Royally Broken by Elle Boon Page 0,5

fuckers had thought he or Burt would have enough money to set them up, he had no clue.

“Your friends are getting antsy out there.”

Keys looked behind him. “Heard your bikes earlier. You need to go back out and keep on riding, King.” He met the other man’s gaze.

“You know that ain’t happening. Burt called me an hour ago. He asked me to come over, said he had something to talk to me about. Fuck, I told him I’d be right over, but I got tied up.” He looked at Burt’s body. “I might’ve been able to save him.”

The heavy thud of someone coming up the steps had Keys aiming his gun at the door, the other he trained on King.

“Yo, you might want to put that away before I get really angry. Besides, your friends outside done pissed me right the fuck off, and I might’ve killed one of them, so we already have a body to get rid of. Wheels is on his way with a cage, King.”

“Why would Burt call you if he had a problem?” Keys looked at King.

King glared at Keys. “Put the gun down, prospect.”

He’d met King when he’d gone to get a tattoo after Burt had told him about a guy he knew. Burt seemed to know everyone. He’d known the other man was in a motorcycle club, had seen his cut and the other men with their bikes lined up outside. “This ain’t your problem,” Keys said, lowering his guns.

“Yeah it is. First of all, Burt was a friend, a brother. He didn’t deserve to go out like this. Second, you’re a prospect, which means you’re one of us. I sponsored your ass. You saying you don’t want in? Think real hard, Keys. Royal Bastards are good to have on your side.” King kept his voice low, looking toward Burt once again. “Traeger, that cage here yet?”

“Just pulling in, Pres.” Traeger stepped out on the porch as the sound of a truck could be heard.

“Fuck, you boys are all gonna get your asses arrested.” Keys shoved a gun in the back of his pants, the other in the front.

“Nah, this ain’t our first rodeo. Get a blanket, Traeger,” King said, waving toward the back.

“I got it.” Keys stepped around the mess in the middle of the floor. “The men outside, they still alive?” he asked King.

Traeger shook his head. “They were going for weapons on their bodies. Duke took out two, I did one. Another was gasping his last breath when I got to him. Those shots though, fucking A, man, those were the shit.” Traeger moved back inside after waving to someone outside.

Keys jerked his head up and down, walking away without answering. He didn’t need to explain to any of them he’d purposefully shot the men where he had so they wouldn’t die. “Tom and Lucy, the dogs, I gotta bury them.” He said as he came back with Burt’s patchwork quilt from his bed. He and King laid it out on the floor, then put Burt in the middle before carefully rolling him up in it.

“Wheels done loaded them up. Damn shame, but he was good people. Looks like he put up a fight.” King looked around the room. “We’ll need to close this place up tight.”

The next several hours reminded Keys of his life before, when he was burying bodies in the jungle. Only this time, he was taking bodies to a gator farm. How King knew of one outside of Los Angeles, he didn’t know but made a mental note not to piss the guy off. They’d loaded their bikes on one trailer, while they all piled in another vehicle, dead bodies and all. If someone would’ve told Keys he’d be driving around with the President of a motorcycle club, a few other members, and several other dead men in the back, he’d have told them they were crazy. Yet here he was with the sun rising, driving away from a gator farm after watching a bunch of big fucking gators having a feeding frenzy, until there was nothing left to see but swishing tails. “What about Burt?” he asked.

King looked in the rearview mirror. “What do you mean?”

Keys looked down at the floorboard. “Someone is going to come looking for him.”

“Nah, he already had shit in place for when he left this world. I’ve known that old man since I was a kid. My old man was a prick on the best of days.” King waited for