Page 67 of Taming the Demon

“I’m not a fucking rat,” he growled. “Okay? I’m not. I’m a man of opportunity. I can see… I can…”

Fitz shook his head.

Late last night he ended up in a trailer park and stole some pills from some sleeping whore. He didn’t fuck her. He wasn’tinterested. He just wanted the pills. He wanted to think. He needed to think. The pills made him feel fucking crazy.

He stripped himself naked and ran around in a circle for hours in the woods, chanting and pretending he was a bear. Then he fell asleep on his back, still naked, and woke up to himself shivering and crying. Weeping. Bawling. He got dressed and vowed not to take any more of those pills. But whatever that shit was he took it made him so uneasy. Off balance. He felt ready to explode at any moment .

That’s when he knew it was time to end this thing once and for all. One more thing left to do. Fitz walked to the car he had stolen earlier that day and got himself another beer. It was piss warm, but beer was beer.

He opened the can and called out, “Cheers!”

He smacked the can off a tree, sending beer and foam everywhere. Then he put the can to his mouth and began to chug. A voice in his head told him SOFRAW was closing in. The other charters were on notice. Guys were definitely put on notice. Everyone searching and sniffing. Things getting more and more tense.

Fitz knew he controlled his own fate right now. They wanted to find him and they wanted him to meet Dr. Smile. Fitz screamed out a laugh. “Good fucking luck with that, boys!”

He woo’ed as loud as he could and finished the can of beer. This one he threw against a tree. It was all right there. The ending. The perfect ending. Cause as much hell as possible and then just end it. End himself. End his life.

What would SOFRAW do then? It wasn’t like they could bring him back to life only to kill him. It was perfect.

Fitz reached into the car again and took out a gun. He put it against his head and felt his heart scramble. He growled and moved the gun away.

“Not yet,” he said. “Whoa, not yet.”

He walked to the trunk and opened it. He smiled and reached down.

“Welcome home, honey, I’ve missed you.”

Fitz pulled his tied up and gagged wife out of the car and threw her to the ground.

“Oh, Mara, what am I going to do with you now?”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Crushed Like a Grape

Something didn’t feel right to Darrow. It could have been the headless prospect. It could have been… a number of things. Virus and Dolph were tasked with finding Bram’s body.

Cyrus, Linc, Slade, and Darrow went for a ride together to the hospital to check on Priest. From what Darrow gathered there had been some sort of anepisodethe previous night. Priest had given the doctors and nurses a scare for a few minutes but then returned to his normal coma state. Things weren’t looking good. They all knew a time would come when a decision would have to be made. Or maybe Priest would be one of those people who ended up in a coma for a decade or longer and they just woke up.

Darrow hung back close to the hospital room door. He hated it. The whole vibe and view and what it reminded him of. How deep and twisted everything had gotten. Yeah, he’d been in love with Mara for a long time.A really long time.Watching her with Fitz, wearing his ink, then wearing that goddamn wedding band… it was heartbreak over and over. Darrow kept himself busy with the club. And the one thing he never did…? He never hacked into anything that belonged to Mara. Never her phone. Never her laptop. Nothing. Never. Not once. He lived in a worldof perpetual hope where he would have a chance to claim her as his own. That moment did come and the price…?

Priest is in a coma.

Bram got his head cut off.

Cyrus is losing his fucking mind.

Yet in some fucked up sick way Darrow would not change a thing at all. In his mind and his heart—and even in his awful, black soul—he would let the world burn just to have a moment with Mara. Just to touch her face. Kiss her lips. And then, yeah, taste her warm tits, play with her knotted nipples, and then slam his face between her legs and indulge in her cunt.

Except it was deeper now…

The baby. Our baby.

Darrow’s phone vibrated. Mara’s name on the screen.

Went to see Macy.

“What the fuck?” Darrow whispered.

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