Page 104 of Empire of Savages

I nodded, then turned back to Bliss. “I’ll miss you.”

Bliss pulled me in for a hug. “I’ll miss you too.” Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a piece of paper and tucked it into my palm, before quickly turning and running back inside her building.

Once I was back in the cab, I smoothed out the crumpled yellow Post-it note and smiled at the dick she’d drawn in black Sharpie. Written in slanted writing above it, it saidSomething to remember me by.XO.

We drove out of Detroit, then the state of Michigan, and I left all my bad memories along the side of the road as we went. I didn’t need them anymore. Nick was my future, and I was his. And together, we would make new memories that didn’t involve pain and unnecessary loss.

We would build our new life together.

Our own home together.

Our own empire.

Together.

Epilogue

Vox

Two weeks later…

Tugging my gloves down,I sat at the table in Church and watched the members file in. We would all look back on today as a day that left a stain on the Savage Hunt, Detroit Chapter. A day with a mixture of emotions. Some, like Kaash, would be celebrating the untimely demise of Rixon Ward. For others, like Silas and me, it would be a day of mourning.

The news had reached me when I was picking Myla up from school this afternoon. The president had been sideswiped by a truck on the freeway. He’d hit the concrete divider at full speed, dying on impact. The only positive I could take from it all was that it had been quick, and he hadn’t suffered.

I knew he’d still been mourning Molly. I knew he’d turned to drinking to dull the pain, and that he’d probably been riding drunk. A small part of me wondered whether it was a conscious thought. To drink. To get on his bike. To see that truck and wonder if all the pain would end. It wouldn’t have been the first time his thoughts had strayed to suicide.

With Molly gone, he had nothing to live for. He was like a wounded animal. Snapping and snarling at people. And the reason he was like that was because of love. Molly’s death had reduced him to that. Nick’s absence must’ve also played a part in his spiral to substance abuse. Losing your wife and a man you saw as your son in the span of a couple of weeks would reduce any man to that.

Kaash strolled in, followed by Maverick who had filled Gunnar’s place at our VP’s side. Kaash would never have admitted it, but after Nick told me what had gone down between them, I was betting Kaash had been conspiring to get rid of Gunnar the whole time. Like Nick, he’d been a game piece that could be easily cast aside once its usefulness had worn out.

Silas, Ryker, Mac, and Kai arrived next, each taking their respective place around the table. Jaxon, Xander, Karter, Beckitt, Nash, and Easton were the last to file in and fill the table, while the prospects lined the walls. Since we were voting in a new president, this shit affected them, too.

Kaash leaned back in the president’s chair, not bothering to look distressed over Rixon’s death. Reaching forward with a wicked gleam in his eye, he slammed the gavel onto the scarred table and brought the meeting to order.

“Rixon is dead,” Kaash announced, looking around the room, that gleam in his eyes becoming more and more vicious. “The funeral will be in a couple of days, but we need to vote on a new president.”

Nash, Xander, and Maverick slapped their palms against the table, smiles curling up the corners of their mouths. If I had any doubts as to loyalties before, it was pretty fucking clear now. Kaash was gaining more momentum. More sheep to follow him.

Nick had once asked me where my loyalties lay. I’d told him it was with my president. I had been loyal to Rixon. I never wavered. I was the kind of man who thrived on stabilityand always knowing what was coming next. Rixon only had the club’s best interests at heart, but Kaash was a wild card.

If Nick were to ask me again, I wouldn’t be able to say the same thing.

“As VP, I’d like to put my hand up for the position,” Kaash started, arrogance in his tone. He knew he was a shoo-in for the position, and I couldn’t handle the thought of a man like him getting exactly what he wanted.

“I nominate Silas,” I said. Looking diagonally across the table, I caught Silas’s eye. He nodded. My gaze skimmed back to Kaash, finding his jaw bulging and his brows in a menacing scowl.

“This is a democracy,” he ground out. “Anyone else want to put their hand up for the job?”

When there were no other candidates, Kaash called a vote. One by one, the officers cast their votes—writing the name of their preferred president on a slip of paper and sliding it to Mav. The patched members and the prospects got to have their say, too. Maverick quickly tallied the votes, a smirk on his face as he announced the winner.

“Kaash wins with fifteen votes.”

Kaash grabbed the gavel and brought it down onto the table with a resoundingslam. “The Savage Hunt has spoken.”

There was a lot of back slapping at this point, while Silas sat and stared at the table. I commiserated. I couldn’t shake the feeling that perhaps this was the beginning of the end. I wondered if the boys knew the truth about Kaash, where this club was headed, if it would’ve changed their vote.

“There’s one more announcement,” Kaash declared. “It’s been confirmed that Killian Kavanaugh has been assassinated by his son, Aidan. I know this doesn’t mean a lot to any of you right now, but believe me, it’s a fucking good day for the SavageHunt.” He looked around the room. “Any other business we need to attend to before we all get our dicks sucked?”

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