren’s heart rate monitor.