you,” I point at Priest and Saint, “the next time your girl gets kidnapped and ends up in the hospital, the first fucking thing you do is hold her,” I snap.
The room goes completely quiet. The first person to move is Priest, who walks over to me and places a kiss on the tip of my nose.
“Always so bossy,” he teases before smoothing back my hair. “It’s one of the many things I love about you.”
I smile as he takes my hand but moves to stand facing the room, making space for Saint to approach.
Saint looks hesitant, and it breaks my heart all over again.
“I’m sorry,” we both say at the same time.
“What do you have to be sorry for?” we say at the same time again.
Bates laughs from beside me. “Allow me to translate. I feel bad that your fucking prick of a dad kidnapped me, and now one of you guys will have to kill him,” he says in a high-pitched voice, pretending to be me. He drops down a few octaves as he tries to mimic Saint. “I’m sorry my father is such a fucking prick, I only wished we had killed him properly the first time around.”
“All right, you dick, point made.” Saint sighs as he leans in and cups my face. Christ, I love it when they do that like I’m the only thing they want, the only thing they see.
“I wasn’t sure if you would still want me when you realized how tainted my blood was,” he admits, wiping the tear that tracks down my cheek. I hear the other girl in the room whimper, but I ignore her and focus on Saint.
“Not everyone is as blessed as I am to be born into an amazing family. Some people have to create their own, and that’s what you did at Carnage. These people love and care for you, and it has not one single thing to do with your blood and everything to do with your character, your honor, your integrity—”
“All right, we get it,” Tate shouts.
“I will cut you!” I yell at him, making everyone laugh.
“Okay, calm down, Trouble. I get what you’re saying and I’m so fucking grateful you feel that way,” Saint says, placing a soft kiss on my lips before pulling back and moving to stand beside Priest.
I look at my dad, needing answers but not wanting to have to do this a million times.
“I’m missing some Fosters.”
He smiles and shakes his head. “Alex and Kayden have been given a week’s leave. They’re guarding Trav at the minute, much to his disgust, but Tate and Owen will switch out with them tomorrow so they can come see you before heading back. Owen is—”
“Here,” he calls out, opening the door and looking around at the overfilled room. “You go for one shit…” He trails off, making me groan.
“Okay, Flex, speak,” Saint barks, clearly sick of waiting. The room goes quiet as the man who always looked out for me scrubs his hand down his face.
“It’s Derek King now,” he replies, making Priest snort.
“Think what you like, Priest, but I always carried the Kings of Carnage with me.”
“You betrayed us!” Saint yells.
“And I’d do it again,” Derek answers, looking over at the girl who is standing slightly apart from everyone else.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Reign
“My parents, your grandparents, were wack job religious nuts. I couldn’t wait to grow up and get the fuck away from them,” Derek begins, looking over to Saint.
“Garrett believed in their scripture, but back then we were just kids. He took so many beatings for me that I felt indebted to him. Eventually, we grew up and I decided to become a cop. After everything I had seen, I wanted to find a way to balance the scales and do something good for a change. Garrett followed suit and for a while there, everything was pretty fucking good. The week after we graduated from the academy, we were approached about going undercover. A motorcycle gang that went by the name of The Serpents was in pretty deep with a couple of cartels and the city of sin became as well-known for its bloodshed as its gambling.
“The Kings of Carnage were new, they were small, and no match for The Serpents. When they had all but been wiped out, we took over, posing as bikers. We went straight in as the presidents and began recruiting.
“The thing is, you play a role like that for so long, you start to become it. Before