OUTLAW KING(36)

“Stay away from her, Anderson,” I said. “I’m not lying. I’ve committed murder and I’m not afraid to do it again. I protect what I love, even if it costs me my life.”

Anderson looked at me. “Sorry to burst your bubble, Kingston, but chances are you did not commit murder. Attempted murder, yes. But murder? Nah.”

“Where’s the proof?” I asked.

Anderson shut the folder and tossed it aside. “Hey, tell you what. Next time you see Uncle Jakey, why don’t you ask him about your brother.”

“What?”

“Just…” Anderson put the car in drive. “I’m trying to help you here. Let you see the bigger picture of life. Let you understand what you don’t know. We can both agree that your brother was a piece of f*cking shit, Kingston. Maybe a man that deserved a bullet to the head. But not in the nature it happened. And especially not with the way it changed the course of your life.”

“What the f*ck does that mean?” I asked.

“When you give me a time and a place… and a name for this product… I’ll tell you more.”

Anderson hit the gas pedal. I had to jump the hell back. The crazy son of a bitch peeled around the parking lot, tires screaming, and then he was gone.

I was uneasy. Everything inside me felt uneasy.

I couldn’t figure out if Anderson was playing me or what.

But one thing I learned inside prison was that you had to trust your gut. You had to push away all the bullshit noise in your mind and just trust yourself.

Where did that lead me?

I didn’t trust Uncle Jakey… which meant I didn’t trust the Reap.





26


(Lindsey) *THEN*

I NEVER SAW King cry before.

Time pulled us apart yet again after I graduated high school. I went right off to college, determined to become something. He was falling deeper into the motorcycle club, getting into trouble, drinking more than he should, and always left me lingering with a feeling that he was sleeping with anything with a slit between her legs.

I hated that feeling.

I was home for the weekend visiting Aunt Jane and old friends when King came to see me. It was completely out of nowhere. I had four friends over. We were drinking wine. Talking about high school. Catching up on old gossip. It was almost… grown up. Like really grown up. Yeah, we weren’t supposed to be drinking wine but Aunt Jane bought it for us. It wasn’t like we were having a wild party.

Truthfully, it felt nice to be grown up. To feel like I was finding purpose.

Right up until Aunt Jane walked into the living room and motioned for me to come with her.

She grabbed my shoulders and whispered, “He’s here. Out back near the fence.”

I didn’t need to know who he was.

It was King.

I stood for a few seconds, half considering telling Aunt Jane to tell him to f*ck off. It had been months since we exchanged any words. It had been well over a year since we last touched each other. In fact, I was sort of seeing someone at college. He was a year older than me, studying pre-med, getting ready to take the world by storm. It seemed so fitting that a doctor and nurse end up together, right? It was cute. Romantic. It was simple.

But I couldn’t resist seeing King again.

So I left through the kitchen and walked through the narrow backyard toward an old chain linked fence. That’s where King stood. He on the outside of the fence, at a little alley that was dirt and grass. I stayed on my side of the fence, as though it were somehow capable of protecting me from him. Not that I needed to be protected from King. Except my heart, because he always made it twist up and hurt.

“Ah, Linds,” he said and smiled.

“King.”

I saw his eyes glistening and then a second later he lowered his head. He grabbed the fence and started to cry.

Like really cry.

I was completely shocked, mouth open, trying to figure out what was happening.

“King… what…”

He lifted his head and looked right at me. Tears fell from his eyes. “Tito… Tito was murdered.”

I felt like someone punched me in the stomach. I grabbed my stomach and lurched forward like I was going to be sick. While I had only met Tito a handful of times and really didn’t know him, I knew that Tito meant everything to King. He was the only father figure King ever had.

“Mur… what?” I managed to ask.

King nodded. “Someone shot him. He’s gone. I got the call an hour ago, Linds. Mom had to go down to the hospital and identify him. She doesn’t want me to see him like that. He’s gone though. My brother. Tito…”

I scrambled to my left and opened the fence. I rushed outside and grabbed for King, hugging him. He leaned down and buried his face into my chest. Usually when he did that there were other implications. Even though he was crying, my body started to heat up. That instant lust that only King was able to produce in me.

“Holy f*ck,” I said. “I’m so sorry, King. So f*cking sorry.”

He picked his head up again. He stepped back, his hands touching my sides. “I didn’t mean to crash your thing in there. I just didn’t know where else to go. You get it. You’ve always got it. He always ran hard and rough. He never listened to me. I tried to help him, Linds. I tried to get him into the Reap. Tried to show him there was a different way.”