Page 74 of Preacher Man

Preacher rounded on him, blood cold in his veins, eyes blazing seeing his smirk and the wink at Ruby. She’d gone deathly still, her fingers flexed inside his.

That giant motherfucker, Preacher was going to kill him.

“Beautiful, why don’t you go and wait with the bike, Red and I are just gonna have a talk.”

With my fist, so far down his throat, he’ll gargle knuckles. Preacher was barely hanging onto his temper.

“I don’t think so. I’ll wait right here.”

“Awe, don’t have a lover’s tiff because of me. You didn’t tell your latest bitch what she has in store, Preacher? I mean it should be on the welcome pack you hand out. After the fucking comes the near-death choking. Just warning you, babe. Wish my sister had been told.”

“Enough, Red! You got beef with me, you have it with me, you don’t talk to her, you don’t fucking look at her.”

“Just a friendly warning is all.” The bastard shrugged grinning slyly.

Ruby dropped his hand.

It was the worst goddamn feeling he’d ever had. His chest tightened in a strong grip until he thought he’d quit breathing altogether.

“What’s he talking about, Asher?”

“It’s nothing. I’ll tell you later. Come on, we’re fucking leaving.” Before he strangled the life out of Red light so the bastard could finally be justified.

She didn’t budge. Instead was staring at Red Light. “Come on, you obviously had something to say to me, so say it, or drop your catty subtleties.”

“Ruby. We’re going.”

“No, your latestbitchwants to hear this. PSA, you overbearing man, you dare call me a bitch again and you’ll be wearing that screwdriver for a new hat.”

Red smiled looking somewhat awed and apologetic towards Ruby. “You’re right, my bad, babe.”

Preacher didn’t like it one fucking bit, he was a second away from losing his shit, it was one thing for the hostility towards him, after all this time it was a drop in the ocean, but to harpoon it at an unsuspecting Ruby just to needle him with, not fucking cool. He bared his teeth and placed himself in front of her blocking her view of the dickhead. “We’re leaving, Rube. Now. I’ll explain later.”

“Why don’t you tell her how you put my sister in the hospital. How she couldn’t speak for two days because of the bruising around her neck. Tell your girl how you did it with only one hand and almost killed her. She deserves to know what she’s getting into. I saw her on the back of your bike, you don’t do that, Preacher. She deserves to know what’s to come. Or have you already given her a little welcome squeeze?”

Fury rose inside him until his feet were moving, his chest expanded with so much fire he had a tight grip of a pair of blue overalls before he realized, shoving him back crashing Red’s spine against the wall, getting in his face snarling like a monster ready to devour its enemy.

He wasn’t aware of Ruby yelling his name.

Only of the thunder rushing through his ears. The dark dangerous leash of Preacher’s past was untethered blowing in the wind of his rage.

He’d had enough of this bullshit.

"E-fucking-nough, I fucking said!"

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

“It was like watching two junkyard dogs snarling. Only one junkyard dog turned me on.” - Ruby.

Nose-to-nose it was easy to see fatigue on Red’s face now like he’d lived a hard life the last four years. Being an MC nomad was not for everyone, moving constantly, never calling anywhere home, it was a lonely life. Finding a family not of blood or sin in the Renegade Souls was like coming home to ready-made acceptance for Preacher, he’d hungered for that for years and so being the sap that he wasn’t it pissed him off that he was on the outs with one of his crew.

Home truths came out on a growl.

"Goddamn. You're so full of shit, Wayne, I think at this point you're just pissed at me to keep hearing your own whining. I'm fucking tired of it. Go ahead and hate me, I don't care any longer. Do you think I choked Ginny on purpose, that I thought to myself, hey this chick I just had a nice time with, I'll wait until she's asleep, then I'll go to sleep and have a nightmare about killing the insurgent who murdered my brother and two of my squad, and I'll choke her?fuck you, do you know how pathetic that is? You’re reaching hard for a reason to hate me. I said I was sorry, I'm fuckingsorry, man. But it was years ago, she's happily married, she's not sitting around traumatized by it, I haven't scarred her for life, she's not floundering spewing hate, that's justyou. No one can hate me more than myself for what I did to that sweet girl, to know I hurt her even for a second, and to know I damaged our friendship. Ginny accepted my apology, she moved the fuck on, why you can't is beginning to look like you just love the attention.

“I could give a fuck anymore, Wayne. I can't atone anymore. I slept with your sister. I'm sorry! I wasn't even patched into the club, I wasn't breaking any fucking rules. I don't have a sister, but you can have a crack at my younger brother, though he's not into big and dumb, you might have to woo him." Rage filled Preacher's eyes. He'd met the end of his rope and was about to fucking hang Red Light with it.

Behind him, he was all too aware of Ruby. He could feel her in his skin, feel her eyes boring into his spine. He hated that she was seeing this, hearing Red Light spit his bullshit that wasn’t so much bullshit but the dead-on truth.