If I really got to do what was best, we wouldn’t be fucking recruiting scrubs off the street like this.I knew better than to have “what I think is best” be to dismiss the three prospects and tell Satan that we weren’t going to pursue any further shitty recruits. Just because the boss said something was possible didn’t mean he actually wanted it to be possible.
“Oh, and before I forget, I thought you should know. Melissa is back in town—she’s with Hailey.”
Melissa.
Oh, shit.
Oh, fuck.
The one that got away—not because of fate or time, but because I’d been the world’s biggest jackass.
She’d treated me right. She’d listened to me. She’d seen me as more than just a biker. She saw the Corey in me. And I’d fucking shoved her away.
“However, none of that is why I came in here,” Satan said, but my mind was still on Melissa.
I knew how she’d react if she saw me. She’d fucking fight me or flee from me. There was nothing good left from what we had—but that didn’t mean, to me, there might not be something worth pursuing a second time.
Of course, that was assuming she was in town for good, which she almost certainly wasn’t. So I needed to stop acting like a goddamn reminiscing bitch and focus on the task at hand.
“OK, what did you want?”
“I need you to come with me,” Satan said. “It’s the damndest thing. King is just out in the open.”
* * *
We pulled up to a hotel in downtown Phoenix a short while later. We certainly got uncomfortable glares as we moved into the lobby, but tough shit for those fuckers. It wasn’t like we were hell-bent on killing anyone, anyway.
We rode an elevator up to the top floor in silence. A man in a suit who was already in the elevator made it a point to get off a floor early. Satan and I had no reaction.
When we got to the top, we walked through a bar, giving a gruff nod to a female bartender. She was pretty cute, though she was dressed more for an upscale spot than a club where her tits would fall out. Satan led me to a railing and then pointed at a skyscraper across from me.
It took me a second to see it, but when I did, it was almost laughable. King stood in the window, staring out over the city, his body fully exposed to anyone who would take a shot, the curtains drawn back like he was daring people to shoot at him.
“It’s a trap,” I said.
“Of course it is,” Satan said.
“How the hell did we find out about this?”
“Some club members saw him downtown and trailed him. He went in here and we then had people scanning all the windows. Turns out, we didn’t even have to try that hard. He made himself available to us.”
And he wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t feel certain he wouldn’t get hit. A man like King had enemies, but a man like King also didn’t get to where he was without knowing when to flaunt what he had and when to play his cards close to the vest.
But that made this sight the most fucking annoying thing I had ever encountered in my life.
“Would be so fucking easy to take a sniper rifle and—”
“And what? Where the fuck would you set it up?” Satan said. “I guarantee you that any spot that there’s a potential shot, King has someone standing by to provide protection. Shit, even at this bar, I’ll bet you anything he’s got someone on standby.”
I looked around. By all accounts, things looked normal. People were standing by and having drinks. The bartender was casually making what looked like a Manhattan. The women wore nice dresses, the men slacks and button-downs.
That didn’t mean this place wasn’t well-guarded, though. That might have been King’s most clever move of all. His security didn’t look like security. It blended in.
“So what the hell are we going to do with this then?” I said. “You brought me here, but we might as well be staring at a painting.”
“Any and all information we can get will prove useful to us, Spawn,” Satan said, a little annoyed that I was questioning his leadership.
Then he took a breath in.
