Page 72 of Bound by Adoration

“Your bravado will get you killed, Thompson. You want your little boy to know all the shit you’ve done and continue to do? You want him to grow up with his dad behind bars for the rest of his life? Or in a grave? Because make no mistake. You die, this shit goes out wide. You will not go down as some kind of fuckin’ martyr,” Cruz told him before lifting his fist and punching Thompson in the side of his face.

Thompson jerked, and it took him a few minutes to come back to Cruz. Venom spewed from his glare.

“Fuck you,” he responded stupidly. Whenever men couldn’t change the consequences of their situation and had no damn comeback, it was alwaysfuck you. Like that meant anything. It just made him look stupid.

“Put his gag back on,” Cruz ordered Nox who did so.

Thompson didn’t let him do it without a fight of thrashing his head around, trying to get away. Along with his expansive vocabulary offuck yous.

Once the gag was on, we all stood around the bed.

“Guess you need a little assistance with your decision,” Rhys said, cracking his knuckles. He’d been in a bit of a mood lately, but I had no idea why. It could be a variety of things, but if I were a betting man, it would have to do with Mazie, his daughter. She was a bit of a handful. While I hadn’t talked to him directly about it, there was some talk about her troubles.

He had some aggression to work out it appeared.

Cruz nodded to him, and Rhys didn’t take another moment. He climbed on the bed and straddled Thompson’s body. Probably thanking God we covered the man’s junk.

Without hesitation, Rhys began whaling on the man. His chest, abdomen, arms, face, even moved for a shot to the dick. The entire room groaned at that one. No one without a cock would understand the feeling of your balls in your throat after a punch like that.

This went on for quite a bit, and when Rhys jumped off the bed, a smile graced his face. “I’m done. Don’t know if he can move much, but I don’t give a fuck.”

Rhys moved off to the side, and Thompson had tears rolling down his face and bruises already forming on his body. The ones to the kidney appeared especially painful. Good.

“Take it off,” Cruz ordered Nox once again, and I clenched my fist as I held the knife in the other. I really wanted a turn with this fucker, but wasn’t sure that was in the cards after the beating Rhys gave him.

Once the fabric came out of his mouth, he screamed. I moved quickly and put my hand over his mouth. “Shut the fuck up,” I warned him, wanting to break his fucking jaw. Thompson’s screams turned into whimpers.

“Do you understand what the game is now, Thompson? Do you get who’s in control? Do you understand that we determine your life from this point on?” Cruz told him.

“What do you want me to do?” Thompson asked with a bit of slur, no doubt from the pain.

“First, you’re gonna contact Runnerband and tell him that we’re in possession of all the dirt the Hamiltons had on him. Including his trips to San Diego and Cancun. Anything happens to the Ravage MC or anyone affiliated with us, those videos will be released. It will end his career in politics, and he’ll be in jail with all the fuckers he’s fucked over. Then you tell him that you are to be transferred out of this state. He does what he’s told by us, or everything we have is released. Then you leave and don’t look back. You’ll have a friend following you for a while to make sure you stay on track. But a single word about Ravage, and you’ll wish you were dead,” Cruz growled low.

“Fine,” Thompson replied, not happy about the situation he got himself in. But none of us gave a fuck. We wanted this over with. I wanted this over with.

25

LIAM

We pulled into the clubhouse, and all I could think about was the kiss that Raid slammed on my lips earlier. Damn, that was hot. And unexpected. Especially around all the brothers who didn’t even bat an eye.

Had to admit that Raid showing me any kind of affection around his brothers wasn’t in my realm at the moment. I didn’t think he’d be that open.

Guess I was wrong on that one. I grabbed Raid’s hand before he got out of the SUV and waited for everyone else to exit.

His brow tipped in question, but he didn’t move his hand from mine. Instead, he closed his fingers around mine.

“How do we know they’ll follow through? How do we know they won’t be a problem we have to deal with in the future?” To me, we were putting a bit too much trust in these two men. Trust that they would do as they were told. Trust that they wouldn’t try to come after the club. Trust that they’d leave Nyx alone.

A trust that I didn’t have in either of them.

“Because they want to live, number one. Number two, each of them had a little video sent to their emails as incentive to know we’re not fuckin’ around. Three, they don’t want to be dead or end up in prison. Both those fuckers have more to lose than to gain by coming after us. And we have trackers on all their shit, so if they do, we’ll be alerted quickly. But, Liam, they’ll do as they’re told. Thompson knows what we can do to him. And Runnerband is a political pussy who wouldn’t survive a session with the Ravage MC.”

“So it’s really over? That entire part of it is over?” I asked him, needing the confirmation.

“Yes. Hamiltons are dead. Thompson will keep his nose out of our business and leave town. Runnerband will get his eyes off of Ravage and go on with this political career. We may have to give them little reminders a few times a year, but we have enough dirt on them to last the rest of their lives. We know what we’re doin’. Swear it.”

I squeezed Raid’s hand. “If I never hear those fuckers’ names again, it’ll be too soon.” Releasing him, a knock came to the window. Looking over, Nyx stood there with a puzzled expression.

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