RIDING DIRTY (Steel Titans MC Book 4) by Franca Storm (ebook voice reader .txt) 📕

to retire and go to ground. But, to get anywhere worthwhile, you had to ride out the twists and turns. You just had to keep going, keep riding. And, this was just another curve in the road.

The only thing left to do now was to damn well lean into it.

***

These pancakes are damn good.

I eyed Rick across the counter. “Didn’t know you could cook.”

He flashed me a smug grin. “Make you wanna drop your panties for me, Slade?”

“That what you want? Another Prez’s dick to suck?”

His only obvious reaction was his fork stilling just before his mouth.

But I knew him well enough to see that my comment had him bristling. Served the fucker right. Did he really think he could come at me with no consequences? He was getting cocky with Willa around. He had a lot to be cocky about, because she really was something. To say the woman could hold her own didn’t even begin to cover it.

“My bad, all right? This whole safehouse thing ain’t my deal. Tensions are high with what’s going on. You got my respect, Slade, you know that, yeah?”

All right then. I eyed him steadily. “If I didn’t, you wouldn’t be here. And I don’t just mean in this safehouse.”

“I get it, you spared me.”

“Yeah, well. You’re a good guy who was just caught up in a shitty situation.”

“That fucker, Nik, is gone, and I still am. Guess it’s my lot in life,” he muttered bitterly.

“There’s always a way out.”

“Let’s hope.”

He didn’t sound the least bit convinced. More than that, he spoke of hope, but it seemed he’d lost all his. Maybe long ago. Thinking back to the Strikers MC takedown, he hadn’t exactly fought hard to protect himself and save his own life. He’d been through the wringer for way too many years, because of Nik Stone and that fucking club. Unfortunately, no matter how hard you tried, how tough you were, everybody had a breaking point. While I was just close to reaching mine and recognizing that had me carrying out this whole retirement mission, it seemed like Rick had already reached his. I’d already suspected as much, given his willingness to continue as a double agent, risking discovery by Freeman. He’d been all too ready to sacrifice himself.

He was done then. There was no way I could let him in on the mission to sort Freeman and Nolan. Having a guy with a death wish on your team was a major risk. There was a willingness to lose buried in there, and not that deep neither.

“Hope has nothing to do with it,” Willa spoke finally. She’d been quiet the whole time, which was unlike her to begin with. More unlike her, was the fact that she’d been staring out through the kitchen window as she munched on her strawberry-topped pancakes. I’d had my focus set on Rick mostly, because I’d been having a hard time dealing with her eating her strawberries. Damn, the way she sucked on the things, then nibbled around the sides, before popping what was left into her mouth, was just too much for my cock to take. I knew she wasn’t doing it on purpose either, because she was seriously spacing out. It just made it sexier that it was natural and unplanned.

“You got a plan, huh?” Rick spoke.

“When don’t I?” she tossed back.

Rick gave her a way-too-sweet smile and clasped her hand on the counter, stroking his thumb over the back.

My body tensed. A wave of possessiveness that I’d never felt in all my life grabbed hold of me in a brutal fucking grip. It was so sudden and new that I couldn’t fully keep it in check. It had me clenching my fists, a growl rumbling from me.

Willa noticed and jerked her hand from Rick. Rick’s gaze darted to mine, a mixture of surprise and confusion on his face. And then a slow grin spread over his features, realization obviously setting in.

Willa suddenly rising to her feet cut right through it, as she announced, “Enough eating and relaxing. Time to put things in motion.”

“In motion?” Rick asked, looking stunned. “So, this plan of yours involves taking direct action? No more intel-gathering and playing it smart and cautious?”

Her eyes hardened. “We’ve waited long enough.”

Rick and I exchanged a look. What was happening? This approach wasn’t what she was all about.

Instead of reacting to it right off the bat, I wanted more details. Maybe there was a solid reason and more to it than she’d had a chance to explain yet. So, I said, “You’ve got our undivided attention. What’s this plan?”

She slapped her hands to the counter. “I’m going to take out Nolan.”

What. The. Fuck?

Rick shifted his weight. “You’re… what? You mean, kill him?”

“Of course.”

“How?”

She looked frustrated and snapped back, “A bullet to the chest, brain, throat, artery. Maybe a blade. A close-range detonation. Or—"

“All right,” Rick said, holding up his hand. “I get it.”

Yeah, this weren’t happening. “Nolan is mine,” I rumbled.

“You’re far too personally involved. It clouded your judgment once. I can’t risk it happening again.”

“Willa,” I growled.

“Slade! What does it matter who takes the kill shot as long as the target is eliminated?”

I clenched my fists on the counter and seethed, “What does it matter? You ain’t that ignorant.”

“All right, let’s take it down,” Rick tried to intervene.

“This is what needs to happen,” Willa insisted in that usual stubborn-ass way of hers. “And if you can’t see that—”

I shot to my feet, “Enough! You don’t know me anywhere close to how well you think you do if you really believe that. I never came to you for Nolan in the first fucking place. Our business only included the surviving Strikers MC members.” I shot a look at Rick. “Outside of Rick.”

“Well, you should have. He’d be taken care of already and this alliance with Blake Freeman would never have happened.”

“Yeah? With your extreme long-haul approach?” I scoffed. “It would’ve been years in the making before you even laid a