Scorched King (Outlaw Justice #5)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

JD

Waking up with a hard dick and a need to choke the life out of someone was not ideal. Especially under the current circumstances. Those being, I had no fucking idea who it was I was supposed to kill.

I scrubbed my hands over my face and blew out a hard breath, before looking around my small private room. It had been a long damned time since I’d stayed in the clubhouse, but last night…

I turned suddenly at some commotion in the hallway outside and a hot poker of pain speared through my head.

Fuck.

I was going to pay all day for last night’s overindulgence. I’d lost track of my alcohol consumption halfway through the first bottle. I winced as the vise holding my brain in place tightened further. I was too old for this shit, and after that much whiskey, even walking home to my own cabin had been too much of a fucking hassle.

So, I’d stayed in my room at the clubhouse, where it currently smelled like rotten ass and smoke.

When the fuck was the last time someone opened a goddamned window in this place?

I closed my eyes and took a shallow breath of the putrid air. It was past time to start putting this club back together— again.

How many times were we going to go through this shit?

Our latest fight with the Mazzeo crime family might finally be over, but the damage we sustained in the process was proving to be a bitch to clean up. It didn’t matter that it had been weeks since all of it had gone down. With the amount of work still in front of me and the nightmares I couldn’t get out of my head, it might as well have been yesterday.

The poker club, one of our biggest revenue streams, was gone—burned to the ground.

Half the clubhouse I now sat in had been bombed, and the idea of rebuilding it all again seemed overwhelming.

Two of my soldiers were dead, with another lying in a hospital bed recovering from third degree burns across half his body.

And then there was her.

Sasha.

One of our club girls who had worked at the poker club. I scrubbed my hands over my face. While I considered every person either in the club or supporting it family, she was different. And no matter how hard I tried to pretend that wasn’t true, it was all one big fucking lie.

I couldn’t stop thinking about her no matter how hard I tried.

She was too fucking young. She had years ahead of her, and I’d already lived too damn many.

So I’d been an asshole, keeping her at arm’s length without actually cutting her loose.

It wasn’t just the shit she’d been through or how fragile she seemed now. It was her whole damned life.

I should’ve been pushing her toward something better. Someone better. A guy with a clean slate, and no blood on his hands. Someone who could give her the things I never could—a big, happy family, and an actual fucking future.

When the explosion had rocked the compound and the fire consumed the one building hidden on the property, she’d been trapped inside. Axel, my second in command, had barely gotten to her in time…

My stomach cramped at the memory. Partly because my fucked up ass hadn’t even known she was missing.

She wasn’t doing so hot now either. Her body may be healing, but she still refused to talk to me and I spent half my time sitting outside her hospital room waiting for her to throw me a goddamned crumb.

She was never yours to wait for .

My hands curled into fists, but it didn’t change a damn thing. I couldn’t get her out of my head.

Which reminded me…

I forced myself to hunt up my phone from the pocket of my jeans and checked the time. The screen glared at me.

Fuck. I was late. Again .

I shoved my legs into my pants and grabbed one of my old t-shirts from a drawer, before scooping up my cut and the keys to my bike from the table. Yanking the door open, I nearly moaned when I found Cash on the other side with a cup of coffee in one hand and a bottle of aspirin in the other.

“Fuck, man. You’re a godsend,” I said, grabbing both from him as quickly as I could.

“I don’t know about that. But I was there last night, remember, so I know how you feel.” He rubbed his head indicating he was dealing with the same damned thing.

“Yeah. I’m surprised you’re not passed out in a bitch’s bed somewhere.” I shoved a handful of the pills down my throat and chased them with one of the worst cups of swill of my life. Calling that shit coffee was a crime. “What dragged your ass out here this early?”

“I did.”

I slowly turned my head to see Axel leaning against the wall at the mouth of the hallway, looking stone cold sober and cocky as hell with a smirk firmly plastered on his face.

“Shouldn’t you be at home taking care of your old lady? She deserves more of your attention now seeings how you knocked her up and shit.”

He scoffed at that. “She kicked me out. Her and the girls are planning a welcome home party for Bear and apparently my ass was in the way. There were threats to my manhood.”

I winced, shaking my head. “Speaking of.” I handed the cup of swill back to Cash. “I’m fucking late. I’m supposed to pick him up at the hospital in fifteen minutes.”

“On your bike?” he asked, nodding to the keys in my hand.

I closed my eyes and squeezed my temples. “Right. Okay, I’ll be heading to the hospital right after I go and retrieve my truck.”

Axel shook his head. “We can take mine. It’s already sitting out front and we can talk business on the way. Kill two birds with one stone and that shit.”

I inwardly groaned. It was too fucking early for logic-or-business. Especially from my too fucking cheerful VP. Since he and Mandy had finally made up for the ten years of bullshit that had kept them apart, he’d turned into a mother fucking mary sue.

“Whatever. Let’s go.”

He led the way, crossing through the main club room with the still boarded up windows and the shiny new front door that had been recently installed. The entire front wall had been blown open by a bomb and during the repairs we’d opted to reinforce this area with sheets of steel in case of future attacks. Thanks to ongoing supply issues, those upgrades had taken far too long. But they’d be worth it in the long run.

Although another attack would happen over my dead body, I had agreed to taking additional precautions just in case. Clubs like ours, in the business of getting paid to serve justice, with a few “extra curriculars” on the side, made a lot of enemies. And although our reputation usually kept those enemies on the right side of crossing the line, there was always someone who didn’t heed our warnings. When that happened, we dealt with it.

My mind went briefly to the new rival club in Seattle, the serpents, that I didn’t quite trust to honor their deal to stay out of our business. They’d gotten entangled in the cluster fuck with the Mazzeo’s and I didn’t like it. They’d have to be monitored. If they stepped one tiny toe outside the line, I wanted to know. If they wanted to fuck around and find out, I was more than happy to put them back in their place.

I climbed into the passenger seat of Axel’s custom truck, taking notice of all the modifications that had cost him a fucking fortune. His latest ride had been put together with his new family’s protection in mind. This time he was taking Mandy’s pregnancy seriously, and there would be no mistakes when it came to their safety.

Something deep inside my chest ached at the thought and I quickly pushed it away.

“I guess since you’re here and not bitching and moaning, Mandy must be feeling better.”

As the truck rumbled to life, Axel nodded. “Yeah. It looks like she’s finally made it to the other side of the morning sickness. That was rough on her. Now she’s got to get some of that weight she lost back.”

I nodded, remembering when my Malia had gone through that years ago with our son, Rock. She’d lost so much weight in her first trimester it had scared the hell out of me. But she’d also been the most beautiful woman I’d ever met and I would have plucked the stars out of the sky for her if she’d wanted them.

Watching my son grow inside her had been an amazing journey. And as much as I loved Rock, I would have enjoyed having more children with her. But fate, and my mother fucking former best friend had made sure we didn’t get that chance.

Despite that, I’d been one lucky SOB to have the time I was given. And even if our love had eventually been tainted by grief, I couldn’t imagine what my life would have been like without her. We’d thrived together for a good long time.

Until we didn’t.

It was another lesson learned the hard way. Life had a way of changing right underneath your feet, and if you weren’t paying attention, it could get away from you before you could stop it. That’s what happened to us. Three people in a relationship had turned out to be too many, and Pops had grown bitter over the years. And I’d been too blind to see how bad until it was too late.

Even then I still believed I could fix anything. We were a family and all I had to do was try harder…

I scrubbed my face and the memories away. All of that felt like a lifetime ago. A lifetime I couldn’t—wouldn’t revisit. Malia’s death—it—well, it was a dark time in my life I needed to avoid at all costs. For my own mental health as well as those around me.

“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” I said, forcing myself to focus on the conversation with Axel. “A stronger woman than Mandy I’ve yet to meet.”

Axel laughed. “That’s the fucking truth. And once she decides to take on a challenge…”

“So…”

I watched Axel grip the steering wheel from my peripheral vision and braced for what he was about to say next. I knew this ride wasn’t about discussing casual business. He had something particular on his mind and I probably wasn’t going to like it.

“When is Sasha coming home?” he asked, just throwing his cards on the table and hedging his bets.

I winced despite the expectation he’d been about to hit me with something I didn’t want to deal with. Sasha had not been what I expected, but I guessed it should have been. Axel and Mandy asked about her a lot as did some of the other women who worked for the club. After the fire, she was never far from our minds. She was well liked and everyone was anxious for her recovery and return.

As was I.

Although without a poker club for her to return to, I honestly didn’t know what to do with her. We’d have to find another job for her and it wasn’t going to be her old job. She may have started out stripping for the club, but she wasn’t going back to that—ever.

I’d fired her from that job, and I’d meant it. The real mistake, however, had been letting her back in after that.

But when it came to a wounded bird who needed my help… they were my achilles heel.

Especially her.

I was the lion who’d originally invited her into the den, making her the sacrificial lamb. I’d put her in danger. All because my dick had claimed her without so much as touching her. That made her my responsibility and I’d sworn to keep her safe at all costs.

I’d thought if I just kept my distance and my hands off of her, and she stayed under the protection of the club, she’d be fine. No one would bother her again.

Famous last words…