Tame his Beast - Claire C. Riley Page 0,1

him for the past year, and he’d learned to trust my instincts. When I got a feeling about something being off, I was usually right. I’d been an enforcer for the Devil’s Highwaymen for the better part of ten years, and I was damn good at my job. Maybe even too good, because I didn’t flinch anymore. Not for anything. Or anyone.

I pulled my own gun out, flicking off the safety, and we made our way toward the barn doors cautiously, listening for any sound that might have been out of place. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath while I listened, but after several minutes of nothing but silence I opened my eyes back up.

“You gettin’ paranoid, brother?” Echo smirked, flicking his safety back on. “Old age creepin’ up on you making you not work right?”

I gave him the middle finger. “That’s not what your mama said,” I drolled.

“Yeah?”

“Fuck yeah.” I smirked back.

“What’d she say then?”

Kid was a quick learner, with a black heart that matched my own. In another life we would have been blood brothers. As it was, we were club brothers, and the bond was just as strong. He was younger than me by a good fifteen years, easily, and he liked to remind me of that fact on a daily basis.

“She said she liked me creepin’ up on her pussy while you were still suckin’ on her—”

“All right, all right,” Echo barked out a laugh. “Show some respect for her, brother.”

“What can I say? Your mama can’t resist me.” I laughed back and put my gun away, more than ready to go grab a beer and get laid. It had been a long-ass day dealing with traitors and ending in death. A man needed to fuck and drink away a day like today.

We pushed open the barn doors, both of us still laughing as we came out and the full moon above shone down on us like a light from heaven, when something hot sliced past my right cheek. The pain wasn’t bad, but the shock of it caught me off guard and made me stumble. I reached for the gun at my waistband at the sound of more gunfire coming from the line of trees in front of the barn, watching as Echo fell backwards in slow motion, a red stain blossoming in the center of his chest as the sound of gunfire continued to explode all around me.

I dropped to the ground with a grunt as fiery pain burned through my right thigh and something heavy hit the back of my head, making my world go black.

Death—it was nothing to be feared.

Nothing to run from.

Nothing to hide from.

Death was inevitable for us all, in the end.

*

Red-hot pain tore through my body and I coughed and choked on the blood that erupted from my dry lips and spilled over my chin.

“Beg!” someone’s voice roared from above me. “Beg me, motherfucker, and we’ll stop!”

Laughter so mocking it set my teeth on edge more than the pain did echoed around me and I snarled up into the darkness around me.

“Nah, not really, but I’ll end it quickly,” the voice laughed again.

I recognized the voice.

From somewhere in the back of my head, my memory screamed at me to remember. I knew who this was. I just couldn’t place them.

Pain so bad I thought my heart would give out rattled through my body. Every organ, every limb, every nerve was on fire with the agonizing ache of death at its bony fingertips. Much like Angel, my eyes refused to open. Wouldn’t matter anyway. After they’d taken a knife to one of my eyes, I didn’t wanna see anything else. Blackness surrounded me, but the pain was vivid, illuminating my dark world every time my body tried to shut itself down.

How much could one body take before it gave in?

Angel had lasted four hours, but I’d known men to last for days—weeks, even, depending on the punishment I gave them. I’d never wished for death before, but in that agonizing moment, I wished for death to take me. For the pain to end. I wondered if that had been the same final thoughts of every man I’d tortured and killed over the years.

I know it was what Angel had wanted.

A hot blade sliced into my side, deep enough to inflict agonizing pain but not deep enough to kill. I didn’t even have the energy to call out anymore.

The horses stomped their hooves, agreeing with my death sentence.