What actually happened was, he’d been alerted by his contacts what they’d seen. When she’d come home, he’d killed her.

She’d screamed every second of the twenty minutes it had taken to kill her.

It was so much fun, but then, he’d never liked Flora. She’d been good for fucking but nothing else.

“Is everything okay, Milner?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Are you visiting the tables? The races? Are you keeping on the straight and narrow?” During Milner’s wife’s illness and after she died, he’d gone into a pit of despair and become addicted to gambling. Before, it could have been argued, he tried to do it for the peace it offered during a painful time, but after, it became a nasty addiction. Preacher liked him, and rather than see him fall, he’d taken care of him. He’d not put a bet on in years, at least as far as Preacher knew.

“Nothing. I’m good, Preacher. Just trying to figure out what to do with my fucking life now. I wasn’t ready for retirement, you know. I rather liked this gig.”

“I wish you well, Milner. I look forward to meeting your replacement.”

He got to his feet, shook the man’s hand, and noticed it was clammy.

Smiling, he left the house, got on his bike, and joined up with Bear, Grind, Smally, and Grave at the local diner. There was something going on with Milner, and he’d take care of it. He didn’t believe it had anything to do with the new cop. If anything, something was off with Milner’s life. He’d been changing over the past couple of years, but it hadn’t affected the club, so he’d not given it much thought. Now he was going to look into it. Maybe he was back into gambling. At the moment, Preacher wasn’t too concerned with Milner’s replacement. The town was a small one where barely any shit went down. In fact, he made the town rather more appealing just by being near it.

The moment they entered the place, everyone went silent, but he didn’t give a shit. He was hungry, wanted to eat, and seeing as this was the only place in town that served good food, he was willing to put up with the death stares.

All of his life he’d lived with the reproachful looks of strangers. They always treated him and the club like they were nothing more than insects, and he had no freaking problem with their bullshit. He’d long grown tired of all the shit they tried to pull.

Taking a booth in the center of the diner, he waited to be served.

“Hello, gentlemen, what can I get you?”

Preacher looked up to see Juliet. She was a regular at the club, and a lot of men had told him many times how nice she was.

“Hello, sweet cheeks,” Bear said. “Are you coming to our little party we’re having in a couple of weeks?”

“I wouldn’t miss it. Will you be there?” she asked.