Page 136 of Forged in the Fire
I took one menacing step toward him.
My entire crew did the same, edging closer, making sure he knew the threat of death was looming.
“You’re going to turn around, drive back to California, and forget that any of us exist. You will haul your pathetic ass out of my town, and you won’t look back. You’re owed nothing but a death sentence, so count yourself lucky that I’m allowing you to walk away. Next time, I won’t be feeling so benevolent. You got me?”
He smirked a mouthful of rotten teeth. “Wonder what your momma would have to say about that.”
I nearly cracked. Ended him right there on the street. That was just as a random car drove by, slowing to gawk.
Trevan took me by the elbow to stop me, same as Dice did to Brody, that cool we’d barely been fronting dissipating to sweltering mist.
“I think it’s time you get on your way,” Trevan issued in his genial but lethal way, his attention pinned on PJ when he said it. “No need for things to get messy, but I promise you, they’re about to.”
Air puffed out of PJ, affront and the pathetic stench of a man who only had concern about himself.
He looked back at me. “This is far from over. One way or another, I’m going to make you pay.”
My mind spun through our altercation the night I’d flown in my truck to the hospital where Kai had been. In Northern California, in the city about two hours outside of Moonlit Ridge.
The way he’d demanded that I was going to pay for Kai. That nothing came for free.
“I owe you nothing.” It was a snarl. “Now get the fuck out of here before you no longer have the ability to walk.”
He took a step back, smirking harder. “You’re gonna regret disrespecting your daddy that way.”
“Un-fucking-likely,” I spat.
We all stood ground until he tucked tail to his truck. The sound of it roaring when he turned over the ignition nearly leveled me with the memories.
One of those sensory things that you could never purge from your mind.
None of us moved an inch until he turned a U in the road and the echo of it disappeared in the distance.
“Colby, Dice, trail his ass out of town and make sure he’s gone,” I commanded.
“On it, Prez.”
Colby clapped Dice on the back and the two of them went running for their bikes, while the rest of the group dismantled.
All except for Phoenix, Trevan, Brody, and myself.
“You okay?” I finally asked my brother.
Brody shook, the normal easy arrogance he wore crushed by grief. “Don’t know why you leave him standing.”
I didn’t fucking know, either.
“What do you think his game is?” Trevan asked.
“Same as it always is. An easy dollar. And Kai isn’t up for fucking sale. Bastard isn’t getting anything else out of me.”
He’d already stolen enough.
My frayed nerves zapped, not fucking sure where I was supposed to go from here. The last thing I wanted was Kairaised in this life. He deserved so much better. Deserved so much better than me bringing him out of abuse and right into something just as wicked.
The same as Brody and Elena.
Every choice I made only dragged them deeper into the foulness of my life.
