Page 37 of The Nightmare King

"Where's my sister, Bones?"

His sister? He did this because of Daisy? After sending her to us the way he had, he'd proven he didn't give a fuck about her life. I suspected he just didn't like to lose in the game he had begun to play, and now his arrogance demanded he save face in front of his men.

"What sister?" I cocked my head at him, then turned to Barrel. "Did you know he had a sister, Barrel?"

Barrel scratched the side of his head, ruffling his green hair with his middle finger, and smirked. "Nope, can't say I did, Prez."

I looked back at Oogie to see his congenial smile had dropped, and the playfulness that he had started this meeting with had been replaced with rage. Ahh, his true colors at last.

"I want her back," he seethed, his dark eyes burning with hatred as he scanned my members as if he would find any trace of her among them.

"Well, now. That's too bad. You should keep your possessions on a tighter leash."

He took a step forward, his fist clenched at his sides. Every single man in the lot stiffened. Some reached inside their vests or behind their backs to palm their weapons.

"If you don't hand her over…”

It was my turn to step forward. All sense of civility dropped to show my burning rage. "You'll what, Boogeyman? Why would you think your sister would be with my club? Is it so she could spy on us? Give you intel?" I cocked my head. "To climb into my bed then slit my throat? That's what the plan was, right? To kill me to make it easier to take over Pumpkin Patch?" I lifted my arms and gestured wide. "What was next? Take the next town and the next? Are you so greedy to run your drugs through the whole fucking state that you were willing to sacrifice your own family to get what you wanted?"

There were murmurs around us as the other club members discussed what I said. For the majority of us, our women were to be protected. We didn't use them and throw them to the wolves. Sending in a woman as a spy was a dangerous game, a move that could have easily ended with her death. As it was, what I had done to her wasn't permanent, though the mental scars were something she would have to live with.

"Did you kill her?" he gritted out as he ground his jaw. He reached behind him, palmed a gun, and raised it to point at my chest. I smirked, crossed my arms, and stared him down.

"Unlike you, I don't send women to their deaths. She's safe. Far away from you. If she's smart, she will use the money I gave her to start over with a new life like I told her to. She knows that there is nothing here for her but a big brother that doesn't give a shit about her."

Oogie cocked his gun and the sound was followed by hundreds of others just like it. He glanced around to see that every other member of the surrounding clubs had their weapons trained on him. If his finger so much as twitched, he would be dead before his bullet left the chamber. He held up both hands and then slowly replaced his gun behind his back. With his angry gaze on me the whole time, he stepped back until he was next to his motorcycle.

"Are you a betting man, Bones?" he asked as he swung his leg over the side of the bike and sat down. I just stared back without answering as he replaced his scowl with the wide, friendly grin he had started the meeting with. "How's that little redhead of yours?"

Every muscle in my body stiffened at the mention of my Queen, but I showed no outward sign that I was letting him get to me. His grin grew wider.

"She's something special, right? You've never shown any interest in a woman until her. That night at fight night, mmhmmm, you couldn't take your eyes off of her. Do you think you can keep her safe, Bones? Want to place a bet on it?"

With his parting words, he started up his motorcycle, the sound a loud growl as the rest of his club started up their bikes all around him. He pulled out first as I watched him. He circled the parking lot once, making a show of it as the entire club of Boogeymen rode behind him. Then they pulled onto one of the long roads that led off into the distance, heading back toward his territory.

I didn't allow myself to move or speak, knowing that the remaining two clubs were still watching me. I trusted them as much as I could, believing that they wanted peace as much as I did, but I wasn't a man to give away any weakness. The president of the Midnight Demons broke away from where his club was gathered, followed shortly by the president of the Black Wolves.

I stood in place, unable to move, while every part of me wanted to destroy the Boogeymen for threatening my woman. Both men approached with grim expressions.

"Hey, man." Talon, the president of the Midnight Demons, held out his hand first, and I worked to unclench my fist so I could exchange his handshake. Blade was next, and I shook his hand, too, grateful for their greetings even if I were eager to return to the house, needing to have eyes on my pregnant woman.

"I'm just going to say it because it needs to be said," began Blade. "We need to work together on this. That man is unstable, and it's clear that he isn't going to stop until he has the whole state." He eyed me. "Not that I wouldn't help you if I weren't worried about my own territory. But it's going to take all of us to end that club."

Talon nodded his agreement. "I don't like having drugs show up on my streets, and I don't like having our women being threatened." He scratched at his long red beard and looked out at the cornfield in the distance. "I mean, it's not as if I don't run drugs, I ain't no saint, but our drugs are clean. And we don't deal to kids, ya know?" I nodded. People were going to buy drugs no matter what we did. But we could do our best to make sure the quality was good and wouldn't kill them when they tried to party.

"Did you really send his sister away with money?" Talon asked after we all agreed to have a meeting later to plan out how to end the Boogeymen for good.

I paused from where I had been about to climb back onto my motorcycle. "Yeah. Daisy's long gone from here with a new identity and enough cash to set her up in a new life." He nodded his head and turned to walk away.

"I knew you were a good man, Bones!" He called out over his shoulder. I just grunted as I started the engine and roared out of the parking lot, not giving a shit about what anyone else thought about me except my little Queen.

ChapterTwenty-Seven

SALLY

Iknew I had to get up and get dressed before one of the guys showed up at the door. I slid out of bed and made my way into the bathroom to clean up after our last round of sex. I wouldn't have time for another shower, so I used a washcloth to wipe the stickiness between my legs. The whole time I cleaned up and then brushed out my still damp hair, I couldn't shake the overwhelming sense that something terrible was going to happen. I wished I could call Jack and ask him to come back, but I knew I needed to be strong. As the woman of a ruthless motorcycle club president, eyes would be on me, and his club would start to resent it if I were seen as trying to control their leader.

I went back into the bedroom and got dressed in a pair of yoga pants and one of Jack's soft black T-shirts, needing the comfort it would bring me to have a piece of him against my skin. I suddenly remembered the test and returned to the bathroom to look at it.

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