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“Yeah, pres. I got it.”
Chapter 19 – Azrael
The past had reared its ugly head with Patriot’s revelation. Grim knew I had shit to deal with and he said to take a break and come back once I was ready. My eyes closed as I stood alone, needing a few minutes to breathe through the anguish that pulsed deep down in my chest. My fists clenched as I fought the memories of that horrible night six years ago when my entire world shattered . . .
“They killed her!”
Elrik’s voice was so tormented, so full of hate that I had to make him repeat himself twice.
“Who? What the fuck are you talking about, bro?”
“Willow,” he blurted, hardly able to hold back a sob over the phone. “She’s fuckin’ dead, Ian.”
/> The truth wouldn’t register in my head. Just three nights ago the three of us had drinks at the bar, staying until closing hours as we hung out and enjoyed a few beers.
This couldn’t be true. Willow was at home, waiting on Elrik.
“She’s home,” I contradicted.
“She’s here, Ian.” His voice broke down and it was the first time I had ever heard my best friend cry. “Willow’s gone.”
That was officially the lowest moment of my life.
The next couple of days were a blur.
I was so lost I couldn’t find my way out of the pit of despair. It was then that I realized Rancid had Elrik and he had taken over the entire Royal Bastards MC. His lies and corruption spread until there were far too many on his side. The sick fuck stood with a gun pointed at my best friend’s head as I entered the clubhouse and I snapped. No one had to tell me what he’d done. It was obvious from the look of satisfaction on his face.
Rancid had raped Willow and then cut her up, stealing everything from Elrik in a vicious move of revenge. An eye for an eye. Elrik had stopped him from raping one of the waitresses and he’d been beaten by the club. Rancid never got over it. His plan of cold and cruel violence had ripped apart more than Elrik. Willow was everything to us. When Rancid murdered my sister, he cemented his fate. What he didn’t realize was that he made more than one enemy that day. I leveled my gun and shot, hitting Rancid in the shoulder as he was knocked to the ground.
Gunfire erupted around us as my brothers opened fire. These were men I’d grown up with and had a deep connection to, the same as Elrik. Their betrayal hit us hard.
We barely escaped with our lives and returned to the bar that had belonged to Bulldog Jameson, Elrik’s father. My best friend would never allow Rancid to have it. We poured gasoline all over the grounds and lit the place on fire . . .
The entire property burned to the ground.
At night, when I was alone in bed, I could still smell the gasoline and the flames, still see the burning building that represented everything Jameson and I had ever loved. We’d declared war and revenge on Rancid, promising one another that someday we would make that murdering rapist pay for his crimes.
I wouldn’t rest until Rancid was completely destroyed.
Pulling out my wallet, I slid the photo of me, Jameson, and Willow into view. It was the shot of us seated together in Bulldog’s clubhouse, the bar that had been passed down to Jameson. It had been our home our whole lives. All three of us were smiling big cheesy grins, unaware that just a few days later our lives would be forever altered.
Willow’s sweet brown eyes stared back and all I could think was the way they would twinkle when she was happy, her bright smile always teasing her older brother. She got a kick out of that. I’d always protected her until I finally shared that privilege with Elrik. I didn’t completely hand it over, just wasn’t possible. My father had instilled in me at a young age that she was my responsibility. I never forgot. There was no way I could ever give her up all the way.
Back then I was Jameson’s SAA, known as Ian Braxton. Knuckles was an Enforcer under me, and Elrik and I were on top of the world. For a few brief months, everything had been right in the world. Jameson was gonna do right by my sister and had proposed, shit with the MC seemed to calm down, and my best friend was about to be sworn in as the national president of the Royal Bastards.
I could see now it was all a ruse. Just the calm before the storm.
Those dark days following our departure from NOLA still haunted my dreams.
While I was out in the desert on my bike, accepting the Devil’s Ride, Jameson had retreated to Hong Kong with Poet. He was loyal as fuck to the two of us. Not many were after all that shit went down but I knew my best friend needed to find his own way the same as I did.
I became the Enforcer of the RBMC in Tonopah after he left. The devil called to me out there on these lonely desert roads, nothing to see for miles but cactus and tumbleweed, as the heat of the sun beat down on my back. I was never the same after Willow died. My hatred had taken over. I was already going to Hell once I left this life, didn’t matter how it was accomplished as long as Rancid suffered.
Maybe my Reaper had only been biding his time, awaiting the perfect moment to show up and offer his contract. Didn’t really matter. I was only too happy to agree. The thought of taking Rancid’s soul was too enticing to pass up.
The initiation into Grim’s club was one where you gave your soul in exchange for the power of the Reaper, the guarantee that you could control what happened to your enemy and their souls. Revenge would never be as sweet without that power. We had to give the devil his souls, that was a stipulation of the contract. We collected from our enemies and sent them to Hell. It was simple. Might have been more beneficial to the devil than us, but we received just as much in return. It was a spiritual contract, but one that was mutually beneficial.
At Grim’s urging, every member of the Tonopah chapter took on a new name to cement their allegiance to the club. It wasn’t hard to come up with mine. I took on the name he’d mentioned so many years ago, the same day I beat to death a monster and protected my younger sister from certain destruction.
