“Prez?” Brick asked.
The man on the bed started to laugh. “Have cold feet, Lord?”
“Where’s your prez?” he asked.
“As if I’m going to tell you.”
Lord took aim and fired. This time, the bullet went through the man’s arm. He fell back on the bed and screamed, blood splattered all over the white duvet.
He waited.
“Where is he?” Lord asked.
The man spat on the floor, sitting back up. “You think I’ll tell you?”
Another shot fired, this time in the man’s foot.
More howls of pain.
Lord was bored with this. He wanted this over with the Skull Nation. He didn’t believe for a second it would be over completely. Wherever there was a Skull Nation, there would be trouble. Wiping out the men at the top would stop them from coming after him.
He wasn’t willing to risk wiping out the entire club. It was a known fact another would take its place. While the Skull nation rebuilt, he’d be watching. He’d rather have a piece-of-shit club he knew than one he didn’t that could take him on and kill him.
“You know I could do this all day,” Lord said. “You’re not going to get out of this alive.”
The VP groaned. “I’m not a rat.”
Another shot, this time, he went hardcore and for the abdomen.
The son of a bitch screamed even louder.
Lord waited.
He had all night.
There was no rush for him.
He watched the blood as it spread out on the bed. His men stayed perfectly still. Three of them had their guns trained on the VP in front of them. The rest were outside keeping an eye out.
No one would call the cops. In this neighborhood, the sound of a gunshot meant to stay indoors and not get involved.
In the back of his mind, he kept thinking about Ally.
Her sweetness and goodness.
She deserved better than him.
I’m not giving her up.
He couldn’t give her up even if he wanted to. Bringing himself back into focus, he stared at the man and suddenly felt an overwhelming anger.
Lord put the safety on his gun and shoved it into the back of his jeans as he moved toward the VP. Grabbing him by his hair, he began to pull him off the bed.
The longer this lasted with the VP and chasing after random members of the Skull Nation, the longer he was parted from the love of his life.
Earlier, being inside her, that was heaven.
The night before, being away from her, was hell.
He had to get this shit sorted so he could move on.
The man screamed, trying to hit out at him. Lord stopped, landing a blow to his face.
“Get off me,” the VP said.
“Lord?” Brick asked.
He ignored him. Lord used the man’s head and smashed it through the window. Picking up a shard of glass, he began to impale it piece by piece into the VP, being very careful not to get any major veins.
The man gasped as Lord went toward his dick.
“Stop. Stop.”
Lord stared at the man. “We could have done this the easy way.”
The man whimpered. “You call this the fucking easy way?”
Lord ran the edge of the piece of glass along the man’s dick.
“Fuck, no, fuck.” He began to cough. “You want to know where the prez is?” the man asked.
“That was my question. I wouldn’t still be here with you. Admittedly, you’d be dead, but it wouldn’t hurt quite this bad.” He pressed down on a piece of embedded glass, and the man screamed.
He let go, giving him a few seconds to gain his composure. “I’m waiting, and I’ve always wanted to sever a dick this way.” He had no intention of touching that infected thing. It looked disgusting.
The VP coughed and laughed. “I did my job.”
“Excuse me?” Lord asked as a shiver ran down his spine.
“Where do you think he is?” The VP laughed. “All he needed was some additional time.” The man spat at him. “I’m already dying, you fucking prick. I’ve got less than three months to live. I was just helping my prez out. She’s really a hot piece of ass, your girl. He simply wanted what you have. You should have known not to leave her alone.”
****
“I honestly don’t know how you do it,” Ally said, smiling at Betty as she came downstairs. She’d put her children to bed a while ago.
Rancher had been out in the fields mending some fences with some of his ranch hands earlier. Now he was checking on his animals before bed.
“What? Help run a ranch, feed my children and men, clean, attend a garden, and still have time to do a little reading?”
“You’re like … wow.” Ally laughed. “I’m exhausted watching you.”
“That happens in the first trimester.”
Ally stopped smiling. “You know?”
Betty took a seat beside her. “Rancher came into the bedroom last night and asked if we’d made another one. We’re trying. We love having kids and well, I love Rancher. I told him it wasn’t mine and seeing as the only other fertile woman on the ranch is you, we deduced it had to be.”
“I threw it in the trash,” Ally said. “I didn’t leave it lying around.”
Betty laughed and put a hand on her arm. “Please, don’t worry about it. My husband is a pain in the ass. I know him well, and he probably went into the trash to see what it was.”
“Have you been trying long?” Ally asked.
“A couple of months.” Betty shrugged. “I’m not worried. I’m of the mindset that what will be, will be. You know? I don’t see a reason to worry. If I’m supposed to have babies, I will. If I’m not, I won’t. Simple as that.”
“You’re very … philosophical.”
“Someone would say philosophical. Another would say I refuse to allow what’s not happening in my life to wear me down. Rancher and I, we’ll work it out.”
Ally put a hand on her own stomach.
Would she and Lord work it out?
“Does Lord know?” Betty asked.
She nibbled on her lip and shook her head. “No, I didn’t have time to tell him.”
“Even earlier?”
Ally quickly looked toward Betty who chuckled. “Yes, we saw you sneaking out of the house. Rancher thought you were meeting some guy. Maybe one of the enemies. He kept an eye on you and I told him Lord was coming.”
“Rancher thought I’d betray Lord?”
“It’s not personal. He doesn’t know you. He’d protecting his friend. Lord and Rancher haven’t seen much of each other in recent years, but when they’re together, it doesn’t matter. That’s true friendship, and I never want to come between that.”
“I would never hurt Lord.”
Betty rubbed her arm. “I know that. When we saw Lord, Rancher felt bad. Don’t worry, I made Rancher feel good.”
Ally sighed. “I missed him.”
“I figured.”
“Do you really think he could love me, though? A man like Lord. You’ve seen me and I’ve seen the women hanging out at the club.”
Betty held her hand up and shook her head. “I’m going to stop you right there.”
“But—”