Page 10 of Intolerable Bishop

Following my father around was the last thing I ever wanted to do, but he’d been more secretive than normal. He’d also left a couple of his guards down near Neil’s cell, so I couldn’t get to it without him finding out. There was no need to have them stationed there. That man wasn’t going anywhere, so why? The only answer I could come up with was to keep me out.

I’d stayed far back from the glowing dot on my screen and parked around the corner from where his car had stopped. I knew this area well. It was the same street that Mya and her family had lived on. Getting out of my car, I wandered down the road and pulled my hood up. I hung out under the tree away from the streetlights and spied my father’s car about six spots ahead. I’d avoided this entire neighborhood after the night my father had Mya killed. She’d become my weakness, and he stabbed me through the heart with a blade of my making.

He looked around as he got out of his car and walked up to the door of a house. I had no idea who lived there, and I came from the wrong direction to get any closer. He rang the doorbell, which was odd all on its own. My father didn’t ring doorbells. He had other people do it, or he killed whoever inconvenienced him. Interest piqued, I slipped around the tree to try and get a better angle, but the person who opened the door stayed in the shadows, and I couldn’t tell who the hell it was. Feminine arms wrapped around his neck, and the door closed behind him. So, my father had a secret lover in a middle-class area who he seemed affectionate with? What the fuck? And who the fuck?

More burning questions to be answered later because I had a meeting with a guy by the name of Merlin. Which I was sure was going to be a magical experience. I smirked at my own stupid joke. Walking back to my car, I got in and made note of the day and time my father had come here. It could be nothing more than some girl he was paying to fuck, but everything could be something.

Starting the car, I turned around and drove out of the subdivision the same way I arrived. It only took me twenty minutes to get to my new building at this time in the morning, and I pulled around back to wait.

“Jesus, fuck!” I jumped when someone tapped on my window. Shutting off the car, I got out and wanted to hit Liam. “You just scared the fucking shit out of me.”

“What are you doing here,” he asked.

“I could ask you the same thing,” I countered. Liam smirked.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I was inside doing more demo when I heard you pull in. Now, your turn.”

Leaning against my car, I crossed my arms and pretended not to smell the cigarette smoke on Liam. He thought I didn’t know he still had the odd smoke, but I knew. I just chose to keep it to myself until I needed leverage.

“I’m waiting for a local biker. It’s the MC that took over Hammer’s club.”

“Why the hell are you getting involved with that turf war?”

“I’m not,” I said and shrugged, but I didn’t get to explain further as the roar of a motorcycle pierced the night before the single headlight pulled into the driveway.

The stranger pulled up close enough that I had to shield my eyes from the light. Prick. The rumble rattling the windows in the building behind me ceased as the guy turned off his ride and plunged us into silence. He climbed off the bike like all bikers did with an air of fuck you, and my balls are bigger than yours, bullshit.

“You Nash,” the guy asked.

“Depends on who’s asking,” I answered, and his brow furrowed together into a mean scowl. Despite features that could land him on the cover of GQ, he looked like he ate bullets for breakfast.

“Name’s Merlin.”

“Yes, I’m Nash, and this is Liam.”

“You needed a babysitter? How sweet,” he mocked and pulled a cigarette out from behind his ear and lit it up. I ground my teeth, wanting to say something sarcastic back, but that wasn’t a good way to start a business arrangement. “Are you going to negotiate all on your own? I mean, you barely look old enough to be out of diapers, let alone brokering a gun deal.”

I took a step closer to Merlin and let him see the insanity that lived within me. The beast that simmered under the surface and was always filled with a toxic rage.

“I am. Do you have a problem with that?”

His lip twitched up, and he pulled the smoke from his mouth and blew it up in the air. “Alright, enough wasting time. What’s the deal?”

“I hear you need guns and ammo at a discount,” I said, and Merlin nodded. “Well, I need safe passage through your MC’s territory starting next month.”

“Passage for what?” He crossed his arms.

“A tour bus. I’ve decided to get into the tourism industry, and I don’t want my paying customers to get hurt as it brings them through your side of town.”

“Tourism?” He laughed hard, the sound loud in the deserted parking lot. “That’s fucking good, kid. No offense, but you don’t look like the type that has seen a hard day, let alone ballsy enough to run an operation of this size. Do you even know how to use a gun, or are your hands too delicate to do the dirty work?”

I stepped into Merlin’s personal space. “Don’t call me kid or spew shit you know nothing about. I’ve lived a hell you can’t even fathom, and I’d bet everything I have that I’ve had to get my hands dirty more than your motorcycle riding ass ever has,” I snarled.

Merlin stepped up so we were nose to nose, and I glared into his eyes as we sized one another up. He finally smirked.

“You have balls, Nash. I’ll give you that.” He dropped the rest of the cigarette on the ground and crushed it with his boot. “What discount do we get?”

“Any gun, fifteen percent off, and ammo, twenty percent.”