Page 42 of Unholy Cross

“Wow,” he murmured.“Jeremiah went all out in his welcome-to-the-family gift.Mine might not be a fancy house but I can guarantee you’ll love this one more.Come on!I can’t wait to see how happy this makes you.”

She carried the container to the kitchen and placed it on the island, where she picked up the discarded knife and carefully slit the tape holding the lid on.Saxon sat on one of the tall barstools and placed the gift basket next to him.As Lorelei opened the box, ice packs lined the sides and under them were thick plastic sheets that concealed something, although she couldn’t figure out what.Shifting the plastic aside, she saw ...hair.

Lorelei yanked her hand away and stared into the cooler, slowly realizing the heavy object was a head.She looked at Saxon who smiled at her encouragingly, not only looking extremely pleased with himself but also highlighting the psycho in his crazy.

She shouldn’t be curious.In fact, she probably should be terrorized.Appalled.Definitely nauseous, but maybe she was broken because she was none of those things.In fact, she wasn’t disgusted in the least because she had an inkling of whose head she stared at.Peeling back the thick plastic covering, she stared at the face that haunted her dreams.Birsha’s milky-white eyes still etched the horror of his death, which made her very happy.The monster was gone and the weight of her nightmares slid off her shoulders.Lorelei couldn’t help the big grin that burst through.

“I knew you’d love it!”Saxon cried.“I must admit, I really enjoyed getting you this present.Did you know that Noble Vale was shut down?Birsha was super easy to track down since he wasn’t hiding in that fucking asylum anymore.But, just in case you didn’t like this gift, I brought a backup.”

He pushed the gift basket closer to her.

“I thought we could do facials and mani-pedis.”

She gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

Chapter Eighteen

Cross placed all thechairs up on the table in preparation for the floor being mopped.One of the dancers, Candy—not her real name—was disinfecting the pole where the girls danced.She had hit on him when he first arrived, and he made it very clear to all the staff he had a woman and wouldn’t step out on her.No flirting.No innuendos.No accidental touches.The club was a business, and he enforced that emphatically.

He’d never admit to Jeremiah that he liked this job.That he found purpose in the work.It was different from being president of a motorcycle club.There he had to make all the decisions.To carry the weight on his shoulders.Here was a different kind of authority.Mabel made all the monetary decisions while he was simply the muscle and enforcer.The dynamic worked.

His phone buzzed and he paused to pull it from his pocket.A text message came through, from Saxon.Dread settled in the pit of his stomach because Saxon had never, in all the years he’d known him, texted anything.Bracing himself with the possibility one of his brothers was hurt or dead, he opened the message.

I’m with your girl and we are having fun.

“Oh, shit,” he muttered.“Mabel, I have to go.”

“Everything okay?”

“I’m not sure.My crazy brother is in town.”With that cryptic answer, he left.Knowing that Mabel would take care of everything, he hopped on his bike and raced home.

The wordfuncould mean many things to his psychotic brother.The man had impulse control issues.Whenever Jeremiah needed to teach someone a lesson, he gave Saxon free rein to do his worst.It was the only therapy he needed.So, Cross had no idea what he was walking into.

It certainly wasn’t laughter coming from the living room.When he stepped through the doorway, Lorelei had their hair up in a messy bun and Saxon had a big hair clip holding back his bangs.Green goo plastered on their faces.Lorelei was in the middle of painting Sax’s toenails pink.

“What the ever-loving shit is going on?”he demanded.

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