Page 100 of Truths

“So, it was you who reached out. And what? You think I'm going to tell you about how much I miss our time together in the compound?”

Dax narrows his eyes. “Was he this stupid when you knew him before?”

“Believe it or not, he was dumber. I think prison knocked some sense into him. Not much, though.”

“I'm dumb?” Ryan asks with a laugh. “I'm not the one who left my club for a fucking bitch.Thatwas stupid.”

Reaching over, Psycho rests a hand on Dax's shoulder. “Dude, you had your ex who dumped you almost two decades ago kidnapped and her death faked.”

“For revenge.”

“Love and hate are two sides of the same coin, so if what I did was stupid, so is what you did, motherfucker.”

“I have my own club I put together and ran from behind bars. What do you have to show for yourself besides being a follower yet again, Carson?”

He knows Ryan just wants to get a rise out of him. It would work, too, but Psycho knows he's the one about to get the world's biggest surprise.

“I have a club in Black Valley. I'm the President, actually. A well-known and very feared club.”

“The Deranged Drifters. Yeah, you got patched over. Big accomplishment! Who the fuck is your butt buddy here who keeps mean mugging me?”

Pointing his thumb at Dax, Psycho laughs. “Him? Oh, he's just the man who fell in love with and married Dani.”

Ryan laughs loudly, his head falling back to showcase just how many teeth he's lost during his prison stay. “You married that stupid bitch? I guess I did you a favor, making you believe she was dead for a couple of years, huh? Need a break to get some real pussy? I never loved her, but no one dumps me. Well, they don't do it and live, anyway.”

“Didn't you hear?” Psycho asks. “She's very alive. And you should have looked into two things with the Drifters. First, you should really have looked into the history of Lex Nichols. Sending only two men over to her house to take Dani was just stupid. Really fucking stupid. She's got bigger balls than you've ever had.”

“Attractive.”

“And the second is how we react when someone harms our women,” Dax says.

Psycho nods his head, and all the patrons stand and pull boards from the booths, quickly placing them over the windows and hammering them up.

“What the fuck?” Ryan asks, his eyes narrowed but still not coming across too concerned.

“We don't want anyone to see what's about to happen in here,” Psycho says, and all the men turn with guns aimed right at Ryan. “But we have one more surprise for you before we kill you. Because there's no chance you'll walk out of here.”

Standing up, Dax grinds his teeth as he changes all seven televisions to the input Brock talked him through to livestream the Kingsmen clubhouse.

“I have to say, you're not very original. You would build something that looks just like our compound.”

“You mean, the one that was your birthright? I don't get why everyone thinks you're so fucking tough. You're not that big and bad. In fact, I fucked bigger guys in the joint.”

Psycho laughs. “I don't believe that for a second. You're definitely the one who gets fucked. It's the only way you'd be as angry as you are. I have to admit, though, it was my mistake not to look into whether anyone was missing when I took out the Outlaws. If I had, you never would've seen another birthday.”

“Watch, it's about to get good,” Dax says.

“What are we watching? Some satellite map? Oh, so exciting,” Ryan says with a fake yawn.

Psycho smirks as the drone pulls away from the clubhouse. It explodes with debris and men flying everywhere as whatever's left standing bursts into flames. The drone then flies over various houses, all with the same explosion after explosion after explosion.

“I don't know how you got cops on your payroll, but they're not really going to be around to help you anymore, either,” Psycho says.

“You son of a bitch!” Ryan shouts, jumping up and punching Psycho's jaw.

The hit barely registers, but he pushes back his chair and stands with a large smile. Rather than hitting him back, he continues to move away from him because this is for Dax, not Psycho. Ryan ordered the abuse on Dani, and Psycho needs him to feel pain before he dies.

Dax lunges and knocks Ryan to the ground, straddling his chest. His fists hit his face repeatedly while Ryan tries to deflect every one. He fails miserably, and the anger of losing three years with his wife sends Dax into overdrive. Psycho's not sure he's ever seen a rage like this on many others before, and he just sits down on a stool, nodding to the other men to lower their guns.

---