Pretty sure this kid has no idea. “Why don’t you just tell us?”
Loki glares at me before softly telling her, “Never back down from a fight. Your daddy will be fine.” The man rises to his full height. “And why is that? Because he’s a…”
“King!” Molly hollers, gaining a few curious looks.
If only they knew the half of it.
FORTY-TWO
FANG
Darko’salready on the guy when I arrive. The ruined truck sits on the side of the road, steam rising from its bent and mangled hood. The radiator must have gotten damaged during the collision, leaving a trail of coolant that led to where the engine seized. The fucker didn’t get more than a mile up the road before Darko caught him, the Devil now stuck beneath a vengeful young King.
The raw rage circulating inside of me demands I join in. Demands I exact revenge for this fucker endangering my daughter. My brothers.
Jenna.
But people like us never ride alone; he’s got to have help out here.Where the fuck is the other guy?
I squint against the darkness, calculating where I would go if I wanted to stay close yet out of sight. The streetlights aren’t on down this end of town. Every shadow holds a secret. Every obstructed sightline is a liability.Where would I hide if I were a fucking Breed mongrel?The houses sit further apart at the town limit; plenty of places in yards to find cover.How did they know we were there?Fuck.I feel sick.I left my daughter at the burgerbar with a fucking unknown liability. Someone tipped the Devil’s Breed to our whereabouts. Someone who saw us walk in.
Or knew that’s where we would be.
Was it her?Was I so caught up in my own issues that I didn’t pay attention? The fucking phone was broken; there’s no way she could have let him knoworknown that’s where I’d take us tonight. The logic doesn’t work, and yet…And yet I crave a reason not to want her.I want the fucking universe to do the hard part for me.
I can’t get my damn phone out quick enough.
Watch Molly. And don’t let Jenna out of your sight.
Loki messages back instantly.
Already there.
Maybe he isn’t such a bad guy.Or maybe my judgment has been clouded lately, and he isn’t the problem—I am.
“You see anyone else with him?” I blink a few times to force my focus back on the present.
Darko shakes his head as he wrestles with the spitting enemy.
“Who’s with you?” He pins the man’s left cheek to the road surface with his right palm, thumb hooked in the guy’s ear canal. “Where did they go?”
The piggy squeals. “Get the fuck off me.”
“Answer the question.” I stride up to the guy, toe of my boot an inch from his nose.
“I ain’t going to tell you shit.” He spits on my foot.
Son of a…I rub the moisture off using the underside of his face. “You’re going to tell me what I want to know, or I givethis fucker here,” I say, thumbing at Darko, “free rein. What’s it going to be?”
“Free rein to do what?” he sasses through his smooshed jaw. “Fuck me in the ass?”
“I wouldn’t give you the pleasure.” Darko drags the man’s face along the rough ground, eliciting more cries of protest. “How many ugly motherfuckers like you came tonight?”
“Only me!”
“Bullshit.” The Devil’s Breed collective ego means the pricks wouldn’t waste a chance to be seen.
To relish the thrill of being feared.Pussies.
