Page 42 of Biker's Property
My teeth grind together automatically. Despite my continuous support, Oske remains a pain in my fucking ass. Whileoccasionallyuseful, I find myself wanting to lock her in a damn cage when she isn’t doing exactly what she’s told.
“Oske wants $1,400 for emotional damages and freedom from her alleged captivity.”
“Is that a goddamn joke?”
“I told you we should have just paid her,” Ethan grumbles.
“With what goddamn money?” Owen snaps. “Do you have $1,400 in cash lying around because the last time I checked, I’m completelyfucked.”
“Quiet,” I growl.
“If you stopped losing then you’d have the money,” Ethan says.
“I saidquiet.”
Hunter and Ryder exchange glances. I ignore whatever twin-speak they have going on and focus on my idiot brothers.
“Oske can’t have $1,400.”
“That’s what I said,” Owen replies smugly, casting a disapproving glance in Ethan’s direction. Ethan continues gazing at his phone – a fact beginning to get on my damn nerves – and doesn’t notice Owen’s smug look.
“She’s a crazy bitch,” Ethan says. “Small price to pay to get her off our backs.”
“Can we focus?” Ryder interrupts, taking the burden of getting my brothers in line away from me for once. If Hunter weren’t busy being such a sour puss over the smell of liquor everywhere, he would have been the one to step in. “That isn’t even the bad news.”
Hunter puts his hand on his brother’s shoulder and takes the lead. “Ruger wants to kill Darlene.”
“He can’t. Not until we get information from her.”
“It gets worse,” Owen says. “She’s pregnant. So he wants to keep her in the trailer until she has the kid, then kill her.”
“I don’t have time for this,” I grumble…
“He doesn’t believe in abortion,” Ethan says. “Killing babies and shit. It’s fucked up.”
“Tell Rugerhe doesn’t have permission to execute his wife. Not until after we have what we need. She’s pregnant. She’s vulnerable. Instead of torturing her, he should be promising her the world.”
“It’s Ruger,” Owen says. “He’s not logical. He nearly killed her on the spot.”
“It’sa matter of time before he does it,” Hunter says. “The Blackwoods are irrational and fucked in the head. We turn our backs too long, that bitch is dead.”
Keeping Ruger under control is a full time fucking job. When Doc was alive, he took on the massive project, but Gideon doesn’t give a fuck and with the twins gone, Ruger is off his fucking rocker. Some rednecks are built crazier than others. I would think twice before naming my son after a gun. That asshole is just as volatile as a weapon.
“Maybe he won’t kill her if she’s pregnant,” I grumble, barely hopeful that Ruger can manage that much moral fiber. If he’s keeping her alive because of that, remind him of his Christian morals or whatever the fuck he has going on in his dimwitted redneck brain.”
“We’ll need more than a few of us to get the job done,” Hunter says. “No way in hell Juliette lets me go out to the rez without pestering me.”
“Ryder can handle it.”
“I can’t.”
He turns red.
“Why not?”I ask, giving him a suspicious look.
“I have my own problems,” he says. “Personal business.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”Hunter asks, spitting out exactly what’s on my mind without me having to ask it.