“Fine,” Bruno spits, losing patience, “it’s the Lorenzo Family.”
I feel my jaw fall open as I take in Bruno’s information. “The Lorenzo Family...is paying you off? But why?”
“Bad blood between them and the MC’s. What the fuck do I care?” Bruno laughs shortly, “As long as the bad guys get put away and I make some extra scratch off it—”
“You’re working for the bad guys,” I shout, losing my cool. “The Lorenzo’s are the most dangerous crime family in Nevada. They’re a gang, for Christ’s sake. They’re not just the bad guys, they’re the worst guys.”
“Bad is in the eye of the beholder,” Bruno sniffs. “So. You get ten percent of what the Lorenzo’s are paying me to take down these MC’s, we destroy that little tape of yours and keep on working together. As partners. What do you say?”
I fix my eyes on Jeff Bruno’s red face. He looks desperate. Spent. Scared out of his mind. And we’re only just getting started. As I part my lips to speak, a faint siren begins to wail across the deserted hilltop, underscored by that most comforting of sounds—a pack of motorcycles, roaring toward us.
“I say...no dice,” I whisper, watching as a cloud of dust rises up above the road in the distance, “Sorry, Bruno.”
The brutish agent freezes, his every muscle tensing as he picks up the sound of the approaching vehicles.
“Wait...you...” he stammers.
“Called in the cavalry,” I say. “Had to, Bruno. Who knows what you’re capable of?”
“But I thought...we were going to make a deal? Be partners?” he says, staring at me dumbly as the engines roar ever closer.
“That ship kinda sailed when you threatened my life the first time,” I tell him. “That tipped me off, to begin with. I knew you must have been real deep in some serious shit if you were ready to off another agent. Looks like I had it right. But you were correct about one thing—there was no way the FBI was going to take my word over yours, just like that. So, I had to give them your word. They’ve been listening in to our little heart-to-heart. And they’re not the only ones, either.”
Bruno whips around just in time to see a pack of Harley’s appear on the horizon. The agent spins away from them in horror, but stops short when he spots a fleet of cop cars and FBI vans closing in from the other direction.
“You’re surrounded, Bruno,” I tell him, “it’s over.”
“No,” he growls, through gritted teeth, “No...No...No—”
“What’s the matter?” I ask, cocking my head. “Afraid the Lorenzo family won’t stand by their man? I hope for your sake they don’t have any members in prison. I’ve heard that people get shanked in there all the time. And I’m pretty sure that’s where you’re headed my friend.”
“Look who’s found her tongue all of a sudden.” Bruno says, slowly turning to face me. The unhinged look in his eye sends a shiver of fear through my body. “You think you’re tough shit now, don’t you, Collins? Took down big bad Bruno all by yourself?”
“Stay back,” I snap, as the hulking man takes a staggering step toward me. “Don’t do anything crazy, Bruno.”
“Oh, but I already have, haven’t I?” he replies, his eyes bugging out hysterically, “The way I see it, I’ve got nothing left to lose...”
“Don’t touch me,” I warn him, as I back up against the sun-warmed side of my Mustang. “Don’t you dare, or—”
“What?” Bruno laughs, spreading his arms to the encroaching bikes and cages, “What more could you possibly do to me, girl? Not much. But I can still do plenty of harm to that pretty little face of yours.”
“Stop—” I cry, as Bruno whips out his FBI-issued handgun.
“Why?” he asks, teeth bared in a terrifying smile, “You gonna tell on me? Too late. Besides, last time I checked, dead girls can’t talk—”
He raises the gun level with my head just as the swarm of Harley’s and cop cars screech to a halt, closing us in. I shield my eyes from the billowing cloud of dust that rises up in their wake. Before I can locate Bruno again through the haze, I feel two beefy arms seize me, and the cool, distinct feel of a gun pressed against my temple.
“Bruno, let go of me,” I scream, “Think about what you’re doing—”
“Oh, I know exactly what I’m doing,” he says, pulling me tightly against him. “If I go down, we both go down, sweetie.”
“Drop the weapon, Bruno!” I hear Agent Mitchell roar over one of the van’s PA systems, “Don’t do anything stupid.”
As the dust begins to clear, I blink out at the ring of bikes and cars surrounding Bruno and I. The FBI and local cops are lined up along one side, the Wraiths and the Nine along the other. And there, right at the head of the MC pack, is Brooks. His face is fixed in a mask of pure, unadulterated rage.
“Get your hands off of her,” Brooks growls, his voice low and deadly.
“Or what?” Bruno laughs, inhibition entirely fled, “I’m already getting locked up. Fuck it.”
“We’re only taking you in for battery and accepting bribes right now, Agent,” Mitchell says, appearing beside Brooks. “You don’t really want us to have you for murder too, do you?”
“Doesn’t make a difference,” Bruno says, “Either way, I’m dead the second I set foot in prison. The Lorenzos have all kinds of maniacs on the inside, just waiting to kill themselves a rat. Why not at least get thrown into prison for something good?”
“Agent Collins was only doing her job, Bruno,” Mitchell goes on.
“Why are you trying to reason with him?” Brooks growls. “He’s out of his fucking mind. Can’t you see that?”
“And what are you gonna do about it?” Bruno shouts at Brooks. “Last time I checked, I was the one with the gun.”
For the briefest, most fleeting of moments, Brooks lets his green eyes flick toward mine. Time slows to a crawl as we lock gazes. In that tiny slice of time, his anguish hits me like a wrecking ball. I can’t let myself get killed here. I can’t leave Brooks alone. Adrenaline courses thickly through my veins, steering me straight from terror to purpose.
Keep talking, I mouth to Brooks. Baffled but game, he gives me the smallest of nods.