Deviants (Badlands 2)

I didn’t feel an ounce of remorse. I didn’t believe in mercy so no one would be given if they fucked with me. It was the way I’d always done things.

Now I was no longer maki

ng my moves behind a curtain of obscurity, word could spread as a reminder that the Badlands was my domain. The time had come to restore some order and get rid of all the motherfuckers who mistakenly thought I liked to share.

“Toss her in the flames, too,” I commanded the man closest to me before walking off again.

Grimm remained diligently beside me, keeping silent. He knew my mind had wandered straight back to Cali.

Time apart hadn’t lessened whatever the fuck was between us. It made it stronger. That was a good thing; it solidified that it was real and not fleeting.

Something was different about her. She was so close to breaking free of her chrysalis. I felt it. I saw it in her eyes, and it was about fucking time. There was a demonic beast that lived inside every single one of us. It lurked in the darkest parts of the human mind, locked away in fear of judgment or ostracization.

I had only ever known how to let that motherfucker rein free. Cali’s was dormant, slowly coming alive, clawing and tearing away at the part of her mind trying to restrain it to a dark iron cell.

When it fully emerged, my beautiful girl would desire only chaos and anarchy.

I ignored Beth’s screams as Cobra held her hand in the fire, and I didn’t look back to see my acolytes loyally trailing after me.

I had to get Cali’s ass back where she belonged.

A king wasn’t shit without his queen.

CHAPTER FIVE

He grabbed my ass without permission, so I bit him.

That got him to let me go and remove his straying hands—two birds, one stone. I closed my mouth around his shoulder and clamped down on the flesh, throwing in a growl for added effect.

I was airborne the second he managed to dislodge me. I hit the ground with an “oomph,” losing the air in my lungs just as a scream echoed through the trees, sending a wave of black crows with it.

“What is wrong with you?!” Tito yelled at me, covering the spot where my teeth marks glistened.

“You should be asking yourself that question,” I retorted, pushing myself up off the ground. “I told you to put me down, not throw me.”

“I’m not just talking about this, Cali. I’m talking about back there.” He jerked his head in the general direction we’d just come from, huffing and puffing, still trying to catch his breath. “You were turned on. I saw the way you looked at him. Your hand started to sweat, and your cheeks flushed.”

With a heavy sigh, I brushed the dirt and sticky leaves from my shorts–forcing the naseau I kept getting at the most impromptu times away. “What would you like me to say to that?” I waited for a snarky response and only got stared down.

“What did he do to you?” He slowly shook his head with a look of disappointment.

He knocked down my barricaded walls and made me his in every sense of the word. It wasn’t like I hadn’t practically dared him to. After all, I’d demanded he fuck me the second he put his perfect body against mine. I definitely wouldn’t be joining any women’s equality movements in the future.

“What didn’t he do to me?” I snickered. “Don’t you think we should be worrying about what just happened back there?” I pointed over his shoulder.

“They were hailing Satan as your lover had three people killed, all while you were sending out huge fuck me signals,” he gritted out through his teeth.

“Oh, okay. Thanks for clarifying.” I turned away and his jaw unhinged.

Staring through the breaks in the treetops, I looked up at the rapidly darkening sky as if it could solve all my problems. Of course, that would never happen, because life was too busy trying to power-bomb me in the ass.

What was Romero up to?

The Hail Satan and flag with his name on it were self-explanatory. It was him hanging people from different factions that I didn’t understand.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was preparing for a hostile takeover or something equally as deadly—or this was a normal occurrence, and I was just too damn sheltered to know that.

Whatever it was, I needed to hit a pause button on my brain until after I slept. Exhausted, I dropped my butt to the ground and my head to my hands. With my back cushioned against a tree and Tito finally shutting the hell up, I had a minute of blissful silence.