Chapter Six
Wolf’s warning pissed me off more than it should have.
I thought it was about the girl, but four days later I'm still fucking annoyed.
I land punch after punch on the bag. I'd much prefer to be smashing my fist into the faces of the Poisoned Devils, but since we killed the snively kid the other day, we've not been able to track down any other members.
"Wanna spar?" Nitro asks, as he walks toward me. He wraps his hands up and then heads to the ring, climbing in before turning back to me and tipping his head, indicating for me to join him.
I let out a sigh and follow him into the ring.
Either he has something he needs to work through, or he knows there's something on my mind that I need to work through.
I really hope he doesn't need to work anything through, he shares less than I do and he'll spar until one of us drops from exhaustion.
I watch him bounce back and forth, warming up, his eyes tracking my steps into the ring. I stop in front of him and watch for a few seconds, before cracking my neck and stepping my left leg back and angling my hip ready to spar.
"How about I just tell you what’s on my mind then we can get to working out what’s on yours?" I ask him.
He raises an eyebrow. "You're just gonna offer me up what's going on in that head of yours, just like that, huh?" he questions me, suspicious.
"I've been in here for almost an hour, I'm tired. If we both hold back our issues, we'll never fucking get out of here. So, if I tell you mine, then maybe you can tell me what’s eating you? I'd like to shower and get my dick wet tonight," I tell him, knowing full well he will never tell me.
He lunges forward, swinging his right arm toward my face.
I step to my right, tipping my head slightly so he just misses me.
I smirk, but it just pisses him off and he swings again, but I’m too quick, managing to dodge his fist, but I don’t see him swing his left hand until a millisecond before it hits the right side of my jaw.
I’m momentarily stunned, but it’s long enough for him to take the advantage. He slams his fist into my stomach, then the side of my arm, and then into my upper chest. I try to block him but I'm winded and too slow. Fuck, I'm going to be feeling this later.
Thirty minutes later, we're both lying flat on our backs on the floor of the ring. Both out of breath, completely spent.
"Feel better?" I ask him between pants.
He heaves a few breaths. "A little. Now tell me what's got you so fucking irritated."
I sigh, sitting up. "These new brothers from The Legion Riders, how's it gonna work? They gonna come in here and throw their weight around?"
He sits up and looks at me for several seconds before responding. "No. They know how it's going to be, they know that—"
"Wolf. Is he going to be cool not being the VP? I mean, is he gonna be able to take orders from the committee?"
"You don't like Wolf?" he asks, surprising me.
My answer surprises me more. "I actually do like him. But he pissed me off the other day when we were in the diner. He warned me off one of the girls there…”
He lets out a bellow, his head tipping back as he laughs. “You’re telling me that this is about a fucking woman?”
"No," I bite.
He raises an eyebrow at my attitude, and I shake my head in apology.
"Sorry. I just... I thought it was about her, but the more it plays on my mind, I think it's more about him giving me an order.
Like, is it going to be like that all the time?
I know you say it won't be, but the truth is we don't know that.
We don't know these men, or what they are really like.
I know what Acid told us, but he could tell us anything for the merge to go ahead. "
Nitro stands, reaching out his hand to me. I grab it and he pulls me to me feet. "It's not about him ordering you to stay away from her, it's not even the fact that he gave you an order, it's the fact that you're struggling to trust anyone after what Snake did, isn't it?"
I watch him grab two bottles of water from the fridge, holding one out to me as he downs half of his.
I take the other from him, but I don’t take a drink.
I hate that he fucking knows me. I hate that you can say nothing but he figures it all out.
"You're right, it's not about the order.
It's about trust. I don't trust them. Fuck.
I don't trust anyone. Prez, ever since Snake—"
"I get it. One of our brothers betrayed us, someone who had been in our ranks for more than twenty years. You're not alone, Ice. I struggle with trust right now too. But I’m asking you to take a step back. I know that it’s hard, but we have to learn to trust again.
I'm going to let you into a little secret, something that only Wrath knows. "
He sits on the bench, leaning forward, resting his arms on his knees.
He drops his head into his hands, rubbing them across his face.
"I never trusted Snake. From the day I got here when I was a kid, there was always something about him that seemed off.
I kept it to myself for a while, but when Wrath came to visit, he said the same thing from the first time he met him.
I tried to tell my dad how I felt, and he told me I was being stupid, that I was imagining it. "
He looks up at me, and it’s the first time I've noticed just how tired he looks.
"I should have trusted my gut. You think you failed when he attacked Marissa, trust me, it isn't comparable to how I feel. I let her down. But I also let you and the rest of the brothers down.” He stands and walks toward the door, and then he stops, turning back to me.
"My gut has never been wrong; I won't make the same mistakes twice.
Trust your gut, Ice. If it tells you that something is off, then it probably is.
And as for the Legion Riders, I've met them all.
I don't get a bad vibe from any of them.
Give them a chance." He doesn't wait for me to respond.
He just turns and walks out of the door.