Chapter 1
Maccon
Blood dripped from the tip of the knife gripped in my right hand. It tapped and splattered on the plastic-covered flooring as a bellowing growl came rumbling out from deep within me.
The air was chillingly still.
My breathing was level and soft as I stared down at the lifeless body at my feet.
Another day.
Another casualty.
Another enemy vanquished.
The Renegade Kings were about to be warned.
Throwing their signature King of Swords tarot card down on top of the corpse, the message was sent. Now we would wait for them to come to us. We were ready. The war hadn’t been started by the Unacceptables, but we would finish it. One battle was won, but there were surely more to come—an inevitable truth I knew all too well.
I never killed anyone who didn’t deserve it. I wasn’t a bloodthirsty murderer like some would think. The fact of it was that once I had a target, there was no saving that poor soul. This last one was no different than the rest—a poor excuse for a human being, complete scum of the earth. He was a rapist who’d attacked the old lady of one of my club members one night outside a roadhouse bar.
I would never forget that call or the aftermath of what that sociopath did to Katherine.
“Maccon.”Reese’s voice shot through the speaker, breaking sharply as soon as I picked up my phone in the middle of the night.
“Yeah?” I coughed, rolling out of bed. My eyes stung from lack of sleep as I flipped on the bedroom light to get dressed.
“It’s Katherine. Something terrible has happened. Get here.”
My VP wasn’t one to send up alert flags up without cause. The tremble in his voice was enough to send daggers into my heart. Something was seriously wrong.
I hung up the phone as my tired wife stirred a little in our bed.
“What’s going on?” Allie mumbled, trying to shift into a sitting position.
Leaning over, I kissed her softly. “I’ll be back soon. Nothing to worry about.”
Gripped my arm, her doe eyes fluttered as they strained to focus on my face. “Be safe.”
“I always am.”
My thundering steps heaved down the stairs, out the door, and into my truck. I drove like a bat out of hell for the few miles to Reese’s house, operating on autopilot.
Walking into the small home without knocking, horror overtook me.
Reese was sitting on the floor with his wife bloodied and hysterical in his arms. Her body was covered in cuts and bruises, her clothes torn and stained.
“What the fuck happened?” I roared, rushing toward the couple huddled in the middle of their living room.
“Katherine had just finished up her shift at the Red Crow when a guy grabbed her out back. I should have been there. Honey, I am so sorry.” Reese’s face was blood red as he tried to comfort her.
“We’ll fix this, but you need to get her to the hospital.” I pulled both of them up to their feet, whisking Katherine’s small frame into my arms. “I’ll drive.”
We rushed for Reese’s pickup where it was parked out front. This wasn’t the first time we had done this with Katherine, and the feeling of déjà vu was all-consuming.
“Have you called Jett?” I asked, putting her in the back seat with Reese.
“No!” she wailed while crawling into her husband’s safe embrace. “He can’t see me like this.”