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“This is gonna be good.” I popped the top off my beer as I watched the scene about to unfold. Me and Chains sat at a table in the common room in steel folding chairs. Chains was leaning back with his booted feet on the table while I slouched with one ankle crossed over the opposite knee.

“Yep.”

Knight hurried to us from where he’d been snagging his own beer at the bar. Three club girls were in tow, all with tits out, wearing only thongs. I grinned, raising an arm to welcome the brunette with pouty lips onto my lap.

“We placin’ bets?” Knight looked gleeful in a maniacal kind of way. It was a little creepy to be honest.

I shrugged. “Might as well.”

“My money’s on Gunnar.” Knight high-fived Oktober as the big man walked up to us. Everyone was waiting eagerly. Pippa, Gunnar’s woman and Knuckles’s daughter, had already met and welcomed Hannah, but Gunnar and Cain had yet to confront Knuckles. Cain, the former president of Bones MC in Somerset, Kentucky, was Hannah’s father. I wasn’t really concerned for Knuckles. Especially after he’d attempted to beat the fuck out of Gunnar when he’d caught him and Pippa in bed together. So a beating was definitely going to happen.

“What’s goin’ on?” Oktober hadn’t been home long. After practically crawling back to the compound and into his room half dead from fatigue, I really thought he’d sleep for a fucking week. Bastard stumbled to bed for a couple hours and now looked fresh as a daisy. I hated the man on principle.

“Gunnar and Cain both pulled up outside the compound.” Tiny, our road captain and not tiny at all, pulled up a chair and flipped it around backward to straddle it. He crossed his arms over the back of the chair, resting his forearms there. “I told the guys not to let them in yet, but Gunnar pulled rank.” He shrugged. “I mean, brother outranks officer any day of the week, I suppose.” Tiny didn’t look the least bit upset. In fact, I was pretty sure he was looking forward to this as much as the rest of us were.

That got chuckles from us all. Knight clinked beer bottles with Inferno as the other man walked by. The second he sat down, two club whores descended on him. He didn’t let them undress him but had one on his lap with his hand cupping a tit while sucking on a tit of the other woman. Made me give the tit of the woman in my lap a squeeze. She promptly giggled and arched into my palm. Yeah. Tits. Gotta love tits.

The door burst open and Gunnar stalked in, an intent look in his eyes. “Where the fuck is he?” The bite of demand in Gunnar’s voice was unmistakable. He was a man looking to do violence.

“You know…” Tiny nodded in Gunnar’s direction as he took a pull from his beer. “I do believe he’s good and pissed.”

I grinned as I raised my voice to be heard over the low din in the common room. “Where’s who, Big Gun?” I’d started calling him Big Gun the second he came to the club. Just ’cause I liked fucking with him. My way of showing affection. And honestly, any man who would go to prison to protect his sister was definitely a big gun.

“The Goddamned motherfucker who made my sister his old lady without permission!”

That got a hoot from everyone.

“Better be careful takin’ on the big boss, Gunnar.”

“Fixin’ t’ get your ass handed to ya, boy.”

“I got fifty bucks on the kid.”

“Never happen!”

“Prove me wrong?”

“Oh, I’ll take that action.”

And the betting was on all across the room up until the moment Knuckles descended the stairs into the big room. The club compound was like four city blocks of abandoned four- and five-story warehouses the club now owned. We’d walled it off so there was no entry into the compound without our say-so. Each warehouse had been renovated so the bottom two floors were for various things that fell under club business, while the top floor, or floors, were made into suites and apartments for all our members. We had all this because of Knuckles, despite him being in prison. Once Knuckles entered the room, the betting and excess chatter stopped.

“You got somethin’ to say to me, kid?” Knuckles crossed his arms over his chest. The pose was intimidating because Knuckles was a big-ass, strong motherfucker. His pecs and arm muscles all bulged with the effort, straining his black T-shirt. Only man in the club bigger than Knuckles was Tiny. More than one club girl had drooled over him since he got home, but Hannah had managed to shut them down. I’m not sure what exactly happened and none of the whores were saying, but to a woman, they left Knuckles alone.

“You’re Goddamned right I’ve got something to say to you!” Gunnar stalked toward Knuckles like a jungle cat getting ready to pounce.

As one, we all leaned forward in anticipation. I could practically feel the tension in the room. I know I was coiled tight as a banjo string. Gunnar stopped a few inches from Knuckles, neither man giving an inch. Both of them looked ready to kill.

“The next couple minutes should be fun.” Knight murmured the comment so softly I could barely hear him “But I think Gunnar can take him.”

I would have rolled my eyes, but Gunnar lunged at Knuckles. We all sucked in a breath.

Knuckles flinched back slightly, bringing his hands up into a defensive stance but Gunnar didn’t attack. Instead, he laughed and clapped Knuckles on the shoulder before pulling the other man into a welcoming embrace.

“You cocksucker,” Knuckles muttered, his tone disgruntled. The whole place roared in laughter.

“If only you could see the fuckin’ look on your face, man.” Gunnar continued to wale on Knuckles’s back so hard it probably felt like the beating Gunnar had refrained from giving him.

“It wasn’t like I could fight back.” Knuckles sounded disgruntled but was grinning. “Especially after I barged in on you and Pippa.”

“Exactly. Just know things can change if you don’t treat her right. You’re my brother, but she’s my sister.”

“And I’m her fuckin’ daddy.” The booming voice came from the man in the doorway with a fierce scowl on his face. Cain Gill was the owner of one of the largest paramilitary companies in the world, as well as the former president of Bones MC. Our current president, Torpedo, was vice president at Bones before he came to be with us. Bohannon, our vice president, was the enforcer in the same outfit. Cain was also Gunnar and Hannah’s father. And one tough-ass son of a bitch. “Which also makes me your daddy now.” The look on Cain’s face was a mixture of amusement and I-will-totally-fuck-you-the-fuck-up. “Gunnar may be younger than me, but I have bigger guns and better torture devices. You displease my little princess in any way” -- he pointed a finger at Knuckles -- “and I will remove your balls. With fire ants.”

Both Gunnar and Knuckles winced even as the rest of us hollered with laughter. Soon after, Cain and Knuckles shook hands and everyone carried on.

Such is life.

The club whore in my lap turned to straddle me. Giving me a coquettish grin, she slid her panty-covered pussy over my lap, rubbing my cock. I wasn’t hard, but there wasn’t a man alive who could resist Ruby when she was in the mood to fuck.

“Been waitin’ for you, Hawk. Got somethin’ special for you in my room.”

“Oh, I bet you do, darlin’.” I slid my hands around to cup her plump ass. I squeezed, then smacked one fleshy globe. Much as I loved playing with Ruby -- or any of the club whores, really -- I wasn’t feeling it tonight. For some reason, I was wound too fucking tight to let my guard down enough to enjoy the experience. “Got shit to do tonight. Next time I’m at a party, though, I’ll fuck the shit outta ya.”

Ruby pouted prettily. “Promises, promises.” She leaned in and fed me her breast, encouraging me to latch on to the jutting nipple. Of course, I did. Her breasts were large, full, and obviously enhanced. I loved banging her from behind while gripping her hair in my fist. Watching that sight in front of a mirror never failed to get me off. Despite even thinking about one of my favorite erotic images, my cock barely twitched.

“I’ll give you my cock another time. And if you’re good, I might even let you come.” I gave her a smile, but my attention was only half on her. Something felt just that little bit… off .

When Ruby tried to push the issue, I lifted her off my lap and set her on her feet. “Enough. I said no. Go find one of the other brothers. Plenty here who’d love to fuck you.” I turned her around and smacked her ass to get her moving, trying not to be too much of an asshole while still getting my point across.

Club whores were here for one reason. To fuck. Since most of us had spent time incarcerated, we knew what it was like to go without a woman for extended periods. That shit wasn’t happening again. Every woman we let in knew the score. She could put out or get out. Problem was, we’d created monsters. Because when most of the women started with us, we spoiled them rotten. We were good to them as we could be, protecting them and making sure they had food and shelter. Still were. The women knew how we were and did their best to take advantage of it. “No” wasn’t a word they heard often, and as a general rule, they hated the word and would push back every time we used it. It was cute.

Until Knuckles and Gunnar came to Kiss of Death with old ladies. Now, we were all waiting patiently for the explosion. The club was Knuckles’s. Everyone knew it. The guys from Bones were here at his request, from what I’d heard. Knuckles would be president again. I wasn’t sure what role Gunnar would play, but he was a new fish -- which all but guaranteed the club whores would be on him like stink on shit. It would happen. Only a matter of time.

The family reunion continued. Unfortunately, the women weren’t here. “Unfortunately” because I really wanted to see some fireworks tonight. Probably just as well, because that feeling I had before was becoming an itch between my shoulder blades I couldn’t ignore.

I stood, acknowledging my brothers as I passed them on the way to the door. I stepped outside and took a deep breath. It was barely summer and already the air was humid and thick with moisture. I welcomed it, though. Inside our little corner of the city we’d created a haven of sorts. One whole city block in the center, we’d turned into a small forest. In the center of that, was a park of sorts where we had a couple of vegetable gardens and several flowerbeds. Wasn’t a very “biker” thing to do, but it was peaceful. At one time or another, after getting out of prison, we all needed the relative quiet and solitude.

“What’s goin’ on, Hawk?” I looked over my shoulder to find Chains. He’d been my cellie for a while, and after I’d gotten out, he found me and brought me to Kiss of Death. We’d helped clean out the trash in the club when they’d picked a fight with the wrong club.

“Don’t know. Somethin’.”

Chains nodded as he stepped beside me. He leaned against the rail in front of the main clubhouse. Crumbled concrete, gravel, and dirt lined the paths that made up the “roads” in our territory. It looked exactly like what it was. A prison of our own making. Only this one was to keep the rest of the world away from us instead of the other way around.

“You got that feelin’ again?” Chains lit a cigarette, the flare of his lighter briefly illuminating the hard planes of his face. He’d been with me long enough to recognize when my instincts kicked in.

I nodded, scanning the perimeter of our compound. “Yeah. Like somethin’s comin’ our way.”

“Something or someone?”

“Fuck if I know.” I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to shake the sensation. My instincts had saved my ass more times than I could count, both on the inside and out. When they started screaming like this, shit was about to go down.

We stood in silence for a few minutes, Chains smoking and me just watching the night. Our guard posts on top of each building were manned. Security lights flooding lights flooding the area close to our fencing provided a little extra protection for the buildings around us. If nothing else, the extra lighting made it easier for their own security cameras to get good imaging of whomever was trying to rip them off.

The sound of laughter and music drifting from the clubhouse behind us usually filled me with contentment. Tonight, it was an irritation. I needed to hear the night around me, to get an idea what was about to hit us.

I ducked under the railing and walked down the gravel path, not sure where I was going but needing to get away from the noise and light. Though the area around our compound was well lit, the interior was dark except for inside the various buildings. The paths between buildings and everything other than the center garden were covered in camo netting. We were as protected as we could be here. So why were my instincts screaming at me? The feeling got worse with each passing moment.

“Hawk?” Chains fell into step beside me, his gaze sweeping the area above the fence line. “You see somethin’?”

I didn’t answer. Wasn’t sure I could because with every second ticking by, my anxiety increased. It wasn’t late, but the high humidity and milder temperatures made the fog coming off the Cumberland River roll in thick as pea soup. Every breath in was heavy and wet, the water vapor tickling my nose. The security lights reflected back, making visibility very far outside our walls nearly impossible.

The moment I saw the small figure emerge from the thick mist, it felt like all the hair stood up on my body. It was definitely a woman, but there was something off about her. I took a step forward. Then another. I was stopped when Chains grabbed my arm.

“Easy, brother. That’s creepy as fuck and I don’t fuckin’ know…” He trailed off. Which is when I got my first good look at the woman, courtesy of the flood lights as she came closer. No mistaking she was heading straight for us with a purposeful stride. “Why’s she covered in mud?”

“Don’t think that’s mud, Hawk.” Chains puffed his chest out and called out to the would-be intruder. “Stop there, little miss. Private property and all that.”

She stopped directly in one spotlight so there was no mistaking her appearance and physical state. “That your blood?” Private property or not, need for secrecy and privacy or not, I absolutely would not deny a woman help who’d lost that much blood.

“What?” She had a confused look on her face, then looked down at herself. “Oh! That. Nah, not my blood. I’m good.” She gave me a bright smile and a big thumbs up. “But I’m kind of in a bit of a bind?” She actually looked like she was genuinely sorry to take up our time. Like she wasn’t covered in blood looking like something out of a horror movie.

I glanced over at Chains. His fists were clenched at his side, his eyes wide. Guy was superstitious as fuck, but I’d never seen him like this. Looking back to the woman, I started to answer when a light flashed over her blood-splattered face and I had to fight off a shudder. Never show weakness . It was a mantra that had served me well. Yet, here I was about to piss myself because of one tiny woman with a little blood on her. OK, so a lot of blood, but how did I know it was even blood? Might be fake blood. Might be animal blood, which was disturbing in itself. Maybe it was mud after all, and the lighting and mist were distorting the colors.

“Yeah, small bind.” She winced and held her thumb and finger an inch apart. “Very small. Almost nonexistent, except it’s not.” Her expression fell slightly. “Um, anyway. I gave the guys every chance to walk away. I swear.” Her eyes were almost comically wide. Like she was a kid trying to talk her parents out of a punishment for something she’d done.

“Gave who a chance to walk away?” The question tumbled from my lips without my consent. I didn’t need to know. Didn’t want to know. The less I knew the better. Ex-con and all. I saw Chains out of the corner of my eye. He gave me a sharp look, but didn’t say anything, either unwilling to show division or to stop the carnage he knew would follow. Yeah. We were sick bastards like that.

“Oh, the guys I stabbed.” She gave a slight, nervous laugh. “I wouldn’t have hurt either of them if one of them hadn’t pulled the knife after I broke the other guy’s leg. And I wouldn’t have broken his leg if he hadn’t tried to hit me.”

“Tried to hit you.” Could I sound any more stupid?

“Yeah. They were trying to rob me, and I took exception.” This time her voice was prim and proper, but she still looked nervous as shit. Which, I guess I understood. No, Goddamnit, I didn’t understand! Why was I freaking out like this? Why was she not freaking out?

“What the fuck?” Knuckles and Gunnar approached. Fuckers had either snuck up on me or I was officially a pussy because this girl was seriously freaking me out. I was going with losing my edge. I was getting older, after all. Because no way I was that big a pussy. I wasn’t even sure which one of them spoke.

“Uh, hi.” Creepy Girl gave us all a little wave. “Can we… I mean, I’d like to get out of the light, if you don’t mind? Makes me kind of nervous.”

“Yeah,” Chains muttered. “I bet.”

Knuckles made himself front and center while Gunnar stood at his left shoulder. I like that the pup had the boss’s back. He was an excellent addition to the club as far as I was concerned. “What’s your name, girl?”

“Carrie.”

“No way, man.” Chains took a step backward, shaking his head. “No fuckin’ way.”

“Shit.” I thought that was Gunnar. A quick glance and the man was scrubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “That’s just fuckin’ creepy.”

“Strange,” she muttered. “I didn’t expect this reaction.” Then she spat, making a face, disgust evident. “Gross.”

“You do this kind of thing often?” Why wouldn’t my mouth stay shut? I wanted to bang my head against a wall, but I was making a big enough an ass of myself as it was.

“What?” She spat again, wiping at her mouth with her fingers and the back of her hand.

“Show up at a gated compound full of strangers, covered in the blood of your enemies.” Nope. Still couldn’t shut up.

Then the damnedest thing happened. Little Carrie smiled. Like I’d said the funniest thing ever. And I knew I was doomed. Because my cock hardened so fast I was certain every ounce of blood went straight to my groin. I groaned and had to fight to stay on my feet. For a man who never showed weakness, I was showing an awful lot of weaknesses.

“That’s a cool description.” Her smile was beautiful. Except for the fact it kind of looked deranged. I wasn’t altogether certain she wasn’t deranged. Which would make this attraction I had to her complicated.

“Where’s the bodies?” Knuckles took another step forward, putting the attention squarely on himself.

“Um, back that way? Between the buildings.” She pointed in the direction she came from. “If you’ve got some sulfuric acid or something, I could fix it. I’m pretty sure there are several abandoned buildings I could use to store them for a couple days until they dissolve.”

“I’m outta here,” Chains muttered, turning and jogging back to the clubhouse. He had to go through a couple of the guys who’d wandered out here when Knuckles and Gunnar joined us.

“Sweet baby Jesus in the manger.” I winced as Torpedo, our current president and his VP, Bohannon pushed their way through the gathering crowd. “No one’s dissolving a body.”

“Oh, I know.” Carrie said brightly. “There’s two.” There was something hanging from her lip and I took my finger, mimicking wiping the corner of my lip. She gave me a confused look, so I did it again. She lifted her hand to her face and came away with whatever gore was around her mouth. She immediately gagged once, shaking her hand to sling the… I cringed to think of what exactly was clinging to her finger, but she tried to shake it off.

She stopped and turned her gaze back to Torpedo. The big man gave her a death stare for several seconds. Most men I knew might have thought twice about crossing Torpedo when he got that particular expression on his face. To my surprise, Torpedo looked away first. “Christ, I’m too fuckin’ old for this shit. Bohannon.”

“Don’t look at me, prez. I’m just as old as you are.” Bohannon actually chuckled, though he looked as shell-shocked as I felt.

To be clear, it wasn’t the situation had us all spooked. Violence was a way of life for me in and out of prison. It was the whole surrealness of the moment. If this was one of my brothers at the gate, I’d have already gotten the materials he needed, and we’d be out there taking care of business. But this woman was five foot nothing and maybe a hundred pounds. If she ate a sandwich.

And she was still spitting blood.

And her name was Carrie.

“You get hurt? Your mouth’s bleeding.” Bohannon, bless his heart, was braving the waters. I’d wondered the same Goddamned thing, but there was no fucking way I was asking that shit.

“No.” She made a face then spit out more blood. Then she kind of gagged a little. “Gross.” She kept spitting until she was finally satisfied. “That’s not my blood.”

“What did you do? Drink their blood? How the fuck did you get that much blood in your mouth?” Bohannon looked morbidly curious and I knew he was just as freaked as the rest of us. He also looked like he regretted the question the second it left his mouth. I know I winced. Pretty sure more than one of the other brothers witnessed the spectacle.

“No.” She spat again. “But one of the guys grabbed me in a bear hug from the front and I couldn’t move. So I bit his ear off. Then the other guy? He got behind me and put his hand over my mouth when I screamed. So I bit a chunk out of his hand. I think it’s the ear I’m having trouble with. Cartilage. Or something.” She went pale, her breathing growing ever more rapid. “I’m so s-sorry!” she sobbed out. Carrie collapsed on the ground in a heap looking so broken and terrified it made my heart ache. I actually rubbed the middle of my chest trying to soothe the hurt. Then she looked up at me. Not anyone else. Me. “I-I’m so s-sorry. Please help me.”

“Well, fuck.” Christ, my life!