Page 39 of Property of Necro (Kings Of Anarchy MC: Illinois #1)

“What?” I snicker and bat my eyelashes.

Seated in her computer chair, Cell’s arms flap like a bird. “Oh. Oh. Look. Look. It’s starting.” She points to the screen, and the live stream begins much earlier than expected.

And there he is.

Necro.

All muscles and mask.

He’s rubbed soot around his eyes and the lines of his neck.

There’s a black handprint over his heart .

What the hell?

“Is this the guy you’ve been fucking for the past three-ish months?” Cell asks, damn near swooning out of her chair.

My mouth waters, and I swallow hard before I reply a croaky, “Yes.”

“Oh. My. Gawd.” Cell fans herself. “He’s hot. Not regular guy hot. Not even biker hot. He’s God of the underworld, hot.”

I giggle.

If she thinks he’s good-looking, she should see the others.

The camera pans to the doorway, and in saunters Coffin, wearing the same cat mask I had on weeks ago, when all that craziness went down.

“Holy shit,” I gasp.

“You can say that again. Who’s that hunk of a tall, beef stick?” Cell slams her hands on her desk and gets up close and personal with her monitor. So close, I expect her to lick the screen. Not that I blame her.

“Cell.” I chuckle at her ridiculousness, feeling lighter than I have in weeks.

“What? You were living with these men, and you left?”

“I didn’t want to leave.”

“Ah. It all makes sense now. That’s why you’re sad,” Kali throws out. “If you didn’t want to leave, then why did you?”

“They didn’t want me anymore.”

My eyes zero in on Coffin’s pec. It looks different.

“Cell, can you zoom in?”

“Duh. Where? On their junk?”

“No.” I laugh at her overeager love of dick. “On his chest. Right there.” I point to it and Cell, the whiz she is, gets up and personal with Coffin’s pec and…

I…

I…

“What the fuck?” I hiss at the mark.

“What is that?” Cell cocks her head to the side, full of cute innocence, and tries to make out the tattoo on his chest.

Tattoo.

Yes. A tattoo.

He got tattooed.

When did he have time to do that?

Oh. Right.

When Kali’s man was out cleaning up his murderous ways. Unlike Necro and Rot, he leaves their church and goes on runs.

Cell looks at me to fill in the gaps.

“It’s a tattoo,” I point out.

“But it’s red and looks like something bit him.”

“I bit him.” Right there. On his chest. The place he tattooed with my teeth marks. I can’t believe that’s there.

“Wait.” Cell lifts her hand and rolls her chair away from the desk to look at me like I’m a hydra with multiple heads.

“You. Bit. Him. Him? Like him on the screen, him? You did that?” I see the cogs turning in her mind, trying to compute that I, the freckled redhead who wears Crocs, am freakier than she thought.

Not that we know each other all that well, and I didn’t bite him in the heat of passion .

“Yes. Me. They. Them. There are three of them,” I explain evenly. “We were… Kind of friends, kind of fuck buddies. I don’t know what we were. But he was one of them.” I nod toward the screen.

“You were. Wait.” Cell’s cheeks turn the shade of a firetruck as she raises her hand and breathes out like she just ran a marathon. “You… Oh. My… Gawd! Did you get both of those dicks at once?”

“No. Not like you think.”

Her eyes round so wide I’m concerned they may pop out of their sockets. “What do you mean? Not like I think?”

“I sucked one as the other… you know.” I gesture for her to fill in the blanks so we can stop talking about this.

Cell bobs her head like a dude-bro. “Spit roasting. Nice.”

“If there are three of them. Where’s the other one?” Kali asks.

I look over at her. “Manning the cameras.”

Cell is still stuck on the sex when she adds, “And what was he doing when you were getting spit-roasted?”

“He was in my mouth.”

She fans her face. “Ohhh. So, they…”

“Took turns,” I fill in.

“Right. Right. I haven’t had sex in years. Years and years, and I don’t ever plan to again. But that’s hot. I have toys, though. You’ve just unlocked a new fantasy.”

Oh. That’s lovely.

“Cell.” I chuckle, shaking my head.

This woman is something.

“What? Don’t worry, it won’t star you, or them. Much. Because that one.” She points to Necro again. “Is scary hot with that mask.”

“He never takes it off.”

“Really?” She rears her head back in surprise. “Why?”

“I don’t know.” I shrug. “I never found out. I tried to, but I was sent home the next day.”

“So, he’s not just hot, he’s broken. Like broken, broken. Us broken.” Cell gestures between the two of us, and I nod, then add, “Worse than us.”

Leaning back in her chair, our lively sister whistles. “Damn.”

Yeah. Damn.

And I didn’t even get a chance to know more. Not about Necro. Or any of them.

Watching them with my sisters doesn’t unravel the prickly twine, slicing through my gut.

It worsens as a big man enters the room, and they tear him apart.

Grunts and groans fly. Blood douses the floor, and they don’t relent.

Together, they fight like they’ve been doing this for years.

Like they were made for this. Fist and flesh.

Gore and death. Brotherhood. Friendship. Family.

I can’t take my eyes off them.

When he’s gone, lying on the floor, beneath them, Necro and Coffin are hard as steel. Everyone watching can see the outline.

Of course, Cell has to comment on it. “Those are nice dicks.”

Yeah. They are.

If only I got to actually see Necro’s. To touch it. To feel it in my mouth.

I miss them .

I shouldn’t.

But I do.

I miss them so much it hurts.

As if she can sense my melancholy, Kali wraps an arm around my shoulders and knocks her head against mine.

She leaves it there, hugging me from the side, seeping goodness into me.

Kali’s the only sister who didn’t join the sisterhood.

She created this place with the backing of her husband at the time, Dark, and the Sacred Sinners.

All because she wanted to help the world.

To do better for women. To connect with us and give us a purpose after all we’ve been through.

She’s been through a lot. But, unlike most of us, she wasn’t abused.

Her empathy and love know no bounds, and while her meddling drives me crazy, her love keeps me coming back.

Even if I don’t want to work anymore, I know I’m welcome here forever.

“I think you have some things to work out,” she whispers.

“I know.”

“You can always go back.”

“They don’t want me.” Tears fill my eyes, but I don’t let them fall.

“The tattoo on Coffin’s chest says otherwise.”

“It’s just a tattoo.”

Kali steps back and pulls up her shirt. From hip to tits and around her back, she’s covered in a solid sheet of incredibly detailed ink. I’ve seen it before. More than once, but it never fails to take my breath away.

She pulls her skirt down, exposing a pair of blue lace panties. She turns her thigh just enough for me to see Colton tattooed in script. That’s her husband’s real name, even if he goes by Sunshine.

I get it.

She’s trying to prove a point.

“I did this, and he branded himself for me,” Kali explains, pulling her skirt back up and her shirt back down.

“That’s you two.” That’s not my life. That’s them. That’s years of friendship and love. They’ve known each other for decades.

“It’s them, too.” She lifts her chin toward the screen.

“How do you know?”

“Necro’s emails.”

“Which emails?”

“The ones he exchanged with Dark.” Holding a finger for me to give her a sec, Kali races from the room. She’s back a moment later, with her phone, which she hands me.

Subject: Where is She?

From: Dark [email protected]

To: Necro [email protected]

Necro,

We had a deal. I give you Sola, you keep me updated. It’s been a month, and you haven’t returned any emails. The sisters are getting antsy.

I’m not asking again. Is she okay?

Dark

Subject: Re: Where is She?

From: Necro [email protected]

To: Dark [email protected]

Dark,

She’s fine. Better than fine.

She’s home now. With us. Where she belongs.

Don’t message again.

Necro

“This is their first exchange?” I ask.

“Yep. There are thirty or so more that sound the same. Short and to the point with increasing agitation.”

He claimed me as theirs from the first email. Had I not seen the evidence, I would have never believed it. I’m home now. With them. Where I belong. Then why the fuck did they make me leave without so much as a goodbye?

Ugh.

Men.

I’ve never even dated one, and they’re already on my last nerve.

If I mattered so much, then they should’ve kept me. They could have asked. We could have, I dunno, figured it out together.

I exhale a loud sigh and hand Kali back her phone.

What a mess.

But what’s done is done.

They made their choice, and I have to live with it.

I’m not some desperate woman who will crawl back just because I miss them.

I didn’t ask to be put in this situation in the first place.

How was I supposed to know I would end up liking them despite their fucked-up flaws?

I have plenty of those myself. Nobody’s perfect.

After thanking Cell for her help and Kali for her support, I slip out of the alcove and return to my bedroom. Tossing myself onto the bed, I stare up at the industrial ceiling.

I’m giving myself today.

One last day to be sad.

One last day to think of them.

When tomorrow comes, I’ll let them go.

Tomorrow, I’ll shut that door to open another, where I hope to find myself.

One. Last. Day.

I let the tears fall.