Hunter (King’s Men MC #1)

21. Roman

21

ROMAN

I slammed the door shut after Micah had walked inside my apartment, keeping my hands braced on the wooden door and trying to get my emotions under control.

So many of them were running rampant inside me right then that I didn’t know which to focus on.

Anger, annoyance, frustration, and for the first time in a long time, fear .

Not for me, but for the tiny girl living next door to me, who had stumbled inside her apartment with a pale face entrenched in terror, and how fucking badly I hated that.

“You gonna come in all the way, or are you going to stay standing there?” Micah asked mildly.

I turned to him, letting the anger show on my face. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“You weren’t picking up my calls. I thought I would come by and see what was keeping you so occupied… Xavier, is it?”

I glared at him.

He smiled. “How smart. Using your middle name. But I wonder when that girl would start piecing all the clues together. ”

“I won’t let it get that far,” I answered.

He shook his head. “So you’ll what? Keep the girl, marry her as Xavier, and keep this whole part about your life a secret?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“So what is it that you’re planning to do? You went to fucking prison because of the girl. We’ve killed men for doing less.”

My nostrils flared as I walked up close to him. “You’re not fucking touching her. I’ll deal with her.”

“Oh, yeah. I can really see that happening.”

I shook my head and took a step back, not saying anything.

I had always planned on dealing with her, but I knew my definition of dealing with her differed from Micah’s.

“You didn’t just come here to see her,” I said instead of answering him.

His face turned cold, making awareness crawl up my skin.

“Dominic needs us,” he said. “We’ll talk about this later. Let’s go.”

I looked at the fucking mess that had been one of our warehouses.

The fire started at around two o’clock last night and burned almost everything down to a fucking crisp.

We were lucky this place was remote enough that no one noticed and called the cops, but it was only a matter of time before someone stumbled into this mess.

There wasn’t as much damage done to our profit, considering most of the products had been shipped out of state and were going out overseas. One of the first things we bought when we expanded our business was a shipping port near Ocean Beach in San Francisco.

But this was the property of the King’s Men MC, and some fucker decided to burn it to the ground.

Nothing that was left behind was salvageable.

Dominic’s face was thunderous as he assessed the damage.

Micah and I walked up to him. He didn’t turn to look at us, but I knew he was aware we were nearby.

“It’s the fucking Mansen Brotherhood,” Dominic said.

I looked out at the rubble. Fucking hell. It wouldn’t take long for the cops to show up. The fire happened just hours before, and we got lucky that no one reported it.

I cracked my neck back and forth, wishing I could take out my frustrations on the fucker’s face.

“They’re getting cocky.”

“Yes, but first, we have to get rid of everything.”

I nodded in agreement.

Everything was mostly charred, but there might be some things that have survived the fire. It wasn’t something we were willing to risk.

This was one of the properties that weren’t under our names but a shell corporation that could be traced back to China before reaching a dead-end. No one should have known about this warehouse in the first place.

One of the slimy little fuckers must have followed one of the brothers here.

I shook my head.

We pledged in a lot of newcomers. We’d gotten too big to handle everything ourselves, but some of the new ones were pissing me off. They didn’t know how to stay vigilant.

“We need to find them. Find out where all the little fuckers are hiding. We can’t risk getting distracted,” Micah said .

I didn’t miss the jab at me. I glared over at him.

I’d been known to bring men down to their knees with just a look. But Micah simply stared back at me.

“What’s up with you two?” Dominic asked.

I tensed, waiting for him to fucking tell Dominic about Ryleigh. I didn’t know how the man I’d come to think of as a brother would react to the news. Would he see it as a betrayal?

Or just a man obsessed? But Micah surprised me when he shook his head. “Nothing.”

Dominic didn’t look like he believed us, but he didn’t seem too concerned that there was something we weren’t telling him.

It just showed the level of trust he had in us.

I met Micah’s eyes and looked away.

Perhaps I should tell them about Ryleigh. Tell them I could ensure her loyalty to the club.

I could because not having her loyalty to me, to the club, was not an option.

I had already decided she was mine.

That should be enough.

I opened my mouth to say just that when something moved from the corner of my eyes, catching my attention.

Micah noticed, too, because he shoved me down on the ground, along with Dominic, and yelled, “Gun!”

Bullets flew on the ground around us before our men got out their guns out and shot blindly at the trees covering the bastards.

Micah got off us, and Dominic and I scowled at him before pulling out our weapons.

“We need to take cover and draw them out,” I shouted.

Both men nodded, and we found a metal slate from the wreckage big enough to cover the three of us.

Bullets continued to fly, and I was beginning to think those little fuckers wouldn’t come out when the first one made an appearance.

I didn’t recognize him.

Nothing on his clothes told me which gang he belonged to, which made it all the more frustrating. Was the Mansen Brotherhood the only gang we needed to keep an eye on? Or were there other up-and-coming cockroaches that had gotten too cocky?

More men came out after the first one, which turned into an all-out battle.

We took a step away from the slate and got closer to them.

“I want one alive!” Dominic shouted.

Micah covered me, and I ran directly toward one of the fuckers.

His eyes widened when he saw me coming, fear making him sloppy. He shot at me and missed.

After he fired a third missed bullet, I got close enough to tackle him to the ground, wrestling the gun away from him.

He looked at me with wide eyes as I pulled my arm back and punched him on the jawline, knocking him out cold.

I watched the fucker for a beat when a sharp sting cut through my bicep.

I let out a small grunt just as another fucker dropped dead on the ground from Dominic’s bullet.

The rest of the cockroaches seemed to disperse quickly after that, leaving anyone who couldn’t leave, behind.

Stupid fuckers.

Micah came up to me, reaching down and helping me stand up.

“All right?” he asked gruffly, eyeing my arm with blood dripping down.

I grunted.

This one hurt like a motherfucker .

“We have to get this checked out,” he said.

I shook my head.

“I’ll take care of it at home,” I said.

I wasn’t going to the fucking hospital for this. That would only invite more questions. Micah looked like he was going to protest, but I shook my head.

“I’m fine. It’s not the first time I’ve had to tend to myself.”

His lips pressed down in a thin line, but he didn’t say anything.

Dominic came up to us. His hair was a little messed up, and he got some dirt on his face, but otherwise, he looked unscathed. It seemed I was the only one who got hit.

“Do you recognize any of them?” he asked.

I shook my head, anger running through my veins like fire, burning me from the inside out. They shouldn’t have gotten so close to us in the first place.

And based on the crap shots fired, these sons of bitches were fucking amateurs. New to the life.

Micah kicked the foot of the unconscious man that I had tackled to the ground earlier.

“I’m sure I can find out who the fuck they are.”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. We got careless, and this was the fucking price to pay. It’s probably the Mansen Brotherhood.”

“Then where the fuck are they? I don’t fucking care how big this city is, there is no way those two shitheads can hide from me,” Micah said. “Not unless they have help from some powerful people.”

I nodded. We’d always figured there were key players working with the Mansen Brotherhood. The problem was separating the corrupt ones over the ones too chicken shit to do anything.

There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Mayor Gallagher was a part of it. He was probably the one hiding the two fuckheads. We thought Judge Hudson was too. And that could be problematic in the future for me, considering I was gonna marry his daughter.

Problematic, but not impossible.

As if Micah knew what I was thinking, he turned toward me thoughtfully before bending down and heaving the unconscious man over his shoulder.

“Don’t interrupt me for the next two days. I would like some time with my new toy. Thanks, little brother. I’ll make sure you getting shot was fucking worth it.”

Beside me, Dominic laughed. “Sadistic bastard.”

I grunted in agreement.

He was exactly that.