Kings of Mayhem (The Kings of Mayhem Book 1)
Page 26
Before he could answer, Buckman walked up to us.
“You boys might as well leave it for the forensics team,” Buckman suggested. “Go home and get some shut eye. We’ll let you know if we find anything.”
I took out my phone and snapped a picture of the smoldering skeleton that had once been our studio and sent it to Bull who was in Jacksonville on business.
Shoving my phone back into my cut, I nodded at Buckman. “As soon as you know something, I want to know something.”
I didn’t need to tell him. He would call me the moment forensics turned up something—a fat, monthly retainer ensured it.
Indy approached us, her face dusted in soot.
“How is he?” Buckman asked her.
“He’ll be fine. He’s on his way to St Gabriel’s now.” She turned to me. “Any idea on what happened here.”
I shook my head. “No. Not yet. But one way or another, we’re going to find out.”
Nitro and Hawke walked up to us.
“We’re heading home. Unless you need us,” Nitro said.
I shook my head. “Go home. We’ll catch up at the clubhouse tomorrow.” We did the typical MC brother hug goodbye, and then they were gone.
“You ready to go home?” I asked, guiding Indy onto the back of my bike.
It felt good to feel her body in close proximity to mine.
“Yeah, take me to coffee.”
I grinned and nodded at Isaac. “Ready?”
He agreed. “Yeah, let’s get out of here.”
We took the back road through Humphrey, a windy, long stretch of smooth highway flanked by misty forests on either side. Dawn was breaking over the tall pines as we pulled up at the set of lights just before the train crossing that would lead us back into Destiny.
I glanced over at Isaac. He was checking a message on his phone. “It’s Cherry. She wants a slice of Mavis’s pecan pie. And if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you don’t fuck with your pregnant wife’s cravings.”
He was putting his phone back into his pocket when he was suddenly thrust backwards. It happened so fast that it was already over by the time I understood what had gone down. Isaac fell from his bike, disappearing underneath it as it fell on top of him.
“Isaac!” I jumped off my bike and ripped his off him. He was lying flat on his back with a red stain spreading across his chest. Eyes wide with terror, he was coughing up blood as he struggled to breathe. I dropped to my knees. He’d been shot. Isaac had been fucking shot.
“No, no, no!” I yelled, putting my hand over the wound to his chest to stop the flow of blood. God, there was so much blood. So much. “Indy, he’s been shot.”
Indy was already there, kneeling beside us, but I could tell by the look on her face that this wasn’t going to end well. She felt for the wound and blood bubbled up through her fingers.
“Okay, baby, you need to call an ambulance,” she said calmly, her experience in a trauma ward taking over. She looked at me, the sharpness in her eyes telling me to hurry. When she looked back down to Isaac, her voice was reassuring. “Okay, buddy. You’re doing all right. You’ve been shot, but I’m going to help you, okay?”
With my hands covered in blood, I rang for help, and while I yelled into the phone for an ambulance, I watched my cousin fight for his life at my feet. He stared up at me with terrified, wide eyes. He was gurgling and trying to move, his arms flaying at his side.
“I need you to try and stay still,” Indy said. “You have a wound to your chest, Isaac, so I need you to try and stay calm. Cade is calling for help and they’re going to be here real quick. I promise you, okay.”
But then Isaac started shaking and shuddering, and coughing up big mouthfuls of dark red blood. His shaking got more violent, and then all of a sudden, he stopped moving.
The second bullet got him right between his eyes, killing him instantly. Blood splattered across Indy’s face as the impact of the second bullet hit him with high-powered velocity.
I dropped the phone and reached for Indy. I couldn’t see the gunman, but I knew the direction he was firing from and I had to protect her. I pulled her into my arms and turned my back toward it, sheltering her with my body.
All the air in my lungs vanished in an instant, and I was only vaguely aware of headlights and the sound of a vehicle disappearing into the shadows of the dawn.
For a long moment, the world was still. Then slowly, it all started up again as my brain processed what had happened.
Isaac was dead.
Someone had just murdered my cousin.
in
Brothers in Arms: Kings of Mayhem MC Series Book 2
Due for release 26 February 2019.
BROTHERS IN ARMS
Kings of Mayhem Book Two
Chapter One
CADE
Kneeling in your loved one’s blood and having them die in your arms changes you.
I know it changed me.
When Isaac died, my heart hardened.
My anger was palpable.
As I watched them remove his lifeless body from the pool of his blood, I vowed revenge. Fury thundered through my veins. Life changed in a heartbeat, and every part of my being could feel it. Rage tore through me, spiraling into every nerve and fiber, every muscle, every tendon, every shard of my shattered heart. Pain ripped at my guts and opened me up. But it was nothing, nothing, like my need for retribution.
Bull and Caleb showed up. God knows who called them.
Despite Indy’s protests, I sent her home in the safety of a police cruiser while I followed Buckman and the ambulance to the county morgue. I didn’t know why, but I needed answers, and for some reason, I felt they were with Isaac’s body.
Isaac’s body.
My chest caved in under the weight of my grief.
“You can’t be here,” Buckman said as I bounded the steps of the county morgue.
“Try stopping me.”
He pressed a hand into my chest to stop me from going inside. His old brown eyes sought out mine. “Don’t make me arrest you, son.”
I expelled a deep breath of air. “Isaac is in there…”
“I know.” Buckman stepped in front of the doorway. “And you need to let us do our job, Cade. Let Zachariah take care of him.”
Zachariah Sumstad was the county medical examiner.
I sucked in a deep breath and looked away. My grief was dizzying. My head spun. I wanted to rip someone’s head off to somehow release the growing agony inside of me. I wanted to find out who did this to Isaac and choke the hell out of them and watch the life drain from their eyes.
I inhaled deeply, the muscles in my jaw clenching. “You find out who did this. And you let me know.” My voice was low, dangerous, and dripping with a barely controlled rage.
Buckman nodded. “As is protocol.”
I leaned in. “No. I want this guy.”
“I can’t do that, Cade.”
“Then I’ll just make sure it happens. You won’t be able to protect him.”
Buckman put a hand on my shoulder. “One step at a time, son.”
I turned and stormed down the steps to my bike. Then, gunning the engine, roared off into the morning.
I was going to find out who killed Isaac.
And I was going to make them pay.
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Penny Dee writes contemporary roma
nce about rockstars, bikers, hockey players and everyone in-between. She believes true love never runs smoothly, and her characters realize this too, with a boatload of drama and a whole lot of steam.
She found her happily ever after in Australia where she lives with her husband, daughter and a dog named Bindi.