Chapter 2

Taylan

I feel her stiffen in my hold. I sway my hips, trying to act casual as I let the beat lead me in my moves. To everyone else we look like two people sharing an intimate moment but the truth is, we are strangers. Knox sent me here to deal with the Murdochs, Memento Mori and Godfather's. Wave, Xan and Trey are here too. Knox won't leave Lake while she is pregnant and I can't blame him, but the fact we have a huge Russian problem right now makes it inconvenient for him to not be traveling and Bishop Murdoch isn't the type of man you ask to come to you because your wife is carrying your sister's kid. Bishop's a good guy and we've been working with him for years now, but we aren't friendly enough to ask him for shit like that.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" she grits out as she sways her hips going along with my charade. I fight back a groan when she grinds her ass into my dick. I flick my gaze to Artemis and give him a nod. At my confirmation, he begins to pull London away and signals to his brother upstairs to follow him.

"We need to move, Destiny, I'm not fucking with you right now." She lifts her head to watch Cronos and her two cousins descend the stairs.

"Not until you tell me what the fuck is going on! I don't even know you." She tries to free herself of my hold but I refuse to allow her to move an inch.

"Andreas has lost control of Russia. The Crows are trying to get it under control but it's proving difficult because the Russians want the formula your mother uses for themselves. Since they can't get to her, they are coming for you, hoping your mom will hand it over in exchange for you." I feel her breathing accelerate. I tighten my hold, trying to reassure her without words that I won't let them touch her.

"I need to get to my dad," she says as she pushes away from me. This time I let her but before she can get too far I snag her hand in mine and drag her behind me as I try to catch up with Artemis and Cronos. I was heading back to my hotel when Xan called and told me that Andreas had given them all a heads up that hitmen were coming for Destiny. Gage had a lock on her location and said they would handle it but they are over twenty minutes away, so I made a call to Artemis who said he was waiting for the girls to show up and decided to lend a hand.

As we near the exit, I spot Art and Nos but they freeze in the doorway at the sound of screeching tires. Nos turns to me and shakes his head.

Fuck!

I dart my gaze around the club and spot a neon exit sign. "This way!" I order as I drag Destiny after me, rushing toward the exit. If it was just me and the two guys I would have stayed and fought but with four women, three of which I have no idea if they can shoot a gun—London I know for a fact can throw knives and shoot. I shove the door open and we all stumble into an alley out the back.

"My car's around the other side," Artemis says drawing my attention to him. He pulls two guns from his waistband and hands one to London just as Nos grabs his own guns.

"Give me one of those," Destiny demands. Nos doesn't hesitate as he hands one over to her. She yanks her hand free and pops the clip checking how many rounds she has, then draws the barrel and checks the safety before turning to me with a pointed look.

"What?" I ask.

"If you have a spare gun give it to Nytress or Unique," she snaps.

"They can shoot?" I ask in disbelief as I look at the two girls in question. They both wear skin tight dresses, six-inch heels and look like Italian Barbies.

"We're fucking Murdochs, of course we can all shoot and fight, you idiot," Destiny snarls as she brushes past me. I pull my spare out of my waistband and hand it to Unique, who takes it without argument and goes through the same checks her cousin just did, then the both of them run after Destiny. I marvel at the sight of them running in fucking skyscraper heels.

"Don't ever underestimate my family again because it will cost you your fucking life," London seethes as she shoulders past me. Nos, Artemis and I follow after them.

"She's a peach, isn't she?" Artemis says about his girl. I shoot the idiot a glare as we push ourselves ahead of the girls and lead the pack around the corner. I raise my hand halting them all in their tracks as I press against the brick wall of the club and poke my head out to check if the coast is clear. When I don't see anyone with guns raised, I wave them forward. Nos leads the girls across the road where mine and Artemis's cars are parked as we take up the rear.

"There!" I hear someone shout, fuck. I raise my gun and aim at one of the fuckers shouldering people who are standing in line to enter the club. I can't risk taking the shot and hitting an innocent person.

"Get in the fucking car!" Artemis roars, but a gun firing from behind us has me dropping into a crouch. I turn back and glare at London, unlike me she clearly doesn't have an issue with hitting a civilian. People scream and begin to run in every direction. We use that chaotic diversion to our advantage. London, Art, Nos and the two girls jump in his car. Destiny looks pissed that she can't fit and right now with those fuckers returning fire I don't have time to argue, I snag her arm and fire off two shoots before dragging her to my car. She jumps in without complaint. I'm a second behind Artemis as he pulls away. I reach across and grip the back of Destiny's neck, pushing her head down as I duck low when we pass a fucker who shoots at our cars.

"Let me go!" she screams. I do so only when we are far enough from those cunts. I can feel her glaring at the side of my face but I don't dare look at her as I maneuver my way through the city. I know she wants to say more but when my phone begins to ring through the sound system in the car she remains silent. I answer the call using the button on the steering wheel.

"Yeah?" I say in lieu of a greeting.

"Taylan, what the fuck happened?" I relax the slightest bit at the sound of Chaos's voice.

"I got to the club just in time, Artemis has Rook's girls?—"

"Where the fuck is my daughter?" Royal hollers . No matter how well London can defend herself, her father will never not see her as his little girl.

"She's with Artemis and Cronos, he's bringing them back to you."

"What about Destiny? Where is she?"

Before I can answer the strange voice she beats me to it. "I'm right here, Dad." I hear him sigh on the other end of the phone.

"I want you to bring my daughter to Bishop's." My eyes widen in surprise. In all the years we have been dealing with the Murdochs, none of us have ever been to their compound as Chaos calls it. We always meet them at the hotel we are staying at or one of their clubs. Unlike their parents, Royal and Chaos host us at their houses. Kacey and Sin have had us at their house a few times, but we mostly hang out at Royal's when we're in Miami.

"Why?" Destiny barks. "I want to go home back to my place!" Their argument becomes background noise as I spot four cars gaining on us at top speed.

"Fuck!" I growl. Destiny darts her gaze to the side mirror then spins in her seat to look out the back window of my Camaro.

"They're chasing us," she mutters more to herself.

"Add Artemis to the call," I say through gritted teeth as I cut into the next lane, ignoring the sound of the blaring horn coming from the car behind me as I cut it off to keep up with Artemis. She does as I say. He picks up before the first ring can finish.

"We have a tail," he says.

"I know," I answer.

"How many?" comes from Bishop, I can tell the bass of his voice anywhere.

"Bishop?" Artemis questions.

"They're all on the line, I added you so we could come up with a plan," I say, cutting the chitchat short as I weave in and out of traffic trying to dodge these Russian fuckers chasing us.

"I have Luka, Rook, Knight, Vin, Kacey and Chanel with three carloads of our men coming for you. I have your location locked now and I'm tracking you through the CCTV footage in the city."

"Uncle King, we can lose them if we split up. That will buy us time?—"

Gage cuts Destiny off before she can continue. "No. You keep heading back and the others will?—"

She returns the favor and cuts her father off this time. "No. I've been trained to deal with this shit since I was kid, I know what to do. Send Chanel and Kacey to my location and send the others after London and Artemis." Before anyone can utter another word she ends the call, this time I do chance a look at her in surprise. "What?" she snaps as she rolls her window down and flicks the safety on her gun off.

"What the fuck are you doing?" I snap.

"Take the next left, there's five cars chasing us, not four. Two will go after them and three will come after us," she says in a matter of fact tone.

"How do you know that?" I ask as she unfastens her seatbelt.

"I'm the one they need to leverage my mother for the formula, not them. They know who London is and if they are dumb enough to try to take out Bishop Murdoch's granddaughter, they know it means death. They would know this is a suicide mission anyway, because there is no way Royal won't skin them alive for endangering his baby girl."

Fuck it!

I bank left and sure enough, three cars follow us. I plant my foot down on the gas as I dodge in and out of cars, trying to get away. When I spy her out of the corner of my eye pushing out the window and resting her ass on the edge, I dart my arm out to try pull her back inside the fucking car. When she fires the first shot, I leave her be and grind my teeth in rage—if she falls to her fucking death, I know without a doubt that I will be executed by her family.

The cunts return fire. Instead of ducking back inside the safety of the car like I thought she would, she surprises me when she stays put and fires off round after round, finally landing a shot on one of the cars, sending it careening into one of the parked vehicles at the curb. The two behind it don't slow down. She ducks back inside the car and secures her seatbelt like she didn't just act like she was fucking Rambo.

"What the fuck was that?" I seethe.

"Me helping you, dipshit. Take the next right and then head back toward the club. We'll lose them in the frenzy of people." I tighten my grip on the steering wheel, not liking her ordering me around, I'm not used to that shit. Knox may be the Don and my formal title may be underboss, but we don't operate like that. We're partners. With Xander not being with us, we had to learn to cope as a duo instead of a trio. Xan pledged his loyalty to Wave and that shit earned both mine and Knox's respect. He's a brother and best friend, the fact he was willing to go to war with us in order to stand by her side showed us how much he loves Wave.

"Here, take this," I say as I hand her my gun.

"Why?" she queries.

"Three more cars just joined the chase, the fact they aren't trying to take out the two chasing us means they are with them." She turns in her seat and curses just as my phone rings. I answer the call knowing who it is.

"I already know, Artemis," I say.

"We're doubling back?—"

I cut him off before he can continue. "No. It's too late, there's a road block ahead." Destiny follows my line of sight to see three SUVs parked across the road, blocking it with men standing with machine guns, I slow down buying us some time as I try to think of a plan.

"Hang on, I'm adding Royal to the call." Within a second Royal's voice filters through the speakers.

"Ram those fuckers and don't stop," he snarls.

"I'm in a rental car, no bulletproof glass and I'm not risking her," I sneer.

"Destiny, you fucking run. Do you hear me?" The sheer panic in Gage's tone has me feeling like a complete waste of space that I am the reason his daughter is in this position.

Destiny looks to me as she answers, "I won't let them get the formula." My brows raise at her insinuation. I snatch the gun from her grasp and glare at her.

"Listen to me, we have three seconds tops before I hit the brakes. You don't fight, you do as they say," I say hoping she obeys me.

"Taylan, they will kill you," comes from Chaos.

"No, they won't." Destiny frowns at my answer. I shoot her wink. "No one knows who Royal Murdoch is…" I let my sentence trail off as I toss my gun in the back.

"You sneaky son of a bitch," Royal says, I can hear the humor in his tone as I bring the car to a stop and I turn to Destiny.

"When we get out, you shout out anything you see about these guys, we don't know who they are, anything you say they will be able to hear and track." I tear my gaze from her to see the fuckers in front of us approaching. "Royal, mute the call, Gage won't like what he hears and I can't risk him fucking this one chance we have until you all find us."

"Protect her with your life. Destiny, I'm coming for you, kill as many as you can, champ." At the sound of her father's voice, she turns rigid.

"Bye, Daddy," she whispers as she shoves her door open and climbs out with her hands up.

"I'll lay my life down for hers, I'll keep her safe," I vow before I rush to follow after her.