Ruin and Rise Read Online Free Page A

asked.
    “Do you think this is fucking funny?”
    “No. If I thought it was funny, I’d be laughing. My woman has just given us an ultimatum. We either agree or we end this now. I agree with her. I’m tired of looking over my shoulder, waiting for you to strike.” Shakes rubbed the back of his head. “Kill me now, and be done with it. But just know that no matter what, even if I’m gone, I will always be in your life through my child. And you can tell my son or daughter why I’m not around. You can look your grandchild in the eyes and tell them that you took their father away.”
    Zeke placed his gun on the counter. “I can’t kill you; Dani’s right. We can play this game for a long time, but the truth is that you’ve got a baby on the way. My daughter decided to pick you, and I’ve got to accept that. It’s not what I want, but we’re done.”
    Shakes nodded.
    “I spoke to Demon today,” Zeke said.
    “Why?”
    “He’ll fill you in on that. Just know what I did, I did for my daughter.”
    Shakes knitted his brows. “Don’t fuck with the club, Zeke, and don’t fuck with Daniella’s life. I’m a part of it for the long haul.”
    “Don’t you regret getting booted out of the club?” Zeke asked.
    He stopped for a second and thought about the club. “No, I don’t regret it.”
    “Why?”
    “When you’re part of the club, you have to come to terms with death being the end game. I accepted death since I had nothing to live for.”
    “And now?”
    “I’ve got Dani to lose, and the club can’t give me anything that would make me want to risk losing her. Before Dani, I chose death; after Dani, I choose life.”

S triker adjusted the baseball cap on his head, pulled up the collar on his leather jacket, and moved toward the BDSM club. He’d heard this one was pretty fucking hardcore; he knew that the excitement he felt in his blood could be very dangerous. He was going into Zeke’s domain, onto his territory, and he needed to make sure he was on alert. He hadn’t worn his cut, wasn’t letting his club markings show.
    Tonight, he was here to watch, to see if what he saw made him want more, want to play with a fire even hotter.
    There was a bouncer waiting at the front door, and the brightly lit red neon sign that read DOMINION cast a ruby glow a few feet in front of the sidewalk. There wasn’t a line of people waiting inside, but there were people discreetly dressed coming and going through the front doors. He stopped at the front door to let two women go ahead of him; their long leather jackets hid something wicked underneath. He just fucking knew it, knew that once he stepped through these doors, he might not ever want to come out.
    Striker liked certain things when he was fucking. He liked a woman a certain way, liked when they were on their knees, looking up at him with tears in their eyes, their submission clear on their faces. He didn’t consider himself a sick bastard, not in the sexual sense at least. He just liked a certain amount of pain with his pleasure, a certain amount of power when he fucked a woman.
    He did like to leave his marks on the females, liked to show them he was the one in charge, and it was up to him to give them pleasure if he saw fit. He wanted them restrained, bound, and completely helpless to him. Their tears were an added touch; he was harder than rock when he saw those glistening droplets. He’d licked them off their cheeks before, making them cry harder when he whispered how much he’d enjoy beating them, leaving their pretty bodies black and blue.
    But the women were always willing, always wanted what he gave them. They were pain sluts in every sense of the word, loved to submit to him solely for the fact that he was their Dominant and they wanted to obey him to heighten the pleasure.
    He stopped in front of the bouncer, eyed the fucker up and down, and although he was big and bulky, muscular and tall, Striker was bigger, more powerful.
    “You know the