Chapter One
Wicked
There was blood on the floor. A deep sticky red pool that had congealed to a tacky mess. It was the blood of a man I knew well.
The father of my best friend. And it was strange to see it. I wasn’t a stranger to death and violence but to see our presidents blood and grey matter on the floor hit me hard.
It wasn’t that I was surprised that someone had shot him to death. We all knew the chances of us dying old in bed with our grandbabies around us was just a pipe dream. Violence was part of our way of life. Fender knew the risk. The same as we all did.
No, it wasn’t that. It was the fact that someone had come into our midst tonight of all nights. When our women were here when the club was celebrating and executed him.
I hadn’t seen the body but I already knew that he hadn’t seen it coming. No one had. No one had a clue who or even why our club president had been put down like a dog.
But we would find out.
And then there would be war.
I didn’t believe for one minute that Gemma had anything to do with Fenders murder and I was sure Ruin would come to that conclusion soon enough. Still, it was suspicious. I had to admit that. Especially seeing as she hadn’t stuck around.
“Someone needs to get this cleaned up.” My voice was flat. Emotionless. Just another day at the office except it wasn’t. This was the blood of my club brother, my president.
Now the body had been removed and the police had taken statements. We needed to start moving. As one of the only senior club members who weren’t here for Fender’s assassination, I fell into the role of leader. The others were still in shock. Ruin, who was usually the take-charge type was …. my thoughts faltered.
Chelsea.
She had no idea what was going on. Or would one of the women have told her? Was she crying? Distraught and overcome with grief? I hated the thought of her crying. Especially when I wasn’t there to comfort her.
Not that my job was to comfort her. Except I was her brother’s oldest friend, which meant I had every reason to comfort her. She was like family. I cared for her like a sister.
I hadn’t kissed her like a sister though. And she hadn’t acted like I was her brother when she had kissed me back.
I froze. My eyes drifting to the blood again. I was thinking about Chelsea’s soft lips when her father’s blood was still fresh on the floor. I was that sick in the head. That decrepit.
“Someone needs to clean this shit up,” I said it again louder this time. I couldn’t stand to look at it anymore.
“I’ve phoned a company.”
Ruins voice took me by surprise. I hadn’t realised he had come up behind me. Which was surprising. Usually, I was good at watching my back. Especially against angry bikers and that’s exactly what Ruin was. He was literally vibrating with the need to cause someone pain.
The only other time I had seen him so worked up was when Avery had been taken by her psychotic ex-husband. The husband had died bloody. Whoever had done this to Fender would die as well. It was just a matter of time.
“You did huh?”
“I won’t ask anyone from the club to clean this up.” He sounded distracted and one look at his face told me he was. Emotions warred across his face. Grief, anger, guilt.
What was he feeling guilty for?
I didn’t ask him though.
“What can I do?” I knew what needed doing. We needed to hunt down the person who had done this and put a bullet in their head. And personally, I wanted to get started on that immediately. Just like I knew Ruin did.
“I need to go to the station and….” his eyes drifted back to the blood he had been staunchly ignoring. “Make a formal statement.”
Slowly I nodded. “You want me to call everyone in?” Even as I spoke I was recalling the names of every single nomad I knew. All of them would be called home. The Black Aces would need every soldier for what was to come.
I was expecting Ruin to agree with me so his next words took me totally by surprise.
“I want you with Chelsea. With Avery and Cali.” He held his hand up to silence me before I had even opened my mouth to speak. “I know there is someone with them but I don’t know who the hell I can trust. I need YOU with them until I get there. I won’t risk losing another family member. Not tonight. Chelsea will need someone she knows there as well. Until I can get there.” Blinking once he turned on his heel, stalking back down the hall. I had a moment to stare at his back and then I followed him. “If that’s what you need brother.”