Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 78487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Jack’s face is murderous. He’s already murdered our prospect in his head for letting these guys past our gates, and by the way he’s looking at this gray-haired leviathan, he’s murdering him too.
“You must have some balls on you to come into my club uninvited.”
The leviathan holds up his hands. “I apologize. But when it comes to family, you make stupid-ass decisions and risk getting your ass kicked. This is me taking that chance.”
“What do you want?”
The leviathan drops his tough-guy guard. “Those pricks got my daughter, and I need your help to find them.”
Turns out, the leviathan is Jethro, President of the Devil’s Steed, a club based near Fortune City.
Jack and Jethro sit down at a booth while Shooter and I stand, our eyes pinned on the two bikers Jethro has with him.
“This ain’t no pissing contest, boys. You can relax. My boys ain’t looking for trouble,” Jethro says. “We’re here looking for help. Not to cause trouble.”
“Riding into a man’s club uninvited is one way to start trouble. Next time use a phone.”
“Let’s make sure we swap numbers then. Next time, I’ll call.”
Jack’s frown smooths. Point taken. “What’s this about?”
Jack gestures for Shooter and me to join him and Jethro while Jethro nods at his boys to sit in the next booth.
“You heard of The Three?” Jethro asks.
“The name has been mentioned a few times. What of them?”
Jethro lets out a rough breath. “Those bastards roughed up my daughter. Got her when she was driving home from a dinner date. Dragged her out of the car and tied her to a fucking tree and did this to her.”
Jethro shows us a picture on his cell. In it, a young woman is lying in a hospital bed, her face completely covered in bandages and a breathing tube coming out of her mouth. He swipes again, and a beautiful blonde girl with big blue eyes and a smile like fucking sunshine appears on the screen.
“That’s what my baby used to look like before they got to her. This is what those fucking lunatics did to her.” He swipes again to show us a crime scene photo. In it, she is barely recognizable. Her face is black and bloody, so swollen you can’t even tell it’s human. Carved into her forehead is the word PRIDE. “She was on life support for two days. The swelling on her brain almost killed her.”
“The cops confirm it was The Three?”
“Before she was put into an induced coma, she told them a few things.” His throat bobs. “As the pricks were cutting into her, they told her she could thank her daddy and her love of social media for what was about to happen to her.”
“She’s on social media?” Jack asks.
“She’s one of those… what the fuck do you call them? An influencer? Has some account on Instagram with a few hundred thousand people who follow her. I don’t get the whole social media thing. Don’t understand why people care what someone else ate for breakfast. But she was a beautiful girl, and strangers cared what she did.”
It’s clear that the psychos calling themselves The Three not only prey on people associated with organized crime, but they study them before they take aim and attack.
Hurting and disfiguring the daughter of a motorcycle club president, who makes a living as an Instagram star made her the perfect candidate to drive home the point of pride. In their fucked-up minds anyway.
Jack shows very little emotion. His only reaction is the subtle coil of his hands in front of him on the table. But I know him. Inside, he’s thinking what he’d do to these psychos if he comes across them. If this had happened to his daughter, Hope, he’d rain down fire and brimstone until everything was burned to the fucking ground.
“How old is she?” he growls.
“Nineteen. She’s been visiting from college.”
“Is she going to recover?”
“The girl she was…” he sighs, “… she’s gone for good, Jack. She’s going to need surgery, but they have to wait until she can breathe on her own and for the swelling to go down before they’ll do anything. She’ll survive, but she’s going to be disfigured.” Jethro’s wide chest lifts with a deep breath. “Can you fucking imagine what that’s going to be like for her?”
The leviathan suddenly looks small. The thought of what his daughter will have to face is too much to bear.
“Can she talk? Or does she still have the breathing tube in?”
“It came out today.”
“Has she said anything?”
Jethro lets go of a rough breath. “She asked me to let her die.”
Jack’s fists tighten on the table. “I have a daughter. What do you want from the Kings?”
“I want you to help me find those fuckers. And I want you to bring hell with you.”
Jack calls Church, and within the hour, all the Kings who aren’t at the crop harvest are gathered in the war room.