vra
halt in the inner comp
from overhead speakers. Dozens of customized choppers were parked in neat, menacing rows under corrugated metal awnings. Severaleconds. Heavy, appraising s
e cab, and signaled Chloe to unload
the southern cowards
A massive ring of brass keys jangled at her hip, and her bleached hair was pulled into a
ong the border, this woman had taken advantage of Erik's collapse to seize control of the clubho
down her crooked nose at me. "You might have a ring on pap
in the back of my throat
her an empress. She didn't understand how outlaw empires actually functioned. In the one-percenter wo
eight docks, cross-border weapon corridors, and the very interstate transport lines my mother had died trying to defend. Erik Marshall was the only warlord w
he second Erik Marshall stood up and wrapped his hands around his throttle bars, Martha's twenty-year administrative grift and
raight through her as if she were made of
. Her jaw tightened, ugly red
s in the basement quarantine. Stinks so bad even the yard dogs won't go nea
el and marched int
nd followed her inside. Chloe stayed glued to my six,
concrete stairs toward the sub-level bunker, the temperature dropped, replaced by a thick,
d outside a reinforced vault door. They looked at me with dull, resigned
eece collar up over her nose. She unhooked a heavy brass
ng her back. "Don't expect anyone to c
not be
and brought the heavy tread do
EEE
he rough concrete with a sblack gaze onto Martha's eyes. A cold, moc
. "You think you're untouchable because the man who built this kingdom can't stand. But the moment I pull Erik Marshall out of that bed,
xpression. Beside the threshold, the two armed Enforcers straightened
harsh, rasping cackle-loud and grating, despera
our weeks. His guts are black, the undertaker is already on standby, and the only place he's riding next is six feet into the dirt! You think you're going to pull him out of tha
the tip of my boot, spun on her heel, and hurried up the stair
aught the heavy key in my left han
rned with a
A wave of stagnant, feve
luminated only by a single red emer
loe," I ordered quietly. "Nobody steps
ustable hospital bed. The sheets were stained
tarvation, his sheer physical frame exerted a suffocating gravity. His chest was wide as an anvil
rim" Ma
to the
high cheekbones and a sharp, aristocratic nose. His skin was pale, his dark brown hair
ves and pressed two fingers fi
ut his pulse was abnormally slow,
ack the so
r with rusty surgical staples. The wound margins were swollen, weeping foul discharge
rm, calibrated pressure to h
ched-a faint, unmistaka
clinical fury ig
ely intact. This was not ir
dotoxin compound bound selectively to voltage-gated sodium channels, paralyzing motor pathways while leaving senso
this ward hadn't misdiagnosed him-they were delibera
ing me here was an execution-a convenient way to bur
dea what they
vel chaos, and I would be left fighting the South with noth
my back. Access to the untraceable freight routes I needed to resurrect my mother's pharmaceutical legacy, and a heavy-ca
rrection. I wa
ed in blood, iron,
rs, he was a dead man wa
was an hour of precision deb
teel side table, unzipped the compartmen
ray, the massive hand resting atop the stained sheet twitche/1/131811/coverbig.jpg?v=9e882aca144ccdf9a381a0215dfaad26&imageMogr2/format/webp)