Page 71 of Iron Will
“Yeah?” she half-sobs. “You have any idea how I could market that skill? Because as it turns out, it looks like I’m on the job market.”
“What?”
Laney sighs out a shaky laugh. “I’ll explain later. For now, what are we going to do about him?” she asks, nodding at Mickey.
“Oh, don’t you worry about that,” I growl. “Mickey’s done harassing Bethany. Or anyone else around here. I can guarantee it.”
From the way Yoda’s looking down at Bethany right now, I’m pretty sure he’s gonna want to be the one to give Mickey the beatdown of his life. There’s no doubt in my mind that this is the last time we’ll be seeing Mickey King anywhere near Ironwood.
I almost feel sorry for the pathetic piece of shit. For the next twenty-four hours or so, he’s gonna be sorry to be alive.
Rogue grabs the tape Mickey was gonna use to tie up Laney, binds Mickey’s feet and hands, and pulls him out the side door to the attached garage. Yoda makes a quick call to one of the other brothers, gives him Laney’s address, and tells him to bring a van. Then, with a nod to all of us, he leads Bethany and Paisley out of the house, toward her car, and they drive away.
I take Laney by the hand.
“Tell you what,” I say. “Let’s you and me take off for a while. Let these guys take it from here.”
She looks around and lets out a breath. “I guess I don’t want to be here for this part, do I?”
“Nope.”
I lead Laney out of the house and toward my bike.
“Do I want to know what’s going to happen to Mickey?” Laney asks, looking up at me apprehensively.
“Probably not,” I admit. “But don’t worry. He’ll live.”
Just barely.
28
Laney
“So, yeah,” I sigh as the waitress sets our plates in front of us. “I basically don’t have a job now.”
I’m trying to act normal and nonchalant, but my hands are still shaking a little bit as I pick up my burger. It wasn’t even two hours ago that Mickey was waving a gun in my face and I was fearing for my life. Now, even though my mind knows I’m safe, my body doesn’t seem to have quite gotten the memo yet. I was trembling on the back of Rourke’s bike all the way here.
We’re back at Shooter’s. Rourke insisted we leave my house while the other Lords were taking care of business. Since I hadn’t eaten lunch yet, he said I needed to get some food in me to help calm me down and asked me where I wanted to go.
For some reason, the first place I thought of was here.
“So you quit?” Rourke frowns. “I thought you liked working at the hospital?”
Instead of answering right away, I lean forward and bite into my burger, then close my eyes in ecstasy as the delicious, fatty goodness fills my mouth. “Oh, my God,” I mumble around the mouthful. “How do they make these things so good?” I thought I’d lost my appetite, but somehow this is the perfect comfort food.
I’m starting to think that maybe Shooter’s is my happy place.
As I sit across from Rourke, trying to calm my jumbled nerves, I can’t help but think back to our first date here. I almost start laughing at the thought. The word “date” is such a strange concept, when Rourke is part of the equation. Almost like him giving me his class ring, or something.
The image is enough to make me snort.
“Um, nice snort,” he says.
“Thanks.”
“Laney, come on,” he frowns. “Talk to me. I need to know what happened at the hospital to make you quit.”
I’m not quite sure how to tell him the real reason. Or if I even want to.