Page 126 of Protector

“Give him up and we’ll let you go,” I said, feigning disinterest. “Don’t give a fuck what you did to them, but that one crossed my club.”

“See, I don’t think you will.” He shifted forward, and Cobra winced before making eye contact again; pleading for me to save him.

He was facing the Reaper but begging for Hades.

I yawned, knowing full well I was going to put a bullet in both of them the first opportunity I had. “You just did me a favor, and the way I see it, you no longer have a club. Hand over your Pres and join me. We share the same enemy.”

The man grinned up at us. “Partner, that sounds like a great plan. There’s just one problem—”

Cobra opened his mouth and tried to speak, but the words came out garbled as the blood spilled over onto his lips.

They’d cut out his tongue.

“The Sons don’t negotiate.” He ran the blade across Cobra’s throat and shoved his body toward us before turning his back on us to casually walk away.

I took the headshot and dropped him mid-step before looking around in confusion. “The fuck just happened?”

Comedian stepped over bodies and turned the man over, firing another round through his forehead before relieving him of his kutte. “Prospect,” he roared.

Alex reluctantly walked over. “Yes, Comedian?”

“You asked me the other day why we strip search new recruits. Ain’t ‘cause we wanna fuck ya, it’s ‘cause we wanna make sure you don’t fuck us. What’s this look like to you?”

He knelt beside him. “It looks like the Sons’ colors… sir.”

Comedian cocked his head to the side and looked back at me. “Why the fuck wouldn’t they have checked for that?”

Nothing made a goddamn bit of sense anymore.

I toed Cobra’s body with my boot and studied his face, feeling as if there was something I was missing. There was a double-headed snake coiled around a ruby on his middle finger, but no sign of the ring he’d branded my wife with.

With a low growl, I ripped the kutte off and tucked it under my arm. It’d be the only trophy I got.

I should’ve felt some sense of victory, but the uneasy feeling I’d had since we arrived only intensified the longer I looked around. We’d been played by the Sons, but why?

Why had they gone after the Serpents?

They’d been known club enemies of ours for as long as I could remember. If anything, the Sons should’ve partnered with them to try to take us down.

Bear’s cell phone began vibrating, and he stepped outside.

“Torch, light it up,” I sighed, before following him out.

“You got it, Pres.”

Ending Cobra should’ve ended the threats against my family, but the Sons had been one step ahead, and for the first time in my life, I realized just how bad things truly were.

There was no way out.

Putting a gun in my mouth wouldn’t save them. Killing every man who ever laid a hand on her wouldn’t end this.

I’d dealt with one breakdown after another before sobering up; had always been one step away from destroying my own life.

It never mattered.

The game changed once I got clean, but so did my responsibilities. The kid who couldn’t see anyone past himself was gone, replaced by a man who knew what was at stake and who was counting on him.

Bear ended the call and ran a hand over his face. “That was Goblin. Carnage was shot—”

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