Reclaim my Soul

Burdensome Duties

The early afternoon Texas heat in the second quarter of the year was the perfect time for sweaty vested biker brothers to gather themselves on the dirt road just out front of the Dinastia farm house.

They were no visitors to the grounds. And it was no news what their involvement was with the lord of the manor.

The guards didn't need a go ahead from the Lord to let them in. So as the gates opened, the bikers swarm the compound. Their purring bikes were loud enough to be heard from every angle of the country house.

"Kain! My man. Howdy partner?" Logan—the leader of the Monarch Motorcycle club—greeted the infamous son of the Dinastia lord.

To everyone in town, Kain was the black sheep of the Breeden household. The twenty-four year old was painted as whatever his father stroked with his brush.

"I heard you're coming with us for rounds today. I'm so psyched about it." Logan said with a huge grin. "Glad you finally decided to put aside your horses and roll out your bike."

Kain eyed Logan and the remaining members of the MC as they dismounted their bikes.

"I'm running an errand with y'all today, not joining your club."

Logan threw his head back and laughed. The sound humorless to Kain.

"Whatever, man. I hope you finally get the balls to leave here one day. It smells like horse shit." He said and looked around, "even your women smell like horses."

The rest of the men burst out laughing as they all made their way into the building after Logan gave Kain an annoying slap on the back and he almost failed at refraining himself from slapping the toothpick out of the annoying vested man's mouth.

Kain kept a straight face as he waited for them to leave his sight.

Growing up for Kain wasn't exactly as easy as people thought. Trying to live up to his father's expectations and learning to one day run the manor farmhouse and be a lord himself wasn't rosy. As first son of the Breeden house and brother to the most notorious teenager he had ever known, Kain had to learn the difficult skill of looking after his brother and sometimes even went as far as covering up his brother's mess or taking the blame.

Not only was his father the biggest drug dealer in town, he was also running an underground drug factory where men of the Monarch MC were his suppliers to different black hands and similar organizations. This part of Texas was filled with the lawless and quite a number of outlaws looking to earn a living, and their first stop was his father's manor, working under his employ.

Kain gave a loud finger whistle to alert one of the guards, ordering for his bike to be brought out.

It had been two years since he rode that thing, and he hated to be transported back to the day that marked the start of his big break from riding. He refrained from running his fingers across the jagged scar that lined the outside of his forearm. And just as the thought crossed his mind, he blinked to snap himself out of the agonizing daze.

A bike purred to life and came around from the side of the building to where he stood. His first thought was to turn, expecting to land his gaze on his bike, but what he saw instead was his brother straddling a different bike.

"What are you doing, Colben?" Kain asked the eighteen-year-old.

"I'm glad we won't have to use horses. I was having a brainfart moment, thinking about how our horses would be able to keep up with their bikes." Colben said with a laugh.

"What do you mean 'our'"? Kain asked, giving his brother a perplexed look.

"'Our', as in I'm coming with you guys," he clarified.

"No you're not." Kain deadpanned.

"Yes he is." A booming voice came from the entrance of the building, drawing the attention of the two brothers about to have an argument.

"I have decided to let him go for this as his first round."

"You can't possibly be serious about letting him get involved in this," Kain challenged.

He knew better than to challenge the old man, but he did it anyway. Because he wasn't ready to watch his brother go right into the belly of the beast. Colben was just not ready for this life yet. And he wasn't sure he was ever going to be ready.

"I have a specific job for Colby, and he's gonna carry it out just fine. Right, Colby?" Elijah directed his question to his younger son, but pinned Kain with a look that meant he had made his decision.

"He's just seventeen." Kain clenched his jaw as he pointed at his brother to pass his point across.

"I'm eighteen." Colby corrected, earning him a scowl from his elder brother.

"And he will do as I say. And no one, I mean no one will say s**t about it." Elijah stared at Kain, "not even you."

The air became dead quiet as father and son exchanged heated stares. Kain bit back his words as he excused himself from his father's presence, reluctantly going with his father's final decision. A few minutes later, the bikers went on their way. They arrived at Fabian's capitol within minutes.

The men were welcomed into the mansion by Fabian's men. Logan and Kain were ushered into the house, they joined Fabian in his study. The entire place was strongly guarded.

Men like Fabian and Elijah knew how important security was. They moved around heavily guarded because they knew how much their enemies wanted them in ruins. They trusted no one, not even their own shadows.

"How many pounds should we be counting?" Fabian directed his question to Kain, flashing a boyish grin it made Kain roll his eyes internally.

"Thirty-five, ten, and five like you asked," Kain said.

"Good, good. That's the good stuff," Fabian said and got up from his chair. "Well, friends. I would tell you to go out and enjoy the party going on, but it's not a very manly party going on out back." Fabian said and walked to the door of his neat study. "So why don't we enjoy some whiskey, and then we go out front to check what you gentlemen brought for me." He flashed his grin.

Kain couldn't help but notice that his brother was missing from the group outside as they walked to the truck that held what they brought for Fabian. Being in Fabian's mansion was like being in the den of a lion but finding a snake instead. Kain didn't want to be here, and he most certainly didn't want his teenage brother to be here. And now he had run off somewhere.

As Fabian inspected the pounds of dope in the truck, Kain was growing impatient and irritated. That was what happened when he was around snakes like him.

"Your father never disappoints. I'll give him that. Good thing he understood the haste in this." Fabian gave him a slight pat on the back as he took out a pocket knife and waved it around, he cut open one of the packs of coke and took out a little bit of it with the tip of the knife and tasted it with his tongue. He hummed and then snuffed up the remaining.

When he was satisfied with the taste, he waved his hand at his men, ordering them to offload the truck.

Kain looked around the compound and then up at the windows of the house, scanning each one, hoping to catch sight of his brother.

Logan and the other brothers were laughing at something Fabian said, something that Kain hadn't caught because he was concentrating on his brother's absence.

As the men began taking out the pounds from the truck, Fabian stepped away to make a call, leaving them all standing in the yard. Kain used that as a cue to text Colby that they were done and leaving at any moment.

There was no response. So he took it upon himself to go look for him. Whatever he was doing had to be trouble, and he knew it the moment their father let him—a seventeen year old—come on this round.

Kain had to go get his brother out of whatever sick game the boy thought this was. Even if it meant he had to drag him by the ear.