Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
I tasted blood in my mouth. I looked around the room. “Good. You’re awake,” a voice said, a heavy Louisiana accent lacing the words.
A face I hadn’t seen in a real fucking long time came into view: jet-black messy hair, tan skin and brown eyes. Eyes that, for many, had been the last fucking thing they’d seen—the eyes that delivered death.
“Crow,” I muttered, seeing my old VP, and hacked up what had to be a gallon of blood. He shoved some paper towels into my hands. I wiped my mouth, and Crow dragged me to sit upright. “Fuck,” I hissed, breathing through gritted teeth.
“Yeah, fucker. That’s what happens when you start a fight with a mean motherfucker like the prez and then stand there and let him kick your ass.”
Disappointment cut through me. I was still here.
I didn’t wanna be fucking here.
“I’ll say it again.” He handed me a whiskey. I didn’t usually drink much because of my epilepsy. Now, I didn’t give a fuck. I knocked the liquor back and held my glass out for another. “You got a death wish, brother?” Crow finished, refilling my glass. He sighed and shook his head, taking a drink directly from the bottle. “No idea what the fuck you were thinking. The asshole hates you. Said he’d kill you if you ever came back.”
“I banked on it.”
Crow took back my glass and passed me a glass of water. “Yeah well, this Good Samaritan here dragged you out from under his death blows before you ended up ground beef on the club floor.” He paused as I drained the glass of water. “Where’s Cowboy?”
“Texas.”
He frowned. “He stayed behind while you decided to come back and have a Manson-style reunion?” He shook his head. “Don’t believe that for a second. He doesn’t know you’re here, does he?”
I clenched my jaw, putting the empty glass on the table before I smashed the fucker in my hands. “He’s better off without me.” I looked around Crow’s place. I didn’t recognize shit. “You moved?”
Crow ran his hands through his hair. On his bicep, the massive tattoo of a crow with red eyes moved with his arms, appearing like it was taking flight. “Got a place no one knows about.”
My eyebrows tried to pull down, but my bruised face wouldn’t let them. “Right,” I said. I didn’t really care.
Crow abruptly got to his feet. My mind drifted off to Austin. Cowboy and Sia would know I’d gone by now. My chest was a fucking iron cage. It was the first thing I’d felt in hours. I quickly blocked it from my mind. Erased their faces so I wouldn’t have to think.
I was fucking sick and tired of thinking.
“When all that shit went down with you and Titus, it just wasn’t sitting right.” I stared at the empty glass, letting Crow’s words sink into my ears. “I started looking into your background.” I tensed, my eyes slamming to his. He glared at me. I heard blood rushing through the veins in my ears. “I’d only been at the club two years before you and Cowboy. You know we were always tight. But in reality, I knew fuck all about you. You never mentioned your past. Fuck, you hardly spoke at all.” He sat on the end of the table.
He pulled out the dice he kept in his pocket and rolled them in his hands. Crow was famed for rolling the dice. Helped him decide whether to let whoever he was intent on killing live or die. “Hades’ choice,” he would mutter, just before he plucked out their eyes with his hunting knife, or whatever other fucked-up punishment he had planned in his fucked-up head.
“When Titus accused you of stealing, I knew by your reaction it wasn’t you.” A small part of the wall I’d built around me crumbled as those words left his mouth. “I started keeping an eye on the money we were getting for guns.” He handed me the bottle of whiskey and a few pills. “Take ’em. They’ll take away the burn in your ribs.” I didn’t hesitate. I took more of the liquor, my head starting to feel a good fucking buzz. “We had less money than we should have. You were long gone, and I trusted every fucker else in the chapter. That only left one person.”
“Titus,” I said.
“Titus,” Crow agreed. “I got this place when it kept happening every fucking run. I needed a place he didn’t know about. A place where I could get a shit-ton of evidence on him. Enough shit that I could go to Styx.” He pulled on his hair, and then growled loudly. “I know it’s him, but I can’t get the evidence. And if I start asking questions, he’ll start sniffing around. If he finds out I’m onto him, he’ll find a way to get rid of me, like he did you.”