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With my rage still off the charts, I searched for something else to break, turning in a full circle.

Seeing nothing only boosted the crazed moment, the fury that had me seeing spots of blood all over again. I threw my head and arms back, issuing a loud roar.

And still. Nothing made me feel any better.

Seconds passed.

Minutes.

When I finally lowered my head, I noticed poor Shadow rushing up the stairs with his tail between his legs. My God. What had happened to me? What was I doing?

I don’t know how long I stood in the macabre moment while embracing the bitter pill of agony. Time had no meaning any longer. I only knew there was no light left streaming in through the muted blinds. Just the edge of darkness that had once been my friend.

Seconds turned into minutes, a clock ticking down inside my muddled brain.

Much like the final seconds just before a bomb went off.

My feet were heavy as I moved up the stairs, no longer feeling anything. No pain or heartache. No sense of myself or the desire for revenge.

Simply nothing.

Maybe I had died along with them.

When I was finally upstairs, I hesitated before making a turn. As I reached Mina’s room, I wasn’t certain what to make of the fact her light was on, the one with the mermaid shade, the prisms dancing across the ceiling and walls.

Shadow was in the middle of her bed, yet where his tail would ordinarily thump and he’d lift his head, only the end of his tail moved. Quivering.

I could smell his fear, his uncertainty. As I moved closer, I also heard a single mournful cry just as I knelt onto the surface.

He didn’t flinch, didn’t try to fight me as I curled around his long body, instantly realizing he was shivering.

As I stroked his fur, I whispered in his ear, wishing very much I could believe what I was telling him. “It’s okay, baby boy. Everything is going to be okay.”

* * *

The knock on my door was to be expected.

That didn’t mean sheer annoyance wasn’t my response, but it was a new day and there was business to take care of. I moved down the stairs with Shadow right behind me. The shower had been needed, but had yet to invigorate. That would come with decisions made and acted on as the day progressed.

I didn’t bother ascertaining who’d arrived, trusting in both my security system and my men guarding the property. Although I wasn’t a fool, my weapon in my hand as I threw open the door.

Sergei didn’t respond while Kristoff took a deep breath while eyeing the way I held the gun in my hand.

I’d thrown on jeans and still had the damp towel wrapped around my neck.

There were no words exchanged at first. I merely backed away while Shadow greeted them as if long lost friends.

“Hiya, buddy,” Kristoff said in an unusually demure tone.

“What is it?” I finally asked when neither was forthcoming with anything.

Sergei was acting differently, unusually quiet when he had no issues sharing what was on his mind. “We know where the vice president and other remaining members of the syndicate are hiding.”

There was very little written on the internet or in newspaper articles about the Dixie mafia. Some would say the organized group didn’t exist at all while others were certain the loosely structured organization that began in Mississippi was no longer even a consideration in the world of crime.

They’d been only mildly powerful while spreading across the southern United States through the eighties, long before my father had brought his family to the country. Their former activities created more of a rogue criminal given their brutal yet unorganized actions. After they’d pretty much faded forty years before, the term was all but erased from the dictionary.

Biker clubs were fiercely loyal to their respective organizations and while until recent months I’d given their existence little thought, I’d learned enough to know their alliance was unusual if not astounding.