Dead Man Walking (The Fallen Men 6)

Lion leveled his signature stern glare at the younger brother. “With my life. Now, what’s this about a Bible verse? There was a murder last month down in metro Vancouver that had something to do with religion. The details were hushed up, but I can dig into it.”

“You do that,” Zeus urged as Lila passed Lion a note that must have been the Bible verse.

They’d had the delayed good sense to put it in a Ziploc bag to preserve it for prints.

“It was a prostitute killed on East Hasting. Happens all the time. Only thing that made it stand out was some quote from the Old Testament written in her blood on the wall.”

“He’s evolving,” Bea said quietly, then cleared her throat when everyone looked at her. “If the prostitute was his first kill, writing in blood on the wall is sloppy, not premeditated. He sent me a typed note and obviously knew about my history with Brenda Walsh. That suggests thought. Maybe the first kill was an accident or an impulse.”

“But this was theatrics,” I finished for her.

She looked up at me with a slight smile, pleased we were on the same page. “Exactly. It’s the classic evolution of a serial killer.”

“A serial killer,” Tayline said flatly. “What next?”

“I’d say that about covers the spectrum,” Boner agreed.

“Don’t fuckin’ jinx it,” Nova said. “We don’t even know if this crazy killer is one and the same.”

“Looks like,” Lion admitted. “But listen, we need to get the police involved here, Zeus. If it is a serial killer moving across criminal elements and municipalities, they need to know.”

“Fuck the pigs.” Wiseguy said what everyone else was thinking.

Sure, the corrupt sect of Entrance PD had been culled when we took down Staff Sergeant Danner, but that didn’t mean any of us liked the men in blue. With the exception of Lion Danner, who wasn’t even a cop anymore, but a P.I., as a rule, bikers didn’t take too well to authority.

Especially after Zeus had been put away for months for a murder he didn’t commit.

Looking at our prez, we watched his jaw work beneath his beard as he stared down at his wife then over at Bea who was still standing too close to me. I could feel the heat of her shoulder touching my lower left pec like a searing brand. I welcomed the pain.

“Do it,” he commanded like I knew he would because our women were in danger, and he would do everything in his power to make sure they were safe. “Call Officer Hutchinson and get this sorted. The rest of you, get lost. We don’t need ’em seein’ the full club. Lion, Bat, Buck, and Curtains stay. We’ll reconvene Church tomorrow.”

With a low mumble of agreement, everyone started to move out, some of the brothers stopping to murmur words to Bea.

“I’m not fuckin’ leavin’,” I told Zeus.

He stared at me, studying me in that way he had of sizing up a man’s soul.

Finally, his lips twitched. “Yeah, brother, I figured.”

“You’re coming home with us tonight.” Loulou moved into Bea, taking her hands and pulling her out of my orbit. I bared my teeth at her, but she ignored me. “You can’t stay alone at your house when some creep knows where you live.”

“I’m sure Priest would stay with me,” Bea suggested, shooting me a look over her shoulder.

I knew from the dark, sticky clasp of her stare that she was remembering how I’d slit that motherfucker Brett Walsh’s throat at her feet after he put her in danger. I knew she was imagining with some dark joy what I might do to this new threat against her.

My cock stirred. It was hot as fuck seeing that wickedness in such an angelic face. Too heady to know I flamed those dark passions.

She was fascinated by the very thing everyone else saw in me and feared.

How was any man supposed to resist that?

“No,” Lou declared with all her biker queen authority. “You’re my little sister, and you’re staying with me. No one gets past Zeus.”

Bea bit the full, pink swell of her lower lip as she glanced back at me again with a question in her eyes.

I stared back at her implacably.

There was no sense in arguing with her sister about this. She didn’t like me for her sister, not even my protection was good enough. And she was used to getting what she wanted with a man like Zeus wrapped around her little finger.

So, I wouldn’t argue.

I would just spend the entire fucking night staked out on the beach beside their house, watching in the dark, protecting my obsession from whoever sought to take her from me.

In fact, I hoped they dared to try, because my fingers were itching for the hot touch of blood, and my knives, too, were thirsty.