Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 134654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
I nodded. It wasn’t a hard promise to make. My mind was a vault—even a master at hiding my own secrets from myself. Keeping them from others wouldn’t be hard at all. “I give you my word.”
“Perfect.” His face was open and eager. The feathering lines around his eyes spoke of stress but also laughter and happiness. He looked stern but kind—the same type of look in Wallstreet’s eyes and Arthur’s. Wallstreet and Samson had taken a biker rapscallion and turned him into a precise weapon. I just hoped it was for good and not for wrong.
Samson settled into the comforting leather of his chair. “I’ll just start from the biggest point and answer any questions you might have.”
“Okay.”
Cocking his head at Arthur, he smiled. “Kill here approached me a few years ago with a proposal to reinvent the United States government.”
“What?” I blurted, my head whipping to face Arthur.
What the hell does that mean?
Arthur snorted, throwing back the rest of his drink and disposing the empty glass onto the coffee table. “That’s not quite how it happened.”
Samson laughed. “Fine. You want the complete story? I’ll tell ya. About three years ago, Kill broke into my house with two of his biker buddies. Scared the living shit out of me and my wife.”
My eyes narrowed.
He did what?
“Logistics,” Arthur said, linking his fingers. “I did it for a reason.”
Samson stole me away with his tale. “Instead of holding us at gunpoint and demanding money or favors or anything else you’d expect from a damn biker at three in the morning, he dumped copious amounts of paperwork at the end of my bed and made himself comfortable in a chair. He said something along the lines of—”
“ ‘Excuse the intrusion; it’s not my intention to scare you—only for you to take me seriously. Something drastic has to be done and someone has to have the fucking balls to do it,’ ” Arthur interrupted. His eyes danced with mirth. “Poor guy almost had a fucking heart attack, especially when faced with a night of paperwork in the form of every cover-up, scandal, and wrongdoing committed by the government since 1995. I could’ve gone further back, brought more evidence to light, but what would be the point? There was more than enough information to prove insane levels of corruption and put together a viable case for a revolution.”
My eyes widened. The intrigue in this single room consumed me. “But how can you hope to take on the largest power in the world?”
Arthur sat back, his long legs spread before him. “Easy. We inform the people who gave them the power in the first place.” Clearing his throat, his passion rose until the air vibrated with injustice.
This was what Arthur believed in. This was what he’d been working on. Not just revenge or thirsting for death of those who wronged him. This. He’d become a vigilante, trying to bring down a crooked government—the same government that’d sent him to jail for a crime he didn’t truly commit, all the while letting the real sinners walk free. He’d been a victim—just as much as me.
I … I get it now.
It all suddenly made a lot more sense.
I trembled in my chair. “This … it’s incredible. You’re taking on something huge.”
“Somebody has to,” Samson said. “Why not us?”
“Why not people who made the government what it is? Don’t they hold some responsibility?”
“Yes, but most don’t want to change, and the others are happy with the way things are. It needs an outsider to begin something new. It needs someone like us,” Arthur said.
“Someone like you?” My brain scrambled. “Why?”
Instead of answering my question, Arthur asked one of his own. “What draws people to bike Clubs? Why do men willingly turn their back on the law and embrace illegal acts knowing it could get them hurt, thrown in jail, or worse—killed?”
I shrugged, my skin prickling with chill. The tulle and corset of my dress imprisoned me, forcing me to listen to his huge ideals. Arthur’s green eyes pierced mine, waiting for a reply. I tried to recall why men had begged for the opportunity to become a Dagger. But everything was polluted by Rubix and the lifestyle they preferred over the one Arthur granted. “Um … the love of lawlessness?”
Samson jumped in. “That’s what I always thought, but thanks to Arthur, my eyes have been opened.”
Arthur said, “I have my own issues with the government. The judicial system leaves a lot to be desired. They believed lies formed by my own father and let your attempted murder go unpunished, sentencing you to eight years with no memory, living all alone.” His voice turned coarse. “Those reasons are personal and no one else’s. Unless it hits them at a deeper level, no one cares about what I’ve been through, or you, or any other stranger. It took me a long time to decide if my reasons for doing this were purely selfish or warranted.”