RIDING DIRTY (Steel Titans MC Book 4) by Franca Storm (best books for students to read txt) 📗

way around it. A quick death weren’t enough no more. He deserved the maximum level of pain and brutality that I could deal out.

But as I pummeled him into a bloodied mess, breaking his nose, and causing more still, making him choke with it, a warning sparked in my brain.

I could feel myself slowing against my will. The usual power I brought into play during a fight was compromised. My head was swimming. Goddamn it!

I eyed his gun.

Currently out of my reach, but doable, unlike mine that was over on the other side of the room thanks to the impact of that flashbang.

That brief distraction cost me big.

Freeman reared up and grabbed my right shoulder. Using it as leverage, he stabbed the fingers of his free hand into my chest wound, digging in deep and making me growl.

“I was gonna let you walk!” he yelled wildly, driving deeper. “That home invasion wasn’t personal. It was just a business deal I made with Adrian. I was just there for Willa. You did me a favor by taking out my old man.” His eyes flashed. “Now, though? Now, you screw me over like this? Tear me down? Take Willa from me? She was supposed to be my partner! She was the key to making all of this happen. Now she’s stabbed me in the back, blacklisted me to Decker and anybody else he knows—and he knows a shitload of people—and put me right back at square-one. All because of her misplaced love for you! Adrian was right about one thing. You’re nothing. You don’t deserve a woman like her! You should’ve left well enough alone!”

Damn, his version of things was beyond twisted.

Gritting my teeth, I shot out my hand and grabbed his wrist. His eyes went wide at the sheer level of my strength as I ripped his fingers from my wound. I shoved him away from me, then reared back and smashed my boot into his face.

I fought to get back to my feet.

But that last burst of strength had pushed me too far.

Dizziness overwhelmed me and as I went to reach for the arm of the couch to push myself up, I missed and landed on my hands and knees back on the floor instead.

Get up! Get the fuck up!

I pressed my hand to my chest wound, trying to compress it to at least stop further blood loss. Freeman had made it a hell of a lot worse.

My breathing was straining. My surroundings were moving out of focus.

Through the haze, I saw Freeman struggling back to his feet.

A shot rang out.

He jerked, his eyes shooting wide as a bullet blew through his left side. Looked like a through and through, but a brutal one.

He collapsed to his knees, grasping the wound, blood oozing over his fingers.

Willa came into view, her gun aimed his way, her eyes hard and unforgiving.

She didn’t look at me, keeping her focus solely on Freeman as she strode toward him.

Moving around to his front, she kicked him in the face, knocking him onto his back.

“You twisted bastard,” she snarled. “Who the fuck do you think you’re dealing with?” She drove her boot into his wounded side, making him scream. “You think you can come after somebody like me and survive it?” She pistol-whipped him. “Blackmail me, try to wield me as a weapon against people I care about?” Another kick to his wounded side had him coughing up blood. “All for money and power?

With him choking and writhing on the ground, it was real hard to notice that he weren’t just taking what she was dealing out, because he was wounded. But I had a better vantage point than she did, on ground level with him, unlike her as she stood above him. So, that was why I was able to see him reach for one of the pockets in the right leg of his tactical pants.

I had no doubt it was a weapon of some kind.

“Willa!” I called.

She didn’t hear me. She didn’t want to.

I’d been right on before about her taking Freeman’s actions toward her personally. He’d made her into a victim and Willa Rose didn’t do well with that on any level. So, now she was on a mission to erase that by erasing him.

She just kept screaming at him and punishing him with blow after blow.

Fucking shit!

Groaning, I forced myself across the floor, straining to reach his dropped gun, just out of reach.

I saw the glint of a blade emerging from his pocket.

“Bitch,” he rasped. He tried to snag her arm, to bring her closer so he could use it, but she jumped back out of his reach.

It was my window.

My fingers closed around the gun.

Grunting, I managed to flip it into position and take aim.

I fired.

And I blew the fucker away with a bullet to the brain.

Willa jolted and spun toward me, her eyes wide.

“It’s over,” I breathed, dropping the gun and collapsing onto my back.

I heard her rushed footsteps and in the next second she was kneeling down beside me. I could barely make her out, I was fading fast.

An intense, searing pressure on my wound had me growling.

She was compressing it. I saw her pull her phone out with her free hand.

“Jammer,” I croaked.

“I know. I realized when I tried to call you when I heard commotion out here. I took care of it, overrode Freeman’s bullshit jammer with my military-grade tech.”

I smiled. Of course she had.

I heard her calling for a medevac, then a cleanup. Damn, those contacts of hers really came in handy. This was probably the last time she’d be able to use them, though. Then again, we wouldn’t be in a fucked-up situation like this again.

It really was over.

I reached out a grasped her hand. “We’re free.”

She smiled back at me, but I saw the strain there for her. “Yeah, we are, so don’t quit on me now. Hang in there, baby.” She tightened her grip, pain all over her face. “Swear