I Remember Love 50 Maybe You're Just Afraid You Can't Beat Me?

The men sitting in cl.u.s.ters playing cards are drinking beer waiting for their fearless leader to appear. Hunter had been absent these last few days, word had it he was busy cleaning up after their newest member. That kid Luke had been a headache since the day of initiation. He was wild and unruly, even for a gangster, and it appeared that Hunter was at the end of his rope.

The door to the hangout sprung open with a large crash as it knocked against the walls of their warehouse. The pet.i.te silhouette in the frame was angry and impatient.

"Hunter Matthews, get that loud mouthed a.s.s of yours down here! How dare you put a hit out on me! If you have bone to pick with me, you better d.a.m.ned well be man enough to do the job or self! …Or is that you just too d.a.m.n scared? Maybe you're afraid you won't beat me?"

Luke smirked to himself at the thought. That was probably it. Once he kicked Hunters a.s.s for good, he could take over this club and then s.h.i.+t would get real. These losers had no idea what real leaders.h.i.+p was, but that was fine. Soon enough, they would find out.

When the office to the door upstairs creaked open, a pall fell over the room below. It was b.a.l.l.sy enough of this kid to come in here spewing a challenge after all their boss had done. But now he had the b.a.l.l.s to say he could take down their boss? A few of them even started to rise from their chairs.

"That's enough. All of you, back in your seats." Hunter barked the order daring any of the kids downstairs to step forward and interfere. "Not one of you is to move! Kid, you think you're man enough to take me down? You got it, don't say I didn't warn you!"

With that he began to make his way down the narrow staircase to the bottom floor, as he moved toward the door the room began to clear more and more men backing toward the end of the rear of the room.

"You two!" Hunter motioned with his hand "Clear this s.h.i.+t away, it's time to take out the trash."

Hearing this Luke smirked that standard c.o.c.ky smile of his and stepped forward. "I couldn't agree more! Here I thought the man who ran the Soldier's was a real man. Turns out that at the first sign of trouble he tucks his tail and kills his men to curry favor!"

Luke spit at the ground by Hunter's feet and sneered. "Disgusting!"

By this time Hunter's eyes were narrowed to slits as he listened. His tone turned cold. "Fine, if you think you can do better. You can have them, but first, you have to kill me."

Luke was already cracking his knuckles in eager antic.i.p.ation. This was going to be fun. "Sounds good to me!"

Hunter swept his eyes around the room, glaring at the men around them. "This is a one on one fight only. No holds barred. No interruptions. This doesn't end until one of us is dead! Am I understood?"

The men watching could only nod their heads. None of them dared stand up to Hunter, let alone help this scrawny kid. Good riddance. There had been nothing but trouble since Luke had joined anyway.

Luke was bouncing on the heels of his feet in antic.i.p.ation, switching his gait back and forth between his right and left foot, arms in the air and ready to attack or defend as needed. Hunter stripped down to his skin to remove any enc.u.mbrances and watched the c.o.c.ky runt bounce around with an air of disdain. Can't say he hadn't given him a fair chance.

Hunter took the first swing, his arm crossing right to land squarely against Lukes jaw. He had managed to dodge but it wouldn't take long to land another hit, his eyes were keeping a steady tab of all the kids movements. He had sparred with him so many times, he was more than familiar with all his movements. Pity, if he had been so b.l.o.o.d.y hot headed he would have been an excellent soldier. Too bad this punk just refused to take orders and fall in line.

Luke had dodged his punch and retracted, his feet bouncing back before he danced forward, his arm swinging to the left in an attempt to catch Hunter off guard. Unfortunately for him, he had fallen right into Hunter's trap, the first punch landed squarely in Luke's solar plexus and d.a.m.n near knocked the wind out of him. Luke was spitting out blood from the impact. His eyes growing dark and angry from the pain, he swung a second time.

This time Hunter managed to side step and used the momentum to drop an elbow into Luke's back, knocking him squarely to the ground. Hunter watched while Luke twitched and spasmed on the ground.

Waiting the s.p.a.ce of a few moments he nudged him with his boot before gesturing to Cage, who was standing off to the side to come and check the kids pulse.

Cage stepped forward to press his fingers to his neck for a pulse. After a few moments of feeling no pulse or breath he looked up to Hunter and shook his head.

Hunter smirked before glaring back to the men in the room. "Let this be a lesson to the rest of you! Any person here who wants to dispute my authority can end up just like him!" With that he spit at the ground where Luke's body lay motionless and walked away barking at Cage as he did so: "Get that trash out of here." With that he left the men to go about their gambling and returned to the office upstairs.

After watching the boss retreat the office he picked up the limp body on the floor and left the warehouse.