Pawn (The Pawn Duet #2) - T.M. Frazier Page 0,61

rushing away. I can’t blame the girl. Darius probably offered her something better than money and a job. After all, that’s what he does. He manipulates. However, knowing her reasoning behind giving me up doesn’t make this situation any better or any less deadly.

“What the fuck is all of this about?” Percy asks, parting the crowd and stepping to my side.

Darius is all too eager to fill him in. “It turns out that your wife here already belongs to another. That your marriage isn’t pure just like her heart isn’t pure.”

Percy steps between me and Darius. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, old man” he says, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Young Emma told me that Mickey tried to recruit her, and then a man by the name of Pike, who owns the pawn shop in town, the same one where Mickey was held captive for weeks and then suddenly escaped from, intervened and told Emma to go. She watched them behind the gas station. It seems Mickey and Pike were quite…familiar with one another.”

Percy rolls his eyes. “That’s what the fuck this is about?” Percy asks with a laugh. “I already know all about that.”

“You do?” Darius asks, raising an eyebrow.

“You think my wife does something I don’t know about? You taught me better than that.” Percy turns and looks at me then back to his father. The entire Reich is now gathered around us, watching the scene play out. “So, let her the fuck go,” he grates.

“No. Not until you explain why I should,” Darius replies, widening his stance and standing his ground.

Percy rolls his eyes. “She made Pike believe they were friends so she could escape, she told you as much. So, of course, he’s going to be friendly toward her. She did what she had to do in order to survive. He made her let the girl go because she was in his territory. So, she did and brought you another one in her place. She’s not a fucking traitor. She’s just smart. Too bad you’re not smart enough to recognize it.”

I’m proud of Percy right now. He’s using his father’s own manipulation techniques and throwing it right back in his face.

“You believe that the same Pike who killed your mother is friends with a member of the Reich? Maybe, you should be asking if she’s also making us believe she’s one of us?”

Percy runs his hands down his face, stretching his cheeks. “You know, you’re so fixated on trying to make everyone into a traitor.” He steps forward, pointing an accusing finger at his father. “It makes me wonder why. Because the only people looking for faults in the people around them are the ones who are guilty of their own.”

Darius lip twitches. “Watch it, boy, before you say something you’re going to regret.”

Percy turns, his back to his father and glares at Hoppy, who's holding me. “Let her fucking go, Hop. That’s my fucking wife. She holds a higher rank than you.” The look in Percy’s eyes leaves no question of his authority. “Now.”

Hoppy releases me and steps back.

I stretch my arms and my right shoulder painfully pops back into place. “Ahh,” I moan, bending at the waist.

Percy kneels beside me. “Hopefully, we’ve dodged that fucking bullet,” he whispers.

I stand back up and wrap my arms around him. I whisper in his ear, “Yes, we dodged that bullet. The question is, how many rounds are in his gun?”

There’s a commotion by the stage. I release Percy, and we make our way to the front of the crowd. Two of the Reich’s masked guards appear, with another trailing behind him. They’re dragging something between them. I stand on my tip-toes to get a better look. No, it’s a someone, not a something, and whoever it is...he’s unconscious.

The guards turn the man toward us, and my heart stops.

It’s Pike.

I withhold a gasp as my entire body screams to run to him. To save him.

“Speak of the fucking devil,” Darius sings, strutting up to the stage. He lifts Pike’s head by his hair. Blood drips from his nose and ear.

“We found him circling the perimeter, sir. We didn’t see anyone else. Clocked him over the head pretty good,” one of the guards says.

Darius claps his hands together in delight. “Well, tonight just got a whole lot more interesting.”

“I knew he was coming,” Percy tells his father. “I made him believe we were discussing the terms of the truce.” He steps up onto the stage,