Page 13 of Three to Fall

I sang that fucking song over and over while I stood guard at her door, and Chaos took care of the piece of shit who’d dared to open his mouth and admit the truth of who he really was. It was all I could do to comfort her.

These were the men Josiah and his bullshit attracted. Barely closeted pedophiles and rapists who were drawn in by promises of power and position. Something they’d never found in the outside world. Damaged men who couldn’t function within normal society. The bottom feeders, those too weak to do anything but follow a liar who promised them the world.

Whatever Chaos was doing to that prick in the bathroom was deserved.

When he emerged, his face was clean of blood spatter, his hands washed too. His workpants were black and didn’t show the blood.

But his plain white tee was a mess of red, and he grimaced at it.

I got onto my feet and stopped singing mid-verse. “You gotta get rid of that shirt. The cops are going to be in here any minute now.”

“And what? Walk out of here shirtless?”

I screwed up my face. That was just as likely to draw attention. I shrugged out of my jacket and tossed it at him. “Put that on.”

He caught it but just stared at it.

“What?” I asked, irritation creeping into my tone.

“It’s your club jacket.”

I was well aware of the Slayers’ logo on the back. It was pretty fucking hard to miss. “Don’t make it into something it ain’t. You need something to cover up the blood. I have a jacket. Just put it on.”

“Well, since you asked so nicely.” He rolled his eyes as he shrugged into it.

I tried real fucking hard not to notice how well it fit him.

Or how I felt looking at him in it.

I turned away while he zipped it up so he wouldn’t notice the effect it was having on me.

“That guy in the bathroom gonna die?” I asked. “We gonna have a body to deal with?”

“Nah. Not if the cops get here soon. He won’t be using his dick properly ever again though.”

“Good. He gonna rat?”

“Not if he wants to keep the one ball I left him with.”

Running footsteps from the other end of the hall had us both whirling around, and my upper lip curled in a snarl when it was Ice and the new prospect we’d brought on after losing Ratchet. Couldn’t remember what the kid’s name was. No point until he’dbeen here long enough to be sure he wasn’t going to run home to his mommy the moment things got dicey.

So many of them did. Thought they wanted this life, only to realize they only knew some sort of TV, glamorized version of it and that it actually wasn’t all that fucking great a lot of the time.

The smart ones left.

The dumb ones, like me and Ice, stayed and just let it make us fucking miserable.

The thought was weird. It wasn’t the first time I’d thought about getting out. But it was maybe the first time I’d thought about how much I didn’t want this life anymore.

Seeing the way Chaos had turned his life around might have had something to do with it.

“Where the fuck have you been?” I growled at Ice. “You were supposed to be on the gates!

He stared down at his feet. “I know. Colin’s bike broke down on his way here. I just went to help him.”

“Colin? Who the fuck is Colin?”

Chaos rolled his eyes and pointed at the other prospect. “He’s been living at the clubhouse for two weeks now.”

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