Page 1 of King

PROLOGUE

KING

“You ask Wizard if he finished those background checks?” I asked as I picked up a contract my VP had dropped on my desk.

Blaze put his hands behind his head and leaned back in the chair in front of my desk. “He sent two over the secure server an hour ago, but he’s still working on the third.”

I looked up, my brow furrowing. “Why?”

Blaze shrugged. “He said something about the kid having interesting ties.”

“Then toss the fucker out on his ass,” I growled. Three months ago, I’d had to dig into the prospects for my MC, the Hounds of Hellfire, because we found out there was a rat in our ranks. Since I wouldn’t let someone patch who I didn’t trust with my life, it had to be a prospect who had informed on an MC with whom we had an alliance and nearly gotten one of the old ladies killed. We’d been damn lucky the Iron Rogues hadn’t gone to war with us over that shit.

We’d found the motherfucking mole. After questioning Tom, it turned out that he’d been seduced into leaking information. Intentional or not, he’d earned a lesson about what happenedwhen someone fucked with the Hounds. Then we turned him over to Stone, the Iron Rogue whose woman was put in the crossfire because of the asshole.

Spies, especially ones who revealed the location of a hidden person, were a hot button for me. It stemmed from my time in the CIA. Luckily, when I left The Company after eight years, I’d retained a lot of my contacts. And they had introduced me to people I couldn’t have worked with while under the CIA’s thumb. Now, I was able to get shit done because I had the freedom to burn the rulebook.

I’d always required background checks on anyone looking to prospect. It would be stupid as fuck not to. Especially considering the nature of our most lucrative business. But after Tom fucked us over, I started having Wizard—a tech genius who’d been a patch almost as long as I had—do an even deeper dive on all of them.

As president of the Hounds of Hellfire, I had the last word on everything, including who we accepted into our ranks as prospects. My judgment of a person’s character was usually pretty accurate, but there were times when I just didn’t have time to interview every request. Tom’s ability to be easily manipulated had slipped through the cracks, and I wasn’t gonna let it happen again.

“If this was just about rejecting a possible prospect, Wizard wouldn’t be digging deeper than is normally necessary. Either he found something really bad and we need to take care of the bastard, or Wizard thinks the guy has something better to offer us and wants to confirm.”

“He’s got until the end of the day,” I muttered, turning my attention back to the contract. “What is this bullshit about fee negotiation?”

Blaze lifted his chin toward the door to my office, and I glanced over to see Ace, our treasurer—who was a fuckingbrilliant when it came to money—strolling in. Quickly followed by our secretary and club lawyer, Ash.

I asked the question again, and Ace strode over to the couch on the left side of my office and flopped down onto it. “My doing.” He grinned. “They didn’t even notice the addendum Ash added.”

My dog, Cerberus, ambled over from where he’d been lying next to me on the floor. He jumped up next to Ace and growled menacingly…until Ace scratched behind his ear.

I rolled my eyes when the cane corso flopped down in his lap, rolling over to show Ace his belly.

Cerberus was a sturdy, muscular giant who looked like the intimidating guard dog that he was. He was trained to protect and put the fear of hell—making Cerberus a fitting name—into strangers but would ignore outsiders that he deemed not to be a threat. Most people shied away from him, put off by his fearsome presence and cold attitude.

However, like most of his breed, he was extremely affectionate with me and anyone he grew attached to, cuddling to express his approval and love. I’d been surprised but pleased at how quickly he recognized the loyalty he shared with most of my brothers. Although he only truly let his guard down with me. That didn’t stop him from demanding attention from the ones he’d recognized as suckers.

He’d pretty much become the Hounds mascot.

Turning my eyes back to the contract, I flipped to the last page and read the clause, then smirked. “Well done.” Ace grinned.

Looking at Ashe, I asked, “The exclusivity requirement?”

“Took a little convincing, but they agreed,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning his back against a wall.

I nodded and signed where indicated. Yeah, my guys were fucking brilliant. That single line could make us a lot of money,which made up for the fact that I wasn’t happy doing business with this group in the first place. But I’d been convinced that it was better for us to contract with them so we could make sure they didn’t do shit we’d have to clean up. Particularly if it included their dead bodies.

We had our hands in a lot of different businesses and activities, some of them legal, some in a dark gray area. But we had a code that we lived by, our own brand of justice. While it was honorable, it often meant working outside the laws of the land.

Besides our legitimate businesses and Ace’s mad skills in the stock market and investments, the MC’s main source of income revolved around making people disappear. We weren’t killers for hire, though we did “kill” a person’s identity. We helped people establish a new life, which was one reason we needed to truly trust our members and patches.

A few decades ago, the lines the Hounds would cross were a fuck of a lot further in the gray zone. I hadn’t been around back then, but I’d heard a hell of a lot of stories. But by the time I prospected, Pierce had already cleaned shit up. Our former prez hadn’t had much choice, not after his daughter was dragged into some club bullshit that got her kidnapped. Luckily, that mess had turned out for the best since she fell for the president of the Silver Saints MC, who’d been a rival of the Hounds way back when.

When I was with the CIA, most of my operations involved protecting and placing assets. It was my specialty, particularly my talent for forging documents—although we didn’t reveal to our clients which Hound possessed that skill.

Several of the patches had abilities that were perfect for operations like this, and after helping a few people out as a favor, we realized making people disappear into a new life could be a very lucrative income stream. Although we didn’t always requirea fee…depending on the circumstances. But those situations were a well-guarded secret so we didn’t get a fuck ton of sob stories trying to screw us over.

Blaze put his hands on the armrests of his chair and pushed to his feet. “Gotta get shit sorted for the run tomorrow,” he said gruffly. “The job requires a lot of burn equipment.”

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