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PROLOGUE
ATHENA
Watching the men from just inside the tree line, I pull the SIM card from inside the phone and crush it. My job here is done. The threat against them for the time being taken out. It’s not over. Not by a long shot, but at least now they can handle things without me. Granted, they didn’t know I did anything for them and that’s the way it’s gonna have to stay.
I stare for a few more moments, watching, waiting to see what those men will do. I have no doubt that they could have handled things on their own, however, they’ve been through enough. I’ve kept an eye on them all. Ever since they moved to the area and things went down with Kenny and Horse.
A sigh slips past my lips as I think about all of it and how, this time around, that disgusting skank and the other one were able to get close with those men. She’d hidden her true colors well at first, but I know these men. Not up close and personal, but I know them, and they’re smart as hell.
I shudder at the thought of those bitches.
The first time I’d heard through the grapevine, something was going down here, I made it my business to find out what. Then I put myself in the sights of a man I never wanted to touch me. I allowed myself to be in his bed, I slept with him, and hated myself for it. But it worked in allowing me to get where I needed to be. I became part of his inner crowd, he thought I was his girl, and figured he didn’t have to hide anything from me, that I was something he could control.
Now that I’ve gotten the threat for the time being taken care of, it’s time for me to go. I’ve been far too close for a while now and I can’t have that. Now, it’s time for me to get on with the next job. Although I think I might take a couple of weeks and do everything possible to wash the filth from my body, however, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to feel clean again, not that I ever have.
Trevor might be hot to look at, given he looks like Shemar Moore fromCriminal MindsandS.W.A.T., but he’s nothing but a cockroach who needs to be crushed. Because of him, those two skanks got involved in doing his dirty business. He recruited both by being the supplier of their drugs of choice, bars, and shooting heroin in their veins.
I don’t know what is with women like them. They’d do anything for a fix, and Trevor had kept them on his hooks. After what happened with that one guy in the club being run off his bike, Trevor was pissed. It wasn’t part of his plan, but it worked out. The dead bitch had run him off the road and got the club on alert more than they already were. Trevor had plans in place and because of them, he hadn’t been able to get to that woman outside the hospital. Because of her stupidity, he killed her, making it look like an overdose.
Selina, on the other hand, ran. Trevor found her and made her wish he didn’t. He gave her to men, and like the pigs they are, they destroyed the bitch. I ended up being the one to convince Trevor to dispose of her body at the clubhouse.
This worked for two reasons. One, the club knew what had happened to the bitch. Two, it let the club officially know who was behind the accident. They should be able to put two and two together in order to deal with the rest.
I messaged them just moments ago and let them know the rats were gone. And in doing so, made sure they got the message the club was now clean.
I take a step back deeper in the tree line and glanceat the man who looks so much like the two men in the photo I’ve carried for as long as I remember. One is Stoney. The other man, the one who’d helped in my creation—Croc.
My mom was a bitch, and she threw me to the side a long time ago. She got knocked up with me when she was twenty in the hopes of trapping a man who wanted nothing to do with her. When he kicked her out, she could have aborted me, but she didn’t. Instead, she kept me though she wished she hadn’t. I wasn’t the daughter she wanted, not when the man who she conceived me with had thrown her away. The one in the picture. She wanted him to be hers, but that didn’t happen. He didn’t even know about me or if he did, he didn’t care. I know this because she told me so, all the way to her deathbed when I was nine years old. I know who my dad is, but there is no point in me searching for him now since he’s also in the ground.
Sighing, I give a quick shake of my head, putting the train of thought to the back of my mind—no point in bringing up history. I grew up the rest of the time in foster care and ended up learning a lot. Most of it being to always look out for myself. But I also picked up skills and those skills I use to make a living. Skills that after running away from the last home, I homed in on and worked at perfecting.
At the age of fourteen, I ran when I had the chance, leaving behind a nightmare, and never looked back. I figured even at a young age, it was better to live on the streets than another foster home. I ended up running into a man named Lark. I’d been fighting off a group of men who wanted to hurt me, but he’d stepped in.
Lark took me to his place, I didn’t trust him, but he saved me. He ended up adopting me and taught me everything I now know. His son became my brother, and though he’s also named Trevor, I thankfully have never called him anything other than Reap, short for Reaper.
Reap is older than me by a good eight years and runs a mental facility. He’s also known by others as the King of the Underworld because the facility isn’t what you would think. It’s where in the shadows, you can send a person to suffer for a long, long time before they die.
Anyway, Lark, I later learned, also went by Lucifer. It was his name when he worked. He’d given me the name Karma, and that’s what I’ve gone by for a long time, mainly because, ever since I could, I’ve worked avenging and taking down scum where I could. They know who I am and accept me. I finally found my family, and I love them both.
But my real name’s Athena, and I sometimes wish I could leave my life behind. Then again, who would help those who need it?
Sighing, I scan over the rest of the men, my eyes lock on one, and I suck in a breath, recognizing him right away. He looks so much like he did when we were younger, only he’s far more handsome now. Long dark hair pulled into a man bun. Those muscles on his arms are shown off easily because the shirt he’s wearing is fitted against them. He once was my protector, and then he left me.
I take the time and remove the SIM card from the phone I used to send the mass message to all of the members of the Devil’s Riot MC. They can never know it was me that helped them, and they never will. None of them even know I exist. All except one and still to him I all but disappeared.
Without looking away from him, I back away, deeper into the trees, not letting anyone see me. I didn’t know he was back, and if I did, I don’t think I could have been here and done with what I needed to do. Now that I’ve seen him, I can’t face him. He can never know what became of me. I surrendered to him a long time ago, giving him my very heart, though I know he doesn’t know this.
Once I’m far enough away and no one can see me, I turn my back to them and head out through the trees. I have another job to get to, and that one may or may not kill me before it’s over with. And in doing so, this next job, I won’t be able to be Karma, I’ll need to be Athena again and that could end up being my demise.
CHAPTER1
BRASS
Three Months Later . . .
“You know, I can’t believe the three of you are heading to Mississippi,” Striker mutters, sitting across from me, talking to Wolf.
“Figured it would be a good change, and Viper can have people he trusts at his back.” Wolf grunts and lifts the beer to his lips. “Also heading to Mississippi puts me close to my folks.”
