Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 224(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 224(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
“Everyone’s on lockdown until further notice.” Thorn’s voice boomed in the cavernous, two-story, open main room. “Everyone not a patched member has five minutes to get to a room and stay there.” There were no consequences specified, but no one would dare defy the president when he had that look on his face. Everyone but patched members hurried out of the room and to the various suites in the rest of the building. The clubhouse was actually a converted firehouse. Salvation’s Bane had been building on to it and adding smaller buildings throughout the land we owned. There were plenty of accommodations for everyone currently here.
For the full five minutes Thorn had given everyone to secure themselves, we all stood in silence. Everyone watched Thorn, waiting to take their cues from him. Thorn watched me.
“You do exactly what I tell you, Styx.” His voice was deceptively soft. I knew he meant business. We weren’t close to the city, but we’d invested far more in this clubhouse than the one we’d abandoned several years earlier when Thorn’s woman had been attacked and she’d killed the bastard.
“I ain’t gonna do nothin’ to put the club in jeopardy, Thorn. But these fuckers gotta die.”
“No one’s sayin’ different. I’ll let you put some emotion into this, but Doc has strict control over all… activities, and I decide when it’s time for the kill. You got your woman secured?”
“She’s in our room asleep.”
“And when she wakes? She comin’ after you?”
I shook my head. “I got her to agree to let me have this. I promised her she’d have the chance to confront them before they died if she chose, so I’d respectfully request that you allow me to give her that option.”
Thorn snorted. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you promised her before you asked me. But OK. I can give you that. You know what your woman can handle and what she needs. If Cain let her have anything during the other interrogation, then he trusts her.”
“I trust her, Thorn. She’s the genuine article. My woman.”
“I’ve read up on the file Ripper gathered on these fuckers. All seven of ’em. They’ve earned everything they’re gettin’ ready to receive. I also got an in-detail description of what happened at Bones with Marshall McCoy from Cain. This is gonna make that pale in comparison.”
“I’ll let you know before it goes beyond what I think she can handle.”
Thorn gave me a crisp nod. “Good, then. Let’s get this business done. Fuckin’ bastards have lived too long as it is.”
* * *
Jolene
I knew Styx had gone to take care of his kin. No. I didn’t think of them that way. Avery and his bunch weren’t Styx’s kin. They might share blood, but Styx had no kinship with men like that. He’d given me any little thing I’d asked for since he met me. He’d taken care of me. Seen to my injuries. Most importantly, he’d taken my shattered heart, soul, and body and rebuilt it stronger. I loved Styx. Ruben Hatfield. And I never wanted to let him go. For that, I’d give him what he asked. I’d do what he said regarding Avery and the rest of them. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through it all again anyway. I thought I’d need the closure, but now I wasn’t so sure. In fact, I thought that, if Styx walked back through that door and told me they were all every one of them dead, I’d take his word for it and never mind the visual proof. Styx hadn’t lied to me yet, and I didn’t believe he’d start now.
As if I’d conjured him, the door opened. I looked up from where I sat at the window looking out at the ocean. Instead of Styx, however, Queenie entered before shutting the door securely behind her.
“What the fuck?” I stood, fully prepared to kick the other woman out when she waltzed in and plopped down on the couch in front of the TV. “Thought you were back in Kentucky.”
“Thorn only gave us five minutes to secure ourselves,” Queenie said with a shrug. “I don’t have a permanent place here, so I went to the room I’d been in last.” She gave me a smug grin. “Styx had me follow him down after he got back to Bane. I mean, I followed him from here to Bones on his orders. He told me to come back a couple days after he returned here.” She shrugged. “I’m sure Styx won’t mind me being in here now. I mean,” she grinned, “it’s his room, after all. He told me so when he showed me around.”
I wanted to grind my teeth in frustration. I wanted to throw her out. But she had a point. This wasn’t my room. It was Styx’s. I had no idea if he’d mind her being there or not, especially if she really had nowhere else to go.