Malicious: A Nomad Biker Novel (Raiders of Valhalla MC Book 1), Elizabeth Knox [best book series to read TXT] 📗

Charm giggles as my brothers groan.

“What can I say. You don’t piss off a woman who knows how to bake,” she says while still laughing. Her laughter spurs all of us to start laughing. “But as long as you don’t make me upset, your food is safe with me.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” Rati groans.

“If you say so,” Dag mutters at the same time.

“So are we eating here or what? The princess demands food. The dog is in the backyard,” Runes quips, getting in on the fun.

“We’ll go to Pancake House,” I declare, letting go of Charm to reach for my daughter. “I’ll load them up in the truck and meet you all there.”

“Why don’t I drive them and you can ride with your brothers,” Charm offers.

“You sure?” I ask, getting a sweet smile from her. “Alright, I gotta do something with the dog you all adopted.”

“His name’s Beowolf, Daddy,” Astrid informs me even though I know this.

“Yeah, VP, you should have warned us you got a fuckin’ dog last night. Damn thing growled at me for tickling Astrid this morning,” Runes mutters as I set my daughter on her feet. She darts off to Charm’s car with her brothers following right behind her.

“I guess I better go get my bag so we can go,” Charm says and goes to move, but I catch her hand, bring her to me, and lay a kiss on her mouth. Only when she’s moaning into mine, do I release her.

I grin down at her when she stares daggers at me. “Can’t help that after one taste of that mouth it’s addicting,” I chuckle, earning an eye roll from her.

Charm leaves to go get her stuff as I turn to my brothers.

“Happy for you, brother, and I hate to rain down on it but you need to know something before you take things any further with Charm,” Runes states.

“What’s that, Prez?” I ask, tensing as I wait for him to hit me with whatever it is.

“Got a message from Vanir right before that shit with Charm’s mother happened. He’s found some information on the men who paid off the junkie who killed Amanda,” Runes sighs. “You remember the Corrupt Kings MC that Marker was talking about?”

“Yeah, it’s the same club that was fuckin’ with the Reapers Rejects MC and shot at one of the members. I believe it was Bull,” I growl.

“I remember that shit. It was the Corrupt Kings MC’s President, Boomer, who shot Bull,” Dag sneers.

Nodding, I take a deep breath. “So now the Corrupt Kings are what, targeting us?” I ask.

“According to Vanir’s message, I believe this is the case. We’re being targeted for our alliance with those two clubs. They went after Amanda first, and I want to know how they knew. Someone who knew about the two of you had to have said something. I know it wasn’t any of our brothers, so it has to be someone from the outside,” Runes mutters, glancing around at the few of us standing here.

Regardless of who it is, they’ll pay for what they’ve done.

Until then, I’ll keep my guard up and watch out for Charm along with Astrid, Oskar, and Emil. I wouldn’t put it past Boomer and his band of fuckups to do something stupid as come at me twice. If he does, it’ll be the last time.

I may have lived my life so far in the fast lane, but I’ve also done it by being malicious when needed.

Epilogue

Charm

It’s been an entire month since Fenrir and I stopped fighting the connection we have, or should I call him Soren now? He finally lets me call him by his birth name, but it took him a long time to even let me do it.

The kids are all hanging out at their friends’ houses tonight for sleepovers, and unlike most nights, we have the house to ourselves. For the most part, we spend a lot of time over at Amanda’s old place, but tonight we’re in my house. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel weird being in Amanda’s house sometimes, and since we’re there most of the time for the kids, whenever we can I prefer for us to spend time here.

Fenrir is out with the boys and I’m now in my kitchen seasoning the cuts of steak I got for us a bit ago. I’m making him a nice, home-cooked meal. In addition to the meat, I’ve prepared a squash assortment and some fresh mashed potatoes. He’ll be here in an hour or so, and I made chocolate zucchini cake this morning after he told me he hasn’t had it in ages but loves it.

Fenrir just bought me a new phone after I shattered my old one last week when I was roller-skating with the kids, so after I have the meat in the oven, I’m also working on transferring everything over to the new one. First, I need to delete all the old stuff off my old phone, but as I’m scrolling through old messages, I notice a call I missed from Amanda . . . on the day she died.

Not knowing what to do, I breathe for a moment and gather myself before clicking on her name. I tap on the speaker button and listen as her voice echoes through my kitchen. “Hey, Charm, I’m going to be late getting home. There’s a boatload of traffic so if you could head over and make sure the kids are okay that would be great. Oh, hold on one sec, I need to—No!” Shrieking fills my ears and the sound of metal crushing against metal fills the air.

I don’t need to be a genius to figure out what just happened on the other end of the line, and the horrible part is it doesn’t even stop here. It keeps going, and it keeps fucking going. After a point, I hang up and don’t bother listening anymore.

My eyes are already filled with tears and