Page 35 of Clear Your Mind

“How’d that fucker come to be your brother?” I nod to the pile of filth on the floor. Last Cowboy had tracked him was a handful of months ago and he wasn’t associated with any clubs then that he could find. So, either he blackmailed or killed to fast-track in, or the Bullfeathers are further gone than we think.

“He’s no fucking brother of mine.”

“So, you just walked in here and left your loyalty at the door for some unexplained reason? Must be all the good vibes and crystals,” I quip, but the sarcasm is taken out of it as a fire fucking engulfs my bicep.

“Holy fuck.” I damn near jump out of the chair, but Krystal kisses my cheek, keeping me seated.

“Let me clean this up a little.”

“Could you maybe not use acid to do it, love?” The joking tone in my voice completely catches me off guard. I just killed a man in front of the woman I fucking adore more than breathing and I‘m making jokes.

“Don’t be a baby.” She returns my attitude and no matter how sick and twisted it might seem to anyone else, it just cements what I feel in my bones about her.

My face softens as I look up into her perfect hazel eyes, but I shake it off. Plenty of time for that later.

Turning back to Ripper, I command, “Talk.” I give the other man in the room my undivided attention and scowl. Which is a good thing because If I focus on what Krystal is doing, I’m likely to have to relinquish my man card because it burns like fucking hell.

“I don’t know how we picked Caddy up. One day he wasn’t there, the next, he was. Full patch and Badger’s ear.”

“No vote, no pros time?”

“From what I hear, there was a vote. Two for, two against. The two against, left. Took some guys with ’em and that’s all I know.”

“When was that?” I already know the answer, but I want to hear what Ripper has to say.

“Four months ago.”

“Why’d you stay?”

He doesn’t answer right away.

“Nothing to say?”

“Because I’m a fucking idiot who believed in the brotherhood. Came up with Badger. He used to be a decent guy. We lost touch for some years, but he popped back up. When he asked me to join, I thought it was the family I needed.”

“That how you treat family?” I wave the gun in the direction of the bullet hole he put in the head of a brother. A well-deserved one, but still.

“No, like I said, he ain’t my brother, and neither are any of the other guys.” He shrugs out of his cut, and I don’t make a move to stop him. “Badger used our history to get to my money and I handed it to him on a silver platter.”

He stops talking at the same time Krystal finishes torturing me and the silence is deafening.

9

KRYSTAL

Itry my best to remain calm but deep down inside, I’m freaking the fuck out. I can clutch every single crystal in stock while standing naked on sacred ground and it wouldn’t be enough to impart enough calm to my soul. Time is what I need.

My gaze keeps straying to Jeff’s body, crumpled on the floor.

I know I should feel something for him, but I don’t.

There’s just nothing left inside me for the man who impacted my life in such a negative way for so very long. The man who raped and beat a woman just to terrorize me. Then treated me like a possession, one he hated but couldn’t let go of. It almost killed me.

Almost.

Or maybe it did.

Laura Maddox died, and Krystal Cox was born of the broken pieces of Laura cobbled and glued back together.

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