Page 5 of Reckless Vengeance

“Make sure you do. I know you’re busy, but she’s really worried about you, and you should be more worried about her. She was in shock.”

“I could’ve lost her tonight too, D.” I might have already lost her to a dead man, but I couldn’t think about that.

“But you didn’t. You can’t cut her off now, and you know it.”

“I wasn’t going to,” I bit out defensively, and he gave me a stern look.

“Good. I know things are about to get messy around here, but please check in with her tomorrow. How are you doing?”

“I don’t know what to do, man,” I admitted, my eyes sliding to Slash’s vacant desk.

“We rest, plan, and get payback,” he said simply, drawing my attention.

“They’re going to keep coming for Rory. Do you think they’d make a move on her at the Holloways’?”

“I think for now they won’t be a problem, but we definitely need to keep an eye on her. I don’t think they’d risk getting involved with Josie due to her status, but that doesn’t mean they won’t. For now, we need to head to bed and get some sleep.”

I knew he was right, so I shut down the computer and got to my feet, following him out into the main room.

The cops had spent hours here today, my eyes catching on the blood stains by the door. They’d almost made it outside before getting hit.

I was always going to lose one of them tonight, no matter how much I played the what-if game in my head.

If he hadn’t jumped in front of the bullet, it would’ve hit Rory instead.

I’d found the McLaren keys on the ground earlier where Rory must have dropped them, not that I really gave a fuck if she still had them. I would've left the car here overnight and gotten a ride with Diesel.

He said he’d follow me, so I headed towards my car and climbed inside, taking a moment to soak in the silence before starting the engine.

I checked my phone, opening my tracker app to see where Rory was. Her phone pinged at home, and hadn't moved since being sent home from the hospital.

Hopefully, she’d slept most of the day away and wasn’t beating herself up too badly.

For a second, I considered stopping by to check on her, just in case, but I reminded myself that she had her other guys, and me showing up would just wake her.

My house was eerily quiet when we arrived, a deep sigh leaving me as I tossed my keys on the table. I needed to get out of my own head, but it was hard.

Running the crew meant facing it all head-on.

“Heads up, I’m picking a fight with Matteo in the morning,” I stated, making Diesel groan.

“What for?”

“He locked himself in the bathroom when the bullets started flying. If he hadn’t, Rory would’ve gotten out and Slash wouldn’t—” I couldn’t say it. It meant he was really gone if I did.

Diesel sat at the table to have a cigarette, his eyes on me.

“You need to tread carefully with him. He’ll find a way to pin all this shit on Rory. The last thing you need right now is them turning on her again.”

“What the fuck was he doing then?”

“I don’t know, ask him. I highly suggest digging into it before you blow up at him. You’re the boss now, Skeet. You need to work hard to prove you have the crew’s best interests in mind. If they push you out, God knows what they could do. Someone like Matteo being in charge would destroy everything you and Slash worked hard to build. Everyone’s nerves are fried right now, so take a breath before pointing fingers at anyone.”

“You should’ve been Slash’s right-hand, you know?” I chuckled lightly, and he gave me a wry smile.

“I would've been if I wasn’t a junkie. Can’t have me handling the drugs without supervision.”

“Hey, you got sober. Don’t make light of that. You worked your ass off.”