Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 37638 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 188(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 125(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37638 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 188(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 125(@300wpm)
“Is there something I need to know?” She didn’t look scared or worried, just curious.
“I’ll tell you when we get home. It’s not something we talk about outside the compound. It won’t matter anyway, because I’ll keep you happy. I swear it.”
Yeah. There was definitely something she needed to know. Like no one leaves Iron Tzars. It’s one of the reasons so few of us had ol’ ladies. Warlock broke with tradition when he took on Beverly. In the end, he’d had to kill her, but it had only reinforced the fact that we had to keep to the rules originally set by the club when it was founded in the forties, right after World War Two.
That would have to come later. Telling the women would be hard enough, and I had no idea how either of them would react. It was something Sting and I needed to discuss. Very soon.
Chapter Five
Brick
We rolled into the Iron Tzars compound at two in the afternoon. Winter met us the second the vehicle stopped. She jerked open the door to Serelda’s side and wrapped her sister in a fierce hug.
“Don’t you ever leave me again! You hear me?” She sounded angry as hell but clung to Serelda so hard I thought I was going to have to break it up.
“I won’t, Winter. I’m so sorry.”
“Why? What made you run?”
“Stupidity and jealousy. I’m good now.” Serelda actually laughed as she said it. “But only because I’m going to be Brick’s ol’ lady.”
“What?”
“No, you’re not,” I said, scowling down at Serelda. “You’re not gonna be anything. You are my ol’ lady. As in right now this fuckin’ minute. I just gotta give you the patch.” I glanced up at Sting and Roman. Both men had come to greet us, and I knew Roman would never be far away from Winter. Like I’d never again be far from Serelda. “And stuff,” I added. When Roman winced, I knew he hadn’t broached the topic with Winter either. The girls giggled and continued to hug each other, completely ignoring me.
Roman stepped toward me, gripping my shoulder in support. “We gonna do this?”
“Got to,” I said. “After what happened with Bev and Warlock, we have to set the example. Tzars for life.”
“And the kids?”
That was something I hadn’t thought of, but I was sure it had been taken into account. “We’ll figure it out. Obviously, we’ll have to be careful. Set boundaries for them. Areas they are not allowed into for any reason. I ain’t inkin’ a kid, though. And if they want a different life, they should be able to have it. It’s not like they had much choice in the matter. Unlike our women.”
“We’ll work it out.” Sting sounded confident. The kid was smart. I had no doubt he already had something he was working on in his head. He needed time to pull it together, then he’d run it by me and we’d perfect it together. It’s what we did.
“Any word on that Cannibal character? That little shit from the bus was the only person to approach the women since Black Reign took them in. You think he was tellin’ the truth or feedin’ her some line of bullshit?”
“Oh, he wasn’t lyin’.” Wylde, our intel officer, came up behind me. I reached for his hand in greeting, pulling him in for a quick clap on the back. “The shit Rayburn Mills was into back in the day preceded dark web shit. They did their business through mediators or hacked satellite feeds. Cyber security wasn’t what it is today. Anything controlled in a network was vulnerable if you knew what you were doing. What I found I got through facial recognition. This Cannibal guy likes to brag about his work.” He glanced to where the women were having their reunion, then motioned for us to step farther away. “I found posts for both women when they were in the Cannibal’s possession. He filmed everything he did. The rapes. The torture. All of it. It’s now on a website where he shows off what he does. There are, literally, hundreds of women and older girls. Most of them didn’t seem to survive, from what I can tell. Winter and Serelda, though… They’re his ‘masterpieces.’” He made air quotes. “He got word of your handiwork, Brick. With the guy you sent me the info on. Now, he’s put out a hit on you, and a capture reward for the women.”
“Both of them?” I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to calm myself when all I wanted to do was take Serelda away and hide in the mountains somewhere even God wouldn’t find her. Which was stupid. The club compound was the safest place she could be. On the off chance someone tracked us here, there were dozens of brothers to protect her. Not only me.