Bound In Secrets : A Death Kings Novel
Civilian Jobs

**Storm**

As Sawyer is walking us with the biker, his confident yellow aura shifts into a rainbow of colors. The feminine spirit that was attached to him is gone, which seems to have triggered a metamorphosis, as signified by his colorful aura. The Death Kings have been looking to recruit him, so he must be a killer with morals. The murder twins don't like many people, so this is unusual for them. The Mamba King willing to take in take in a teenage boy and a six-year-old boy tells me he has morals.

I like him, but I don't want to. I want to rip his hand off for daring to touch my woman. She doesn't belong to him. She belongs to Tempest. That's what the cave dweller part is shouting, anyway. The enlightened portion of me knows she wasn't mine to begin with. She is a person and belongs only to herself. She isn't a possession, no matter how much I want to own her.

"You look in thought. What's on your mind, Clyde?" Sawyer asks, sitting next to me on the grass with Riggs next to her.

"You as always, Bonnie girl," I reply smoothly, then take a drink of my beer.

I can tell by the look on her face that she doesn't believe me. "That's not all you're thinking about. You have the same look on your face that you had when Mark Tompson groped my ass in the locker room. You broke his arm and gave him a black eye and while kill if touched me again."

I shrug my shoulders. "It worked, didn't it? He left you alone after that."

I snort. "If by leave me alone, you mean avoiding me like the plague. I wanted to date his best friend, Anthony. But after your beating, he avoided me too."

"Anthony would never date you, Bonnie. He didn't have the stones. He was a coward and not worth your time."

"You're right. You guys made things difficult for me with dating until you graduated. It was easier to date then."

I smirk before taking another swig. "Was it? I seem to remember that time when your prom date went running and left you on the doorstep the moment JT opened the front door."

"He looked like a 1920s gangster and he had the scowl to back it. His gun also peeked from underneath his jacket. I didn't blame him. He ghosted me after that, though," Sawyer replies while Carter hands both her and Riggs beers.

The movie is playing in the background now. Katie is sitting in Tee's lap and Darius is sitting beside the red-headed teenager. Carmen in the lap of her bald husband Cruise, while petting the brown hair of her other husband Jermy. Mr. and Mrs. Meyers are sitting side by side in metal chairs holding hands while Nate is talking with them in his chair beside Jensen's father.

Jensen is seated on my other side in the grass and Carter plops down in front of Sawyer with his head in her lap. Not seeming to mind having Rigg's link hand on his chest with Sawyer's as she strokes his sea foam green hair with the other hand. JT is lying on the ground beside Carter, using his stomach as a pillow. It's not unusual, we have always been comfortable with each other.

Jensen rests his head on my shoulder with a yawn. "I'm exhausted."

"I know. Do you have work tomorrow?" I question.

"Only if a crime scene gets called in. I'm hoping for a day off," Jensen replies.

"You could use it."

"Do you have any funerals?"

"Nothing my director and his assistant can't handle."

"So you're the one who bought the funeral home," Sawyer comments.

"Yes. The dead deserve better respect than what they were receiving from the previous owner."

"You are not wrong there. I attended the funeral of a fallen brother last year. It was a shit show," Riggs says. "His clothes were not put on correctly. He looked like a clown. His rings went missing. They dropped the coffin before burying him. His poor momma had a heart attack when her dead son came flopping out. Oh, when I got to the graveside to the service, they were digging the hole and hadn't put the grave liner in yet."

"Stories like that are why I bought the home. It's going to take to build the reputation back up. Carter is doing the marketing for it and JT's club to get them both out of the red. I had the home remolded. It now has its own crematorium. I've hired all new staff and I'm the mortician until I can hire someone to replace me," I explain.

"Romeo mentioned something about a crime scene. What does he do?" Sawyer questions. I look at Jensen to replace him asleep.

"He works in the CSI department as the forensic manager. He has had just about every forensic job you can think of except for being a detective. Each department has work kept telling him the same thing. He has phenomenal management skills. So, when he applied for a career with Grêle CSI, they made him the manager because of his former employment recommendations."

"How does that work? Being employed by the police and being a mercenary?" Riggs asks.

"Jen is good at his job. We can leave a crime scene with a zero trace of being there and we have to put forth little effort to cover our tracks or stage a scene. We don't have to call the Aftermath Crew to clean up behind us like the original Death Kings did. We don't have to blow scenes up or set them on fire to cover up our presence like C.H.A.O.S."

"Who taught you guys to kill, leaving no evidence?" Sawyer wonders.

"The Fury Team. We got to train with them. They are masters of stealth. When they do a job, it's in and out with no mess or fuss," JT answers.

"Lucky. I always wanted to train under Griffen. But Tee wouldn't let me because I flirt with Ajax too much."

"Seriously?!” Carter sputters after choking on his spit. "Ajax is the most unstable out of that group and you flirt with him?! All those guys except Finley are old enough to be your father," Carter says indignantly.

Sawyer rolls her eyes at his dramatics. "They are fifteen years older than me. If Fin were alive, he would be Riggs age, who is only five years older than you lot."

"If Viper wants to call me Daddy, I'll let her," Riggs replies with a salacious wink directed at Sawyer, who blushes but recovers quickly by clearing her throat.

"I think I'll stick to calling you Mamba. It's a fitting description," she purrs, biting her lower lip and looking down at his cock.

I growl low in my throat. Either they didn't hear or ignored it, but they continued with their conversation.

"You know it, Viper. Tonight, I'll have you choking on my one-eyed snake as I watch you finger yourself," he says, just quiet enough for only those around Sawyer to hear.

Okay, I've had enough of this guy.

He looks at me with a smirk. "What's the matter, chief? You want to hit me?" he taunts.

"Not here, ya couyons." Sawyer hisses with her hands on our chests, keeping us separated. "Tonight, you all can brawl in the gym while the kids are asleep for all I care. Carter will be with Dillian and me gossiping while we paint our nails." "I'm not painting my nails," Carter grumbles. The look on Sawyer's face says he will do what she says, even if she has to tie him down to get it done.

Riggs and I shake hands around Sawyer. Finally, I get to see what this thorn is made of.