22. Mimic
Twenty Two
Mimic
“ D uck. Shut the fuck up.” I hear Prez call out.
Fuck-a-duck. Not the man I want around right now. I look back at him, and he doesn’t look mad, but I’m also way past three sheets to the wind and could be very fucking wrong. When he makes his way up the bar, he decides right next to me is where he should stand. I look up at him, barely, “You need to control your daughter.”
He laughs.
He’s laughing as if I said the funniest fucking thing ever.
“Don’t you think I’ve tried? She’s strong, Mimic. She’s going to do what she wants.” He smacks his hand down on my shoulder, and I can’t help but recoil and shrug him off—causing his laughter to die. “What the hell is going on, Mimic?”
I scoff, and because I have zero mental clarity, I have zero fucking filter. “She doesn’t give a single shit about her life. She’s willing to put herself in danger. She doesn’t care. I seem to be the only one who fucking does.”
“Hey, that’s bullshit, and you know it. That girl is my entire world. But she’s a grown woman, man. She will make her own choices about her life and how she handles it. Her past has molded her. Living surrounded by this club has molded her. Look,” he lets out a breath, “I can admit that I forgot how strong she really is. She’s going through trauma, and we need to help her through it, not push what we want on her.”
“Yeah, we all have trauma, Prez. Every single one of us in this room has been through some shit. I gave her everything. She knows who I am, yet she’s hiding behind a wall. She says it hurts but won’t share it with me. She won’t let me help her through it. You all know what’s causing her reaction, yet I know nothing. Frankly, it only makes me believe it’s not bad at all. She’s just a liar.”
The second the words were out of my mouth, I knew I fucked up. The moment was cemented, though, when I glanced up at Prez, and it was as if the Devil himself were standing in front of me. I didn’t see anything past his black eyes, but I felt his hand on the back of my head before I met the bar top, and my world went dark.
* * *
“Welcome back.”
My head is hanging down, and my chin is touching my chest. I can feel the tension in my shoulders, so I roll my head to the side, immediately coming in contact with my arm. Groaning, I work to open my eyes all the way. It takes a moment, but I finally get my bearings.
Prez and the rest of the club are standing around me in a half circle. It takes about five seconds more before I fully understand where I am.
“Shit,” I whisper.
“You know, when this chapter of NOMC opened, I told myself I would do things differently. While I love this club’s message, I didn’t want to run things the way Cowboy does or the way Judge did before him. I wanted this club to run the way I saw fit. This was the best way for us while still holding onto the fundamental values of the Nameless Order. It’s been rough, but I think I managed to do what’s been needed. However, I took a couple of things with me—for instance, the ring.
I work to make sure I react differently than Cowboy. I handle our conflicts in ways that will keep my demon at bay. But this, this I love. This I need, and so do you.
Do you think you know what my baby’s been through?”
“That’s—”
“—No. You don’t get to talk. You don’t know shit! You don’t know a fuckin’ thing about the hell they went through. What everyone went through.”
“I want to!” I yell at him. I pull myself away from the ring as much as possible before speaking again. “I want to know everything about her. I want to know why she trembles in her sleep sometimes and why she flinches every once in a while. But she won’t tell me a fucking thing! She hides behind club business in a club I’m a fucking part of! How can I keep her safe if you all stand there, holding onto the secrets of the past?”
Dizz gets up in my face, causing my body to fall back against the pole that holds the ring in place. “Just because you’re a member now doesn’t mean I have to share everything that happened before you showed up.”
“The fuck you don’t. Do you honestly think we should blindly follow you? You said jump, so we all ask how high?”
“Watch your damn mouth, Mimic,” I hear Omen say from behind Dizz.
“Oh, fuck off, Omen. Because you had to open your mouth, my woman is putting herself in danger.”
“If you think for a fucking moment she wouldn’t still do this regardless of what we say, you don’t know her at all.” Angel chimes in.
“I don’t know her. You all and her are doing a real good fucking job at making sure I know nothing.”
I see Dizz flex his fist and get ready to pull back. Someone tells him I’m not worth it because I’m still drunk.
“Drunk words are nothing but sober thoughts, or whatever the saying is.”
It’s the last thing I remember before pain shoots through the side of my face, and I once again meet the darkness.