Give Me War - Kate McCarthy Page 0,13

voice cools like this is nothing. Like I deal in standoffs with a gun in my hand every other day. But my insides are quaking and I’m swallowing bile. “You know what the problem is with quick shots?”

“What?” he asks, taking a cautious step towards me.

“Do not fucking move and put your hands up slowly.” Renny stops and raises his hands, cocking his head in an expression that tells me I’m going to pay for this. “The problem is the accuracy. You might get the first shot in but what does it matter when the other person takes an extra second to aim and drops you with a bullet to the head?”

Renny’s chest rises and falls as he takes a slow, heavy breath. “Give me the gun, babe.”

I cock the weapon with slow deliberation. “Call me babe again. I dare you.”

He tips his chin. “Give me the gun, Evie.”

“How about no?”

“Damn, man.” Kermit’s eyes shift from Renny to me with a twisted expression of admiration. “Your woman be crazy.”

I keep my gaze on Renny while I speak, knowing he’s liable to strike like the snake in the grass that he is. “I’m not his woman so shut your mouth, you goddamn muppet, or I’ll blow a hole in you and shut it up for good.”

“Damn those Valentines. I told you,” Kermit says to Renny. “They get all the good ones.”

Renny ignores him, watching me carefully. “Evie, this is stupid. You can’t waltz out of here with just that. Those bikers out there? They don’t care about you like I do. I’m the only reason you’re alive. There’s going to be a war and they’ll still get one if you’re dead.”

He speaks some sense. Not the caring about me part, but the part where I can’t waltz out of here with just my wits and a gun.

I jerk my head towards the door, my hand steady on the weapon. “Out.” My eyes shift to Kermit. “You stay. Set Angel on the bed and make sure she’s okay or so help me God, I will find you in the night and I’ll cut your dick off while you’re sleeping.”

His nostrils flare but he carries the weight in his arms over to the bed and lowers her down with a gentleness I wasn’t expecting, brushing hair from her face.

“Out!” I order Renny when he stops moving to watch the spectacle.

He shuffles backwards out the door, keeping one eye on me and the other on where he’s walking. “Do you even know where you’re going?”

“Yes. I’m betting you’ve got at least two other guns stashed somewhere. You’re going to take me to them. And then I won’t be waltzing out of here with just this,” I say, nodding at the gun in my hand. “I’ll be walking out of here with a goddamn chance.”

Renny shakes his head and there’s something in his expression that I can’t decipher. Something soft that I’ve never seen before. “I should never have done it.”

“Done what?”

He laughs but the sound is rife with regret. “Let you go.”

“Yeah? Tell that to the devil when you’re dead, Renny, because you had me once. Jared’s got me now, and I’ve got him, and I’m never letting him go.” My voice cracks with emotion. “He’s the goddamn light that I search for when everything goes dark, and you …” my eyes rake over him with withering indifference. “You’re just some asshole I used to know.”

4

JARED

The previous day …

“Evie’s pregnant.”

Casey’s words are like a punch to the gut. I reel backwards, trying to catch my breath. Evie? Pregnant? No. I shake my head. She can’t be. If she was, I’d know. I’d know, wouldn’t I? “She’s not pregnant, Casey.”

He steps forward, putting his hand on my shoulder. “I found out this morning.”

My head is still shaking, denial a hot, twisted ball inside my stomach. “She’s not.” I shrug off his hand. “You’re wrong.”

If she was pregnant, she would tell me. She would tell me before anyone else. Wouldn’t she?

These past weeks I’ve felt her distance even more. Maybe … maybe I’m the last person she’d want to tell. Maybe she’s realised that I’m not the man she thought I was. I know I’m not perfect. My temper can be short sometimes. Mostly when it comes to other guys. But the private messages they try sending her through social media makes me sick and ragey. She’s clearly married. Mine. And those pathetic bastards think they have some kind of chance? I can also be a