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Knuckles

“You tell that bitch I’m comin’ for her. She has a week at most to make her peace.” I’d never meant a statement more in my fucking life.

“I’m just puttin’ you in touch with her, Knuckles. Ain’t your errand boy. You want to negotiate, you go through her people.”

“Nothin’ to negotiate. When you confirm your job’s done, you tell her the only thing I want from her is her fuckin’ head on a pike.”

“You’re not gettin’ your daughter back until you talk with her, man. She made that very clear.”

“Too bad for her I already have my daughter.”

Finally, I got a reaction out of Wild Bill. Only a raised eyebrow, but way more than the man normally showed. He wasn’t a man I trusted exactly, but he held to a code and I respected that. “OK… That’s news.”

“Is it.” I didn’t phrase my words as a question.

“How long have you had her?”

“Since before they managed to sell Pippa,” I snapped. “I know Beth wants my supplier, and I know she worked for several months to undercut me, so I was prepared for somethin’. It never occurred to me she’d sell her own daughter for a drug deal, but it should have. I knew years ago there was somethin’ not right with Beth. Even before she brought Pippa to see me. I knew there was another shoe to drop but wasn’t expectin’ her to actually sell our daughter to get even with me.”

“Look. I got in touch with you as a favor to her. I can see I made an error in judgment.” Yeah, Wild Bill could see how pissed I was. “I’ll deliver your message to the bitch and go one better. I’ll give you a heads-up before she does anythin’ else to piss you off.”

“Now, why would you do that, Wild Bill?” I drawled out the question as I leaned against the bar and took a sip of my coffee. Wild Bill had met me just outside the Kiss of Death compound in Nashville. The area we’d purchased and walled off sat in the industrial outskirts of the city, but there were still a couple bars and a strip club in the area, which was where we were currently. Little club called Afternoon Delytes . The music was loud, the girls had big tits, and the alcohol wasn’t watered down. A good place for an enemy to be distracted if he wasn’t cautious. Which was why I liked to meet here with men I didn’t fully trust.

“I know I live by a code, Knuckles. A line I won’t cross. If what you told me is true -- and your reputation says you know your shit before you speak -- that bitch obliterated my line. I ain’t above pimpin’ out girls willin’ to split the profits, but I don’t force women. For any reason. And I absolutely do not traffic. Beth broke both those hard and fast rules for me. I agreed to this in good faith with her mostly because I respect you. If it were my daughter, I’d kill anyone who knew what was goin’ on and didn’t tell me. But, honest to God, I thought Beth had the girl. Maybe in a gilded cage, or maybe it was an empty threat to you and there was no danger to your daughter at all.”

“I could be lying.”

Wild Bill shook his head. “Nope. That’s not your style. You’ve always given it to me straight. Whether or not it’s what I wanted to hear.” I had to admit, the man might have gone up a little in my estimation. I’d still verify any information he shared with me before acting on it. It might not tell the tale, but I’d be able to better see if Wild Bill subscribed to the “honor among thieves” mentality, or if it was every man for himself.

“You know where Beth is?” Even if he was lying, I wanted any information he doled out. If it was bogus, I’d act accordingly. Which would not end well for Wild Bill.

“Yep.” He took out an envelope. “I’ve had a guy on her for a couple months. She’s at the same place she’s always been. Way too rich for a nurse’s salary.” He handed me the envelope and I took it.

I stared at him a long time. Wild Bill held my gaze without flinching. “Few men surprise me, so I’m going to give you this one time to tell me your agenda. I won’t consider you an enemy and I’ll respect your territory, but only if you come clean now.”

“No agenda, Knuckles. No repayment expected. No favors later. This is because I agreed to help your ex without investigatin’ beyond the surface. Knowin’ the girl was her daughter? Yeah. Wasn’t expectin’ her to hurt her own kid.” He shook his head like he knew he’d fucked up royally. “I don’t question things beyond the job because the job speaks for itself, but with somethin’ like this, I should have dug a little deeper. Ain’t too proud to admit when I’m wrong.” The corner of his lips curled up in a self-deprecating smile. “I’d also prefer it if you didn’t see this as a betrayal of the fragile alliance we have.”

“OK, now that I believe.” I took a sip of coffee, never taking my eyes from Wild Bill.

“How’d you get out of a life sentence anyway?” Wild Bill took a healthy pull of his beer before signaling the bartender for another.

“Friends in high places.” I continued to study the other man. “I’d’ve been out years ago except I had to help a guy out.”

Wild Bill snorted. “Right. You went in on a triple murder the way I heard it. That ain’t somethin’ you get out of that easy.”

“I did confess to a triple murder. Yes.” The smile I gave him wasn’t genuine.

Wild Bill looked like he wasn’t sure whether or not to believe me. “Must have been some long, hard dick you sucked to get out of that kind of rap.”

“All you need to know is it’s none of your Goddamned business.” This was getting tiresome. “You can spread the word to anyone you want to live that I’m back.”

“Hear things are different around the club.” The little bastard just didn’t know when to shut up. He also knew how to stroke someone’s ego with all this shit about how he respected me. He was trying to get out of the shit he stepped in with his big fucking mouth. Except his big fucking mouth kept moving.

“They are.” He was fishing for news about the new president of Kiss of Death, and I wasn’t biting.

We stared at each other a long time. Wild Bill probably expected me to expound, spill all my secrets, or bitch and moan about my club being under new rule, but I meant it when I told him it wasn’t any of his Goddamned business.

Finally, Wild Bill raised his hands in surrender. “All right. Keep your secrets.”

“No secrets to keep.”

“Your club goes rogue while you’re in prison, traffickin’ women and children. They piss off the wrong people in Kentucky and Florida and get themselves annihilated. Then you come back, but not as president?” He snorted. “Right. Nothin’ to see here.”

With a low growl, I darted my hand out and grabbed Wild Bill by the throat, squeezing enough he got the message. His hands went immediately to my wrist. No doubt if I hadn’t had two of my men search him before he approached me he’d have gutted me. Betting he was playing my death over in his head a hundred different ways while I held his gaze with a steely one of my own.

“Kiss of Death is my club. Nothing happens there unless I allow it. Prison or not. True, Dart got things in a bad way before Slash forced his way to the top, but I made sure the kids were either returned to their families or placed with people who would protect them. I made sure as many of the women as I could had someplace safe to go.” I turned and spat; the disgust of those tasks still left a bad taste in my mouth. “I’d love to say Slash and Gremlin were necessary collateral damage, but they were both dead the moment they laid their hands on innocents and used my club to hurt them.”

“Man, you ain’t gotta explain yourself to me.” Wild Bill’s voice was tight where I was a hair’s breadth from cutting off his air.

“Yet, you made a point to question me.”

“No offense, man. I get it. I get it.”

I squeezed a little bit more. My men stood between us and everyone else in the club, and the employees here wouldn’t interfere in my business. The only thing the owner requested of me was that we not kill anyone inside her club. Wild Bill didn’t know that, though.

“You get to live because I promised Medusa no killin’ in her club. If the information you gave me regarding Beth proves accurate, I’ll forget you were tryin’ to nose in my fuckin’ business. If you’re playin’ me, I’ll make an example of you for the whole fuckin’ city underground. I don’t do subtle.” I gave Wild Bill a hard shove.

The younger man stumbled back but kept his feet. He raised his hands again and took another step backward before he stopped. “It’s accurate, Knuckles. I ain’t no diplomat. Don’t believe in sugar coatin’ anythin’. So even though I wasn’t tryin’ to give you shit, I ain’t the only one wonderin’ if you let the reins slip, or if you were behind the shit Kiss of Death got into. Either way, you look bad.”

“I make no secret things went to shit when I went to prison. I didn’t have measures in place to control the police and the DA, but I wasn’t lettin’ the men who raped and murdered my sister live even one more day. Took me a while to get things in play, but I managed. I’ll be back in charge soon enough. It’s already been worked out.”

“Then why the fuck ain’t you taken over in name? Those pricks from Somerset are too goody-two-shoes to be fuckin’ bikers.”

I inhaled for patience. You cannot kill in Medusa’s club. You cannot kill in Medusa’s club …

“Christ. You really are a dumb shit.” I grabbed the guy by the back of the head and slammed his face on the bar. Blood squirted with a sickening squish. The bartender danced back, narrowly avoiding getting splattered. He wisely didn’t say anything, bringing out a bottle of disinfectant cleaner and taking care of the mess.

Wild Bill staggered backward, one hand over his nose, the other reaching for the gun at his back. “Motherfucker! You broke my fuckin’ nose!”

“Learn when to shut the fuck up, Wild Bill. You’ll thank me later.”

I could see in his eyes Wild Bill was gonna pull his weapon and shoot me. That was his intent at that moment. Which was when Knight, one of my men, slid his arm around Wild Bill’s neck from behind, lifted his chin, and stuck the tip of his knife against the younger man’s neck. “This is the part where you take your spankin’ like a man, say ‘Thank you, sir’, and go on your merry fuckin’ way.”

“You’re rapidly approaching the point of no return, kid. My gratitude only goes so far.” I was done with this shit.

I saw the moment he realized what just happened. Yeah. Figured as much. Kid let his anger get the better of him. I nearly smiled as I remembered another man who’d had to learn to control his temper. Gunnar had turned out fine. Wild Bill had potential, but he needed a mentor and nothing short of forced confinement would make this man agree to having a fucking mentor. Kind of like Gunnar.

“Uh, yeah. I, uh…” He cleared his throat. “Sorry, man. I-I didn’t mean…”

I nodded at Knight, who kept his knife on Wild Bill but used his other hand to snag the gun at the younger man’s back. “You don’t play nice with others, do you, son?” Knight handed the gun to another one of my men, Hawk, who tucked it in the back of his jeans under his cut. “Learn to behave and you’ll get your toy back.”

If the little prick hadn’t pissed me off, I’d have told Knight not to disarm him and keep it polite. I didn’t want to antagonize Wild Bill. People tended to be more inclined to lash out when you were unnecessarily cruel. I wanted a fearful respect from the people I dealt with in and around Nashville. Business went smoother that way. I wanted them to respect me enough to not want to cross me, while being afraid enough to know if they did, I’d fuck them all the way up. But this little shit had gotten on my last fucking nerve and I was done.

“You had my respect for a hot second, Wild Bill. I thought you were the kind of man I could build an understanding with.”

“Knuckles…” Wild Bill had a couple of bar napkins he’d snagged and held them to his nose to stem the flow of blood. It wasn’t much, but he’d have a couple black eyes in the morning. Good enough for the fucker.

“You learn to control your temper, then we’ll talk. I don’t think you’re a bad guy. I think you have lofty aspirations, which I respect. Just don’t forget who you’re dealing with. Be it me or anyone else. You’re walkin’ away this time. Next time, you might not be so fuckin’ lucky.”

Wild Bill gave me a couple nods of understanding. “Yeah. I hear you.”

“Good.” I stuck out my hand to the kid, forcing the issue of a handshake, but I was making a point. “No hard feelings.” This time.

Wild Bill hesitated a moment, then took my hand. “Yeah, man. No hard feelings.”

As Wild Bill walked away, Hawk laid the gun on the bar, along with the clip and the bullet in the chamber and motioned to the bartender. The guy had been hanging out in the background and was ready. “If he comes back, make sure he gets his weapon.”

“You sure Torpedo and Bohannon are on board with this?” Hawk gave me a hard look. “’Cause, I gotta tell you, they saved this club from going down the fuckin’ toilet. I’m solidly in your favor for president, but I can’t in good conscience go against either of those men.”

“You won’t have to.” I took another gulp of my coffee. I really wanted a fuckin’ beer, but I hadn’t had one since before I went to prison and couldn’t take the chance of dulling my senses because I couldn’t handle my alcohol. “Took me a long fuckin’ time to get those guys here, and they only agreed to stay until I acclimated to life on the outside.”

“You?” Knight leaned against the bar, taking a pull from his beer. “You brought Bones to Kiss of Death?”

“I did. And you have no idea how many strings I had to pull to make it happen. So I will give Torpedo all the time he needs to be satisfied I’m fit to lead this club again. The last thing either him or Bohannon are going to allow is for us to fall back to the way it was before they got here.”

“It’s not like Bones and Salvation’s Bane left much when they cleaned house.” Hawk’s gaze tracked around the room. He’d been my sergeant at arms before I’d gone to prison. He and Knight had gone into hiding along with a few others of my inner circle when Dart had staged a violent takeover. I hadn’t been able to help. It had taken several years for me to establish connections on the outside that filtered inside the prison. Avenging my sister had been the most important thing at the time, and the consequences took me nearly a decade to overcome. When I did, it took nearly the same amount of time for me to guide Kiss of Death into the paths of Bones, Salvation’s Bane, and Black Reign MCs. The price was high, but worth it. And, if I were honest, I had no problem with being affiliated with Bones MC or any splinter club.

“Doesn’t matter. That shit Dart, then Slash, did in the club’s name hurt us. I was negligent in getting myself put in prison without a plan in place for the club.”

“I heard the former president of Bones actually married one of Slash’s victims.”

“Yeah. Cain took a woman, Angel, as his old lady. Raised three of the kids there too.”

“Ice and Cyclone.” Hawk gave me a nod. “I met Cyclone once. Didn’t the girl end up with another of Bones’s members?”

“Yeah.” Something caught my eye as I continued to converse with Hawk and Knight. A woman I thought I recognized. I couldn’t place her immediately, but I couldn’t pull my gaze away from her. “She’s married to the guy who took Bohannon’s place at Bones. Name’s Stunner.”

“I’ve heard he runs a tight ship at Bones as their enforcer.” Knight stroked his beard lazily. “Ice and Cyclone were promoted to president and vice president. What do Torpedo and Bohannon plan on doing when you take over again?”

“Not my business,” I answered absently. The woman was with a large man. He towered over her, but he wasn’t as big as me. I could tell by the way he carried himself he was a little high strung. “It’ll be a while before…” I trailed off as I watched the woman speak to the bartender. She and the man she was with were on the other end of the bar. She turned around and I got my first good look at her. At the same time, the guy she was with backhanded her so hard she spun around and fell to the floor of the bar.

Before I could register what was happening, a ferocious, angry roar exploded from me. Because I recognized the woman. And some motherfucker was about to fucking die.