Page 91 of Darling Psycho

He spun on the stool, sipped at the now cold coffee, and glanced at the cat begging for scraps.

“What do you think, Oscar? We give her a few hours, huh?”

It was a few minutes later, his phone vibrated with a message.

Badass:If you’re playing vigilante today, please be careful.

Lawless:I will.

Badass:XOXO

Bad guys to slain.

And a woman to tie to his bed.

Seemed like a full day to Lawless.

* * *

Something Lawless read once in one of his many books had always stayed within the walls of his busy mind; Machiavelli said it was better to be feared than loved if you can’t be both.

Some nights he’d stew over that one sentence, looking at it from all angles.

On the surface, it’s pretty self-explanatory.

Love was fickle, supposedly turned on and off at will.

And fear was much more predictable.

It’s externally based and never wore off if you remained the same.

It was always theif you can’t be boththat fucked with Lawless’ head. Being the nutcase who needed the answers to everything, he went over that last part for months, figuring out what it meant.

If he asked Angela, she’d said love was stronger than fear.

Crazy little badass with her begging bowl out for love, taking risks that had no guarantee. He’d watched her for years, giving love to Zara and Rider, their kids, and anyone else to come through the MC doors.

Fuck’s sake, she was Lawless’ biggest puzzle, wasn’t she?

Maybe he feared her.

Feared what she made him feel.

An empty man suddenly feeling.

Damn, wasn’t that someone to fear?

It meant he was running with no safety measures in place.

Nothing to stop him from detonating.

It was a sickness even to contemplate inviting someone into his darkness.

An ordinary man would feel guilty over it, probably wring his hands and howl for forgiveness.

Lawless didn’t experience any of those pedestrian thoughts as he stalked into Bar Icy many hours later.

Chasing down a sex ring took time, longer than he expected.

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