Chapter 10

CHAPTER

TEN

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Atomic gives the sign. It’s time to go. There is no more talking, just shooting. Everyone knows already that Loner is to be captured alive. Everyone else is dead, but Loner will be dealt with the way he should have been when we discovered exactly who he was.

Loner will be stripped of any tattoos he received that are club-related. After that, he will be tortured. Slowly. He decided to fuck around. Now he’s going to find the fuck out. I tighten my grip on my gun as I stand and march toward the house.

I can see my brothers closing in around the house, all of us walking in solidarity. If the Southern Mafia knows we’re here, they aren’t showing it. Atomic is the first to reach the front door, and I watch as he wraps his fingers around the knob, twisting it before he pushes it open.

He shoves the door so hard that it bounces off the wall behind it and almost closes again. But he moves through the opened door and lifts his hand, the gun loosely held in place, before he takes one shot, then another, and another. I do the same, and through the back of the house, I hear more shots.

Before anyone on the main floor with the Southern Mafia can pull a gun on us, they are shot. Then we move upstairs. At least, the bulk of us do. The others continue to guard the main floor, and a few head to the basement, where I hear a few more gunshots.

Sticking close behind Atomic, I move upstairs with him. He jerks his chin toward one closed door, and then he faces the one across the hall. Gnaw and King come up behind us and head toward the other two closed doors in the hall.

We all share a glance. Then, we jerk our chins in unison before we shift our attention back toward our own doors. Inhaling a deep breath, I let it out slowly as I turn the knob of my door and step through.

There are three women in the room, hiding in the corner. They’re huddled together, and as much as I want them to live because, as a rule, we don’t hurt women, I also know they’re brainwashed by these fucking people.

They will, without a doubt, come back to haunt us if we don’t get rid of them all right now. Lifting my gun, I pull the trigger once, twice, three times. Quick. Easy. Pain-free. Or at least as pain-free as death can be.

Another door opens in the bedroom, and I watch as Loner walks out of the bathroom, completely fucking naked. Day. Made. Not just because he’s here, clearly unarmed, but also because I was blessed in the dick department, and he… was not.

Loner stops, his eyes wide as he watches me for a moment. Then, he lifts his hands in the air as if he’s surrendering. Not like he has much of a choice. His dick is hanging out and swinging. He doesn’t have a choice for fucking shit.

Wordlessly, he makes his way toward me. He shows me his wrists and lifts his chin, looking down his nose at me as he does. I smirk, making my way toward him and stopping close, but not too close.

“Your little game has come to an end,” I murmur.

He smirks at me, obviously not thinking that any of this is fucking serious. “Has it, though?” he asks.

I shrug a shoulder and grip his wrists with one hand. Tugging him behind me, I don’t give a fuck what he thinks he has in the works. None of whatever the fuck he has to say will make me not kill him.

This fucker is a dead man walking, and there’s no way around that.

Cock and balls out and all.

“Yeah, it has,” I bark.

Dragging his ass downstairs, I toss him in the middle of the bloody living room. A few moments later, the gunfire stops, and the room fills with the rest of the Dark Horse MC. The only person who isn’t Dark Horse who is breathing is Loner.

“Well, look what we have here,” Atomic murmurs. “A traitor and a small dick. Jesus Christ, you really got the short end of the stick.”

“Fuck you,” Loner grinds out.

I smirk, looking down at him. Crossing my arms over my chest, I tilt my head to the side.

“Where is my grandfather?” Loner demands.

Atomic laughs, crouching down in front of him. “Dead,” he states.

And as if he knows exactly what’s coming, he stands and steps to the side as a body is dumped in front of Loner’s naked ass. That body is Albert’s. I smirk at the sight, and at the same time, Loner cries out.

“Did you think that your granddaddy would protect you always?” I ask.

His eyes find mine, and I watch as they water. All of the men in his family are now dead. I would feel sorry for him, but I don’t. I pity him, but I don’t feel any kind of sympathy. I cannot fathom feeling even an ounce of compassion for this man or any of his club.

“You’re all fucking cowards, and now you’re all dead cowards,” King grunts from somewhere behind me.

I can’t look away from Loner. I am focused on him. There is nowhere else I can look. Atomic steps over the dead body and crouches down in front of Loner again. This time, he’s got a knife in his hand.

He lifts his knife and presses it to the hollow of Loner’s throat. “You want to tell me what the fuck you thought you were going to get away with by getting Clink locked up?” he grinds out.

“Fuck you,” Loner growls.

“No,” Atomic snaps. “You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to say a goddamn thing back to me. And you will answer me.”

Loner’s eyes narrow on Atomic. I am here for the showdown. As much as I wanted to be the one to torture him, I’m good with watching Atomic do the job. Crossing my arms over my chest, I dip my chin as I wait for Loner to say something.

“Fuck the Dark Horse,” he states.

“No,” Atomic barks. “Fuck the Southern Mafia… oh, wait, they no longer exist.”

Loner lifts his chin, attempting to look down his nose as if he’s something special. He’s not. He’s naked and sitting in the middle of the living room, surrounded by dead men and women.

“That’s what you think,” Loner snorts. “You really think that Albert was the mastermind?”

“Oh yeah?” Gnaw asks. “You want to enlighten us?”

Loner doesn’t say anything. Atomic pushes the knife a little farther into his flesh, not enough to kill him, just enough to cause a little bit of blood. I watch as it trickles down his chest, smiling at the sight.

My gaze flicks down to the tattoo that’s on the center of his chest. It’s our insignia with the name Dark Horse MC in capitals curved across the bottom. I want to cut it off while he’s still breathing.

I want to hear him scream—beg—whimper.

All of the above.

“I’m done. You can figure it out on your own. You’ve killed everyone. May as well just go ahead and finish me. I’m not telling you anything else.”

Atomic doesn’t say anything for a long moment. He inhales a deep breath, then surprises me when he stands and takes a step backward. His gaze flicks to me. “Get your retribution for Clink and your woman.”

I take a step forward, holding out my hand as Atomic passes me his knife. But he doesn’t walk away yet. Instead, he stops and arches a brow as he looks down at Loner. “Just wanted to let you know. Your sister is now the property of the Dark Horse MC. You can die with that knowledge.”

“Fuck you,” Loner grinds out. “You don’t even know who the fuck she is.”

“Oh, but we do,” King says. “We’re going to save her for Clink. His reward for being locked up. So die knowing that it’s Clink who will be fucking her .”

And with that, nobody says another fucking word. I sink down to my knees, and Gnaw does the same behind Loner. He holds him still while I lift the knife to his chest. Keeping my gaze focused on his, I watch as his eyes widen in shock.

I don’t know why he’s surprised.

Since he became an actual brother and wasn’t just some prospect, he knows what happens when you betray the club. I sink the knife into his flesh and shift my attention to my work. As slowly as I possibly can, I make a shallow cut outlining his tattoo.

Loner is only silent for about a minute of the process in his failed attempt to be strong. The rest of the time, he screams like the bitch he is as I flay his skin open like I’m cutting steak. It’s fucking hilarious. There is blood everywhere, but I don’t give a fuck about that.

My focus is on cutting this tattoo off and nothing else. He eventually stops his screaming. I think about waiting for him to regain consciousness, but I actually have a headache from his high-pitched girlie crying.

Once I’m finished peeling the tattooed skin from his body, I hold it up to the room full of my brothers. Atomic pats my back, and I look over to him. I know I’m covered in Loner’s blood, but I don’t give a shit.

“We frame this one as a reminder of what happens when you betray the brotherhood,” Atomic states.

And with that, we gather ourselves and walk out of the house with Loner’s skin in hand. I hear the gasoline being poured over Loner’s body, and moments later, the house is up in flames.

It’s a bit dramatic, considering we have the cops here still on our payroll, but I can’t deny that we have a flare about us. You know, if the Dark Horse MC has been somewhere, we never leave a damn thing the way we found it, good or bad.

“Let’s go home,” Atomic announces. “We need to do some digging, see if there was any truth to what Loner said about the Southern Mafia having leadership elsewhere.”

Climbing onto my bike, I lead the way home. Back to the clubhouse, back to our women. Back to my woman.

Back to Spencer.

I’m ready to claim her—completely.

I’m ready to keep her. And that’s exactly what I plan to do. Right or wrong, Spencer was always meant to be mine. She just needed to live life a little. I could have never lived with myself had I kept her at eighteen.

She’s a woman now. Almost thirty years old and ready for everything I want to give her.

A marriage, kids, love. All of it.

It’s always been Spencer. I’ve been waiting for her to come back to me, and I didn’t even know it. Spencer belongs in Pineville. She is ours. And she will be mine—forever.