Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
I exhaled. “That’s the truth.”
“Guys.” Channing slid his hands in his pockets, waiting with the others. “Shall we do this?”
Yes. Right. Track down Maddy needed to commence.
I tipped my chin up. “Let’s go.”
Everything else got shoved down, way down inside of me.
We crossed the street, returning to the funeral home where we were parked. He dropped his voice, shoving his hands in his pockets. “If she’s fighting…”
My gut tightened. I didn’t like hearing that possibility, but it was within the realm of possibility. She was my daughter.
I bit out, “Then we’re getting her into a training program, and we’ll monitor her closely.”
He nodded, his shoulders relaxing a little. “She’s got the bloodlust. Same as we did growing up.”
I gave him a look, raising an eyebrow.
He met my gaze, and the tops of his cheeks flushed before he looked away.
He wasn’t going to admit it and I had to wonder about that. Why not? Why wasn’t he going to admit it?
Because we still had the bloodlust. Maybe it was there to act as a distraction from the last week and what we were going to deal with tomorrow? Maybe I was leaning on it for a slight reprieve from burying my father tomorrow. Either way, our bloodlust was here. Right now. In both Logan and myself. He was every bit as excited as I was to head off into whatever the fuck we were going to find ourselves in. Into the fray? Into the chaos of Fallen Crest? Into what?
I didn’t know, but I was buzzing.
I should’ve been worried about it.
I just wasn’t.
8
MASON
When we arrived, it was clear that the place Maddy had gone wasn’t just an underground fighting ring for people her age, like it had been back in the day. There were all ages, including adults. The fighting was something entirely different as well.
Weapons were allowed in the ring. The betting was out in the open. I recognized a bunch of gang tattoos.
Channing groaned. “Fuck. I know a good portion of these guys.”
I cast him a look, thinking he was referring to the guys he tended to hunt down as a bounty hunter.
A group stood to the side wearing Red Demon cuts and we were walking past a whole line of Harley motorcycles parked in the front. This was all sorts of bad.
Logan moved in close, nudging my elbow. “People are recognizing you.” More than a few heads turned our way. I clocked it too.
“If you see a phone, grab it,” I told him, as well as Matteo and Nate.
“No.” Channing halted us. He held up a device. “If anything happens, I’ll hit this button. It’ll jam every cell within three miles. All of my guys have it. We use it when we have a high-risk bounty.”
Nate shook his head. “Monroe, fuck. I don’t know if that makes you scarier or if we should be comforted.”
I grinned, feeling exactly the same. Logan eyed the device like he wanted to eat it.
Matteo was frowning, looking around the place. He hadn’t been around for a lot of our escapades in high school, and he hadn’t been close enough for a lot of the shit we did in college either. This was new to him.
“Can we talk about some sort of game plan? We’re all, uh, not exactly young anymore. Some of us are hitting our forties.”
“Pushing forty,” Logan clarified, shooting Nate a smirk.
“Settle. You’re a year younger.”
“Still. Late thirties here. It makes a difference.”
Nate looked like he wanted to show Logan how there really wasn’t, but he just shook his head. He tried again. “Some of us don’t hunt people for a living or work as professional athletes, so maybe we can have a plan for how to operate in there?”
Despite this word of reason, there was dark excitement in Nate’s eyes. He was probably looking to cover his ass when questioned by his wife later on. Everyone here had children, except Matteo—that we knew of. I eyed Moose and Congo. I was sure they had kids. Both were married. I grimaced, thinking of their children. Little fucking Goliaths running around, snacking on rocks and hurling logs.
“I’m going to find my daughter and ground her ass. If anyone gets in my way, I have no problem taking heads from bodies.” With that, I stalked forward.
Logan began laughing. “There’s the brother I love.”
“All right then,” Channing said wryly. “Potential murder. Check that for the evening.”
“We might want to get some cops on our payroll.” Nate paused. “Are we into that sort of thing yet?”
“Seems like we are,” Matteo answered. “Mason gets intense when he gets to the home turf, huh?”
Nate sighed. “You have no idea.”
I stopped listening, moving into the open part of the warehouse where the fighting ring was located. As we drew near, three Red Demon guys blocked us, holding their hands in the air.