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I turned back to face my “patient,” but Fox stepped up beside me before I could say anything. “Do you see what it says under this patch?” he asked the guy, pointing at his own vest where PREZ was stitched under his road name. “By trespassing on Iron Rogue property, flaunting our rules by bringing drugs into our territory, and for just being a fucking asshole in general, you’ve earned yourself a trip to hell, courtesy of me.”
I set the bag on a little table beside the chair and set out my tools while Fox finished his speech.
“Unfortunately for you, the woman you nearly killed is Blade’s old lady.”
The dealer winced, and I grinned gleefully just to freak him out.
“Yeah, you understand what that means,” Fox concluded. “But just to make sure we’re truly on the same page. Do you know how he ended up with the road name Blade?”
The prisoner shook his head.
I twirled a scalpel in my hands and smiled again. Sometimes, the skills I’d learned, like patience and distancing myself from the emotions of a situation, came in super handy elsewhere. Like when you were torturing someone. Very handy.
“He’s a surgeon. And he likes to cut things. Well, not things…people. He really just likes to cut people.”
“It’s amazing,” I mused as I picked up another very sharp instrument, “how many places you can cut or stab someone to inflict a fuck of a lot of pain but cause very little damage.”
Fox chuckled and cuffed the dealer on the head. “Shoulda known better than to fuck with the Iron Rogues, asshole.” Then he said to me, “Let us know when you’re done, brother. We’ll take care of the rest.”
A few hours later, my patient’s body gave out, and I calmly cleaned my instruments and put them away in the bag before strolling into the lounge where Deviant and Whiskey waited.
“Ready?” Whiskey asked.
I nodded. “Was gonna do it while he was still alive, but I underestimated how ravaged his body was from all the drug use.”
He handed me a small branding iron twisted into the shape of the Iron Rogues logo.
Deviant picked up a blowtorch and engulfed the metal in fire until it was glowing orange. Then I retraced my steps into the other room and approached the body we’d transferred to a gurney before I introduced him to the full spectrum of my fancy tools.
I grabbed the dead man’s chin and turned his head so that I could place the red-hot iron on his cheek. His skin sizzled and popped, filling the room with the rank smell of burning flesh. When I was sure that the brand would be completely clear and unmistakable, but before it cooled enough to tear, I removed the rod and handed it to Deviant, who stalked off.
Then Whiskey and I loaded the body into the van so they could drive it back to the stash house. They’d leave him in the stash house as a reminder of what happened to people who fucked with the Iron Rogues. No one in that place was gonna report the murder, but word would spread among the residents that retribution from the club would be harsh.
The Room was also equipped with a bathroom because it wasn’t a smart idea to wander around covered in blood…or whatever else ended up on your clothes while “working.” Someone had dropped off a bag with fresh clothes for me, so I took a very long, very hot shower. I’d never be able to scrub myself completely clean, but eventually, I felt as clean as I could get. I dressed in the fresh clothes and hopped onto my motorcycle, taking the long way around so that I reentered the compound from the front.
I was beyond ready to see my woman. Now that the threat had been handled, I wanted to take her home. We were going to have a talk about the future and set a wedding date before I spent the next few days working on putting my baby in her belly.
11
ELISE
Although Toby had assured me that I didn’t need to worry about the drug dealer hurting me ever again a few days ago, he refused to even consider me going back to work at Midnight Rebel. I assumed the club business he’d gone to take care of in the middle of the night had been connected to that jerk, but I didn’t ask any questions I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer to.
Since he wanted to take me to what he called my new home and somehow arranged for another doctor to cover his next few shifts at the hospital, I didn’t complain. Instead, I fully enjoyed our uninterrupted time together…expecting things to be very different when I left for my spring semester.
There had been a New Year’s Eve party at the clubhouse, but we rang the night in just the two of us. Instead of sharing a kiss at midnight, we celebrated in bed with lots of orgasms. A new tradition I wouldn’t mind honoring for the rest of my life.
The following day, we finally left the little bubble we’d created at his apartment and joined everyone at the clubhouse for a big New Year’s Day feast, including black-eyed peas for good luck. Although I quickly started to doubt their efficacywhen my brother showed up just after we’d finished cleaning up and glared at Toby instead of coming over to give me a hug.
“What the fuck, Blade? I was only gone for a week, and you’ve got your hands all over Elise, smack dab in the middle of the clubhouse, as though you have the right to touch her.” The woman who had walked into the clubhouse with Gideon looked up at him with wide eyes, and he hurriedly added, “I thought I told you to stay away from my sister.”
Glaring at my brother, I shook my head. “And I thought we agreed that you’d stay out of my dating life.”
Gideon clenched his fists. “I didn’t expect my club brother to move in so quickly on my sister when she was vulnerable.”
“Really?” Molly snorted. “Haven’t you been paying any attention to what happens when an Iron Rogue falls for his woman?”
“Did you really expect Blade to be that different from Fox or Maverick?” Dahlia added, shaking her head. “Talk about having big brother blinders on.”
