Page 1 of Ash

PROLOGUE

ASH

“Son of a bitch!” I roared as I staggered backward, my shoulder on fucking fire. The bitch had shot me!

My club brothers, Wizard and Echo, disarmed her while I checked the wound. It wasn’t deep and probably only needed a few stitches, but the bullet was still lodged inside. The wound hurt like a motherfucker.

“Ash?” Echo called.

I tore off a strip of fabric from my shirt and pressed it over the hole in my arm to control the bleeding.

“The safety was off?” Cynthia shrieked at the top of her lungs, drowning out my response. Her voice was shaking with panic. “Oh, fuck. Did I kill him? Shit!”

Figured she’d freak the fuck out. Her real name was Jean, and she was the con artist, burglar, and gold digger we’d set up. She was a shrew but not a killer. I took sinister pleasure in the fact that she was listening to the sirens getting closer and terrified that she was gonna go down for murder.

I looked over at where Wizard and Echo had her restrained. Thankfully, despite being a tech genius, Wizard was tough asshit. Echo, a surveillance specialist, was also our Road Captain and as lethal as the rest of us.

She struggled like a lunatic—which didn’t seem that far off at this point—and screamed, “Let me go! I’ll kill you! Let me go, you bastards!”

“Ash!” Echo shouted again, demanding a response.

“Yeah, yeah. Just a fucking nick,” I grunted. It was bleeding pretty profusely, so the wound looked worse than it was. I dropped onto a chair in the living room that was open to the hallway, so I still had eyes on the action in case the guys needed an extra hand.

A relieved breath whooshed from Echo’s lungs, but then Cynthia’s elbow landed hard on his sternum.

I winced.Fucking ouch.

“Wiz…” he gasped, his eyes glazing over from a lack of oxygen. “Take…can’t…oh, fuck.” He tried to choke in some air unsuccessfully, then hit the floor.

Thankfully, Wizard had her in a fierce grip.

I couldn’t help barking out a laugh when Echo hit the floor. He was gonna get so much shit for that.

Cynthia was whining and spitting curses, making my head hurt. I was so fucking tired of being around her.

She was the head of a con ring who’d been taking people’s life savings. Unfortunately for her, one of her underlings had set his eye on Echo’s woman.

Messing with my MC, the Hounds of Hellfire, was stupid as fuck, but going after an old lady was signing your death warrant. She was lucky we’d decided to only ruin her and get her arrested. But we didn’t want her disappearance bringing heat down on us since her organization was pretty big.

King, our president, had talked me into playing the part of her next mark.

I was the club secretary and lawyer, but I’d been born into a very wealthy family. My father was a Texas politician, and my mother was more concerned with her status in society than her only child. With a platform heavily focused on family values, having a kid had been good for their image. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t exist.

They’d expected me to follow in their footsteps, which meant they were ecstatic when I decided I wanted to attend law school.

But I wasn’t interested in being their fucking puppet. So I’d worked my ass off to be a straight A student and got scholarships to cover my bachelor’s and law degree. I worked for anything I needed and didn’t take a single cent from them.

Obviously, they weren’t happy when I decided to work as a public defender, but they managed to “spin” it to make themselves look good.

That got shot to hell when I patched with the Hounds. I gained a real family, one where bonds were forged by something stronger than blood. It was just a perk that my parents cut me out of their life.

But my background was the perfect cover to get Cynthia’s attention.

We played up my role as the senator’s son—making it look like I’d simply been a recluse all the years since I dropped out of the media.

My brothers thought it was hysterical when my parents called, trying to reconnect. They’d thought I’d changed my tune and was returning to their society. Obviously, they wanted to take advantage of the situation or clean it up, depending on my motives. I told them to go fuck themselves and hung up.

I’d taken Cynthia to a black-tie charity event and let her record my voice, thinking she was creating a key to my safe without my knowledge. Then Echo had concocted a bullshitexcuse about my dad being in the hospital to give me a reason to bolt.

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