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

“Another guy who’s made the same mistake as my father. The moment that fool is taken out, his entire organization falls.”

“Not now that he has you.”

“He hooked me up with the militia in exchange for me disposing of his Slade problem. But it’s all bull. I know the guy’s rep. He has no honor. He’ll keep coming back for more, finding ways to keep me owing him for years. I can’t have that. So, he’s the first guy I want us to wipe off the board.”

Holy shit. Freeman wanted more than just a little bit of success and a taste of power. He was gunning for the world.

“You’re too ambitious,” I warned him.

“No such thing, sugar.” He rounded the bed and stepped closer to me, just out of my reach with the restriction of the cuff around my wrist. “You see, you and me are the same. Outside of your skills and connections, that’s why you make the perfect partner. We refuse to let anybody keep us down. And the only way to ensure that is to amass a shitload of power.”

“And if I refuse you?”

“You won’t.”

I narrowed my eyes. “And why is that?”

He stepped closer, breaching the safe zone. He was within reach of me now. Before I could react, he told me in an eerie rumble, “Because I know.”

“Know what?”

“I know why you became what you are, why you really do this.” He smirked, telling me triumphantly, “I know your weakness.”

I kept my gaze steady, refusing to give anything away, in case he’d made an error, in case he didn’t know. I’d been very careful. But I also hadn’t had somebody look so incredibly deeply into me and my work before. If he’d gone detailed enough, he could have recognized a pattern, despite my best efforts. “And what is this supposed weakness?” I gritted out.

“You’re a humanitarian. You care about people. All of this, everything you do, is geared toward the purpose of protecting those who can’t protect themselves. Sure, once in a while, you take on big-name clients that don’t fully fit into that noble notion of yours, because you’ve got to pay the bills. But, for the most part, that’s what the Shadow persona is all about.”

Dammit. “How is that a weakness?”

“Any sentimental bull is, because it can be used, twisted to serve another purpose.”

My blood ran cold.

After all my years of work and busting my ass, sustaining damage that would’ve killed most, having him threaten all of that, to twist it all around and wield it against the mission I’d started it all for, sparked a knee-jerk reaction and I lashed out, literally, thrusting my fist his way.

I was far slower than normal thanks to the infuriating sedative and I wasn’t even able to make contact, as he snatched my fist in mid-air, catching it in his palm.

His eyes flashed and he gave it a painful squeeze, making me grunt. “There it is. Already hitting a nerve.”

“You’re walking on dangerous ground,” I seethed.

He maintained his painful grip on my wrist as he growled, “I’ve been going out of my way to keep things civil between us. But you keep throwing it back in my face. You just raised your hand to me. I can’t allow that.”

“Then drop this and either release me, or kill me. I’m never going to work with you.”

In a flash of movement, he used my cuffed wrist for leverage to drive me down onto the bed, forcing me beneath him. He pinned my legs to the mattress with his steel toe boots, scraping deep and bruising in the process, as he glared down at me heatedly, “You will. I’d rather make it happen the easy way, because I like and respect you. But knowing what I do, I have the means to go the hard way, if I have to.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

A sadistic smile played on his lips. “With a single phone call, I can destroy the Steel Titans stronghold, their entire territory, women, and children included, every single fucking person living in that shithole town. My militia is already on standby in case you continue to refuse me.”

Unbelievable. “You really are twisted.”

“I’m just willing to do whatever I need to. That’s the difference between success and failure.”

“No, that’s the difference between a businessman and a madman.”

He sneered. “Either way, it will be done, if you dig your heels in here.” He traced his index finger along my cheekbone, making me cringe. “That would be the last thing you’d want, wouldn’t it? Not only would you then be responsible for the murder of innocents, but the club that your boyfriend loved more than anything would be decimated, his life’s work, his entire legacy wiped out, all because of you.”

“Nice try, but you don’t have the manpower to achieve that.” I recalled the number of soldiers that he’d brought along to the safehouse invasion and while it would offer up a fight, I knew enough about the Steel Titans MC, to know what they could handle.

“What you saw was barely half of it, sugar.”

“What?”

“I have forty-odd more soldiers currently redirected elsewhere, doing recon on another target. I’m looking at breaking into the arms trade and a dealer like Tony Rockford will do nicely. He’ll just need a little convincing to bend to my will.”

Son of a bitch!

He grinned at the reaction I was trying so hard to stifle.

Leaning in, he brushed his lips over my ear and whispered, “So, what’s it going to be?”

20

~Slade~

 

JESUS.

The second I opened my eyes, I wished I hadn’t.

For one, there was some bitching resistance as I tried to open the right one. I reached up to find a row of stitches there, sealing some deep gash.

I felt like absolute hell.

Like I’d just spun out and been thrown from my ride, then smacked into a fucking concrete wall, or some shit.

I looked down to see that my hands were bandaged around my knuckles. The same with my left upper arm and my