The Kingdom (Preacher Brothers 1)

D stepped back, dropping his arm from the other man’s throat. “You plan on what, fucking killing her?”

The other man stayed silent, but I saw the answer on his face.

Yeah, he had every intention of pulling that trigger.

“You touch her, fucking look at her, Cullen, and fucking things won’t be good for you.” D hissed out the words.

“Now you’re fucking saying my name in front of her?” Cullen leaned in, his lip curled in a snarl. “What the fuck is up with you tonight with this bitch?”

It looked like Blue Eyes was about to say something, the anger shooting out of him like a cold front, but the sound of footsteps approaching had the room stilling.

“Damn, is the pissing contest over with, so we can get the hell out of here?”

I snapped my head in the direction of the front of the store, where two more men wearing matching skull masks stood in the doorway, their gazes darting between D and Cullen before landing on me.

“We need to get the fuck out of here,” Cullen said and pushed D away from him. He glanced and me and snarled. “Do whatever the fuck you want with her, but if we get pinched because of this, you’re the one going down, brother.” Cullen kept his focus on me the whole time. “And so will she.”

A low growl filled the room, like a wild animal had been set free. I realized it came from Blue Eyes.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” one of the masked men said, standing by the door that led to the front of the store.

Before I knew what was happening, Blue Eyes had his hand wrapped around my upper arm and was hauling me out the back door, the other men following, Cullen staring at me with so much hatred I felt it.

I looked over my shoulder into the front of the store and could see Richard slowly standing, a smear of blood on his cheek. A sigh of relief left me, this weight off my shoulders. He was alive. Thank God.

I didn’t know what Blue Eyes had planned for me, but I knew one thing for certain. I had to survive. There was no other option.

Chapter Four

Dom

I knew she was aware I hadn’t taken my focus off her since we got in the back of the van. She’d kept glancing over at me, shadows and a yellow glow playing across her face from the intermittent streetlights we passed.

I’d taken off my mask, but Wilder kept his on, clearly still on edge with this whole situation. I didn’t blame them, couldn’t blame any of my brothers for how they reacted. I would have been the same way. But they needed to understand this was what I wanted and I wouldn’t be swayed.

Not one fucking bit.

Our place was a good half an hour from the jewelry store, a home that had been our father’s before he passed away. He’d been a bastard to us while growing up, a drug dealer and drug-addicted criminal who had taught us all we knew.

I guess we owed him something for that.

But the prick died and hadn’t left us anything. Not a cent. Not even the house we lived in. Once everything had been settled, we bought the fucking thing. We could have just left, gotten a new home, but for all the shit and bad memories that had gone down in that place, we’d also had a lot of good ones.

We built onto it, extended the rooms, finished the basement so we all would have our own living quarters, separate homes within one main structure.

And it worked out pretty fucking nicely too.

“I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re going to do with her, but we need to have a meeting when we get back,” Wilder said, and I glanced over at him, seeing his eyes in the rearview mirror a second before he looked back at the road.

We ditched the dry-cleaning van and were now in some piece of shit perv-mobile. Well, that’s what Wilder called it, one of those sketchy vans that would’ve been featured in some after-school special about not taking candy from the back of strangers’ vehicles.

I didn’t respond, just turned my focus back to her. Hell, I practically smelled her fear. It was tangible, and I wouldn’t lie and say the knowledge that she was afraid but pretended to be strong didn’t turn me on.

It gave me a power high.

The rest of the trip was done in silence, and I kept my focus on her the entire fucking time. I couldn’t help it, couldn’t stop myself. I couldn’t even explain what it was about her that made me feel this way, that made me feel crazed and possessive enough I would attack my brother, stake my claim right there on a fucking job.