Page 38 of Hades

She appeared to dither, anxiety in her murky eyes so he flattened his tone. “I fucking mean it. And make sure you get your travel plans in motion, I want this house sold and soon.” He ignored her protests of where would she go. He didn’t give a fuck, the local dump for all he cared.

No one ever asked Hades what he’d wanted. Continuously told;do this, go there, get me this.A glorified, unpaid dogsbody for most of his adolescence, treated abysmally by every adult he’d come across, as he walked from his mother’s house, he felt a sense of freedom leaving her behind. Leaving behind ghosts of his past.

He knew once he climbed onto his bike he would not ever return to this place. He was finished with it. The last thread to his past was gone.

A free man.

And a free man can do anything, go anywhere and do anything he wished. No longer shackled by a noose like obligation.

Casting his gaze back only once as the engine idled underneath him, Hades took the time to zip his jacket and pull on a pair of leather riding gloves.

Without guilt or sense of love inside him, he truly was the monster his father had made him to be. After all, if he wasn’t, shouldn’t he feel something now? Knowing the woman who birthed him was dead inside?

Instead, what Hades had on his mind was how to better his future now there was no longer his own demons dogging at his heels and dragging his sorry ass into the dirt.

He was freed from the servitude that bonded people with blood.

Love never played a part in his life.

It was more than evident he had not been wanted by his parents. He’d been the annoying gnat people swatted at.

But now he was the last one standing.

And freedom had never tasted so good.

Renee Williams funeral was held on a cold Thursday afternoon.

Hades was the only attendee.

The police had ruled it accidental overdose.

Life had prevailed, for him at least, not so much for his parents. Death was a bitch, but life, oh, life… he relished in his own mess, knowing whatever had come before, he was the one still here, still drawing breath.

Many looked passed the person of little consequence. Never giving him a second glance, counting him out as any kind of threat. But as he knew now, the underdog was the scrappiest fighter, the dirtiest fighter, because while most adhered to the rules of life, Hades played by his own and intended to live for a very long time yet.

He’d beaten the odds. He’d survived a demon.

Nothing could strike him down now.

Kill them with success and bury them with a grin on his face.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“Who’s that girl?”

“I gotta get that shipment with the Mexican jackoff tonight, boss.” Informed one of his sergeant in arms. It was another meaningless title he doled out to give a façade of importance to what amounted to his men doing whatever the fuck he told them to do. Nodding absently Hades was driving his silver Sierra Denali truck instead of his bike because the quantity of coke he was about to bring back was enough to kill a herd of elephants with one sniff, the space to haul it back was required. Cops nosing around recently put him on edge, even with him paying off the alcoholic bastard sheriff. Talk was he was on his way out on trumped up charges, but until then, he’d continue to grease the law’s hands. This was just a minor setback and nothing Hades was too worried about. With drugs coming in from all over the country, tonight’s pick up was being delivered by a reliable business partner. As he’d told the Russian mafia underboss when they’d shaken hands on day one, he didn’t care what, how, where their drug supply came from and ended up if Hades was cut into the profit for moving the supply along the chain.

So far so good.

Grigori was putting counterfeit shit in the pipeline they wanted him to push through the legal system with a few businesses they were about to set up in and around the area. It was a new endeavor he was willing to become involved in if the price was right. They might be the bigger pricks, but Hades didn’t bow down to anyone, business or otherwise and over the years him and the underboss had come to an amenable, professional understanding. Until that changed, he’d take their money and watch elated while the Renegade Souls fought to clean the state of drugs as fast as he was bringing it in.

Fuck, he loved sticking it to those prissy motherfuckers.

It sickened how fast and hard theSoulsMC had flourished over the years under new ruling. Rider Marinos needed to die slow and painful for all the ego the man had strutting like he owned everything.

Concentrating on the business at hand, tonight wasn’t dangerous, but Hades kept his wits alert. The day someone got the jump on him would be the day he died, and he didn’t intend for that to be tonight.

Slowing at a stop sign, from the corner of his eye he saw two women up ahead teetering on high shoes. Ordinarily he wouldn’t have taken a second look. College women were not his flavor, he liked a woman with a bit more season and dirt about her but as the truck idled he felt a snatch of hot awareness in his gut as he stared at the one with honey blonde hair blowing across her face. Parked too far away to hear what they were saying as they strolled along the sidewalk laughing together, the action animated the girl’s face.

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