29. Rita

29

RITA

S ound disappeared as the sweaty head rolled right to my feet, face up.

I swallowed the bile as a few drops of dark blood hit my shoe.

Matthews. It was Matthews’ head. I kicked it away so it wasn't resting on my feet and glanced at the others.

Due had declared a war. I didn't know how many men were in Matthews’ club, but six couldn't be all of them.

Somehow, I managed to tear my eyes away from the floor and meet Due's gaze. An arrogant smirk stretched across his face as he wiped his chin.

"What did you do?" I whispered.

"What was that?" He cupped his ear and leaned forward.

"How many men did you leave?" My voice was stronger now. I had to be stronger. I needed to prepare for whatever hell was about to rain down on the Dirty Dogs, whether it was from the new group or from within our own fucking gang.

"That's the beauty of my leadership. I didn't leave a fucking soul breathing." He cast his gaze around the room.

I wanted to look, to see how the gang responded to him, but I couldn't. A surge of adrenaline filled me so fast, my fingers trembled.

"No." I shook my head and moved toward him. "No! That's not leadership. That's a psychopath! You wiped out a club before giving them a chance to become allies? Before giving them a chance to leave? You know what that does?"

I met the eyes of every man I could see. Some were sickened. Some avoided looking at the floor all together as they faced the wall. Then some watched Due with feverish approval.

My heart stopped.

"Places us at the top," he said lightly. Was this the Due I’d known for years? He didn’t seem like it. He was cocky, exuberant, and unhinged. Not in a good way.

Oh God, this was going to kill Esteban.

"No. It makes you a target." I lowered my voice. Esteban and Matías both rested hands on my shoulders as they stepped up behind me. I stood straighter with their support. Taller knowing they had my back. "If you can't play nice in the sandbox, you'll get buried in it. Maybe not by these men." I swept out my hand, encompassing the floor. "But by everyone else still in it."

"That's funny." The light in Due's eyes grew brighter. "Because right now, the only target I see is you."

"You're outnumbered. You'll never leave here alive." He only had seven other men. I had the rest of the gang at my back.

"That's where you're wrong." His smirk widened, creasing his face in a macabre image. "We have many more than seven."

He whistled and all around us, Dirty Dogs attacked Dirty Dogs .

Fuck ! Fuck, that was what I was afraid of.

Due had to go. If he was dead, we’d end this. The rest would stop fighting. I believed that in the depths of my soul.

I pulled the small handgun tucked safely in the back pocket of my dress, and jumped forward.

Esteban beat me there as he caught Due by his throat and slammed him into the ground. I aimed. But I couldn't get a good angle with Esteban trying to punch through his stomach.

Two men caught my arms and I screamed, kicking back. They avoided my hits as they dragged me away.

Hap and Trig had my arms. "You fucking traitors! Let me go!"

Esteban glanced over his shoulder. Then he abandoned Due and raced toward me.

I wildly searched for Matías.

There he was. Surrounded by three old Dirty Dogs. They had been some of Papá's best friends. When I got my hands on them, they would regret the day they ever decided to turn against us.

Esteban reached us and smashed his fist into Hap's face. He stumbled back, taking me with him. Trig tugged on my arm, and I winced at the way they were pulling my body in separate ways.

"Let her go," Esteban growled as the cool edge of a blade slid against my neck. Trig wrapped his arm around my chest as he notched the knife tighter against the underside of my chin. I tried to swallow, but the knife bit deeper.

Across the room, Matías bellowed.

I couldn't see him. Was he hurt? Or worse?

Clamping my eyes closed, I thought of how he held me. My arms were pinned to my sides, but if I could just angle my hand backward …

"Nuhuh, bitch." Hap snatched the gun out of my hand and tossed it to Due who was now behind Esteban.

"Est–" I tried to warn him, but the knife was too tight. I was going to slice my throat open if I talked. Widening my eyes, I glanced behind him.

He understood, spinning to face Due, raising his own weapon and aiming it at Due's face. Three men raised theirs and pointed them at Esteban.

"You're going to regret this!" Matías screamed as he came closer. I could just see him out of the corner of my eye, as guy after guy tried to step in his path. He threw punches, tossing them aside, but there were two men for every man he dispatched.

"Maybe," Due agreed. "But not before your brothers are dead."

Matías froze and RJ, one of my least favorite Dirty Dogs, got a hit in across his cheek.

"That's right, Matías. There's an attack on your brothers' place as we speak." Due slanted his gaze my way. "Did I say I cleared out the new club? I meant I cleared out the problems and left a handful alive who wanted to separate from Matthews' insufferable rules. They agreed to assist if I promised them a slice of the pie. With both you and the brothers out of the way, there's no one else for them to worry about."

Amorette. The baby.

Matías' phone blared like an alarm. He reached for his pocket, and when he pulled his phone out, his face drained of blood. His gaze collided with mine and I wanted to fucking cry.

It was true. They were under attack.

And I had a fucking knife to my throat .

Esteban tried to move closer but one of the guys fired a shot at his feet and he stopped.

"None of that. We're friends. I don't want to hurt you. I'd rather you join my side." Due turned to Esteban. For the first time since Due walked in, he looked like the man I knew. A serious expression carved into his face as he watched Esteban.

I glanced back at Matías. Matías’ body vibrated and his face twisted up into something ugly.

My heart sank, knowing what he had to do. It was fine. We’d get out of this. He had to save his brothers.

As tears filled my eyes, I nodded as much as I could. Trig had loosened his grip a fraction of an inch. Just enough for me to let Matías off the hook.

"It's okay," I mouthed.

He shook his head. He wanted to go to them. It was written all over him.

That was how it always was with Matías. His brothers came first. Now his niece would come first. There was never a time that I didn't understand that.

Nothing had changed. The only thing I wanted was for him to come back to me. To keep coming back to me.

"Eat shit," Esteban snapped, raising his gun to aim directly at Due's head.

Sighing as if this was exactly what he expected, Due nodded. "I figured as much. But you won't shoot me, because as soon as you do, Rita is dead." He glanced back at Matías. "You're still here? I thought you would be gone already, just like you always do when your brothers need you."

Matías shivered and shrugged his shoulders like he was shaking off whatever indecision hung over him.

Around us, Dirty Dogs continued to fight against each other. I had no idea who was on whose side. Only that we were ripping each other apart from the inside out.

"I know where my place is."

My gaze snapped back to Matías. His face was calm and he implored me with his eyes. To what? To believe him? To understand? I did!

I understood too fucking well.

"And it's here with the love of my life." Too quick to process, he fired his gun. The bullet whizzed by my ear, hitting Trig in the face. The knife slipped across my throat as I leaned back, trying to minimize the impact.

Fuck, it stung, but it was barely a scratch. I wiped my throat and came away with only a few drops of blood. Just a scratch, I chanted over and over to myself.

Matías gave us the distraction we needed.

As I fell on my ass, Esteban dropped and kicked Due's feet out from under him. The three men holding their weapons on Esteban were now engaged in their own fights with other Dirty Dogs, their guns forgotten.

Matías lifted me from the floor with one arm, holding me to him.

"You should go." My voice shook as I curled my fingers against his chest.

"Fuck that," he spewed, firing his gun, taking out every man he deemed a threat. His aim was impeccable and the Dirty Dogs started giving us a wide berth.

"Waste of space. Waste of a goddamn Dirty Dog," Esteban screamed as he grunted.

I peered over my shoulder to see Esteban was beating the literal shit out of Due. Slamming his fist into his nose until blood sprayed. Dropping elbows on his neck, and raining hell over his chest. Due gasped and jerked with each hit until his motions slowed .

Esteban kept attacking and screaming at him. He did this long after Matías stopped shooting. The fights around us stopped and a crowd formed around us.

Matías tipped my chin up, checking my neck, swearing as he moved his thumb gently just under where the knife nicked me.

"Esteban," I called. I tried to step out of Matías' arms, but he didn't let me go and Esteban didn't stop. Matías dropped his hand from my neck and hugged me to him as he murmured unintelligible words against my hair.

"Esteban!" I yelled.

My voice must have pierced his fury because he dropped his hands, his shoulders drooping forward as he panted.

"You were my best friend, you fucking cunt." He delivered one more punch to Due's face. He didn't move or twitch. He wasn't even breathing. At some point, Esteban beat the life out of him.

"We don't have time for this." I pushed at Matías' chest.

My heart fluttered, knowing Matías chose me. He wasn't leaving my side. It soothed the last jagged crack in my heart, but I couldn't fully appreciate it. Not knowing that my friend was under attack.

Around us, the fight was over. Some of the girls had their hair torn down and their make-up smeared. One girl held two pieces of a broken tray.

"Girls!" I pointed at them and motioned for them to come forward quickly. "Work with Jonny and Rio. We need to sort through the men who are against us." Rio and Jonny stepped forward, baring their teeth. The fight was over, but they were ready for more. With how some men edged toward the doors, they might get it.

"Lock the doors! No one in or out until Jonny and Rio allow it. "

The girls huddled together, whispering as they looked to Jonny and Rio. They heard things. And with the way many of these men liked to pillowtalk, they had a good chance of making sure nothing slipped through the cracks.

"You got it." Rio's gravelly voice skated across my skin as he and Jonny started working through the crowd. A couple of the girls walked after them.

"Rio! Jonny!" I had one last order before we left.

They turned. Swallowing hard, I held their stare. "If they aren't on our side, they don't walk out of this building."

The words burned on my tongue. It felt like I was tearing down Papá's legacy, but these men, they'd had enough chances. They were a poison that would just keep chipping away at the club if we didn't eradicate it now.

They jerked their heads and I rushed to Esteban.

"Esteban." I cupped his cheeks, wiping away the tears that tracked down his face. "Oh, baby. I'm so sorry. I'm so fucking sorry, but we have to go. Amorette and the brothers are under attack. We have to go help them."

His gaze skated past me but he relaxed when he glanced over my shoulder. He thought Matías would have left too.

"Okay," he rasped as he raised his hand to check my throat. When he was satisfied, he pushed up from the floor. "We need to load back up in the office. Then we can go."

We rushed to the office, reloading clips, grabbing extra weapons. I selected a holster and added a few more guns. I usually only had what I could hide in my dress, but fuck that.

My best friend was in trouble.

Esteban drove this time, flying down the road and racing around cars. We saw the fight before we got there. Bikes lined the street and gunfire popped off.

Esteban swerved over to the side of the road, slamming on the breaks before we could see their place. "We'll go on foot from here." He threw his door open.

We exited the car and I left my heels. Clanking across the pavement would signal our sneak attack from a mile away. I just hoped I didn't tear up my feet too badly.

Next to Matías, I reached out and squeezed his hand. He glanced from me to Esteban and nodded to himself.

At first, I thought he was going to speak, but as we moved closer to Amorette and the brothers, it hit me.

Us, being here for Matías, soothed something for him too.

As much as I wanted him to stay, he never could before. I didn't think he knew how. No one had ever stayed for him .