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Prologue
Rocket
“I’m so sorry, Scarlet. But you should know, I’m so very, very proud of you. I love you.”
Had I known what Claw would do next, I’d have taken him down. I can’t say he didn’t save me the trouble myself, but he was still my vice president. Without hesitating, even for a moment, Claw put the .45 to his temple and pulled the trigger. He’d shot it only a few minutes before, taking one of Hammer’s legs off below the knee. The other man was now gagged, bound securely, and still writhing in pain. And rightly so. He’d terrorized Claw’s daughter, Scarlet. But Claw had been as much at fault as Hammer in that. In a way, I suppose Claw had done what he knew had to be done and saved his brothers the trouble.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Scarlet’s eyes were wide with both shock and grief. Claw might have sold her out, but Scarlet hadn’t known and the man was her father. Mars, her man, pulled her into his arms but she didn’t turn her face away from the sight that had been her father. The powerful handgun he’d used had obliterated his head, spraying blood and brains all over the area.
While it was Scarlet I was concerned about, the small woman at her side snagged my attention. Lemon. She was younger than Scarlet in terms of years, but the woman was a force to be reckoned with. She held Scarlet’s hand in solidarity and steadfastly refused to leave.
“Holy. Fuck.” Lemon grimaced, obviously getting a little more than she bargained for, but she held on to Scarlet’s hand like both their lives depended on it.
“Christ.” I quickly stepped in front of the women to block their view of Claw. “Can’t someone get the women the fuck out of here?” It went against everything I believed to have women witness violence of this nature. It was why I’d kept Talia, the daughter of my deceased best friend, away from everyone and everything to do with life in Grim Road. It was why I’d allowed Scarlet to leave when Claw had requested she do so. It went against everything I’d ever believed in to allow violence to touch any woman under my protection.
“Why? You think just because we’re women we can’t handle the hard shit? We’re here to support Scarlet. She needs us here, so we’re here. Seems like supporting each other is something Grim Road has a fucking problem with.” The woman who spoke was the woman of Iron Tzars’ sergeant at arms, Atlas. I’d heard she’d lost an unborn child fairly recently during a violent attack on their compound. I’d have thought this would be the last place she’d want to be. Given how pale she was, I was probably right. But she stood proudly beside Scarlet without flinching.
“Rose, honey.” Atlas spoke gently to his wife. “Let’s go. We can take Scarlet with us.”
“Only if that’s what Scarlet wants,” Bellarose said. “If not, we stand by her.”
As one, all the women surrounded Scarlet in a protective circle, Lemon at the front.
Lemon seemed to be directly challenging me with fire in her eyes, though she said nothing. I couldn’t help but admire her courage in the face of what we had all witnessed. All of the women. But Lemon in particular. She technically wasn’t even an adult, yet she stood her ground when I was certain there were men who would have backed down.
I glanced at Sting. “Are all your women like this?”
Sting just shrugged. “They’ve been through a lot this past year. And they are part of Iron Tzars. No wimps here.”
“I’m sorry, Scarlet,” I spoke softly to the young woman, never looking away from her. “You didn’t deserve any of this.”
“I got it anyway. Are you saying this was all about Hammer getting revenge for Claw killing my mother?”
“Looks that way, kid.”
“I’m many things, Rocket, but I’m not a kid. Not anymore.”
“Point taken. I never thought Claw was capable of betraying you. Or killing himself. Not like this. Every member of Grim Road has secrets they don’t want anyone to know, and that was Claw’s. I guess it’s better this way. For what he did to keep his secret from you, I’d have had to kill him anyway.” I sighed, scrubbing a hand over my face. “No one inside Grim knew Claw had killed Madina but me. I honestly hadn’t realized Hammer knew until now. Had I known, I’d have overridden his approval of you leaving with that bastard.”
Hammer thrashed and yelled behind his gag but no one seemed to pay him any attention. I was eager to get started on that motherfucker, but I would not do it with women in the area.
“It’s done now. At least, Claw is done.” Scarlet glanced over toward Hammer. “What’s gonna happen to him?”
Sting laid out everything he had planned for the bastard. I tried to listen, knowing I fully intended to actively participate, but my attention was focused squarely on Lemon. She had her chin up, her hand firmly clasping Scarlet’s. Her gaze flitted back and forth between Claw’s body and Hammer, where he lay on a table that resembled an execution table. In a way I suppose it was. Hammer was going to die. Hard. Just not by lethal injection. Oh, no. He wasn’t going to get off that easily.
The longer Sting spoke, the more satisfied Lemon’s expression grew and she focused her entire being on the man tied to that table. The torture Sting described was brutal. Scarlet looked positively gleeful, almost maniacally so. Nothing I didn’t deem appropriate, but I didn’t want the women knowing how inhumane we were planning on being. Maybe it made me too old-fashioned for this day and age, but it’s who I was. It was who my father had raised me to be.
Scarlet moved to stand over Hammer. “Sounds like you’re getting ready to have a fun time. Bet you wished you’d never fucked with me now, huh?” She spat in his face before grabbing a scalpel and slicing a bit of skin off of his chest. Not a big piece, but enough she made the man scream behind his gag. Everything inside me rebelled. Not because I didn’t think the bastard deserved everything she’d done, everything Sting described -- and more -- but because Scarlet should never have been led to feeling the way she obviously did. And because Lemon was a witness.
“We should go, Scarlet.” Mars, Scarlet’s man, looked desperate to get her out of there and back to the clubhouse.
“I can see this through, Mars. He was my nightmare. I can watch his demise.”
“I know you can, honey. But maybe I can’t.” Mars looked like he was trying not to flinch, but the fact was, the man was lying his ass off. He could totally watch the spectacle about to happen. He was trying to remove Scarlet from the situation in any way he could. I was sure he thought it would make him look weak in front of the men, but I knew better. It made him all the stronger because he thought he’d lose face and was still willing to do it if it was the only way to get his woman out without losing her trust in him.
“I’ll stay in your place, Scarlet,” Lemon volunteered. “I’ll be your witness.” I wanted to groan out loud. Did the woman have no sense of self-preservation? This could scar her for life! Probably already had. And that was the whole problem. She wasn’t a woman. She was a girl. Seventeen, if I remembered correctly. She shouldn’t even be here in the first Goddamned place.
“Not on your life.” Danica, Lemon’s sister, interjected. “You’re coming back to the compound with me and Wylde. Right now.”
