Page 55 of Destroyed (American Street Kings 4)

“Yeah, man, she’s good.”

Granite and Dutch unchained Slither, his body collapsing on the ground behind me. But I refused to move since the only thing that mattered to me was Neon. Hell could come down around us, and I still wouldn’t have let go of her.

Granite wiped his hands down his shirt. “We need to get Neon out of here.”

“Jesus, Ink,” Onyx started, ignoring Granite. “Do you have any idea how much you fucked up here? Huh?”

“Does it fucking look like I give a shit?”

“You heard Crow. You were fucking there when he said no one touches this son of bitch but him.” Onyx seethed, his voice growing louder and his anger burning like fucking lava behind frozen eyes.

“You knew, Onyx.” I clenched my teeth. “You fucking knew there was no way in hell I could let someone else kill this bastard. You fucking knew!”

“This is not about you. Don’t you get it? This is about all of us, the fucking club. You risked everything, every fucking thing, and for what? To be the one who kills him?”

“No!” My anger slammed against the concrete walls. “Not me. Her. Neon. I did all of this so she could kill him, so she could fucking take back just a tiny goddamn fraction of what this motherfucker took from her. This is not about me, or you, or Crow, or this goddamn fucking club! This is about her, and no one else.”

“Stop!” Granite stepped between me and Onyx, facing his brother. “You two can chew each other’s asses later. Right now, we need to get her out of here and this goddamn place cleaned up.”

Onyx glared at me over Granite’s shoulder. “You fucked up, man. You fucking fucked up.”

My jaw clenched. “I. Don’t. Give. A fuck.”

“Motherfucker!” Onyx tried to launch past Granite, wanting to come at me with balled fists. But big bro was like a giant fucking brick wall. And while Onyx glowered at me with an angered passion, I stared at him with a fucking grin on my face.

Onyx bit his lip. “You have no idea what the fuck you’ve done.”

“Oh, I know exactly what I did, and I’ll fucking do it again.”

“Are you insane?”

“Stop,” Neon whispered, but I kept my fury directed at Onyx.

“You’re a fucking hypocrite, you know that? If I hadn’t taken him from that room the day we caught him with Wraith, you would have killed the fucker yourself.”

Onyx’s mouth snapped shut, his eyes telling me I hit the nail on the fucking head.

“You would have killed him yourself, Onyx. And you can’t deny it.”

His mouth pulled in a straight line with an angry snarl. “You—”

“You two need to shut the fuck up.” Granite’s voice was a goddamn sonic boom, but Onyx didn’t even flinch. He merely glared his way.

“You, brother, need to back the fuck off. You are not the president anymore. I am. So, you better step out of my way. Right. Now.”

“Stop!” Neon screamed, and I felt a hard tug against my back. It happened so fucking fast, I couldn’t even blink. I didn’t hear the gunshot, my ears just popped, and a deafening ring tore through my head. Instinct took over, and I pulled myself over Neon, my body enclosing around her, as the only thing I cared about in that moment was protecting her.

Time stood still, only chaos screeched through the silence that echoed around us…right before Granite roared. “No!”

Still covering Neon with my body, I opened my eyes, and the first thing I saw was him. Dutch. On the ground, a river of crimson slowly flowing from his body.

It felt like forever and a day while I just stayed there unmoved, watching Granite and Onyx scream, yet I didn’t hear a single sound.

I looked to the side, Slither pushed halfway up on his elbow, holding a gun in his hand, his finger still on the trigger.

My mind was cracked, the present severed, and I was frozen, immobilized…until reality shocked through me with the crack of another gunshot. I didn’t even flinch when I witnessed Slither’s skull crack open, blood splattering all around me. Within a single heartbeat, the ringing stopped and chaos erupted.

“Jesus. Fuck!” I heard Granite’s bouldering voice and turned to look in front of us.

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