Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 38829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
“Okay, fine, but I’m going on record now telling you that this isn’t the way. What you’re planning on doing to Olivia makes you no better than the rest of the Ferals who just blindly followed Eyeball and those ass clowns. It’s not who you are, Blade.”
“It might not have been who I was before I lost my brother, but it definitely is who I am now,” I counter.
I stand up, and the guard comes toward us immediately. Fucking prick. I’m going to arrange that he gets a nice going-away present before I walk through the gates to my freedom.
A very nice gift indeed.
“What do I tell the others?” Hangman calls out once I turn to go back toward my cell.
“Tell them to be ready,” I respond, not bothering to turn around. He doesn’t agree with what I’m about to do, but I’m not going to let that stop me. I can’t. I owe Bear, and the only thing I can give him is justice. That is the only reason I’m still breathing. It’s my mission, and no one will keep me from it—absolutely no one.
Especially Olivia Davis.
2 BLADE
Two Days Later
“Good afternoon, Mr. Aetos.”
“Layna. Is everything ready for me?” I ask her as I walk into my office above the casino.
Before my brother’s death, we finally had a future that we had always dreamed of—a future for us, our club, and our people here in Cherokee. My brother was building the club, and together we both worked for the support of people who lived here and pushed for the construction of the Golden Hawk Casino. Prior to that, we were becoming a dying town filled with tourist traps that were usually passed over for the bigger, flashier Gatlinburg.
My brother and I were proud of our Cherokee heritage. Our mother was a direct descendant of one of the most famous Chiefs in the history of our people. That’s one reason we’ve worked so hard. Our mother took such pride in her history. She’s not with us any longer. Bear’s happiest moment was knowing we were getting the casino here. He went on for days about how proud our mother would have been.
Thoughts of my brother bring a now very familiar ache to my heart. It feels like a damn knife cutting into my chest over and over. I embrace the pain, however. I want to feel it. My brother died, and I wasn’t there to save him. I deserve to suffer. That might be why I didn’t let my brothers do anything to get me out of jail. Hell, I didn’t even fight it when I was framed for killing Bear.
The proof against me was laughable. An anonymous tip to the police led them to my door. I wasn’t there. I’d checked my voicemail and had a panicked call from Olivia asking me to call the members of the club. It had cut off before she finished. It was hours after she called that I got the message because I had a flat and the damn spare was missing. At the time, I thought the service department had left it out when I took my car in last time. Now, I’m sure that it was just part of my setup. Before I could call Olivia back or even check for a second message, Detective Sutton showed up at my door with some uniformed police officers. It was extremely late. I don’t even know how they got a search warrant—without my club being notified one was being issued. I stood back and asked what all this was about and can still remember that detective looking at me with disgust—as if I wasn’t fit to breathe his air. I repeated my question, demanding to know what they wanted. He scoffed and looked at the search warrant that had been stuffed into my hands. I hadn’t taken the time to read it. When I told him I needed to call my girlfriend because I was worried about Olivia, he ignored me as the officers began to go through my shit. I tried again to tell him Olivia was worried about Bear, and I needed to see what the fuck was going on. Then he told me he had spoken to Olivia, and that’s why he was there. That’s when my blood ran cold …
That was only the beginning of the shocks I had that night. A gun was found in my nightstand. It was my gun, and it always stays exactly where it was. Yet the gun had recently been fired, and the butt of it was covered in blood, hair, and what appeared to be skin and tissue. I knew then I was in the center of a fucking mess. When they found my cut in my closet with more blood on it, I knew I was well and truly fucked. I didn’t give up, not until I was interrogated and discovered the truth about Olivia. She was the sister of Eyeball, the Feral Kings president. The judge wouldn’t release me, claiming I was a fucking flight risk. So, I demanded Hangman to find Olivia and bring her to me. When she mysteriously disappeared, I knew I was fucked, and she had a hand in it. Bear’s body was never recovered, but the pools of blood at the old garage, along with a large piece of skin that had been cut from his body, determined that there’s no way Bear would’ve survived. I held out hope—even though deep inside I knew better—until the DNA matched the skin and blood to Bear. In that moment, I gave up completely. My men told me I was stupid, but I ignored them and ordered them to find his body. They’ve tried, but no sign of Bear was ever found. I lost my brother. Part of me felt going to jail was what I deserved for letting Bear down. I hated myself. I hated Eyeball and his asshole followers and most of all I hated Olivia, who didn’t tell me who she was and disappeared when I needed her the most. I will admit it surprised me that she completely disappeared, but then I figured she called me to get me out of the house so her brother could frame me. It’s just my fucking luck that the flat tires gave them the same opportunity. Then again, I figure Olivia is the reason I had the flats. If not her, then definitely one of the Feral Kings at her direction.