Neon, one of the waitresses, came walking past carrying a few beers. Ink grabbed two and held one out to me. “Well, we’re officially on the right track toward destroying the fuckers. The Pythons are going down once and for all, and I don’t care who we have to cross, fuck, or disembowel in order to get it done.”
I stopped, took the beer, and chugged almost half of it down my throat. The throbbing ache I had in my dick earlier moved to my goddamn temples because of Ink’s incapability of shutting up. “Ink, are you on meth?”
“What?” His pierced eyebrows slanted. “No. Of course not. You know I hate that shit.”
“Then why the fuck are you acting like a goddamn rodent with a battery up his ass?”
Manic passed us on his way up the stairs. “I’m starting to think it’s the sight of blood that gets him going like a whore on crack.”
Ink showed him the finger, and Manic laughed as he took two stairs at a time all the way to the top.
I relaxed slightly knowing Manic was standing guard. Manic was one huge motherfucker, and he had no issue with dishing out pain. He had no issue with being on the receiving end either. The beast didn’t seem to feel pain. The grotesque scar on his face that stretched from the top of his right eye all the way down across his face to the left corner of his mouth was self-inflicted, according to Ink. Said he overheard Manic tell this to one of his many victims before slicing the fucker’s throat, burying his confession with the corpse. Whether it was just a scare tactic he used, we didn’t know, and we didn’t ask. Everyone had their own demons to live with, and around here you didn’t poke around in other people’s pasts.
But Manic was the most observant fucker I had ever come across. Nothing got past him, and that alone made him the best goddamn road captain any club could have. He might seem all chilled and relaxed while gripping those ape hangers, but give him a gun and real good motivation, he’d pull the trigger faster than you could fucking blink. Manic’s incapability of feeling pain made him one mean-ass motherfucker to deal with when shit got real. Since he joined the club, he had been shot three times—his arm, his back, and his chest. Fucking bullets were mere millimeters from being fatal. Apparently, the psycho had nine lives too.
I shoved my empty bottle against Ink’s chest. “Make sure the prospects clean up the back room real good.”
“Oh, you mean the corpse you left behind.”
I glowered at him, unamused by his sarcasm.
Onyx and Dutch were now sitting at the bar, and by the way Dutch leaned close, I knew the man was probably giving my brother a pep talk. He had always been better at handling my brother than I was.
Brushing past Ink, I took my seat at my usual spot—a table in the corner where I could look out over the entire bar.
The Hanged Man was owned by the club for fuck knew how long. Everyone who walked through those doors was either a member, an ally, or a friend. Basically, if you didn’t have any ties to the American Street Kings, there was no way you’d be able to get your ass past the first fucking table.
The place smelled like cigars and liquor, sweat and testosterone, with only three waitresses working the floor. They were the only women I trusted so close to our business. Neon, Trick, and Tanit.
Neon had joined us way before I took my father’s place as president. We found her out on the streets, shooting up cocaine while enduring her sad-ass life.
Trick and her sister, Tanit, joined us when Trick became Nix’s old lady, a few years back. But unfortunately, Nix—the club’s secretary back then—was one of our men who fell alongside my father, ending up with Python blades in their guts, slaughtered like animals. That was the day I decided I’d bring an end to the anarchy the Pythons caused on these streets, even if it was the last thing I fucking did. Since then, Trick was part of the family, and that was one thing we knew how to do…take care of family. Tanit was a different story. A wild child, the kind who needed her reins pulled in a little every now and then.
Neon placed another beer on the table, and I thanked her with a simple nod. She knew me well enough not to hover, not to ask questions. Another reason I didn’t have a problem keeping her around. Plus, the guys loved her. Of course, everyone tried to get into her pants, but she refused to become the club slut. Not even Ink, the club manwhore, managed to get between her legs. How did he put it? Her pussy had been welded shut.
Fucking douche. Gotta love him.
I leaned back, my mind drifting to the girl upstairs with a bruise on her face the size of Texas. Soon the fun would start, and our plan would become my plan. But first, the war needed to begin.
6
Alyx
From the secondI heard the click of the lock, there was this giant hole in my gut, and I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to cry or vomit. Maybe both.
I had never been this scared in my entire life. Suddenly, all those fights I had with my father, hating that he always had security around me, seemed selfish and stupid.
What I wouldn’t give for that kind of protection right now.
I glanced down at the rope on the floor, then at the red marks it left around my wrists.
His face. His eyes. After so long, I had finally looked into his eyes, seen his face, been so close to him I could feel the warmth of his breath on my skin. But this wasn’t right. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. He wasn’t supposed to be the bad guy who wanted to hurt me. He was supposed to be the bad guy who would want to change because of me.
Oh, my God. Thinking about it that way made me realize what a fucking cliché it was. For years, I bullshitted myself into believing a goddamn fairy tale could come my way.Dark prince falls in love with the beautiful princess.
What a naïve and stupid princess.
I took a deep breath. His earthy scent still lingered around me, and the fact that I liked it made the disappointment even worse.