Chapter 24
GHOST
Punching the man in the face twice, I grip him by the neck and slam him back into the wall. “Who sent you here?” I bark. When he doesn’t reply, I knee him in the stomach. “Tell me!”
He was skulking around the back of the clubhouse property, armed with a gun.
I don’t know what he planned to do here, or if he was looking for a weak spot in our security.
After catching him unaware and disarming him, I’m ready to take him out back and show him what we do to people who try to come for us.
“A man paid me, I don’t know his name,” the man manages to get out, but I can tell he’s lying.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll soon remember,” I tell him menacingly. I knock him out with a right hook and watch as he drops to the ground.
Grabbing my phone, I call Prez. It’s one in the morning, and I doubt he’s going to be happy.
“Yeah?”
“Got an issue, meet me out the back by the boundary fence.”
He’s silent for a moment. Then a low, “Fuck, all right. Anyone else you want?”
“Bring War, Angel, and the twins.”
He ends the call, and ten minutes later, they all show up. I step aside and show them the man on the ground, who is starting to move. I kick him. “Found him trying to get in.”
The twins share a look. As the enforcers, it’s their job to handle this situation. Angel is our security specialist, which is why I wanted him here too.
“We’ll tie him up in the shed,” Bones announces, the two of them carrying him away.
“Insanity?” War questions, watching them leave.
“I guess we’ll soon find out,” I murmur, pulling out my phone and checking the cameras in my bedroom. Xanthe is still fast asleep, safe and sound.
By the time we get to the shed, the intruder is awake and tied to a chair, so I sit down in front of him.
Skull hands me a phone. “Found this burner on him. Blade is going to try to trace the number.”
I nod and look at the man. “So, are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?”
“They’ll kill me.”
He looks to be in his mid-thirties and not someone I’ve seen before. I can’t see any visible tattoos, but I’ll check whether he has any MC affiliations.
“And what do you think we will do?” I ask, pulling out my knife from my pocket and unsheathing it.
Sweat beads on his forehead. “Look, I don’t personally know him. He paid me. I know what he looks like and the name he gave me.”
“Which is?”
He closes his eyes. “Let me go. I was just casing the place like I was asked to.”
“You had a gun and a knife on you. What were you going to do with them? Shoot us?” I ask, leaning forward and resting my elbows on my thighs.
His throat works as he swallows.
“The text on his phone says he was meant to take out as many as he could,” Skull growls, stretching his neck from side to side. I know he’s probably thinking of his old lady and daughter who are upstairs while their house is being built.
“I was meant to kill anyone who got in my way, but I wasn’t going to.”
“How much did they pay you?” I ask.
“Ten thousand,” he admits.
I nod. “Okay, I want you to message them back, Skull. How do we want to play this? Reply and pretend to be him? Or let them know we have their man, and if they want a war, they’re going to get one.”
We all look to our president. “Pretend to be him. Find out what you can.”
Skull nods. “I’ll go find Blade. He’s the best at this shit.”
“Do we still need him?” I ask Prez, who stares at the man with no emotion on his face.
“No. He came to our clubhouse, where we have women and children, with a loaded gun.”
I nod, and the men pile out one by one. “Unless you have anything else to add?”
“I told you everything I know. Except, wait… He had a contact here. Daisy. Her name was Daisy.”
Of course it fucking was.
“I told you all I know. Now, please let me go. I won’t say anything, I swear.”
Lifting his own gun, I aim it at his head and shoot.
And then I call the prospects to get rid of the body, while I head upstairs and take a long shower.
Then I slide back into bed naked with Xanthe, who turns around and rests her head on my chest, sighing contentedly.
And I sleep like a baby.
When I wake up the next morning, I’m alone in bed, which is the first time that’s happened. I always wake up before Xanthe.
So, I head downstairs to find her. The last thing I thought I’d be hearing is Brandy talking shit to her.
“You don’t know what to do with a man like that, little girl. Has he used his knives on you yet? Make you dress up in different outfits and call you different names?”
I don’t know what’s going on with Brandy. I used to think she was a nice enough girl. She didn’t start shit with any of the old ladies until right now.
Xanthe’s face drops a little, but then she lifts her chin. “I don’t know what your deal is, but Ghost is mine. Let it go. He doesn’t want you. It just makes you look sad and desperate.”
She turns and heads in the opposite direction toward the kitchen, while I step in and catch Brandy alone. She freezes when she sees me, almost dropping the glass from her hand. “Ghost, I didn’t see you there.”
“I know you didn’t. Now, I never had a problem with you, Brandy. You’ve been around here for a long time, and I didn’t think you were a bitch, but then I hear this shit. You sound like Daisy,” I say quietly, wondering the best way to handle this.
“Ghost—”
“It’s none of your business how I fuck my old lady,” I seethe. I can’t believe I have to explain this to someone. “She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I don’t need to get her to dress up and pretend to be someone for me to want to fuck her.”
“I’m sorry, Ghost. She’s just…” She trails off, her shoulders slumping. “You’re the deadliest man here, we all know it. And you chose this sweet little teacher. I’m never going to be an old lady, am I?”
“Did you want to?” I ask, my brow furrowing. She’s played it off as if she just liked having plenty of sex this whole time. “You know what we respect more than anything is loyalty, right?”
She nods, looking away.
“You know what happened to the last person who hurt my woman’s feelings?”
She shakes her head.
“You just said I’m the deadliest man here, and you still decided to go for my fucking heart? That woman there is my conscience, my heart, and my soul. When you hurt her, I lose all those things, and then I’m just… Ghost.”
“You don’t hurt women,” she says, eyes narrowing. “None of the men here do.”
She’s underestimating me.
Immensely.
“What’s going on here?” Bones asks as he steps inside. He fucks Brandy regularly. In fact, he might be the one who is closest to her.
“Just saw Brandy here telling my old lady she doesn’t know how to handle a man like me,” I explain, and his blue eyes widen.
He quickly moves in between us, because he, unlike Brandy, knows that I can be unpredictable in general. But when it comes to my woman, I’ll kill first and not give a fuck later. “I’ll handle her.”
“You better, because the next time I’m not going to be so nice. One warning, Brandy. The next time you come at Xanthe with anything but kindness, you won’t survive the night.”