Page 49 of Tick Tock, Boom!

"They hit it two nights ago. Motherfuckers waited until dark and blew the foundation. Nothing was left.”

I swallowed hard. "Where is Natalia?"

He didn’t answer.

"Macabre..." I stepped toward him, fists clenched. "Tell me she wasn’t there."

"We don’t know," he said, voice soft. "We searched, but there’s nothing. House is rubble. If she was there..."

The floor dropped out from under me. I fell to my knees, gravel cutting into my skin, but I didn’t feel it. Couldn’t feel anything past the howl in my chest. She couldn’t be dead. Not her. Not Natalia. Not my kitten. My woman. My fucking world.

I slammed my fist into the dirt again and gain. Until blood coated my knuckles and I was gasping like I’d been gutted.

Knuckles stood behind me, silent and solid. My brother. But even he didn’t try to stop me.

I didn’t sleep that night. Just sat on the floor with my gun in my lap, the image of her smile playing over and over in my head. Thoughts of death and ending it played in my head, and then grief mixed with rage drowned out those thoughts.

My home was gone. My club was shattered.

And Natalia?

The only beautiful thing I ever truly wanted in this goddamn life, was now gone too.

"We can’t trust anyone," I muttered. "He’s got eyes and ears everywhere."

"Bulldog knew," Macabre added quietly. "He saw it before the rest of us. That’s why he asked me to watch what Rancid did with the other clubs. He’s been sending men over, placing his own allies in solid positions, pushing power. We don’t know who to trust anymore."

"What about Saddle? Hart? Brimstone? Virgil? The rest. Where are they?"

Macabre exhaled, his voice grim. "Some are injured. Most fled. There's a target out on the founding members. They’re looking for shelter. Hiding. Saddle took a group up to his ranch, their women, their kids. Those are families, Tick Tock. Rancid’s turning this into a fucking purge."

I stared into the fire, my hands shaking with rage. "I’ll kill them," I whispered, my voice barely audible over the storm crashing inside my chest. "All of them. Rancid, the fuckers who helped him. They think this war is over? It’s just beginning. I’ll burn them like they burned her."

Macabre stepped forward, the firelight catching on the edges of his tired face. "We need to wait," he said low. "We've got to be smart. This isn’t just vengeance, it has to be methodical. If we move too soon, we lose everything."

I didn’t want to wait. Every second wasted, was a second Elrik could be dead. But I nodded once. Gritted my teeth. A sense of control was not my forte.

I stared into the fireplace, my hands shaking with rage. "I’m going to murder that bastard. I swear to God I am. One shot between the eyes. They will all know my name by the time I’m done. You think you’ve met Reapers? You have no idea what kind of death is about to be rained on each of them. And when I’m done, I’ll salt the fuckin’ earth they walked on."

NATALIA

2020

That’s how long it had been since I’d run like hell through those dark streets that night, my world shattered. A life that would have been beautiful, gone. It had been ten years since I left behind Louisiana, the Royal Bastards, and everything I thought I knew about love, loyalty, and betrayal. Ten years since I last saw Tick Tock.

The night I ran, bloodied and bruised, with only the broken pieces of my heart and the memory of my father's blood staining the floor, I called the only person I knew would answer without asking questions.

Scarlett Stone.

She was a name my mom whispered about during those rare quiet nights when she still told me stories. Scarlett was one of her cousin’s and although I didn’t really know her that well, she knew me. She was the person, other than my father, who would send me a card on my birthday. Always had a loving message for me even though we were far apart.

She’d given me her phone number once and I’d saved it in my cell phone. Scarlett answered on the first ring. Her voice, rough with sleep, turned sharp and alert the second she heard my name.

“Hello.”

“Hello, is this Scarlett?”

She paused for a second and then responded. “Yes…who is this?”

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