Page 70 of Cruel Biker

Morwenna rubbed her temples.

“Why is this important?” Morwenna asked.

“The Karamazov are coming. They’re after the Evil Dwellers MC, and their connection to the Romano Mafia. I had nothing to do with that family nor any connection to their dealings, but they came for me and your mother,” Gus said.

“But you killed three of them,” Morwenna said.

“Yes. The point of the Karamazov is no one knows who they are. Most MCs have an insignia. A mark. A tattoo. Something to prove their loyalty. With the Karamazov there is nothing. Just a trail of death and destruction.”

She turned to look at her mother. “And you believe the real estate agent we saw today was one of these guys?”

“There was too much coincidence for it not to be,” Willow said.

“This is insane,” Morwenna said. “None of this makes sense. I’m married to Bolt.”

“Venom did this on purpose,” Gus said.

Morwenna hated that his name was still able to pierce her chest, and she felt the pain of his name. She didn’t want to think about this.

“What do you mean?” she asked. Even as Venom was the last person she wanted to think about, she couldn’t exactly not think about him, because she had feelings for him.

“Venom knew the danger was coming. You’re at risk, and he wanted you out of the line of fire.”

“But if what you say is true, then this is all pointless,” Morwenna said. “They’re going to come for me, if I’m here or if I’m not here.” She got to her feet and moved away from the dining room, but she didn’t leave the room, just paced so she could try to clear her head.

Was it possible Venom said those nasty things in an attempt to keep her safe? It sounded ludicrous even to her own ears and completely insane. There was no way Venom would do that.

“These people manipulate,” Willow said. “They’re not good, and trust me, you will not even see an attack coming until it’s too late.”

Morwenna looked toward her mother, and then her father. They were morose. There was no other word for it. They were fearful. She felt their fear. It was so damn acute. She got it, and she understood it, and she knew this was not to be trifled with.

“Okay,” she said. “Fine. What does that mean we have to do?” She looked toward her father. “You’ve trained us for this. Me and Bolt, that is what you were doing, right, at all those hunting trips. Making us prepare for the worst?”

Gus started to talk, but his cell phone went off, and he looked down with a frown. Morwenna wasn’t able to see who was calling. “I’ll be a minute.”

“I’m so sorry we lied to you all these years.”

“No, it’s fine. I mean, it’s not exactly fine, but I get it. I understand why you did it, I just, it sucks, that is what I’m getting at. This sucks. All of it freaking sucks.”

****

The following morning, Morwenna’s father told her he was needed at the clubhouse. Her mother was going to start the preparations for Thanksgiving dinner as that was days away.

Morwenna went out into the garden with her old shotgun, setting up a couple of targets, to take time to practice. It had been a long time since she went hunting, and she needed to get her head back in the game, if she was going to help. Whoever the Karamazov were, she wanted to be ready for them.

She took aim, looking down the barrel of the shotgun, holding it firm, keeping her stance tight, as she shot one at the target. She turned, did another, and stopped. Morwenna moved toward the targets and saw she’d gotten just outside the red dot in the center, which wasn’t too bad.

Growing up, she and Bolt would compete to see who was the best shot. More often than not, she was the better one, but she hated how much of a temper tantrum he would throw at losing, so she would start to suck at shooting. She started to practice when he wasn’t around, as it was easier to be better at it, than hear him complaining all the time.

She tried not to think about Venom and what it meant for him to protect her. It was a stupid thing to have done, and she didn’t know if she could believe him.

Loading up the shotgun with more ammunition, she stopped as her cell phone rang, and she frowned, because that was the ringtone she had for Bolt. She pulled out her cell phone, and looked down to see Bolt was in fact calling her. She hadn’t changed the ringtone, but he’d stopped calling and texting her months ago.

At first, she hovered over the red button that would terminate the call. That way, she wouldn’t have to deal with him, and she didn’t want to. Not as she was trying to shoot, and it reminded her how selfish he could be when they were younger.

She was not a coward, so she clicked the “accept” button, and placed the cell phone against her ear. Only, she didn’t get to hear Bolt’s voice. Instead, she heard Star’s voice, as she started to panic.

“Please, I need you to come over to my apartment. It’s really important. I think it’s Kyle and Bolt. They are both really sick, and I can’t get them to wake up. Please, please, please.”