“That’s good.”
I cursed myself. My voice had sounded wobbly and unconvincing to my own ears. And King was a professional when it came to playing the long game. I was a surgeon—I wasn’t built to be resistant to pain or interrogation.That’s half the reason King won’t let me go, I thought. If the cops ever connected the dots between him and me, I’d crack under their scrutiny. And I’d be a dead woman walking.
A low chuckle on the other end of the line brought my attention back to the call. I looked out the window, and I could’ve sworn there was a man lying on the roof of the storage units just across the street. I felt paralyzed. That was definitely one of the King’s Men looking at me. King’s voice was menacing and cruel when he spoke again.
“Wouldn’t need a repeat of Lexington, now would we?”
Crush
After an uneventful week and then the accompanying silent weekend in Phoenix, I was ready to blow off some steam. I took a solo ride down there, scoping things out for a plan. The ride was hard, especially given that my leg was still sporting a bullet hole. But I didn’t care. Today, in our weekly meeting, I was ready to propose organizing some men to make a hit on the Reapers.
At least, that was what King would know.
Most of it was the truth, I said. I did ride down to Phoenix, and I was planning. But I rode to distract myself from Brianna and her damn eyes and made a semi-solid plan of getting out. There was a plan for taking out the Reapers, but I was trying to see where the chips would fall. And if Brianna wants to join…
Enough about her, I snapped.It was time for business and doing what I do best.The day was blistering hot, and my leather cut was not helping matters. And to top it all off, the thought of Brianna had me sporting a hard-on like no other. It had been a fucking week since the disaster of a date, and somehow, I still couldn’t get her off my mind.
I went into the Cosmopolitan already pissed off. I smashed the button for the private elevator and was grateful to be alone for the whole ride. I entered the penthouse, ready to bust heads. My tolerance for bullshit was incredibly low. And if King wanted to test that…well, my plan may go into action sooner than later.
Asher’s words replayed themselves in my head:You’re a fucking dog…but you’re still somewhat on a leash.Prince was already seated at the massive table. The penthouse at the Cosmo was sleeker and more modern than the one at the Bellagio. More the business side of King, less of the eccentric side of him.
True to form, however, King sat at the head of the table in his white suit. His puny eyes glanced my way as I approached the table, and my blood jumped in anger. I was ready to throw hands more than ever. I took my seat, and the three of us waited in silence for the other officers to file in. After they arrived and took their seats, King cleared his throat.
King was silent as he drummed his fingers on the table, still in villain mode apparently. He positioned his right hand to show off whatever new purchase he had snagged over the weekend. A signet ring with a ruby as big as my thumbnail and a large gold band was on his pinky. He scanned the table with a sneer. “I’m fucking done with this pussy-foot bullshit. I want progress, and I want it now.”
“Have you considered calling JG Wentworth?” Prince mused with a cocky smirk, his lips moving around an unlit cigarette that was in his mouth. He just earned a glare from his father, and he held up his hands defensively. “Hey, my fucking sector is on the go. Been getting that Yao out like crazy lately. People can’t seem to get enough of whatever we got. Heard some even been OD-ing on it and coming back for more. I know Chef has been lacing it with something, but damn, it’s a bestseller.”
“I need a team for Phoenix,” I added gruffly, and King trained his eyes on me. They lit up in a glimmer of surprise.Fucker. I took a deep breath and brushed off the snide look with more information. I was simply whispering sweet nothings to this old hack. Might as well butter him up a bit. “Plan is to go Wednesday. The sooner we hit, and the faster we are about it, the less time the Reapers have to prepare. And the plan is to take no prisoners and fuck up shit.”
“Nah, we need bigger,” King corrected. He stood up, his fingers splayed on the table. He looked like if the Mad Hatter had come to life and smoked whatever brand of cocaine Cook has been making. His eyes were crazed, and he had a grin that would make Heath Ledger’s Joker proud. “We’re taking Satan out, and I don’t care if we go to his house and kill him outright. He is dead!”
“What the fuck,” Prince and I chorused, and everyone sat up an inch taller.
Satan was the President of the Phoenix chapter of the Black Reapers. They used to be the Devil’s Patriots, but they banded with the Reapers and then were sort of…absorbed and patched in. He was knocked into a coma during a brawl recently. When he got out, he was a little more chill, but twice as deadly, especially since he was retraining his fine motor function. Trigger finger didn’t begin to describe that rehab process.
This was a suicide mission for the poor fuck who was assigned to it. Which most likely would be me. But not to mention, it was a quick way to bring this already fragile club to ashes. The Black Reapers don’t fuck around, and Satan has a lot of buddies from his old club that may not be in the MC anymore, but are loyal to him until the end. And with the bust on the Chinatown warehouse, this had police CAUTION: CRIME SCENE tape all over it. And it was still just anidea. At this point, I was convinced King had a death wish.
“That’s going to raise a lot of suspicion,” Prince continued, treading lightly. He was looking at his father with concern. If King would listen to anyone at that table, it’d be his pride and joy of a son. “He lives in a wealthy neighborhood. The police and the Feds will be all up in our ass crack if we kill a man in his house.”
“I am the police!” King roared, startling everyone.
The inability to swat the fly is driving this man insane, I thought. If this wasn’t a sign to get the fuck out of dodge, then I didn’t know what was. I resolved to double my efforts—and if Brianna didn’t like it, then tough shit. I would carry her out kicking and screaming if only to get away from King’s absolute descent into a psychotic breakdown.
Cautiously, I met King’s eyes. As softly as I could, I spoke, “So we send in more men. I’ve got a plan to take down Phoenix. The low members are a dime-a-dozen. They’re expendable. But Satan’s more on his guard now than ever before. This is madness, and it could kill us all.”
This sent King into a tirade of yelling and cursing. At one point, I’m not sure he was even speaking words. Prince tried to calm his father down but to no avail. I put a hand on my pistol at my hip—I was the quickest draw at this table if it came down to it. The two lackey bodyguards just stood there impassively as their boss went on his manic episode, their eyes focused ahead and on the door. Prince eventually got the old coot to shut up and sit down, but I practically could see the steam rolling off of King in waves.
“If Satan is not dead by the end of the month, I will kill him myself!” he seethed, scanning the room like a viper looking at a buffet of mice. I swore that the man would start slithering on the table next based on the look in his eyes. “I don’t care where he is. If it’s in his house, so be it.”
And with a grand wave, we were dismissed. I could tell some of the other executive officers might need a change of underwear after that meeting.How many of them would join me? I couldn’t help but wonder. The two stone-men bodyguards watched as the other officers and Prince filed out, with me bringing up the rear.
“Crush,” King’s voice called behind me just as I reached the threshold of the door. I froze. King was silent, and sometimes I swore it was for dramatic effect. He liked to scare people as if it would bring out the truth faster. But it didn’t work on me—at least it hadn’t for the last decade, and it wasn’t going to start working now. “Let’s chat.”
Wearily, I turned around. He looked rather nonchalant about it all, but I could tell something was up. For a brief moment, I worried it was about Brianna.She walked away from you, I remembered.We don’t care about her.I walked back up to him, staying on the opposite end of the table to keep the large piece of furniture between him and me. He waved for me to sit, but I didn’t take a seat.
I was transported back to when I was nineteen—the first time he and I ever stood opposite a table like this. King was still the same, the lines not as deep on his face, his hair a little yellower. We stood opposites in a warehouse room, a table between us. He slid a gun across the table and gave me the command,I need you to kill him. I watched as if a ghost from the future, my scrawny frame shaking as I picked up the gun. I wasn’t scared of killing the man, but I wasn’t exactly happy either.
When King found out I hadn’t shot the guy, he almost gave me a lashing. Of course, that was back when King would follow you to see that a job was done and done right. And after I had killed the guy, he waltzed right into that abandoned storage unit turned meth lab with two burly men I had never seen before. He looked at the dead guy on the cement floor. The two other members forced me into a chair, their hands squeezing my shoulders.
