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“Holy shit,” Mack breathes next to me.
After a moment, Rael lets go of Hooch’s jaw and takes a step back.
“He’s responsible,” Rael announces. “He’s the one who convinced Quad to hand your old lady over to Loera. He told Quad it was the best choice, to pay Sinaloa and hurt you at the same time. The Bastard you assigned to watch over Kat is dead. But Hooch doesn’t know where Kat is right now.”
A knife of pain guts me in the stomach. I don’t know how, but Hooch’s terrified eyes tell me beyond a doubt that Rael is telling me the truth. Somehow, he has read Hooch’s thoughts, just like they were written on his forehead.
Franco’s dead. And Hector Loera has Kat. Which means Kat is in danger because of me. Because of me, Hooch pushed her into the path of a man who is probablyrap—.
NO.My brain shouts before I can think the word.FOCUS. Focus on getting her back.
An animal howl of pain almost escapes my throat. I swallow it down, bitter like bile.
“This is the end, Hooch. You’re gonna die.” I raise my pistol. “You’re gonna die for ever daring to touch Katrina Bergland. I wish to Christ I had the time to make it slow, to make you suffer more than you ever thought it was possible to suffer. I’d peel every inch of skin from your body as slowly as I possibly fucking could.”
Rael puts a hand on my shoulder.
“I can do that,” he says simply. “I can make him suffer more and longer than you’ll ever know.”
I turn to him, questioningly. He lifts his chin toward Hooch. “Go ahead.”
I aim the gun at Hooch’s head, then change my mind and lower it to his gut instead.
I squeeze the trigger a single time.
The boom resounds through the room, but none of us flinch except for Hooch, who doubles over, hands clutching his abdomen. He fixes his eyes on me with a look of loathing. “Fuck you,” he spits. “She’ll be dead or wish she was by the time you get to her. You’re a fucking fool if you think any different.”
Again, Rael steps forward, his eyes gleaming with menace in his skull face. His hand goes around Hooch’s neck. Rael lifts Hooch up by the throat, off the chair, until he’s hovering off the ground, blood dripping from his stomach onto the floor. Hooch chokes, thrashing in Rael’s grip and struggling for air.
Rael leers demonically. A snarl escapes his lips.
A strange sort of electricity seems to surge through the room, like the atmosphere right before a lightning strike. The air howls.
Hooch’s eyes bug out of his skull in terror, at something only he can see. His body writhes like a jellyfish under Rael’s fist.
Then, suddenly, a single, long scream rips from somewhere deep inside him. Seconds later, his eyes roll back in his head, and his body stops moving.
Rael lets go of his neck, and the body drops to the floor. He stands over him for a moment, then intones a single sentence. “His soul belongs to my Reaper now. His torture will last for eternity.”
Rael turns away and walks out of the room.
I step toward Hooch’s body, until I’m close enough to stare down at it. It’s like a corpse that’s been dead for weeks — a hollowed-out husk, with sunken skin that hangs from the bones of its desiccated skeleton.
“Fuck me,” Mack says, coming up beside me. “What the fuck just happened?”
“I don’t know,” I manage to choke out. I can’t quite say what I’m really thinking.
Which is that everything they say about Rael and the Tonopah Royal Bastards must be true. Rael just reaped Hooch’s soul.
“What should we do with the… body?” Mack asks. His face is taut with disgust. “Such as it is?”
I spit on the ground. “Probably not a good idea to leave it here. Let the Mississippi have him. We’ll have Rael and Black dispose of it and meet us back at the clubhouse.”
Mack lets out a low whistle. “I’m gonna need an ocean of fucking alcohol to forget what I just saw.”
“No time. We need to get to Kat.”
Seconds later, I’ve barked my instructions to Black and Rael. I race with Mack to where my truck is parked down the street, punching in Elmo’s number as I run. “Elmo!” I shout. “I need you to find a list of properties owned by Hector Loera. Yeah, that Hector Loera. He’s got Kat. Get Magnus, and tell him we need Bastards sent to every property in the area owned by Loera! She’s got to be at one of them.”
