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PROLOGUE

There was a time when I thought love was meant to last forever.

I knew it wasn’t just a given. You had to work for it, but as long as you took care of it and held onto it, as long as you did your part, you were golden. But over the years, life seemed set on proving me wrong.

First, there was Kay.

We met when I was first making my way up the ranks in the club. I was young and cocky, and she was undeniably beautiful, with a smile that could melt the coldest of hearts. Our love was the kind that burned hot and fast and left me feeling more alive than I’d ever felt.

She was wild and stubborn, but I loved her like no other. In the blink of an eye, I was hers, and she was mine. For a while, we had something real—something I thought would last for the long haul.

I was wrong.

She wanted more than I could give, and I wasn’t the kind of man to change. So, we gave up, and in the end, all we had left was Memphis, our boy. He became our pawn of vengeance. We used him to inflict pain on one another, but as he grew older, we grew wiser. We could see that we were hurting him more than we were each other, and suddenly, revenge tasted less sweet.

And then came Jersey.

She was beautiful beyond measure with the bluest eyes I’d ever seen.

She was young with a big heart and a free spirit that refused to be tamed. She wanted to do what she wanted to do, and nothing was going to stop her. I knew better than to get tangled up with her, but when she set her sights on me, I didn’t stand a chance.

She had a way of making me feel like the world wasn’t such a fucking nightmare, and more than anything, she made me feel like I was the best thing since sliced bread. That was a feeling I planned to hold onto, but life had other plans.

She gave me Beckett, then took her last breath. She left me with a son who never knew his mother’s touch, and he never overcame it. He kept searching for a way to fill the void, and it ended up costing him his life.

After that, I gave up on the idea of having a woman at my side.

I had my club and my boys. They were my true constant. They gave me something to get out of bed for. That was all I needed.

Love just wasn’t meant for a man like me.

I was okay with that. I’d given it a go, but the losses were just too much to swallow. So, I gave up the chase and stopped hoping for something that would never last. I’d accepted my fate and put my whole heart into Fury. It was all I needed.

Or so I thought.

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PREACHER

"Another busy night.”

“Just the way I like it.”

Saturday nights always brought in a crowd, but tonight, the place was damn near busting at the seams. The music was booming, the lights were flashing, and the drinks were flowing. I looked around at all the beautiful girls working their magic on the various stages, and there was no doubt that business was good.

Hell, business was great.

I sat at the bar with Grim, the club’s enforcer. It was rare that we had a chance to sit back and reap the rewards of all our hard work, but tonight was one of those nights. Grim and I had a clear view of the stage, where Misty was working the pole. She was moving in slow, practiced sways and dips that had every man in the place leaning in for more. Grim took a sip of his beer and smirked. “Look at ’em. They can’t get enough of her.”

I gave him a nod as I watched one of our regulars, a stockbroker-looking asshole in a suit, shove a wad of cash between her tits. “Well, he certainly can’t, but she doesn’t seem to mind. She’s raking it in.”

“Which means, so are we.”

He wasn’t wrong. The Vault had become more than just a place for men to drink and watch pretty girls dance. It was the club’s honey hole and made us a shit-ton of money. The liquor, the private rooms, and the drugs all flowed through here and right into our pockets. And with Seven running the books and keeping things clean on paper, we didn’t have to worry about anyone sniffing around.

But Seven had been working his ass off.

He was the club’s sergeant-at-arms. That in itself was enough to keep him busy, but he’d also taken on the role of managing the Vault. Between all the scheduling and working the books and everything in between, he barely had time to breathe.