Page 18 of Biker's Conquest: Property of Rage

"You have odds on any man in particular?"

"No," Darragh says. "But you look like a gambler. I bet you have good instincts."

"Sometimes."

Darragh laughs. "That's good. I'm sure you do better than you think."

"Like I said. Sometimes."

"Hm," Darragh says. "Well, I'll let you know how much you need to start. My younger brother is the guy running the books. I'll put you in touch."

"Sounds good."

I feel a little guilty at the thought of indulging in something as frivolous as gambling while mom is sick. It's one thing to establish a business out here and get into some type of routine but... my life needs to be focused on the most important thing right now. Mom's treatment. My family. Doing what's best for the club.

But think about how much I could make... The odds for each match are a simple 50/50 toss up. It's hard to get better chances than that. Darragh and I drink until we're drunk enough to move from the bar to the pool table.

He kicks my ass the first round, then asks if I want to put money on the next game. It's too easy of a hustle. I nod, pretending that I'm too drunk to really get my shit together and then I clean his ass out of $5,000 before Mulligan's closes.

"My wife is going to kill me," Darragh groans drunkenly as he hugs me goodbye. "But this was all worth it. Pleasure doing business with you, Ethan Shaw."

"See you around."

Mom isasleep when I get home. I count out $2,000 from the stash I won off Darragh and slip it into her purse.Rule number one of being the oldest Shaw brother -- you always look after your mama.

When I get into bed, the liquor hits me with the worst type of thinking. The way you get when you know that not everything is going to turn out all right. When the danger coming feels too big for you to stop it.

There's a wave crashing into our family. Cancer. And the only person who can stop it is me. I might be mom's favorite, but it's not because I'm the good guy. Wyatt is the good guy. Owen is the peacekeeper. I'm the older degenerate brother who could never keep his ass out of trouble.

Mom used to say I never saw a precipice I didn't want to dive straight off of.

"You have a death wish, Ethan," she used to say. "And I wish you didn't, but it's just like your dad. Just like him."

A little love, a little resentment. But there's no one who will talk about me the way mom talks about dad.

And when she's gone,I'll have no one at all. Wyatt might be the head of the club, but I'll have to be the head of our family and it scares the fuck out of me to do it at all, much less to do it alone.

Being the protector never came naturally to me. Destructive behavior? Yes. But this responsibility is too real and too important for me to screw up.

Chapter Eleven

Keyshawn

Ican't sleep for long in the basement. Rage leaves me in the dark and yes, I have a bed, but that does nothing for the disturbed tension I experience. It’s also incredibly uncomfortable trying to sleep with my arms tied together with rope. My teeth feel permanently clenched and if I focus on anything other than sleep even for a second, I shiver from the cold.

This man is a psychopathic monster. I have no idea what to do with that information. Is my only option here to let him do whatever the hell he wants with me and then what? He kills me?

Even when I get around an hour of sleep, I wake up again -- scared.

I assume it's morning when I hear him moving around upstairs. He was quiet during all my hours of pain and terror. When I hear him moving around, I don't want him to show his face. But after an even longer amount of time listening to him walk around upstairs -- and maybe even jump a few times -- my stomach growls.

Will he return at all? With some food?

Unwilling relief passes through me as I hear him opening the basement door. It takes longer than I expected for him to descend the stairs. He turns the lights on and even if the lights aren't too bright, I've been in darkness for so long that the lights bring blinding tears to my eyes. The shape in front of me slowly solidifies. He isn't wearing all black anymore -- or that stupid mask.

I hate him even more than I did initially just for how he's dressed.

"Where are you going, a boardroom meeting for serial killers?"

---