Page 53 of The Crowing of Hell

At first, I thought Onyx was being serious and then I saw a twinkle in his eye, which quickly disappeared.

“Rooster had the kids blow me up so I wouldn’t run. He guessed I’d be able to outrun him otherwise,” I quipped.

Rooster’s mouth dropped open, and I laughed at his expression as Onyx let out a dry chuckle.

“Damn, you’re a live one. Don’t know anyone who’s had the balls to tease Rooster yet,” Onyx drawled, sitting down.

A second hulking man entered and offered head tilts before grabbing another chair.

“We’ve not met before Kendara, but my club is allied with Hellfire and Rage. Which means when something affects one of them, if they need help, I’ll provide it. It also means if we come across information that one of them needs to know, we inform them,” Onyx said.

“Two nights ago, Riders of Vengeance were contacted by a man named Clive Parsons,” Venom stated. His voice sounded rough, as if it had an issue.

“Clive Parsons is the husband of Lola,” I exclaimed.

“Parson’s has a right fucking hard-on for you. Asshole wants you in a world of suffering and then dead. Seems Parsons thinks you’ve taken his rightful property and hid it from him,” Venom continued.

“If you call a nineteen-year-old girl and his childrenproperty, then yeah, I have her safe,” I snarled, curling my lip.

“Parsons claimed you manufactured evidence to get restraining orders against him. He says you then helped hide his lying wife, who is destroying his kids’ lives. Parsons, funny enough, didn’t mention the eleven calls to his house for domestic violence. Nor the fact his wife and kids between them had been hospitalised fourteen times in the last four years,” Venom stated.

“Oh, I bet Clive didn’t,” I agreed.

“Riders of Vengeance don’t like assholes like him. In fact, we hate men like Parsons. But before we could turn down the job, which he’s offering ten grand for, he gave us your name. No offence, lady, but there ain’t many Kendara’s around here. We told him we’d get back to him and followed him home from the bar where we met. Then we did some digging and discovered that we really don’t like Parsons,” Venom said.

“Dislike is a mild word. Parsons wasn’t aware my club had ties to Rage or Hellfire, but he was careful not to mention your links to them. But he made his wishes clear. Parsons wanted you black and blue and then dead. He thinks that once you’re out of the way, he can get his family back. You deserved to understand the threat against Kendara, Rooster. And we’ve checked and seen Kendara’s had a few incidents lately,” Onyx added.

“Yeah, we’re not sure if it’s two stalkers or one. But thanks for bringing us this,” Rooster said.

“We’ll take gratitude as a beer, food, and decent company,” Venom suggested.

Rooster shot him a stare, and Venom chuckled. “Don’t worry, dude. Ain’t looking for nothing but that. The cooking at the club leaves a lot to be desired. We lost our cook, and we’ve eaten a lot of shit lately.”

“Oh, I can cook,” I offered, struggling to get up.

“You’ll sit your ass there,” Rooster and Onyx said together.

“We order takeout. There are some pretty good places locally. Although, I keep telling Bernard he needs to open a restaurant over here,” Rooster complained. “We’ve got some good restaurants but not a Bernard’s.”

“I love Bernard’s,” I agreed, trying not to drool.

“If we could kidnap Bernard, we would. But we can’t deal with his husband nor the fuss Phoe and Drake would make,” Onyx replied with a dry chuckle. “Order away Rooster, just make it edible.”

I was surprised at how comfortable the evening was. Despite their looks, Venom and Onyx made easy conversation, covering a variety of topics. They’d been laughing at the punishments when Banshee arrived with the boys. Rooster sent all four up to wash up and offered Banshee dinner.

Shee called Sallie-Anne, and she hurried her ass over, grateful not to have to cook on a hot evening like this. Considering the overload of testosterone, not one of them left Sallie-Anne or me out of the conversation. They all talked late into the night, and Ifell to sleep lulled by their voices and curled into Rooster’s side.

???

I woke with a jolt, aware I wasn’t alone in bed and gazed into Brax’s eyes. Brax was attempting to appear innocent, but I heard everyone screaming his name.

“Did you get revenge?” I asked, suddenly guessing what he’d done.

“Don’t hurt my Kenny,” Brax hissed.

“Dad, I’m going to kill him!” Kit yelled furiously.

“You’re going to do shit,” Rooster responded.