Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 109178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
“You said it yourself. This ain’t about her. It’s just a way to get to you.”
“I read that love kills hate. That’s gotta be the bullet in my gun, Kage. Every cell in his body is filled with aversion. I don’t love him, I can’t love a demon, but I know how to love, and he doesn’t. No matter my past… all the men I’ve injured and killed. The ones he knows about, and the few he may not, I’m still filled with love.” He placed his hand over his chest and bowed his head as if in prayer. “And no matter my mama’s past, she’s worthy of being buried in a beautiful place. She’s a wife and a mother. A sister and a friend. She’s a queen. I have always loved my mama. Grandpa can never take that away from me, Kage. If I work for him, I’ll go back to my old ways. I’ll lose my soul.”
“And that’s what he wants. He’s like a vampire. Suckin’ the life out of everyone who foolishly crosses his path. He’s just about destroyed my life.” He cast his eyes downward. “He can sniff out softness, Lennox. Soft men make him sick. Me too, matter of fact. My mama is soft. Your daddy is soft. Pliable. Able to be manipulated like putty.”
“Every now and again, he calls me dog, or top dog, Kage. He’s called me that since I was kid. Dogs are loyal. They do what they’re told. He’s made it clear how he sees me, and since I didn’t follow the command, he wants to break me. Like some stray puppy.”
“Top dogs are leaders, man. You’re looking at this all wrong. He tells on himself every now and again because what he calls us gives us clues as to how we can survive his fucked-up games. You being able to love and being loyal as hell doesn’t make you soft, cousin. It makes you strong!” Kage beat his chest with a fist, forcing his thick beard to shake as he moved. “He can smell strength, too. He could sniff you out as soon as you were born. He’s a user, so he saw your potential immediately. That mother of yours was the key. She gave birth to a bad son of a gun.” Lennox couldn’t help but smile. “The seven of us smell damn good to him. Like tender meat on the grill. By us cousins standin’ up to him the way we’ve done, all it did was make him want us more.”
“We’re marked for life.”
“Ya damn straight, but each of us has to do our part, or he’ll never turn us loose. We can’t break. We can’t fall down and not get back up. You were the first one he called to the carpet. He’s hoping that if he can break you, the rest of us will fall in line. Out of all of us, he believes you have the most sense. The one we’ll imitate. There’s always a reason to this bastard’s madness.” Lennox leaned against the log walls, next to the guns. His guts churned with hot anger. It felt like there was a tangled ball of bloody tendons and he had to unravel it. Figure this all out.
“Kage, let me tell you something. No matter how high this mountain is, I’ve got a ladder. Somethin’ told me to not work my normal shift one night at the club, and take someone else’s. I did, and ran into a woman I hadn’t seen in over a decade, but have loved just as long. I got up this morning, full of rage, and somethin’ told me to be still. To calm down. Something said, ‘Talk to your cousin Kage.’ Something said, ‘That old man wants to keep you two apart.’ I listened to that voice and picked up the phone. Without hesitation, you told me to come to you. It took me over two hours to get out here, but if it took two hundred hours, I still would’ve made the journey.” Kage nodded, his eyes sharp on him. “You and I have more in common than I realized.”
“All seven of us have things in common. That’s why he chose us, even though we didn’t choose him. He called you Top Dog, and me a Lone Wolf… I’m your ancestor, and you’re the newer generation. Dogs come from wolves… you and I are related in his eyes, and I ain’t talking about just blood. We’ve got that leadership shit that he wants. We can sniff out an opportunity. We aren’t swayed by money, pussy, and power. We’re motivated by lovin’ someone that is now gone. We dig in the dirt for bones. The dead. For you, it was your mama, and now, this woman that you feel something deep for. We love out loud. We defend it in public. We hurt over it in private. That’s our weakness.