Outlaws’ Property (Property of Outlaw Sons MC #1)

37. Jessica

37

JESSICA

Riot’s outside, but how can I help him in?

"It's hard to get peace and quiet in here, isn't it?" Victor looks completely unbothered. "That's fine. I don't give a fuck. They can't get through, no matter how hard they try. Still…" He returns to his desk to push a button. It starts blinking red. "Just so my men know where to find them. I’m tempted to deal with you here while they can listen on the other side of the door, but I’m learning they can be much more annoying than anticipated." He opens one of the doors that lead deeper into his office suite. "Now come on."

"No." I cross my arms over my chest and glare at him. The farther away from the guys he manages to get me, the harder it's going to be for them to find me. I need to stay here for as long as I can while they figure out a way through.

"No?" He laughs cruelly. "Those bastards really have brainwashed you into thinking that you've got any kind of standing in this whatsoever. You're a tool Jessica. Rat girl. I know what my men call you, hiding in the shadows and eating my scraps. You're just a tool, and I'm not going to be talked back to by one. Now come here."

"Make me." And I give him the finger.

Maybe it's stupid. Probably it's just going to get me into even more trouble, but it feels good, especially when his eyebrows twitch. I love that I'm getting to him.

"I always knew you were stupid, but never how much." He sticks his gun in his pocket, stalking closer.

"Riot!" I scream.

The door thunders as someone hammers on it, trying to break through, but it doesn't budge. Maybe there's something they can do if I just manage to delay Victor long enough.

I pay for getting distracted. His open hand connects with my face, the strike so fast I barely saw it coming at all. My cheek lights up in pain as the force of it throws me sideways into the bookshelf. I grab at it, trying to steady myself, but I just get a couple of books with me, and hit the floor hard. My head bonks on the hardwood, making my teeth rattle.

"You little bitch," Victor growls, and for the first time in my life I see him lose his temper completely. It's terrifying. "I'm gonna tear you apart while your mother watches. Break your arms and legs, over and fucking over until they're useless and unfixable. I'm gonna knock out all your teeth so that you'll be drinking your food for the rest of your miserable life. And then I'm going to keep you alive for as long as I can, just to make you suffer. Don't you backtalk me, make gestures at me, or disobey me, ever—and I mean ever—again." He kicks me, the sharp toe of his boot digging into my side and launching me back into the wall, which I hit with a grunt. I draw ragged gasps, trying to get my breath back. Did he break my ribs? It hurts so much.

"Riot! Tex! Ghost!" I cry out with what breath I've got left, and swing one of the books right at him.

He dodges backwards. I throw it at his head, but my aim sucks and the book goes wide.

Something thuds against the bulletproof glass, accompanied by a roar that sounds more bestial than human.

"What the fuck?" Victor turns towards it.

Again, and the window rattles, like whatever's holding it in place is giving.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Victor swears, but for the first time, I sense a hint of fear in his voice. I want to do something, find some way to distract him, but I hurt so much I can barely stand. I push myself up on my hands and knees and suck in the urge to puke on his rug.

"Motherfucker!" Riot roars, the thick window unable to muffle his voice much, and he slams into it again. This time, there's definitely something that cracks. A couple of screws pop loose and bounce off the hardwood. I crawl towards Victor's desk while he stares at the loosening window in disbelief.

Riot roars, charges and this time he busts right through, the whole window coming off as a sheet that Victor only barely jumps out of the way of. I launch myself to my feet, running for the weapons hanging behind the desk. Maybe I can't get my hands on his gun, but I can swing that axe at him and at least keep him off balance. At least that's my theory. I'm so sick and tired of not being able to do anything.

I wince at the pain in my side as I reach for it and yank it off the wall before facing Victor. He turns to grab me just as I swing at him, gripping my weapon with both hands.

"Fuck!" I tear a good shred out of his shirt, but he jumps out of the way just in time, leaving just a thin trickle of blood where I got him over his stomach. "Drop it." He draws his gun.

"You drop it," comes Tex's ice cold voice from outside the broken window as Riot's picking himself up. If I didn't recognize the soft drawl in it, I could've imagined it was Ghost's, that’s how icy it is. "You touch Jessica, and I'll put another air hole in that thick skull of yours."

I hold the tomahawk in front of me threateningly. "You better listen to them, Victor," I snarl at him, almost laughing in delight at getting to sound like a tough girl for a change.

A gun cracks. "Fuck!" Tex yells, diving in through the hole in the wall. Oh right, Victor called for more guards. On the desk, the red light still pulses slowly. While Tex is distracted, Victor raises his gun hand to shoot Tex from behind.

"No!" I scream and swing the axe as hard as I can towards his hand.

No one's more surprised than me when I connect and the blade digs deep.

Oh God, did I just see his thumb go flying?

Victor screams in a mix of pain and fury, but he drops the gun. Then he kicks me hard, knocking me back into the desk. I roll over the edge, dropping the axe with a rattle as I fall down on the other side, my breath knocked out of me. There's a thunk right next to my head, and when I roll my eyes up to look, the axe is stuck in the floor, barely an inch in front of my face.

Holy crap.

"This is ridiculous," Victor says through clenched teeth, his wounded hand dripping blood everywhere. He pushes the door open behind him and slips through, slamming it shut behind him. The lock engages long before I can even think about throwing myself at it. Then Riot and Tex are behind the desk with me, taking cover while the return fire at the guards that responded to Victor's alarm.

"You okay?" asks Tex, gripping my hand and squeezing it while he fires with the other.

"Bruised, but I will be. Victor's getting away!"

"Can't be helped. We got other shit to worry about. How many fucking men does Kane have?" Riot's drawn his gun and fires back. Someone out there screams. Since I can't help, I'm making myself as small as possible and praying his desk is bulletproof.

Suddenly, there's panicked screaming from outside the room, and the bullets stop burying themselves into the wall behind us. I risk peeking.

A body dressed in leather runs past the broken window so fast I barely believe I saw him. Someone else screams, and then he passes by again. A bunch of guns go off at once, followed by grunts and pained yells. Thumps of bodies dropping on the floor. The light catches Ghost's muscled shape holding a knife covered in dark red blood, and then there's one more strangled cry before everything turns quiet.

Ghost glares through the hole in the wall, his sharp eyes looking for us. He's bleeding from multiple cuts and something has torn a stripe out of his jacket, but he doesn't look seriously hurt. We stand up together.

"Good timing," says Riot.

"Jessica," Ghost says hoarsely. Despite being as hard and gray as slate, his eyes soften with worry. "You're okay?"

"Yeah. But Victor got away."

"Doesn't fucking matter. Anything in here that can open that door? We can get Kane later, but if that missile gets launched, the club and the neighborhood around it is rubble."

He's right. I pull open drawers in Victor's desk, looking for a key card or a code or something. Anything that might help or be an override or something. Tex opens the laptop on the desk, but it's stuck on the lock screen. "I'm no hacker," he declares.

Something catches my eye on the floor. It's bloody and gross, but it might be exactly what we're looking for. I pick it up with just my fingertips and grimace as I hold it out for them to see. "Think this will help?"

Riot chuckles. "That breaks our no cutting off fingers plan, but technically you started it. Ghost's wearing off on you, but it might work." He takes Victor's chopped-off thumb from me and wipes it off on the expensive suit jacket still flung over the chair. "We still need a code, though."

The laptop screen flickers, and the lock screen is replaced with six digits, black on white, just like on the screens down at Sparkie’s Megastore. Smiling with all this carnage feels a little unhinged, to be honest, but I do anyway. I look up at the security camera.

"Thanks, Mom!"

God, it feels good to say that.