Review: Kings of Mayhem

Kings of Mayhem by Penny Dee
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2 ⭐⭐ - Meh!
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I wish she had come with me to the clubhouse. Maybe then I wouldn’t have drank too much. Maybe then I wouldn’t have fucked up our future together.

But I’d decided a while ago that I wasn’t that guy anymore. After twelve years of trying to fuck her out of my head, I realized that she wasn’t going anywhere, and no matter how many women fell into my bed, I was never going to fuck her out of my heart.

I was an asshole. It was my fault she left. I broke her. I broke us. I never denied it. But she . . . she was the one who turned and ran. I clenched my teeth. She was the one who ended us.

==>SEX OW<==
I didn’t know her name.

Mama said name-calling was for people who didn’t have many words. They weren’t smart enough to get their point across. So they used mean names, instead. I reached down and offered her my hand.

But the biker lifestyle was hell on the body. Booze. Drugs. Cigarettes. Partying. No sleep. Women. Lots of women.

==>DADDY ISSUES<==
I was sad he was such a monster and that I wouldn’t miss him. He had been a mean sonofabitch and we’d both let go of each other a lot sooner than the day I left town.

Nowadays, to make a legitimate income, the Kings had several sources of income: prostitution, pornography,

==>FUCK BUDDY<==
Megan and I had a weird relationship. A strange kind of mutual respect for one another. She got me. And I fucking admired her head for business—as well as the way she gave it.

A week later, I had walked in on his son fucking someone who wasn’t me. Less than a year after that, Garrett Calley was dead. I stood up and started to clear the table. I hated this fucking place.

“You know it was the biggest mistake of my life, right?”

What happened had changed everything. What he did broke my heart and stole our future from us.

==>DADDY ISSUES<==
He’d raised his hand and struck my mom to the ground.

She wasn’t ever going to end up like her mom, on her knees nursing a bloodied lip while people barbequed on her lawn and acted like the nothing had happened.

“I’m not hurting. I’m not hurting at all. My daddy was a mean sonofabitch who cheated on my mom, and put a fist in her jaw more than a couple of times. He was a bad husband and an even shittier father. So, no, I’m not hurting. I’m nothing. So spare me the apologies. And let’s just get this shit done so I can get out of the fuck out of here.”

==>SERIOUS GIRLFRIEND<==
When Krista thought she was pregnant and the relief I had felt when she wasn’t—because having a baby with another woman would make me feel even further away from the one true love of my life.

==>SEX OW<==
I wanted to do the things to her that I did with Mallory Massey, Cathy Winters, and Jane Peters. And Kelly Brunton from PE class. And Julie Anderson who was a grade above us and who liked to sneak me dirty notes when we passed each other in the school corridor between classes.

==>OW<==
Before I could stop it, her mouth was on mine and she wrapped herself around me like she couldn’t get close enough. The flask fell to ground with a loud smack. And because I was unsteady from too much liquor, I fell, too. Cora landed on top of me, and with an enthusiastic moan she straddled me and leaned down to devour my mouth with hers.

It was Cade. And he was kissing Cora.

After finding him with Cora down by the beach I had left the wedding. I had taken a half-full bottle of wine from one of the reception tables and sat on the rooftop of the clubhouse looking up at the stars, trying to get my thoughts straight.

He didn’t know that I’d heard the things he had said to her.

==>GIRLFRIEND<==
At the time, he was dating a girl named Krista and we all thought he would end up marrying her. Then all of a sudden, he broke up with her and withdrew into himself. It took him a while to get his head right again.” He sighed. “Not that I’m sure he ever did.”

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