Rose (Road Kill MC #3) by Marata Eros

Move.
    Ned, my boss from work, is seated in a huge log chair like a throne, his light-blond hair a halo around his head. A gun is pointed nice and steady at my chest. “Hello, Rose.”
     
    *
     
    Air roars into my lungs, and saliva dries in my mouth as I choke on my spit. “What?” I whirl, facing Drake. He spreads his hands out at his side.
    I turn back to Ned, feeling light-headed. I've had protein. My sugars are great—I made sure of it. That's not the issue. I'm scared out of my mind. “Why are you here, Ned?”
    I can't wrap my head around why he would be in this place, holding a gun on me.
    “You won't be missed, Rose. Now that you're involved with Noose from Road Kill.” He shrugs.
    My heart pounds, my mind circling a terrible epiphany. Deep down, I understand that when I have answers, I'll also have death.
    Keep him talking, Rose. My fear lodges in my throat, and I push my words through it. “What does my boyfriend or whatever this is”—my eyes flick to the dark barrel of metal pointed at me—“have to do with anything?”
    Drake walks casually toward where Ned sits.
    He turns, placing a familiar hand on the ornately carved pine back of the chair Ned sits on. Ned lowers his hand, resting the butt of the pistol on his knee.
    I lick my lips and jump as a squeal of happiness pierces the air. Ned stares indulgently at the window for a second, then his eyes move back to me.
    Cold. Hard.
    This can't be because I've rejected him? A married guy, my boss?
    “Charlie is mine.” His voice is flat.
    I fall to my knees, hand to my heart. Lights dance across my vision like lost fireflies. “No.”
    “ Yes, Rose. Drake messed it up, killed the tramp by accident.”
    That flat pisses me off. “Anna was no tramp.”
    He shakes his head. “Not at first. But when promised enough, she became one. She was my little sex slave. Willing. Anything to get away from Drake. Of course”—Ned shrugs—“Drake didn't know about our dalliance. Believed Charlie was his.”
    “Did you ever wonder why I'd beat Anna to death?” Drake asks me.
    I'd spent hours wondering why that son of a bitch had beaten the mother of his child.
    I distance myself from fear, self-loathing, and the slew of other emotions that bombard me. “Why?”
    “Ned came to me. Told me he had a little problem I'd love to solve.”
    Ned smiles, tilting his gun in an aw shucks gesture.
    My breath scalds me as I force it in and out of my lungs, my heart beating like a wild beast banging its way out of my ribs.
    “You—what? Promised Anna a way out from the MC, from Chaos and Drake? Then when things got complicated, you had Drake kill her?” I yell, standing.
    “It's simpler than that, Rose. I simply came to Drake and showed him proof of the child's DNA. Told him she'd begged me to bang her. Wanted to fuck another man. And that kid wasn't his—he was mine. Nature took its course from there.”
    Blackness eats at the edges of my vision as I stare at Drake. “And you didn't find out what anything was? You just—killed her?” I choke, tears coming out of my eyes so fast they blind me.
    “Nobody wants a bitch that fucks around on them.” Drake shrugs. “It was slower than I thought it'd be. Killing Anna. She fought back.” He adjusts his dick as I sob. “It was fun.” Drake's eyes glitter at me.
    “What do you want with Charlie? You're married. You—” I can't finish because I'm blubbering.
    “Not married. Never been married. Will never be married. It's a front.”
    I see Charlie in his smile and the light color of his hair, and I still want Ned dead so badly my teeth ache with it. “Why Anna?”
    “I'm the flesh mover, Rose.”
    He stands, terribly tall from my vantage point. Like a king on a dais.
    I retreat a step. “Flesh mover?” My voice is hollow, my hands like chilled ice.
    “We sell women, you naive cunt.” Ned flashes a smile like a mouth full of shark's teeth.
    I don't realize I've backed up until my butt hits the door handle and a