Bull (Kings of Mayhem MC 6)

A smug smile curled on Alex’s lip. “There’s my girl.”

“You don’t need to do this.” I trembled.

“That’s where you’re wrong.” He removed his gun from his shoulder holster. “Do you know how I’ve stayed ahead of my enemies for so long? How I’ve stayed alive with so much bloodletting going on in this business? How I’ve outlived every one of my rivals who partake in this devil’s work?” He leaned in and whispered, “Because I am the devil.”

Fear prickled along my skin.

Our eyes were fixed, and I could see the lack of emotion in his. While he could see the alarm in mine.

“You need to let them go,” I said calmly, despite my heartbeat pounding in my ears. “Let them disappear. Start something new with someone else. You’ve done it before.”

“Oh, I already have.” He smiled but it was cold and lifeless. Then it vanished, and a shadow of evil darkened his face. “But I won’t let anyone disrespect me, do you understand? They will pay. Just as you will.”

“Please, don’t do this,” I begged.

Alex didn’t look angry. He looked disappointed.

“I want you to remember what role you played in this.”

And with that, he walked over to Jacob and put his gun to his temple. “Let it be a lesson to everyone not to cross me.”

My eyes met Jacob’s and he started to cry.

“I’m sorry,” I mouthed.

When Alex squeezed the trigger and the shot ripped through the afternoon light, I fell to my knees with a ferocious scream ripped straight from my soul.

Jacob fell to the floor, his eyes open and lifeless, his body limp and crumpled.

His soul gone.

I launched upright in bed, shaking and damp with sweat.

For a moment I thought it was another nightmare.

But it wasn’t.

Alex had killed Jacob.

My only friend.

And he had done it in front of me as punishment for keeping his wife’s affair from him. I had let him down and he saw it as betrayal.

I hadn’t allowed myself to think of Jacob in years. Because it hurt so damn much.

But apparently, my subconscious thought I needed reminding about who I was dealing with.

Climbing off the bed, I went to the liquor cupboard in the kitchen and removed the bottle of whiskey and a glass. I roughly poured the amber liquid into the glass, spilling it on the counter top and shakily bringing it to my lips.

Desperate to remove the tentacles of my dream from my mind, I knocked back the liquor and enjoyed the burn on the way down.

Jacob’s murder had been the beginning of the end for Alex and me.

The man who made me call him godfather.

The man I’d looked up to.

The man I’d done terrible things for.

Jacob’s terrified face swung before my eyes, so I splashed more whiskey into the glass and knocked it back too.

My godfather was a monster.

And I would never forgive him for what he did.

But it would be easier to hate him if I wasn’t just like him.

BULL

I didn’t see her until late afternoon the next day when I got back to the clubhouse. I had spent the morning with Ruger and Caleb visiting the Knights of Wrath clubhouse, where we’d sat down with the club’s president, Sabre, and discussed the next month’s order.

Once our rivals, the Knights were now our allies, as well as our biggest customer. Our arrangement was simple and lucrative for both clubs. The Kings grew the product and they purchased seventy-five percent of it. It was an arrangement that had worked for several years and as a result, our bonds grew stronger.

Sabre was one of the few people I’d reached out to when I’d learned about the hit. He was heavily connected in areas where the Kings had no interests, and with people the Kings had no business with. Like heroin kings and cocaine cartels. He had explored every burrow and ripped up every rock in his world to learn more about the supposed hit.

But he found nothing.

Just as we had.

And the other reliable contacts we had all over the country.

It’s what had me convinced that there was no hit out on me.

Gimmel Martel wanted me dead.

But wasn’t using a hired gun to do it.

After our meeting with the Knights, we visited our cannabis fields out by the watermelon fields. It was a massive production overseen by Caleb. Acres of marijuana plants that flew under the radar of the DEA and local law enforcement, thanks to good contacts and a small percent of the profits.

Again, another deal where everyone came out happy.

But I was distracted. I couldn’t keep my mind on the task. Because Taylor was pulling away, and I didn’t have a fucking clue how to handle it. The more I thought about it, the more I realized something hadn’t been right since the night I’d woken up to find her staring out the window. She’d tried to hide the fact that she’d been crying. I didn’t press her about it. Instead, I’d taken her pain and doused it in physical pleasure until all she knew was ecstasy.