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Gunnar looked back at Harrison then, his jaw working side to side. The other man’s eyes widened when without warning, Gunnar reached out to the rolling tray and snatched something off it, his eyes swimming with malice when he looked back at me. Suddenly, he slammed the flathead screwdriver into the side of the other man’s neck, a frenzy taking over. Blood pumped rhythmically from the wounds, spattering Gunnar’s hand, arm, and shoulders with crimson streaks. Ten, twenty, thirty times Gunnar struck, long after the life had drained from Harrison’s eyes.
Finally, Gunnar pitched forward, resting his hands on his knees as his exerted breath barreled from him. The thrill of thekill was still clearly tunneling through him, bolstering his blood lust. He turned to face me again, face blood spattered. Teeth bared.
This was not the man I once knew.
This was a puppet that was being controlled by a vicious puppeteer.
A pawn being moved around a chess board.
“What are you waiting for?” Gunnar asked, his smirk twisting into a bloody sneer. “You want me to say it? You want me to say that I killed your brother?” Sick satisfaction vibrated through his words. He stepped closer until we were nose-to-nose. “I. Killed. Your. Brother.”
I didn’t react. No matter how badly I wanted to. Instead, I swallowed down all my anger, all my rage, and I waited. Drawing out more information. More evidence. Planning how I was going to make this fucker pay for what he did.
“Why?”
Gunnar shrugged. “It was part of my initiation into X.”
“What the fuck is X, and what does it have to do with my brother?”
“Nothing, but it has everything to do with you. We needed La Croix gone, and we figured pinning D’s murder on him would mean you’d go after him and get rid of the problem for us.”
“Why do you need La Croix gone?”
Still smirking, he said, “Call it a conflict of interests.”
Both Gunnar and Kaash had been pushing their own agendas even before the day I was released from prison. Setting up all the pieces on the board. I’d been an unknowing participant in their subterfuge, but if I’d been successful in taking La Croix out…
“Who was set to take over the Devils if La Croix was killed?”
“Someone sympathetic to Kaash’s veryspecificneeds.”
“And you thought I could be the one to pull the trigger and take La Croix out of the game?”
“We were pretty confident your revenge would carry you through. And we both know what would’ve happened to you afterwards. The Devils would’ve gotten their revenge… along with a little help from Kaash.”
“Kaash wants to take over the Savage Hunt that badly?”
Gunnar flicked me an annoyed glare. “Kaash’s ambitions for the club have grown. He can earn this club more money than it could ever dream of seeing, but Rixon has held him back for years.”
And then I recalled how much animosity was between the pair of them. How there had been a number of occasions where their disagreement had spilled over in public, both in Church and outside of it. The skin trade.
“Kaash runs his stable through Muse,” I said, finally voicing my suspicions.
Gunnar replied, “Everything is nice and legit, too. The girls all get paid, and when one comes through that fits the description of an order, he funnels her out, ensuring all the severance forms are paid. The IRS could go through the books and never find a thing out of place. Kaash pays Maverick a big fucking bonus to make sure they’re scrubbed clean.”
Maverick was involved in this shit, too?
Oblivious to my inner thoughts, Gunnar droned on, and I let him, because all of this was adding fucking fuel to the fire. “Kaash is on his way to being the biggest sex trafficker in all of Michigan. Of course, Rixon didn’t want a piece of the pie, which is why he has to go. It’s also whyyouhave to go, Nick. You’re Rixon’s strongest supporter. There’s no way a vote to remove him as president of the club would go ahead with you still around to support him.”
“Mol’s death?”
“The bullet was meant for you,” he confirmed. “As was the hit at the cemetery—except you hunkered down like a fuckingpussy. Oh, so was Tatum Rios. It was supposed to beyoushanked to death that day, not him.” He reached behind his back and pulled out his Glock, turning it on me. With that same satisfied smirk on his lips, he disarmed me of my primary weapon, motioning for me to get on my knees.
Outside, there was a loud bang, drawing Gunnar’s attention. Lifting up the front of my shirt, I felt for my other piece, pulling it out when Gunnar’s head was turned and holding it ready behind my back.
“Was any of it real?” I asked, the muscle in my jaw bulging with barely restrained fury.
Gunnar’s brows dipped in thought. “Our friendship? Fuck, Nick, it was real. We grew up together. I’ve known you my whole life, but Kaash was offering me something more. He was offering me an opportunity to move up in the club, something I would never be able to get with Rixon.Hewas happy to kill the club and let us all die with it.”
