Beast (A Righteous Outlaws Novel #4) (The Righteous Outlaws)

I
traded
my truck in for a motorcycle, and never looked back. It’s been ten years since I left my old life behind, and, though I forced myself not to ever think about it, when I slept I had no control. Those goddamned memories seeped into my dreams, turning them into nightmares. Except I knew the blood, the screams, and the dead bodies weren’t nightmares at all. They’re a reality I’d spent most of my life trying to escape, but couldn’t. Funny how the place I wound up at ten years ago brought me into a life of more violence, blood and screams. But I wouldn’t change a fucking thing.

The rage that boiled inside of me subsided every time I put a bullet between the fucking eyes of a rival club member. Pieces of shit didn’t deserve to live while innocent people died every day for being in the wrong place at the wrong fucking time. Watching the life drain out of them was the only satisfaction I found in this shitty world.

The wind rushed through me, as I turned my bike into the parking lot of Daly’s, the same place I stumbled upon ten years ago, when I was looking for a place to erase my life and start a new one.

Nick, the club’s president at the time, gave me a job and a chance to be a part of the brotherhood. When I vanished from my old life, I left behind my family, but Nick gave me a new family, and now I had my brothers. The Righteous Outlaws were the only family I needed. I would kill for them just as they would kill for me. I’m still waiting to avenge Nick’s death, and I will. All those who were involved in his death would die.

We lived by a code: righteousness, brotherhood, respect, and loyalty. It was similar to one I lived by in my old life, and many people would say I left one organization for another, but I didn’t give a fuck about what they thought. Being part of the Righteous Outlaws gave me the opportunity to put my past to rest. At least as much to rest as possible, and all I cared about was that those old memories barely crossed my conscious thoughts anymore. Unfortunately, I couldn’t control what happened when I slept. The nightmares had faded for the most part, but they still crept in from time to time.

I parked my bike, and saw Kade coming out of Sienna’s, his old lady and the mother of his child, office. He had a shit-eating grin on his face, which made me think he just got a morning fuck.

“Yo,” Kade said from across the lot as he headed in my direction.

He nodded as he approached, and I offered a grunt in acknowledgement.

Cash, our club president, joined us seconds later with a cigarette hanging from his lips.

“Morning,” he said, a similar grin on his face, making me think he also got lucky this morning. There was a time when the Outlaws partied, fucked whatever walked, and passed out drunk in the clubhouse, but a few women managed to sink their claws into these sad bastards, and they’ve never looked back.

Cash, who had always been short-tempered and more than happy to drown his sins between the tits of two or three girls, was now engaged and disgustingly happy with one girl. Though Aubree was a perky little thing, who wore more yellow than fucking Big Bird, she was a pretty cool chick. She was the reason for Friday night dinners, and was the one who brought us back to the basic motto of our club. She turned the brotherhood into a real family. We were all indebted to her for that.

Relationships weren’t for me. Not anymore at least. You give your all to someone, and for what? To wake up one day and realize they’re never coming back? That you invested all of that time for nothing? That even the good memories can’t overtake the dark ones? Fuck that. I didn’t care how nice her tits were or how tight her ass was; it wasn’t worth it.

“I need someone to go meet up with Stanson’s kid today,” Cash said, taking a final drag from his cigarette then dropping it to the ground. “It’s their first day, and Stanson’s informed me that the kid has been filled in on everything and will be our ally when he retires from the force.”

“Why can’t you go?” Kade asked.

Cash’s jaw ticked, and his eyes narrowed. “Sunshine is making me go cake tasting.” He said the words as if they physically burnt his tongue. Kade’s lips parted, but Cash beat him to it. “Shut up. Don’t say a fucking thing.”

Kade held his hand up, letting Cash know he was not touching his cake-tasting dilemma with a ten-foot pole. I watched this exchange, getting pissed off. We had more important things that needed to be addressed, like Stanson’s kid and our future in this town. I cleared my throat to get their attention. “How do we know we can trust this guy?” I asked, not giving two shits about fucking wedding cake. We were about to reseal a deal with someone we’ve never met.

Stanson, the local police chief and our ally for the past thirty years, might have been on our side, but we knew nothing about his offspring, other than he followed in daddy’s footsteps and became a cop. He kept his kids as far away from the Outlaws as he possibly could, sending them to private school and shipping them off to family in the summers until they were old enough to move away. In the past few years, a daughter had moved back. Married with two kids and a husband that looked like a grade-a douchebag, clad in khaki pants and polo shirts. The other kid though, we knew nothing about him. How did we know that once Stanson retired and the kid took over that he wouldn’t turn against us?

“Stanson assured me…” Cash started.

“And that is enough for you?” Out of everyone in the club, Cash and I were most alike, but pussy was fucking with his head. Since he met Aubree, he’d become too trusting and too compassionate. It pissed me off. Trusting people was how you got yourself fucking killed.

“I trust Stanson, yes.”

“Then you’re a fucking idiot,” I said, and Kade smacked a hand onto Cash’s chest as he moved toward me.

Cash took a deep breath, his eyes focused on me. The vein in his forehead was pulsating with each inhale. “Idiot or not, I’m the president of this fucking club. If I remember correctly, you voted me in.”

Cash’s green eyes turned black, and I smiled. There’s the man I knew and trusted. He came out every now and again, usually after some coaxing, and he was the one I would take orders from.

His jaw ticked, and I wished Kade would just let him get one swing in. It had been a while since I’d been in a fight, and a good knock to the face sounded pretty fucking good about now.

“You get blood in the parking lot, and Sienna will blow a fit,” Kade said, and I scoffed.

“Fucking pussies. Both of you. If you didn’t do it to yourselves, I might actually feel bad for you.”

“You’re just jealous,” Kade said, with a smile, as Cash clenched and unclenched his fists.

“I’ll do it,” I said, ignoring Kade’s remark. I wasn’t fucking jealous. Been there, done that, and had the fucking scars to prove it. “You two have your heads so far up your old ladies’ asses, you wouldn’t be able to get a good read off the kid anyway.”

“Go fuck yourself,” Cash said, but there was a slight smile at the edge of his lips, and hint of laughter in his voice.

“He probably does. Every night,” Kade said.

“At least I’m not going soft.”

Cash and Kade both laughed, and Kade turned to me with a lifted eyebrow. “Neither of us have a fucking rat for a dog. If you ask me, you’re the one going soft.”

“It was either that, or listen to this one’s old lady for the rest of my life. I took the fucking dog.”

Cash smirked because he knew his old lady was a fucking handful and impossible to argue with. Five foot nothing, with rainbows practically shooting out of her ass, and she was scarier than half the goddamned men I came into contact with in brawls when she turned her anger on you.

“Keep telling yourself that,” Kade said, as his eyes drifted across the lot. Sienna poked her head out of the main office, and he gave her a wink that gave away way too much context.

“So Stanson’s kid,” I said, wanting to get back to business. “Where am I meeting him and when?”

“Off the highway at that abandoned warehouse on Grove. Four o’clock.”

“I’ll be there. Does the kid have a name?”

“Ryan,” Cash said.

“Sounds like a douchebag,” I mumbled before heading off to the garage. I had cars to paint and, now, less time to get them done.

* * *

I
took
the exit that would bring me to Grove, and gave a quick glance behind me to make sure no one was following. You could never be too fucking careful. I survived enough shit in my life; I wasn’t about to be taken out for not paying attention to my surroundings. If they wanted me dead, then they were going to have to put a lot more effort into it than a drive-by.

There was no fucking way I’d go down that easily. But, after the president of Montamos and the new leader of Gordita’s Army showed up at one of our own’s funeral and threatened that it wasn’t the end of the war between us, I’d made sure to be more alert than usual.

Cash wanted to hang back, while I wanted to ambush them and kill all the fucking bastards. They were the reason for not just one, but two, of our brother’s deaths. Montamos worked with Gordita’s Army and set us up, killing our number one. And then there was Miles. He relapsed and started using again, this time getting his shit from the enemy. They took advantage of his weakness, causing Miles to opt out on his own terms. The bastard might had taken his own life, but his blood was still on their hands.

There was a lot of them, and less and less of us, especially with Dice ditching out of the club, but if we fought into it, and overcame their firepower with even more fire power, we would win. Those pieces of shit would be exactly where they belonged: six feet under.

The abandoned warehouse came into view, and I pulled my bike into the lot, making sure to avoid the potholes that would destroy both of us. A cruiser was parked in the back lot and I pulled up beside it, ready to get this over with.

Cash warned me to play nice, but, when my brothers’ protection was on the line, there was no place for nice. I needed to make sure this shithead was more like his father, and less like the fucking rookie who had joined the force last year and become a royal pain in my ass. If there was a way to kill him, and bury his body, without half the county out looking for him, I would have a long time ago. He was a complication that liked to weasel his way into things that were none of his goddamned business.

The cop wasn’t in his car and the last thing I felt like doing was playing a game of cat and mouse, so I kept my ass planted on my bike, waiting for him to show. Probably just scoping out the place, not that I could blame him. I’d do the same fucking thing. Could never be too careful.

A few minutes passed before I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I caught the ugly tan uniform and the badges, and kicked my leg over my bike. I lifted my helmet off and placed it on the handlebars, before giving my attention to Stanson’s mini me.

“You must be-” My words cut off when she removed her sunglasses, and I met dark brown eyes with long black lashes. “Who the fuck are you?” I asked, staring at the woman with sun-kissed skin, and black hair pulled tight behind her head.

“Ryan,” she said, extending her hand.

I stared at the long fingers and clean, pretty nails. “This is a fucking joke, right?”

“If it is, I’m not in on it. What exactly is the joke?”

“You’re a chick?”

She quirked her lip and nodded. “Last I checked, yes. Though I don’t see how that’s very funny.”

“Exactly. It’s not.”

It’d been three months since Stanson told Cash he was retiring. And, in three fucking months, he didn’t think to tell Cash that his kid, his replacement, was a fucking chick. Unfuckinbelievable. Did he honestly think this was the best solution?

A growl rumbled in my throat and I spun on my boot, heading back to my bike. “Excuse me, where are you going? We have business to discuss.”

I turned back around and gave her a glance up and down her body. The uniform was baggy, but it still clung to a nice pair of tits, and gave hints at a sweet tight ass. I let my eyes linger at her tits, licking my lips and doing my best to make her uncomfortable.

“You about done staring at me?”

I slid my teeth over my bottom lip and winked. “We could speed it up if I didn’t have to depend on my imagination to figure out what you have beneath that uniform.”

She let out a loud puff of annoyed air. “I’m a cop, not an idiot. I know what you’re doing and, trust me, your skeevy pervert act isn’t going to work on me. I’ve come in contact with guys a hell of a lot worse than you: missing teeth, track marks, hard-ons pressing against their pants. You don’t scare me, so knock the shit off.”

“Feisty.”

“You have no idea.” She cocked an eyebrow at me, and pierced me with her dark glare. I could see how it could intimidate most people, but I wasn’t most people. She was about as scary as a bunny in this abandoned lot.

“Name’s Beast.”

“That your real name?”

“It’s the only name you’re going to get out of me.”

“Fair enough.” She shoved her hands in her pockets and moved toward me. The scent of apples permeated the short distance between us. It’s kind of hard to be a badass cop when you smelled that damn good. “We already established my name.”