Niko rolled onto his stomach, lifting his head to check out all the chaos.
On the other side of the field, Reid sat on his knees, hands still tied behind him, as the last of Mikhail’s men lay on the ground, writhing in pain, with arrows sticking out of their legs and chests.
Standing at the edge of the field with the biggest smile plastered to his face was Lucas, crossbow in hand, bouncing and taking aim at the men rolling around before him.
Next to Lucas stood Caden, arms crossed over his chest, standing guard, always protecting his little cub—or in this case, his psychotic little twink.
On the left side of the field stood Marcus, with Blade standing to Niko’s right.
With the boys in control, Niko jumped to his feet and ran to where Reid sat in the dirt, hands still bound, blood sliding down his cheek.
“Are you okay?” Niko rushed, quickly untying his best friend’s hands and pulling him into his chest.
He held Reid close for god knows how long. He never wanted to be apart from Reid ever again.
“Umm, what do you want to do with the Russian kabob?” Blade asked, lazily pointing over at Mikhail, who was still rolling around on the ground in pain.
Niko looked over his shoulder, anger and rage returning to him once again. He had almost forgotten about the piece-of-shit asshole.
Without thinking twice, Niko walked over to Marcus and pulled the gun from his boss’s holster.
With the world falling away from him, Niko walked up to Mikhail and stood over his body once more. Their eyes locked together in one final battle.
Without saying a word, he cocked the gun, then pulled the trigger.
Silence fell around the field as all his brothers watched and waited.
This was Niko’s monster to slay.
This was Niko’s past to close.
Slowly, a hand slipped into his and gave it a squeeze. Niko turned his head slightly to see Reid, his love and his best friend, standing shoulder to shoulder with him as he gazed upon the monster who had tormented them for so long.
They watched in silence as the man’s eyes closed for the very last time.
Their monster was dead.
34
REID
An hour later, the farm was crawling with cops. Flashing lights reflected off corn husks and the sides of the barns, while officers scurried around the property, rounding up men—some alive, some dead—and trying to make sense of what they were seeing.
“Explain to me one more time what happened?” one of the officers asked Marcus, shaking his head as he glanced over at two of the clowns leaning against a cruiser.
It was safe to say that the police were more than a little confused. Being called out to a farm in the dead of night, only to be greeted by bikers, clowns, and men shot to shit—oh, and fifty men, women, and children all looking confused and scared.
Reid got it. It would take the police a few times to get the full story.
“Well, it’s quite simple. My buddies and I—” Marcus began before being cut off.
“Including the clowns,” the officer added, still eyeing the clowns with suspicion.
“Yes, including the clowns. We were out for a leisurely drive on this fine summer night when we heard screaming comingfrom this farm. So, naturally, doing our civic duty, we all pulled into the farm to investigate. And that’s when we stumbled across this human trafficking ring!” Marcus looked at the man as if he had been in utter shock upon making the discovery. “We tried to talk to the men holding these people captive, and that’s when they opened fire and tried to murder us all where we stood. Thankfully, we managed to grab their guns from them and do what we needed to do to protect ourselves, as well as these poor traumatized victims.”
Reid stood silent, listening to Marcus recount their harrowing tale. For the most part, the police appeared to believe it—or perhaps they really didn’t care and were just happy that someone else handled these pieces of shit for them.
Either way, none of Marcus’s crew or the clowns were being placed in handcuffs.
