Climbing off the bike, I kept my shades on and stood tall in front of my brothers.
I chucked my chin and gestured to the event going on behind me. “Follow me.”
And just like that, every one of them rose from their bikes, readjusted their cuts with pride, and began to step forward. An army of men with heart, souls of loyalty, all wrapped up to look like the bad guys of this sweet, little, picture-book town.
Injustice worked like that. People thought the bad guys were the loudest, the dirtiest, and the ones who cursed andkilled. They had no fucking clue. Those guys were the pure ones—the rare ones. The men you could count on to die by your side or to save you, they were the ones who were good. The real evil bastards were the ones who acted like angels to the world and then sinned in dark, seedy corners, manipulating every fucker to believe they were something they most definitely were not. Their loyalty was a disposable mask, hiding their deception. The minute they got found out, they scurried away like vermin.
The truly dangerous guys never really looked bad, they looked decent, and that’s why they got away with so much shit before someone found them out.
That all ended today.
I watched Owen as he stepped forward, not giving anything away or looking even the least bit uncomfortable. He was good at being bad. I could give him that. He was good at hiding his shit and letting people like me see what they wanted to see.
Man, I wanted to stick my fingers into the flesh of his throat, squeeze the oxygen out of him and watch him turn blue as my hands became cold from the death that was taking over him. I imagined cutting him open, tossing his heart into the forest for the wolves of the night to gnaw on until the sun rose the next day. I could daydream for hours about smelling his blood on my skin.
His betrayal made me thirsty for his death.
Turning away before I gave myself away, I led the men across the park, our boots hitting the grass and waiting for everyone up ahead to realize we weren’t there just to ride through Babylon. We were there to defend it.
It didn’t take long for The Mayor to look up at us withwide eyes and an open mouth, his surprise evident for just a second before he schooled his face, switching on the sleazy charm that matched Owen’s perfectly.
The small crowd of people in front of him turned in their seats to look at us as we came to a stop behind the last row. With my men gathered around me, I folded my arms over my chest, stood with my legs apart, and simply raised my chin and set my own smug smirk free.
Nobody behind me said a damn thing. They knew better than that.
I watched as The Mayor leaned to the side and whispered something in one of his men’s ears, his hands working some papers that were propped on the stand in front of him, just for something to do. A nervous man’s energy poured into mindless tasks that way sometimes. He was trying to buy himself time.
It was at that very moment that I noticed a familiar face standing to the left of Mayor Walsh.
A face that was looking at me like she was ready to eat me alive if I’d let her get within an inch of me.
Winnie.
ATFuckingF.
I raised a brow at her and tilted my head to one side, simply watching her as she watched me, a silent standoff happening before she reached for her phone, brought it up in front of her and started tapping away on the screen.
Interesting.
Mayor Walsh coughed, bringing his hand up to nudge the perfectly positioned tie he was wearing, knocking it off center.
Even more interesting.
“Drew?” Jedd said in a whisper beside me. “Are you about to do something really fucking stupid?”
“Let’s see, shall we?”
“Fuck.”
“Do me a favor, Jedd?”
“What?” he said through a sigh.
“Don’t let anyone here out of your sight. No one leaves the pack.”
Jedd didn’t respond. There were no further questions, but I felt him tense beside me. He knew something was going on, and he suddenly knew it was big.
“So, with the proposed plans in place—” The Mayor began through a croaky voice.