Taking Her Down (Savage Brothers Second Generation 1)

That’s my job.

Or rather it was going to be. The feel of Dragon’s gun pushing into my temple again, reminds me that it may never happen now.

“Me and my men? We don’t have that luxury. We fought, we bled, and some of my men died to secure our territory. We have to worry about territories.”

“Just fucking shoot me and get this over with,” I mutter, thoughts of not spending my life with Kayden make my gut clench. There was more I needed to say to her, more I needed to do…

He slaps the side of the barrel against my head, but the top of it—not the temple. Again, I get the feeling that he’s not trying to seriously harm me. It’s the same feeling I’ve been getting for at least a week.

“I’m being nice and giving you a lesson you need to get. Pay fucking attention or I will shoot you, but I won’t end you quick. I’ll stomp your fucking balls into the ground until you bleed out from them slowly. You feel me?”

“I’m listening,” I tell him, because suddenly I am. I think he has something he is telling me now and he’s not doing this shit to just torture me and get his rocks off—though he probably is enjoying that part.

Dragon seems satisfied with my answer. I can tell this by the way he pulls back, moving the gun away from me and looks me in the eye.

“This here station? It’s not in my territory, motherfucker. It’s not in any of my allies territories. There’s a chance that the fuck load of money and guns I paid to come here for our history lesson won’t be enough and we could get waylaid. But, I felt it important enough to try so I did it. Don’t worry. I got men close even if you can’t see them, and if we do get ambushed, we’ll take cover behind your fucking corpse,” he says, but I get it. I’m paying a fucking lot of attention now and I understand Dragon’s anger so much more now.

“Fuck,” I hiss, realizing what a wet-behind-the-ears, fucking prick that I’ve been.

“I see it’s starting to dawn on you. This here is the Demon Chaser’s territory. They hate my club. They want me gone, but they know that would take more money and firepower than they have, so we stay away from each other. Now, thanks to you, they have a little more of both and I’m going to take that out of your hide today. Lucky for you, if you listen, I probably won’t kill you, because I still have a hell of a lot more than them. But you see, Nomad, that’s how these things go. You stay on top as long as you have the strength to back it up. You can’t show weaknesses, because a weakness is like exposing an artery. Your enemies will cut that fucking thing open and laugh as you bleed out and dance in the mess you leave behind. I been in this shit for a long time. Early on, I realized I didn’t want weaknesses. I couldn’t afford them, and rule and protect my men like I needed to. Then, I saw a blue-eyed blonde, with bare feet and my plans went out the fucking window. Do you get what I’m saying yet?”

“Yeah, I get it. Kayden is a weakness.”

“There might be hope for you yet, Nomad. Kayden and Nicole are my biggest weaknesses. The boys, they’re strong, they’re of the age now that they know the score and they can stand on their own. Girls? Our girls need to be protected. They need to be fucking cherished and never—fucking never—left in a damn vehicle, chained, with no hope of escape in the middle of enemy territory. You might go where you want, having no club to answer to, and no worry about territory, but my daughter is Savage Brothers property. She has enemies.”

“You’re right. I wasn’t thinking. I’m a fucking moron,” I growl, pissed off at myself and knowing nothing I can say will make this up. Shit, chills are running through me at the thought of what could have happened to Kayden. Guilt, disgust and delayed fear are rolling in my stomach. If I had lost Kayden, been the reason that she got hurt or died…

“I can see reality is finally sinking in that weak-ass brain of yours. So, I think we’ve had enough history lesson for today. Besides, I need to hurry this along. Being in DC’s territory this long is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. We’ll conclude class today with a couple lessons for the future.”

“Lessons?” I ask, confused as fuck, pissed off at myself and just a little hopeful I might get to hold Kayden in my arms again.

“The first lesson is simple. You’re going to live by three rules from here out Chains.”