Page 1 of Xane

CHAPTER ONE

–XANE –

I tighten my fingers around the hilt of my knife and swing my arm forward to slice the fucker’s side open with exact precision.I’ve studied the human body, read medical books, and have experimented with torture techniques for years; I know what will cause the most pain and suffering.

Part of the job, being an outlaw biker.Well, the outlaw part is debatable since I’m undercover, along with two of my brothers, and we’re part of another MC who has a contract with the government to solve crime cases by using any means possible.Which in this case means I have the authority to torture fuckers to death who recently committed a murder.

There’s a smile on my face as I start to roam around with the knife, cutting away his flesh and not caring if I hit the fucker’s lung.I shove my fingers into the wound and let the knife drop to the concrete floor covered with tarp.The fucker screams louder, coughs, gasps for air, and it’s all much louder than when I just cut him.

Hooking my fingers around his floating rib, I yank and rip it from his body with a satisfying crack.The fucker’s body goes limp.He’s hanging from the ceiling, bound by his hands, and his toes are barely touching the tarp.Exactly like his buddy hanging next to him.

“Fuuuuck, that’s insane,” Balta, the new prospect, states with a stunned voice.

Ignoring him, I grip the rib and shove my hand back into the dying man’s chest to stab his insides.Pulling my hand out, I keep a tight hold of the rib and walk to the buddy of the now dead man.

Blood is sliding down my forearm and dripping from my elbow onto the ground when I point the rib at the guy and calmly ask, “Are you rethinking your choice to stay silent?Or do I need to start the same treatment I just gave your buddy?”

He eyes my bloody arm and the rib I’m still holding and blurts, “They gave us a thousand dollars each up front.We’d get another thousand when it was done.”

“Who?”I snarl and press the rib against his throat.“I couldn’t give two shits about how much money you got to fuck up your life.Who ordered you to trash that bar?Give me a damn name, asshole.”

“I don’t know, some guy called Keenan...something.We only had a few drinks together.I never saw him before.Please, that’s all I know.”

Keenan.The only Keenan I know in this town is Caleb Keenan.He wouldn’t raise shit like this, let alone approach someone else to do something like this when he has minions of his own to do his dirty work.

A high-pitched cry comes from somewhere inside the house and I freeze.

When another one follows, I turn to Roux, my VP, and snap, “Find out what is making that damn sound.”

Though, I’m pretty sure it’s a damn baby screaming his lungs out.

My eyes narrow at the fucker in front of me.“Why the hell am I hearing a fucking baby?”

“It...it’s Barry’s.His ex-wife dumped the baby yesterday and ran off with her new boyfriend,” the idiot’s voice is trembling when he glances at his buddy...Barry.

“Motherfucker,” I grumble and turn to Neo.“Why the fuck weren’t we aware the fucker had a damn baby?”

Neo shrugs.“Dunno, Prez.Didn’t see one when I watched these two, and when they left and drove around town, they never took it with them.”

I rub a hand over my face before I realize it’s still covered with Barry’s blood.

“Barry hasn’t taken the baby out of the room since his ex dumped it here.”He glances at his buddy.“I don’t think he liked being a father.”

“Fucking hell.What a damn idiot.Some people would do literally anything to become a parent and aren’t graced with a fucking chance.Then there’s this fuckwad who doesn’t deserve a fucking fish as a pet, let alone a tiny human being,” I mutter.

“Please,” the idiot hanging from the ceiling pleads.“We didn’t expect the woman to still be there.I...we...please.It was a mistake.The gun went off by accident.”

I glare at the motherfucker and hear footsteps, indicating someone is coming down the stairs.

“Prez?You gotta come see this, man,” my VP rumbles.

Taking a deep breath, I reach for my gun and put a hole in the idiot hanging from the ceiling.Neither of these two fuckers were going to leave the house alive.They assigned their death warrant the second they killed an innocent while they were trashing a bar.

There’s no excuse for what they did, and with the shit going on in this town?I need to make a damn statement to keep the peace.Ever since they killed my father, ran him over to let him die in the middle of the street, I’ve felt the responsibility to follow in his footsteps.

His Last Will and Testament gave me ownership of everything, including club property.I asked Spence if I could go undercover to solve my father’s case and got the official okay from the government along with it.The vote for me to take the gavel of my father’s club was unanimous.Easy if I owned the clubhouse, which they were going to lose anyway due to a huge debt.

I paid it off and followed in my father’s footsteps as the peacekeeper between law and outlaw.The middleman in this town where the folks go when they need the impossible.My grandfather was the first man who held this responsibility.