Chapter 14 #2
Timing had been on Draven’s side when he’d asked for the vote. Dad had been beloved by all members and his death had rattled us to the core.
“Emmett, I’m . . .” Nova blew out a long breath. “I don’t know what to say.”
I held her tighter, taking the comfort of her in my arms while I could.
“Sounds like disbanding was for the best,” she said.
“Yeah, it was.”
The club’s income had mostly come from drug protection routes. It was rare that we’d smuggle the goods ourselves. Draven preferred our members not touch the meth, cocaine, heroin and whatever else had been on the move.
Instead, we’d made sure the mules didn’t have trouble along the way to their destination, either from rival cartels or from cops. I’d earned more than one reckless driving ticket for speeding past a cop who’d been too close to a drug shipment.
For the most part, we’d stayed to the routes where the police wouldn’t be looking.
The border between Canada and Montana was big and for many, many years, there hadn’t been enough patrol officers to watch it all.
Slipping through the mountains and onto the quieter highways had been an easy day’s work.
Draven and Dad had both forged many of those routes.
Ambition had been Draven’s greatest strength and his greatest weakness.
The man’s mind had been cunning and sharp.
The Kings had been small in number compared to the infamous clubs in California, but Draven hadn’t needed a massive membership to be effective.
Though he’d always spoken about expanding across the Northwest.
Had my father not died, had Nick’s family not been threatened, I think he would have done it. Instead, he’d pushed like hell in the other direction and shut it all down.
The drug routes. The local security jobs in town. The underground fights. Anything illegal.
It hadn’t been worth putting our families in danger. Not anymore.
I’d voted with Draven and Dash simply because I’d been terrified that one day, an enemy would come after my mother like they had Dash’s. I couldn’t bury both parents, and quitting the club had seemed like the best alternative. To death and to prison.
Border patrol had gotten heavy during our last five years as a club. A handful of brothers had been busted and were serving time or had recently finished a stint.
We all might have been where the Warriors were sitting now, in ugly orange jumpsuits.
It had taken time to disband the club.
After the vote, we’d called a truce with the Warriors.
They’d agreed to leave us alone in trade for our drug routes.
That negotiation had taken time, getting the dealers on board.
Then there’d been the task of shutting down the rest of the illegal activities.
We’d pulled the fights. Stopped working protection rackets with businesses in town.
Through that time, brothers had slowly moved away as they’d found other jobs.
In the end, it took nearly six years.
Then it was done. One day, I’d ridden around town with my Tin King cut on my back. The next, it had stayed home in a drawer.
We had peace.
We should have had peace for the rest of our lives.
Maybe we would have if Marcus Wagner hadn’t framed Draven for murder and, in doing so, brought the Warriors back into our lives.
We’d been lucky that none of us had been hurt since Tucker Talbot had set his sights on Clifton Forge. Damn lucky.
It would tear our crew apart if something happened to any one of us. The idea alone made me tense.
“Hey.” Nova nudged my leg. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” I blinked myself out of the past and into the present.
Shoved the worries away. If all I had was tonight, maybe next weekend, I didn’t need to be dwelling on ancient history while Nova was here.
“Sorry. It’s not easy for me to talk about the club.
There’s a lot of history there. Not all of it good. ”
“What was a good thing?”
“The brothers.” Easy answer. “We were brothers, not by blood, but by what counted. Two of my best friends were Kings with me. They work at the garage. They’re my family. I love their wives like they were my sisters. I’d do anything for their kids.”
“Uncle Emmett?”
I grinned. “Uncle Emmett.”
Nova shifted so that the light from inside caught her face. It highlighted her cheekbones and the soft swell above her top lip. It caressed the soft pout of her mouth and made her dark eyes dance. She raised a hand to my collarbone, tracing a two-inch scar across my skin. “Where’d you get this?”
“A fight.”
“Let me guess, you got into it at The Betsy with someone over a game of pool.”
I chuckled. “No, I used to box a lot. The club organized a circuit of fights every year around the state. Not exactly legal, considering we gambled on the fights.”
“My lips are sealed.” She dragged a finger across her mouth.
“It was a way for us younger guys in the club to burn off some arrogant energy and make some extra cash. We’d fight. Get drunk afterward. There were always pretty women around.”
“Let’s skip that part.”
I kissed her hair. “None were as pretty as you.”
“Better. Continue.”
“This one night, I was on a streak. Won all four of my fights and a good payout too. We were all standing around, drinking a beer afterward, bullshitting and icing black eyes. One of the guys I beat was a punk. He got drunk and pissed. Broke a beer bottle and threw it at me when I wasn’t paying attention.
Didn’t hit my face but slashed me across the collarbone. ”
Nova winced. “Ouch.”
“Meh.” I shrugged. “It wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t give him his second beatdown of the night.”
Maybe I was speaking too plainly, but Nova was tough. She deserved to know what kind of man she was sleeping with. Violence had been part of our lives. There were some things I’d regret for the rest of my life. Others, like kicking that punk’s ass, I wouldn’t feel sorry about.
“Do you miss it?”
“The fights? Sometimes.” It was the one thing Dash and I had tried to convince Draven to continue even after the club shut down. “It’s an adrenaline rush.”
“And what about the club? Do you miss it?”
The answer should be yes. I should miss the club. I should miss it every single day. “No.”
Maybe I’d missed it at first. Even with six years to come to terms with the end, there’d been a hole where the brotherhood had been. For a while, Dash, Leo and I had filled it with booze and women. Then Dash had met Bryce. Leo had found Cass.
And I’d worked my ass off to build a good life here. A legal life. Maybe I’d never have a family of my own, but if there was ever a woman to try it with, Nova would have been the one.
“Will you miss me?” Her question was so quiet that I barely heard it.
I held her tighter, burying my nose in her hair.
Easy answer. “Yes.”