A collective roar of stupid greeted the battle plan, and I suppressed a heavy sigh. There were two major flaws in Drummer’s brilliance.
One: we were ambushing the Kings muling crew on theirreturnjourney. There wouldn’t be any load to take from them.
Two: the enforcer and VP were very much on the council of the Rebel Kings MC. Theymattered, and on the slimmer than slim fuckin’ off chance that we caused them real damage tonight, fucking with them would cost more than blood.
The huddle broke up. Drummer jammed his pipe into my ribs and nudged me to the sparse hedgerow he’d decided would give us cover from the approaching bikes. “No funny business. Remember what happens if you piss off me and Priest.”
I had scars that remembered more than my brain did. On my back. On my legs. They used to throb when fear burned me alive, but I was pretty much dead inside these days. I had to be to survive, and Drummer’s growly voice became white noise.
Bikes rumbled in the distance. I crouched next to Priest, searching for the eerie calm I needed to fight, or the fury Rocco had been so sure I carried in my heart.
Neither were forthcoming and I ran out of time to find them.
Headlights broke the darkness on the deserted country lane. Crow bikes loomed out of the shadows, forcing the Kings off the road, and all hell broke loose.
Bikes skidded.
Tyres squealed.
Shouts pierced the air, but none of them were mine. I was a quiet brawler, resigned to pain and chaos, not caring too much who won.
Just as well.
We outnumbered the Kings two to one, twelve of us to their six, but it didn’t take long for them to gain the upper hand. They’d always been better fighters. Lethal to a man, from their president to their new enforcer. From their burly road captain to their fuckin’gloriousVP.
McGovern. That was his name. He had curly surfer hair and big eyes. I’d never seen him in daylight, so I didn’t know the colour, but every time we met in a brutal scrap like this, I saw him any moment I wasn’t preoccupied with not getting killed.
And as the years rolled by, those moments grew less and less. Only my kids kept me from letting a King wrap a brick around my skull.
My brother.
“I love you, bro. Couldn’t live this life without you.”
A faceless King rushed me. I body-slammed that fucker, going down with him and wrapping my legs around his neck until he was out cold, rolling away as more boots pounded the earth.
I scrambled to my feet and put down another King. Not the enforcer. In my peripheral, I saw him annihilate Drummer, and I couldn’t pretend to be sad about it.
My next sweep of the scene was for a mop of blond curls, and my heart gave a little lurch when I found it. When I foundhim,fighting like a fuckin’ gladiator, all wild hair and sun-kissed muscles.
Fuck me. I didn’t need any help defining my sexuality—that horse had bolted years ago—but it had been a long time since I’d set eyes on a man who made my blood rush like he did.
I watched him incapacitate two Crows with savage efficiency, one-punch wonders. Then he spun around, checking on his brothers, searching out his next opponent, and his gaze had nowhere to land but on me.
We locked eyes, chests heaving, skin smeared with dirt and blood. Three fights scattered the ground between us, but the heat that surged inside me had nothing to do with the violence in the air, and the skip in my heart accelerated, sending my pulse straight to my fuckin’ ears. A clattering roar that swamped every sense until it was just me and him staring at each other across a messy biker brawl.
His eyes were blue. Still couldn’t see well enough to tell, but somehow I knew it, and I took an unconscious step forward in the same split second the shout of a King turned his head. The samesplit secondI found myself toe-to-toe withPriest.
In the dark, his eyes were piss-hole small, his teeth as black as they were when he inflicted his favourite nightmares on me. In this arena, he was too stupid to be truly frightening, but my blood chilled all the same.
“What are you waiting for?” he hissed. “Kill him.”
“Who?”
“McGovern. He ain’t even watching you no more.”
I knew that. Ifeltit. But I didn’t give Priest the satisfaction of glancing over my shoulder. “Are you fuckin’ serious? You kill a King, you start a war—a real one.”
“I’mnot going to kill him.” Priest thrust a knife at my gut, forcing me back. “You’re the expendable one. Stick a blade in his throat, then dump his body at their gates. Who gives a fuck if you get caught?”
