Savage's Sun

Prologue (Part Two)

Two Years Ago

July 2008

Dean

"Did you or did you not defy two of our most sacred rules, Jeffery?" Erik asked, but it wasn't truly a question. He knew the answer. We knew. We've known weeks before we caught him and his men red-handed today.

Erik's stance is calm but stoic, his arms crossed as he stared down at Jeffery Stodden. Erik was the spitting image of our father as he stood over this bearded man who was twice his age and who in no way could ever be described as short. But next to Erik, he resembled a trapped mouse.

I stood there a few feet away, leaning against my hip onto Jeffery's bar, protesting a vomit as I watched Jeffery blink and swallow anxiously.

We were on Jeffery's turf but if you didn't know that, you would have thought the opposite. He was on the verge of melting under my brother's void stare.

Jeffery was as vile as they come. I've seen men do the most horrid things in my life but never had a man inspired so much disgust. When we found out what he did, there was no chance we would let him live. If we ever needed to make an example out of anyone, it was this piece of s**t. He deserved whatever Erik had planned for him and his good-for-nothing accomplices.

Jeffery cleared his throat, raising his head high to look into my brother's eyes, his wrinkled hand shook by his side, his face said it all, he knew what was coming. He thought he had more time to fool us until he got the upper hand, but there was no way he would have succeeded. We had eyes and ears everywhere, he knew that, but the i***t was so confident that he'd be the first to manage to double-cross us unscathed, he planned against us after all.

"We can't spare you, Jeffery," Erik assured him, waiting. "We need you to hand over all your records now. We don't know how long you've been operating this… disgusting little side project of yours and we don't care. We just need you to hand over all the money and record to us."

Jeffery looked back at his son Cedric, who looked more scared than he does.

"Cedric didn't know about this. Can he go?" Jeffery asked.

Erik raised a brow. "Are you sure you're in a position to make demands?"

"I—"

"If your son is about to die, it is a direct consequence to your actions, as will be your death. It's not my responsibility to spare anyone who was foolish enough to get involved with your cause."

"I'm not leaving my father's side. Do whatever you will." Cedric stood firmly, tightening his teeth as he adjusted his mask but the fear in his dark brown eyes stained like semen on a hotel room's bedsheet.

But he still managed to make me admire his pride in the face of imminent death.

"We allowed your father to run this territory, but we agreed that he would remain within the perimeters we established. He failed. Now he will pay. With his life. I suggest you say your goodbyes now," I tell Cedric as I approached them, my hands crossed as I stood by Erik's side now. "We gave your father a job, gave him an earning, gave him a purpose, Cedric. And how does he decide to repay us? By going behind our backs, not only stealing from us but breaking one of our most important rules. We don't meddle with trafficking humans. He knew that. Yet he used our money and influence to start a ring."

Cedric's voice broke as he responds but his confidence mask never faded, "My father… my father was building his own empire. Doesn't he have the right to? Does he need a Savage's permission to—"

"I can speak for myself, son," Jeffery interrupted. He gazed up at me and continued,"You are threatened. Your whole family is. Because you know I'm in the middle of building an empire that will surpass yours. You are the same as me, and yet you pretend to have this moral code that you put over the rest of us to keep us in line. Me? I am willing to do anything to become number one, even if that means breaking one of your stupid rules, designed to keep me and my men from reaching our potential." He caught his breath, paused and exhaled. "Now I know you're gonna kill me. But know, that just because I'm dead doesn't mean my name will be forgotten. I have people. People who I've helped see the true ways of winning. Without any… irrational moral standards that will keep them back. People that will carry on my legacy, continue what I started. You're no better than I am." He looked on to Erik. "Go ahead. Do whatever you have to do."

An hour later after we've seized everything, Erick gave Blake the signal and he walked over to Jeffery, pinning him to the wooden chair behind him, strapping his body to it. An immobile Jeffery grunted and spat as he looked up at me with an unsheltered loathing.

With a snap of my finger, Zip came to me, carrying a small, red gallon. He handed it to me and I unscrew the top.

I poured the content on Jeffery, holding and emptying the gallon over his head. His face turned red as he shook and yelled various insults at me and Erik.

Behind me, I heard Erik light a match. I stepped back, Cedric does the same behind me. His face ashen as he watched his father cry now, strapped to the chair.

Throwing the match at Jeffery,we all watched as he lit up in flames. His face melted as he screeched. I watched the Earth open beneath him as Hell swallowed him whole.