AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Stopping near the Carnage sign, he stared out at the main road. As a kid, he had often come here. Most of the time after taking a beating. It was only rare that his dad forgot about not attacking the face. When that happened, Grant would lie and say he got into a fight with some out-of-town asshole or something. No one questioned him.
Most of the time his dad was clever, though. He knew not to pummel the face. There was always a risk Bull would come around.
Grant hadn’t realized it back then, but as Bull got older, their old man got meaner. But the truth was—and this was what he hadn’t realized—their dad had become afraid of Bull. Where he was happy to beat the shit out of Grant, he’d kept his distance for the most part from Bull.
When it came down to Bull taking over from the club, it hadn’t been a challenge. Their dad had run the club close to the ground, nearly wiping Chaos and Carnage off the face off the earth. Bull had pulled them through, although there had been challenges.
Grant remembered when Bull had presented him with the VP patch, and how the club had voted for it. Deep down, Grant had known that patch never meant anything to Bull. His brother had wanted someone else—Pat. He’d ignored that and instead saw it as a chance to prove himself. His brother, though, rarely gave him the tasks of a VP. Rarely trusted him.
Taking care of Maddie had been the first real test he’d passed. Now he was out on his ass because Bull was protecting him. No, that shit didn’t make sense. Bull wanted rid of him for years.
If he left Carnage for good, he wouldn’t see Aria again. As much as he hated this fucking town and wanted a fresh start, he wasn’t going to step out on Aria, nor would he step out on his brother. Running fingers through his hair, he clicked his tongue and Wanda walked beside him, heading back to town.
He decided to take the back way. There was nothing he needed in town. He had to go and talk to Jase but speaking to the gym owner only served to piss him off, and he wasn’t interested in that shit. Not right now. He wasn’t going to the mechanic shop either, even though Rusty had given him a call, as well as Pat.
Over the years he’d had many jobs. He wasn’t lazy, he just found work so easily, and he flitted from one to the other, never staying too long. For a short time, he ended up working as a waiter in the diner while he’d been protecting Maddie. That had been fun. Some of the guys, not club but locals, had thought they could take the piss out of him. Meeting with his fists had soon dissuaded them from saying shit.
Making his way toward the trailer park, he came to a stop when he saw a couple of men he didn’t recognize. They had pulled a woman from a trailer. Her hair was a mess. She had blood running down her face. He clicked for Wanda to hide.
Grant didn’t have any weapon on him. He’d stopped carrying his fucking gun after removing his leather cut, and he refused to wear the fucking thing while he’d been supposedly suspended from the club. Fucking Bull.
He was too far away to make out any of the words they were saying, but Grant saw the symbols on the back of the men’s necks. They were Cartel. What the fuck were the Cartel doing in Carnage? This was not the deal. This was why killing Julio had been important.
The deal Bull made with the Cartel was simple—they would do all the drug and gun runs, and escort the products through Carnage while rarely stopping in town. If they had to, the product had to be shipped within the next ten hours. That was Bull’s agreement. He didn’t want guns or drugs on his turf. This deal stopped the Cartel from using them as a pit stop, or using its residents.
Grant didn’t recognize the woman, but he kept himself still as the man who was clearly in charge fired his gun, shooting her through the skull and ending her life. He didn’t recognize the fucker either.
Pulling out his cell phone, he dialed Bull’s number. This went against everything he had told himself he would do.
Fucking … ugh!
He didn’t scream. Didn’t make a single sound. His heart raced, but not out of fear for himself. No, he feared for fucking Wanda.
“For fuck’s sake, Grant, what do you want now?” Bull asked.
“I wondered if you knew about the Cartel being in Carnage?” Grant asked.
“What? Grant, is this some kind of joke?”
“No fucking joke. I’m serious. I just saw the Cartel and I don’t know if it’s one of ours, but he just put a bullet in a woman’s head. I’m at the trailer park.”
“Shit. Get the fuck out of there, Grant.”
He hung up his cell phone and then held it up in front of him, zooming in on his camera to take the image of the ink on the back of the man’s neck. All the Cartel they had dealt with had the ink on the back of the neck.
Grant was tempted to call this in to Dylan, but he had a horrible feeling the sheriff would end up dead, and he kind of liked the old guy. Sure, he was pissed off for getting thrown in the cells for a day, but he was just doing his job.
For the most part, Dylan left the club to deal with business. They had a joint goal in mind—to protect the town of Carnage, as well as its residents.
Grant touched Wanda’s collar and urged her around the back.
The men were already dragging the woman into the trailer and within seconds it was burning. With his cell phone out once again, he took a picture of the man, and then waited. Grant kept to the shadows, not allowing his presence to be known.
“Little shits like you get on my fucking nerves. Always crouching down like the cowards you are. Thinking you know shit when you know nothing. But I’m going to teach you.”
Grant pulled out of the memory.
The shit his father would say and do was enough to mess with any kid’s mind. His father had started at a young age. Scaring him, then beating him for pissing himself. As far as his father was concerned, all he was trying to do was make a man out of his youngest son.
