Hunter (King’s Men MC #1)

13. Roman

13

ROMAN

I watched as her muscles relaxed in my arms, and she fell asleep.

I pulled away so I could see her face.

This was the first time she actually fell asleep, knowing I was nearby.

How trusting.

Like a little lamb.

And fuck me, but I wanted to protect this little lamb.

I let my hand drift up, tucking a long strand of her midnight hair away from her face.

There was a certain delicateness to her expression when she fell asleep that I couldn’t get enough of.

This one was mine.

Now and forever.

I didn’t know when my intentions with her shifted away from the girl I should hate for sending me to prison and toward this girl that looked, sounded, and felt like mine.

I was keeping her.

And I would never let her go.

Leaning down, I placed a small kiss on her forehead. Her nose wrinkled in the most adorable little way.

I shook my head, knowing I would have to leave her soon.

I would be back tonight, and it would be the first night I got to spend with her in my arms. I couldn’t fucking wait.

Quietly, I stood up with her in my arms and walked to my bedroom. I placed her down, shifting her body up a bit to get to the covers and pulling it over her, tucking her in.

I moved to the bottom of the bed and removed her shoes, grabbing one foot between my hands and taking in the adorable yellow socks she had on.

I’d never had to take care of anyone but myself, but this felt natural.

It felt as if I was born to take care of her.

Walking back to her, I cupped her head, staring at her for a beat before I forced myself to move and walked out of the bedroom, closing the door behind me.

Gone was the protector, and in its place was a fucking killer.

And my next victim?

Dylan Brown.

I had the fucker’s wallet and looked at it in the kitchen when I went to grab her a glass of water.

The fucker lived in this building just two floors above me.

And if he woke up in the alleyway, I had no doubt he would crawl home to recuperate.

That wasn’t going to happen tonight.

He touched what was mine.

I pulled out my cell phone and called Micah.

He picked up on the first ring, his voice as calm and cold as ever. “Tell me you don’t need me to bail you out of jail,” he asked in the way of greeting.

I rolled my eyes. “Micah, I need your help.”

“I’ll be right there,” he answered without hesitation, hanging up .

I waited in my apartment for about twenty minutes before there was a knock on the door. I sprang to my feet and opened it to my brother’s expressionless face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I need you to come with me and keep watch as I deal with a fucker.”

He frowned slightly. “You need me for that? Prison must have softened you, little brother.”

I leveled a glare at him. “I don’t need you for that. I need you for what comes after. We would need to get rid of the body, and unlike the last time, I need to ensure there won’t be any witnesses around.”

I wasn’t going back to prison, no matter what, and if it meant doing things a little more carefully, then so be it.

He nodded. “Let’s go.”

I smiled, knowing that my brother was game. If I needed to get rid of a body, Micah was the person I turned to for help, considering that was literally in his job description as the club’s enforcer.

I moved out of the apartment, and it wasn’t until we got to the elevator that he spoke again. “You gonna tell me who’s in your apartment right now?”

I looked at him sideways. “How do you know there is someone in the apartment?”

He scoffed. “Because you would have invited me in. And there’s a woman’s scent in there. Some perfume or shit.”

“What are you, a hound?” I asked.

He shot me a wolfish smile.

I looked straight ahead before I answered him. “She’s mine.” And it was as simple as it sounded.

Ryleigh Hudson was mine, whether she—or the rest of the world—knew it or not.

So far, no one knew it, not even the girl sleeping in my bed. But that would change soon enough .

I didn’t miss the attraction I’d seen on her face.

The moment she turned those big gray eyes my way, I knew I was fucking done for.

Fuck me, but I wanted to drown in them.

How unfortunate for her, to become my greatest obsession.

What was more, I was gonna make her mine. And in this life? What was mine stayed mine.

I still wanted to watch her. I couldn’t imagine there to be a time when I didn’t want to watch her, when I didn’t just naturally gravitate toward her. I just wanted to do it with her by my side. Wanted to do it in the capacity where there was no doubt in her mind just who she completely belonged to.

I was going to own her.

This wasn’t about lust, though admittedly, it was there.

I had felt my dick stirring in the confinements of my jeans when she finally settled her gaze on me. Had almost come in my pants when her lips parted as she let out a startled gasp, her eyes taking me in as if I was her next meal.

Fuck, but just looking at her like this had me imagining what she would be like on her knees in front of me while I fucked her mouth roughly…

I shook away the imagery. The last thing I needed was to get a fucking hard-on in the elevator with my brother.

The doors opened, and we walked off. I pulled out the wallet and handed it to Micah.

“We need to get rid of this when we get rid of the body.”

“And you thought it was smart to get your prints on it?” He frowned down at it in his hand. “And mine?”

I knocked on the door and waited, wondering if the fucker got home already, but I didn’t hear anything inside. When no one came to the door, I turned to Micah and said, “We’re gonna burn everything. Now stop complaining so much. ”

He sighed as if this was terribly inconvenient to him, but I knew Micah. I knew he enjoyed the hunt as much as I did.

One eyebrow rose as he watched me pull out the master key from my pocket, though he didn’t say anything.

I grinned when I heard the lock click out of place. I opened the door and made a sigh for Micah to go in first. His lips twitched as he passed through, and I followed, closing the door behind me, locking it back up and leaving the lights off.

The place was empty and dark.

It was perfect.

“Explain to me why we’re here for one insignificant man?” Micah asked mildly from his spot near the window.

I almost didn’t know where he had moved to. The fucker walked around like a cat.

I took a seat on the small recliner and got comfortable. “He touched what’s mine,” I answered.

“The girl in your room?”

I grunted.

“You ever gonna introduce me?”

Again, I gave him another grunt.

I could only imagine how Ryleigh would react to meeting Micah. Or hell, how he would react seeing her and seeing how far gone I really was.

“Fine. I’ll let you keep your little secret for now.”

I didn’t say anything to that. I was fucking glad he wasn’t going to bulldoze his way into this like he usually would have done, though admittedly, a part of me just didn’t know what he would say.

He knew I had been keeping tabs on Ryleigh ever since we had pulled the surveillance camera at the nightclub and found her crouching in the mouth of the alleyway, watching me kill the bastard.

We had her identity soon after, and when I got sentenced, I had Kai and Micah keep an eye on her. I told them not to do anything because she was mine to deal with.

I had every intention of doing it in the safest way possible, in a way that wouldn’t implicate the club, but that was before I finally saw her in person for the first time.

Noises in the hallway caught my attention, and I looked toward the door as the lock clicked, and the bastard stumbled inside his apartment, completely unaware of the two predators in his living room.

But it was just me he needed to worry about. I didn’t need Micah’s help to take care of this piece of shit. He was just here to enjoy the show.

And I would surely put on the best performance of my life.

The fucker closed the door behind him and walked further into the room, turning on the light.

He looked worse for wear.

Not that he would need to worry about his pretty face for long.

After all, a dead man can’t be vain.

He screamed when he caught sight of us, his eyes widening when they met mine.

I grinned, moving to my feet when he started for the door. I grabbed the back of his shirt when he reached for the doorknob.

“Where do you think you’re going? The fun hasn’t even begun yet.”

“P-please.”

I shook my head.

Fucking pathetic.

“Did she beg you?” I asked quietly.

He looked at me, confused, before it cleared away when he realized who I was talking about .

“Did she beg you?” I asked again, cupping his bruised cheek.

He flinched, and I tightened my hold on him.

“Don’t make me ask again,” I said.

He cried and shook his head. “N-No. She was quiet. Please, just let me go. I won’t go near her again.”

I nodded. “You’re right. You won’t go near her again.”

I pushed him to the floor, and he lay there in a crumpled heap, crying. I wondered just how many girls he had done this to in the past. Drunk or not, he had seemed confident that he would get away with it.

Micah walked up silently behind me.

“What an ugly mug,” he commented, looking at the bastard. “Did you do that to him?”

“Of course,” I answered. “Don’t you recognize my artwork?”

The pathetic piece of shit cried louder.

“You’re right,” Micah said. “I see it now.”

I laughed, then turned on the man and got to work.

We moved him to the cremation center, along with his wallet.

The body was now chopped in pieces to make for easier transport, and there was a cleaning crew at the bastard’s apartment, ensuring everything would be spotless once an investigation occurred.

And there would be an investigation, no doubt about it.

I would just need to make sure the police didn’t realize I lived in the same building.

It had been a risk, doing this so close to home.

I could have made it look like an accident, but I had been too blinded by rage to think clearly, and it was too late now .

Instead, we were going to make it look like he took off without telling anyone.

Micah was looking into the fucker’s background, using his contacts, and we were going to make sure there were no traces of us left in the trail.

I watched as the flame ate the corpse, feeling the kind of numbness I had felt ever since I helped Micah kill our old man and run away as a teen.

Sure, he deserved it, but there was never anything pure about killing, and that darkness always took hold of you, never letting go once you got your hands dirty.

We stayed there and watched until there was nothing but ashes, and then I turned to Micah.

“Thanks,” I said.

In an uncharacteristic show of emotion, he grasped my shoulder in his hand and pulled me close.

“You know I would do anything for you, right?”

I smiled, nodding. “Yeah, I know.”

He had proven that time and time again.

In a world where it killed to have a weakness, I knew I was Micah’s.

He would give up anything, kill anyone, and destroy everything just to ensure I was safe.

I realized in the same breath that Ryleigh had become that for me.

But unlike Ryleigh, I could take care of myself.

Micah’s weakness was a fucking predator, while mine was a…

Sweet girl currently sleeping in my bed, unaware of all the monsters that roamed this godforsaken earth.

I wasn’t sure if I would ever have to go against my brother to protect her.

But if that was the case, I knew who I would choose and how the thought made my gut churn.