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“I was gonna retire in a few years and name you as my replacement. Just feels right. The Royal Bastards are in your blood, son.”
Emotion rushed to the surface and I choked as I tried to reply, succeeding in only saying his name. “Keys.” I’d lost my fair share of blood during our mad ride across the desert and I knew my own hours on this earth were numbered. Slightly dizzy, I shook my head. “I don’t think I’m gonna be far behind you, pres.” The words burned my throat on the way out. “I’m a dead man and the reaper is gonna cash in.”
Keys closed his eyes for a few seconds as he struggled to take in a couple of deep breaths. “This ain’t your last ride, Dex. Devil isn’t ready for you yet.” He sighed softly. “Gonna miss you. Love ya like you were mine and that’s the fuckin’ truth. Took you in and not a day went by that I regretted it.”
Dex. My real name. He rarely said it since we all used road names. The way his voice softened proved he was close to the end. A funny gurgle bubbled up from his gullet and blood slipped from between his parted lips.
“I love you as much as my old man,” I finally whispered, knowing he needed to hear it.
Keys didn’t answer but I knew he heard. A slight smile lifted the corners of his mouth.
Swallowing hard, I glanced up at the moon and watched the clouds passing underneath her strange but luminescent glow. I loved Keys. It wasn’t a lie. He welcomed me in and made sure I didn’t turn out to be a dumbass. It was hard to hear what he had to say but I was grateful he did. “I wish ––”
The words ended abruptly when I turned back to Keys and he was no longer breathing. No rise and fall of his chest. No funny sounds. No words of wisdom or promises that didn’t mean shit when you were the one left behind.
Tears filled my eyes and I tried to blink them back, but they slipped down my cheeks anyway. I’d only cried one other time in my life. My old man’s funeral. Raptor’s death was sudden and shocking. A revenge hit on the club from a rival MC that was taken out before the Scorpions rose up in their place.
Sitting on the sand, I lowered my head and tried to forget the massive sense of loss and the painful ache in my chest that had nothing to do with my injuries. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, I could tell my wounds were bad. I’d been too pumped up to notice earlier but now reality was forcing its way to the forefront. Pain lanced through my thoughts and slashed with brutal clarity.
I thought about the club, my lonely childhood, the hard life I’d grown to love, and all the fucked-up shit with the Scorpions. The last few years of my life had become bloody and ruthless. To be precise since the moment I joined the Tonopah chapter of the Royal Bastards.
My old man Raptor died when I was only twelve. He’d been a big part of the Royal Bastards and the SAA. I swore once I was old enough that I would join the club my father loved and died for. I’d carry on his legacy. There wasn’t any other choice for me. It was my destiny to wear the skull and crown of the club, proudly giving my loyalty to the brotherhood. I’d die for that patch.
Today I finally would.
I winced, pressing my hand against the wound in my stomach. Acid’s blade had gone deep. I could feel my organs through the cut. I’d taken a bullet below my right shoulder that bit like a rattlesnake, sinking down with brutal fangs, and piercing my flesh. The pain had been unbearable at first. Now, it was slowly fading. I hardly thought about it anymore, focusing on the heated pulse of agony that probably ripped my intestines apart or shredded some other organ in my abdomen. Blood seeped through my fingers as the swell of the crimson puddle on my shirt grew wider in diameter. I’d forgotten about Acid’s favorite little toy.
“Uh,” I groaned, scooting along the ground and closer to a large boulder as I fought a wave of fatigue. Every muscle in my body strained with the movement. Dizzy, I overestimated my ability to move adequately and I nearly knocked over my bike when my leg slammed into the back tire. I’d be pissed if she got a scratch on her. That fuckin’ Harley belonged to my father and I never rode anything else.
The dry desert air brushed over my skin with a warm caress as night completely descended but I knew the arriving coolness would soon replace it. The Nevada desert was hot as fuck in the summer and there wasn’t a hint of moisture in the breeze. Kind of like being shot in the face with a blast from a butane torch. It could steal the breath from your lungs. Tumbleweed rolled on by as if to wave at the fool who was bleeding out in their vicinity. Droplets of blood fed the thirsty sand and hardened the soil beneath where I lay.
Funny how certain memories rose to the surface when you were dying. Like the scent of fresh rain. Pancakes every Saturday morning when I was a kid. My old man’s voice calling my name in his rough tone, always ready to ruffle my hair and ask how my grades were in school.
No one could ever tell me he wasn’t a great father. Sure, Raptor did a lot of illegal shit and over the years my mother had revealed more than she probably should have known but he was everything to me back then. When he wasn’t on a run, he spent his time at home. He wasn’t out whoring around or getting into trouble. My old man played ball with me in the backyard, grilled out burgers and hotdogs, and played his part for my mother. He kept his home, his bike, and his family under his protection at all times.
That was the way shit was supposed to be.
I may have been young, but I’d seen plenty in my twenty years.
And I knew how to take care of my own.
“Lookin’ a little uncomfortable down there, handsome.”
My head shot up and I blinked, focusing on the sexy as fuck brunette standing in front of me. Long bare legs led right up to a bikini clad bombshell with perfect tits and eyes that burned with an eerie crimson flame. “Where did you come from?” How the hell did she find her way out here in the middle of nowhere? “You must be lost, honey.”
She smiled a predatory grin that seemed not only strange but a little odd. “I know exactly where I am,” she replied with confidence. “What’s the matter with you? Dying or something?”
Snorting with both irony and humor, I nodded. “I think so.”
“You’d be wrong about that ya know.”
When she strutted forward and knelt down, her thighs opening wide as she straddled my body, I knew I was a fuckin’ goner. My imagination must have been conjuring all kinds of bullshit because her long scarlet nails tapped my chest as she settled over my crotch and
rocked her hips as my dick twitched. If I was dying, this was an interesting way to go. I’d fuck a hot chick on my way out. Why the fuck not?
That was what I thought until she leaned in nice and slow until our faces were only a couple of inches apart. A wicked grin was hovering on her lips until it vanished so fast that I didn’t have time to blink inbetween what happened next. Her entire face transformed into the scariest fucking thing I’d ever seen. A skeletal visage appeared and snarled, the bones covered in ligaments and a light layer of muscle in sporadic spots that twisted her features into a nightmare.
“Fuck!” I shouted and shoved her back, cracking the back of my head against the boulder as I tried to scramble away. “What the fuck are you!?” I demanded, wincing at the pain in my skull.
