Not that I would push back against the man who acted as the President of the Reaper’s Bastards.
“Keep your eyes open out there,” Uncle Jakey said. “Keep things calm, collected. Move with purpose and stay the fuck out of sight. If this guy is after the Reap, that means all of us. King, the second he contacts you, you contact me. We keep everything in this room and we find a way out of this.”
“What about the legal case?” Slam asked. “King’s case?”
“What about it?” I asked.
“If that shit is legit,” Slam said, “you could get out no matter what happens.”
“We can talk to the lawyer,” Knox said. “See how real it all is.”
“Oh, it’s real,” I said. “I signed papers…”
“Anyone could sign papers,” Uncle Jakey said. “The way this system works… they’ll let out one little rat to take down the entire nest.”
“Rat?” I asked. “I don’t think I’m a rat, Uncle Jakey.”
“Let’s keep ourselves focused,” he said. He grabbed the gavel and slammed it down.
The meeting was over.
I jumped up and grabbed my cell.
I had to hear her voice. I had to see her face.
I stood outside the garage and called Linds.
“Hello? King?”
Her voice was angelic. Smooth and sweet. Just enough to calm my outlaw nerves as they bounced in my body.
“Sweetie, I’m back,” I said.
“I was trying to call you… he was looking for you.”
“He? Who?”
“That guy. In the yard. The one you were talking to.”
I felt my heart jump like someone had punched it. “What?”
“He was at my aunt’s house yesterday. Posing as an employee for the electric company. I have no idea what he was trying to do.”
“Oh, fuck,” I said. “I’m so sorry, sweetie.”
Fucking Anderson.
“You have to tell me what’s going on,” she said.
“Where are you right now?”
“I’m at work,” she said.
“Leave work,” I ordered. “I’m coming to pick you up.”
I wasn’t giving Linds a choice. It was a clear order.
I ended the call and hurried to my motorcycle.
I sped away from the garage and clubhouse going toward the west side of town.
Linds was standing at the side of the building. She looked fucking beautiful in her nursing scrubs. Her hair pulled back. Her badge clipped to the pocket on her shirt.
I pulled right up next to her and ripped my helmet off. I handed it to her and then grabbed her by the waist with one hand and pulled her in for a kiss. The second our lips touched it was like a fire had been set in my body.
“Fuck, I missed that,” I growled. “So fucking much.”
Linds touched my face with her free hand. “I’m scared, King.”
“Not anymore,” I said. “I’m here. I’m back. I said I was coming right back. Can we go to your place?”
“Yeah,” she said.
Linds put the helmet on and climbed on the back of the motorcycle.
I was halfway to her apartment when I saw a car come out of nowhere and start to follow me. The driver was not trying to be discreet at all.
Which told me one thing.
Anderson wanted to talk to me.
Anderson parked his car in the far corner of the apartment parking lot. I sent Linds inside with a kiss to her cheek, whispering to her that the guy was here. Fear spread across her face as she rushed to the apartment building.
I turned and made a line right for the car.
I walked right to the open window.
Anderson looked at me with a shit eating grin and that was all I could take. I brought my right fist back and threw a punch right into the car, slamming against Anderson’s jaw. He groaned and fell over to the passenger seat.
I thought for a second I knocked him clean out but then he put his left hand out the window, waving his hand at me.
“That’s for going to her fucking aunt’s house,” I growled. “What the fuck were you trying to prove?”
Anderson pulled himself back up and rubbed his jaw. “Okay. Yeah. Maybe I deserved that one.”
“Just one?”
He stretched his jaw. “The thing you need to realize here, Kingston, is that everyone you touch and talk to becomes part of my game.”
“Your game?”
Anderson looked at me. “This is all a game. What you do. What I do. It’s all a big fucking game. You dragged Lindsey into this. I had no choice but to keep tabs on her. Funny how you leave and she stops coming home. That got my curiosity going. So I had to dig deeper. To find her aunt. The very pretty Jane. And I did. She was so welcoming, too. Then I saw Lindsey there. So it started to make sense. The loving, devoted outlaw sent his woman to her aunt’s house, just in case… of what?”
“You know what we’re up against,” I said. “The other crews out there that want to take us down. Simple as that.”
“A week away,” Anderson said. He took his fingers off his jaw. “I wonder what was happening up there?”
“I’m slowly being let in,” I said, starting to paint the canvas of lies. “The guys are feeling me out, gauging my trust level.”
“I need something.”
“There’s a deal with product,” I lied. “That’s all they would say. Product. We met with three guys up there a few times, discussing the location of the deal.”
Anderson’s eyes lit up. “So you’re really doing this. Going down this path.”
I grabbed the door and leaned forward. “Let me explain something, Anderson. This is about survival. I am not going to be a fucking animal in a cage. I’m not going to wait day after fucking day to get the call that it’s time to die. So take the shock off your face and do your job. Make sure I stay out and stay alive.”
“I can’t guarantee you’ll stay alive out here,” Anderson said. “But the more you give me, the more I can help you. Tell me more, Kingston.”
Anderson gripped the steering wheel tight. He stared straight ahead and let me spew everything I could manage to come up with. That included a story of three men in suits who specifically only talked to Knox and Slam. That Uncle Jakey was not present for those meetings, as he opted to stay in town. That I saw handshakes, some cash exchange hands, and that the only thing I knew about the product was that it was going to be delivered at a set time and place, which wasn’t determined yet.
“Why is that?” Anderson asked.
“My guess is financial issues,” I said. “Seems like Uncle Jakey is scrambling to get cash. Probably trying to shake everyone down he could get to.”
“Typical,” Anderson muttered. He then shook his head and reached for the passenger floor. He opened his bag and took out a folder. “I wanted to talk about this.”
“What’s that?”
He flipped it open and there was a picture of that prick I tuned up who had hit Linds. Nelson.
“This gentleman claims he was roughed up outside a bar for no reason,” Anderson said. “Yet my information tells me that perhaps he and Lindsey were engaged in a deeply romantic relationship.”
I gritted my teeth and swallowed a big lump down my throat.
“I don’t know a thing about it,” I said.
Anderson laughed. “Of course you don’t. Why would you? You’re just an upstanding outlaw, trying to keep his head above water.”
“Exactly,” I said.
Anderson tossed the page aside and there was a picture of Lindsey. It was a mugshot of her.
“What the hell is that?” I asked.
“Oh, your little girlfriend had a bar fight a few years back. Did one night in jail to sleep off the excess booze in her system. But this is important to me because I can keep an eye on everything.”
“Stay away from her, Anderson,” I said. “I’m not lying. I’ve committed murder and I’m not afraid to do it again. I prot
ect what I love, even if it costs me my life.”
Anderson looked at me. “Sorry to burst your bubble, Kingston, but chances are you did not commit murder. Attempted murder, yes. But murder? Nah.”
“Where’s the proof?” I asked.
Anderson shut the folder and tossed it aside. “Hey, tell you what. Next time you see Uncle Jakey, why don’t you ask him about your brother.”
“What?”
“Just…” Anderson put the car in drive. “I’m trying to help you here. Let you see the bigger picture of life. Let you understand what you don’t know. We can both agree that your brother was a piece of fucking shit, Kingston. Maybe a man that deserved a bullet to the head. But not in the nature it happened. And especially not with the way it changed the course of your life.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I asked.
“When you give me a time and a place… and a name for this product… I’ll tell you more.”
Anderson hit the gas pedal. I had to jump the hell back. The crazy son of a bitch peeled around the parking lot, tires screaming, and then he was gone.
I was uneasy. Everything inside me felt uneasy.
I couldn’t figure out if Anderson was playing me or what.
But one thing I learned inside prison was that you had to trust your gut. You had to push away all the bullshit noise in your mind and just trust yourself.
Where did that lead me?
I didn’t trust Uncle Jakey… which meant I didn’t trust the Reap.
26
(lindsey)
*THEN*
I never saw King cry before.
Time pulled us apart yet again after I graduated high school. I went right off to college, determined to become something. He was falling deeper into the motorcycle club, getting into trouble, drinking more than he should, and always left me lingering with a feeling that he was sleeping with anything with a slit between her legs.
I hated that feeling.
I was home for the weekend visiting Aunt Jane and old friends when King came to see me. It was completely out of nowhere. I had four friends over. We were drinking wine. Talking about high school. Catching up on old gossip. It was almost… grown up. Like really grown up. Yeah, we weren’t supposed to be drinking wine but Aunt Jane bought it for us. It wasn’t like we were having a wild party.
Truthfully, it felt nice to be grown up. To feel like I was finding purpose.
Right up until Aunt Jane walked into the living room and motioned for me to come with her.
She grabbed my shoulders and whispered, “He’s here. Out back near the fence.”
I didn’t need to know who he was.
It was King.
I stood for a few seconds, half considering telling Aunt Jane to tell him to fuck off. It had been months since we exchanged any words. It had been well over a year since we last touched each other. In fact, I was sort of seeing someone at college. He was a year older than me, studying pre-med, getting ready to take the world by storm. It seemed so fitting that a doctor and nurse end up together, right? It was cute. Romantic. It was simple.
But I couldn’t resist seeing King again.
So I left through the kitchen and walked through the narrow backyard toward an old chain linked fence. That’s where King stood. He on the outside of the fence, at a little alley that was dirt and grass. I stayed on my side of the fence, as though it were somehow capable of protecting me from him. Not that I needed to be protected from King. Except my heart, because he always made it twist up and hurt.
“Ah, Linds,” he said and smiled.
“King.”
I saw his eyes glistening and then a second later he lowered his head. He grabbed the fence and started to cry.
Like really cry.
I was completely shocked, mouth open, trying to figure out what was happening.
“King… what…”
He lifted his head and looked right at me. Tears fell from his eyes. “Tito… Tito was murdered.”
I felt like someone punched me in the stomach. I grabbed my stomach and lurched forward like I was going to be sick. While I had only met Tito a handful of times and really didn’t know him, I knew that Tito meant everything to King. He was the only father figure King ever had.
“Mur… what?” I managed to ask.
King nodded. “Someone shot him. He’s gone. I got the call an hour ago, Linds. Mom had to go down to the hospital and identify him. She doesn’t want me to see him like that. He’s gone though. My brother. Tito…”
I scrambled to my left and opened the fence. I rushed outside and grabbed for King, hugging him. He leaned down and buried his face into my chest. Usually when he did that there were other implications. Even though he was crying, my body started to heat up. That instant lust that only King was able to produce in me.
“Holy fuck,” I said. “I’m so sorry, King. So fucking sorry.”
He picked his head up again. He stepped back, his hands touching my sides. “I didn’t mean to crash your thing in there. I just didn’t know where else to go. You get it. You’ve always got it. He always ran hard and rough. He never listened to me. I tried to help him, Linds. I tried to get him into the Reap. Tried to show him there was a different way.”
“I know you did,” I said. “You were a good brother to him.”
“I’ll let you go,” King said. “I just needed that hug. I miss you, sweetie.”
And there it was…
My heart started to twist up.
“Oh, King. Listen to me. I’m just having some wine with friends. Becky is going to be DD for everyone. They’ll be gone by ten. Come back then, okay? Spend the night here.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I don’t want you alone tonight.”
“Thank you, Linds,” he said. He leaned in and planted a kiss on my cheek. “I love you so much.”
My lips fluttered. “I love you, King.”
Our lips gently flirted, a soft kiss that made everything surrounding me so fucking hard.
At about ten thirty, I brought King into the house. I brought him to my bed. It took all of thirty minutes before we were naked, devouring each other. It was the best sex I’d had since the last time I slept with King. Nobody could match what he did to me.
That night I got to hold King, cradling him to my bare chest.
I felt his pain.
I pained for him.
I loved him.
I felt his love for me.
That night, I got to protect my outlaw… my King.
27
(king)
*THEN*
I couldn’t believe what I was doing. Standing at a fucking casket, wearing a fucking suit, tossing a red fucking rose to the lid of the fucking casket. But that was my reality. My brother was inside that casket. They tried hard to patch him up and make it so me and my mother could have a few minutes with him before the service. But he looked like a fucking rubber toy. You could tell right where the bullet had done its job.
My fucking brother was gone.
Mom couldn’t even stand up. She just sat in a chair, dressed in black, wearing black sunglasses, holding a mound of tissues to her face. There was nothing I could do or say to her to fix this. She was drinking pretty heavily and I couldn’t blame her one bit. Thankfully, she had some friends that were at the house, trying to help her.
All around the casket were Tito’s friends. Or so-called friends. One of these motherfuckers either pulled the trigger on Tito or helped to pull the trigger. A lot of the guys and women were crying their eyes out like babies. Others just stood in shock, trying to come to terms that this was really happening.
I had Slam on my left, Knox on my right. Ari and Matteo were in the seats, along with some of the other guys from the Reap. The ultimate symbol of respect for me and my fallen blood brother and I appreciated that.
I couldn’t stop playing it all through my mind. Having Tito leave that night. Knowing that something just didn’t feel right. Yet I let hi
m go. I could have tackled him. Taken his gun. I could have found a way to drug him or something to keep him home. But instead, he left the house and he never came back.
A priest stood at the head of the casket and put his arms out, spouting some religious bullshit that nobody cared about. We didn’t go to church or do the religion thing. But Mom insisted that Tito got buried properly. Whatever the hell that meant.
We had officers and detectives up our ass too, wanting to question everything. They tore through Tito’s room, finding guns and drugs, making Mom even more heartbroken than she already was. It was terrible. Just fucking terrible. Every time we turned around there was someone standing at the front door wanting to pick apart Tito’s life. There was nothing to pick apart. He lived how he lived and someone shot him. That’s what fucking mattered. Someone took a gun and shot him.
As the service droned on I looked to my right after I saw movement.
It was Linds and her aunt.
Jane walked to a chair and took a seat.
Linds didn’t.
She hated death. She hated funerals. It all freaked her out. Rightfully after everything she had to deal with growing up. Yet there she was, for me.
She leaned against a tall gravestone, her face white. I slowly put my right hand out, wanting her closer to me. She licked her lips and nodded. Pushing away from the stone, Linds walked super slow, her eyes bouncing between me and the casket that contained my only brother.
When she got close enough her hand slid into mine. She grabbed my arm with her other hand and put her head against my arm. I kissed the top of her head.
“Thank you, sweetie,” I whispered.
“Always,” she said.
We then stood there in front of Tito’s casket for what felt like hours. Even after the service was over, we stood there. We didn’t need to speak to know things between us were going to get rocky again. Linds knew how I felt about my brother. And I knew what needed to be done. Even if the Reap didn’t sign off on it, I was going to find out who did this to Tito and get revenge.
Tito was lowered into the ground. Two of Mom’s friends helped her away. Linds’ Aunt Jane left with a simple head nod.
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