42. Kane
FORTY-TWO
KANE
Twenty-Six Years Old
Kane was well aware that he had spent the last decade in a spiral. Taking a straight nosedive into depravity.
Into greed and immorality and every kind of wickedness. Doing the bidding of the MC.
So far gone from the boy his mother had believed he was, she would not have recognized him if he were standing in front of her.
But she couldn’t stand in front of him, could she?
Couldn’t see the vile perversion that he’d become.
He wondered when it was all going to catch up to him.
It was insane that he’d let himself go so far while his loyalty and love for his crew remained, but he guessed it was the same for all of them.
Each running at the cruel beckoning of Cutter, the president of their MC.
Kane couldn’t decide if it was because there was a boot on the back of his neck or if he did it of his own free will.
If he did it because he got a sick satisfaction in the power and money or if it was just because he couldn’t be destined for anything else .
“He has you running again?” River asked from over the volume of the heavy metal music that screamed from the speakers. He was lounged back in a stool at the dive where they always hung out.
The grungy walls were filled with Iron Owls. The only women there with the sole intention of riding their cocks.
Hoping for the privilege of then riding on the back of their bikes.
That was shit that was never going to happen with him. He loved to fuck, but he was never one to bother with a name.
“Apparently, I’m the best.” He sent River a big grin.
Otto took a swig of his beer. “Or maybe the most expendable,” he razzed.
“Fuck you, man.” Kane was standing next to him, and he jostled his elbow into the brute’s side.
Otto laughed.
Kane’s chest tightened.
He didn’t hear that sound nearly enough since the dude was always fretting about his baby sister who kept getting herself and River’s sister, Raven, into trouble.
Grimness filled River’s dark features, and he lowered his voice as his attention skated to the back of the bar where another group of Owls were snorting a fucking mountain of coke and passing around a bottle of tequila. “Be careful of Tyke and Kelp. Don’t trust either one of those fuckers.”
Kane barely glanced in their direction where they were partying with the rest.
Kane had a mind that River had come not to trust anyone in the club other than their family, plus Trent and Jud, Cutter’s sons.
It was becoming clear that there was no love lost between Cutter and the two, either, and since Kane and his brothers were tight with Trent and Jud, it made Kane speculative, too.
But he still had his job to do.
A runner.
The gun who made things right if a delivery went south.
Weapons.
Drugs .
Whatever illicit materials needed to get from the south and across the US.
“Yeah,” Theo agreed from the other side of River as he took a swig from his bottle. “Neither of them would think twice about driving a knife into your back, and not the figurative kind.”
“Don’t worry. Always have an eye on my back.”
Living a life like this, if you dropped your guard for even a second, you got dead.
River lowered his voice even further, making sure no other members of the club could hear. “Or Cutter, either. Don’t like the vibe that’s been rolling around. Something isn’t sittin’ right.”
“I get in, get the job done, and get out.” Kane said it nonchalant, though a gust of unease rippled through him. He knew it, too. Things had gotten strange.
“Good,” River said. “Keep it that way, and keep it clean.”
Kane arched an incredulous brow. “You suggesting anything we do is clean ?”
River’s expression remained flinty. “Maybe it’s time we did.”
The old bracelet burned against Kane’s wrist. The bracelet that he’d never taken off. Now worn and tarnished. A suffocating vise that still felt like a lifeline.
The haunting of his mother’s voice fluttered through the darkest recesses of his mind.
“Don’t ever change. Don’t ever let that beautiful light fade. Fight for love and what’s right. I know you will…because it’s who you are.”
Except it wasn’t who he was.
Not anymore.
He’d lost himself.
Maybe in the exact same way as she had, only his circumstances were just different.
And there was no way to find himself again.
So, he rode the runs he’d been charged to do.
The roar of his bike rumbling beneath him as he followed the trucks to their destinations and did whatever was required to ensure the loads were protected .
Spiraling and spiraling.
Until he swung off his bike on that fateful evening, standing guard as Tyke hopped out of the driver’s side of the truck and came around to open the back.
Until the moment when he saw what was inside.
“Don’t ever change. Don’t ever let that beautiful light fade. Fight for love and what’s right. I know you will…because it’s who you are.”
He’d never heard his mother’s voice shout so loud. And that spiraling he’d fallen into?
It came up on a quick dead end.