Chapter 17—Kooper #2
If someone who’s an asshole to everyone and his mother is also stealing and raping people, I don’t see why I should protect him.
It’s called karma. You get what you put out in the world.
Not that my bosses saw it that way. According to them, I left my post, and the guy got hurt.
He’s still alive, sort of. On a feeding tube.
His delusional wife still pays the bills to keep him alive despite what he did.
Love is crazy. Or just blind. Whatever it is, my bosses kicked me out for “failure to perform duties I was hired for.” They wanted to throw me in prison to make a point, but unlike Jimmy Travis, Fairy’s uncle, there wasn’t enough heat on me.
It helped that the guy lived through the attack, and I wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger.
I made sure to cover my bases. It wasn’t my fault that some fathers of the people he hurt snuck in when I was on my coffee break.
Sure, I rarely drink the stuff, but we were in Italy.
It’s what you do in that part of the world.
At least that’s what I told my superiors.
They didn’t like it. They also didn’t like the guy I was protecting.
So I got kicked out, lost some of my retirement plans, and found the Hounds.
I like to think things worked out for the better for me.
Even with the damn pin in my hip. Fuck. If I have to get hip replacement surgery at my age, I’ll be the laughingstock of the brothers. I’m too young for that shit.
When we get to the entrance of the hospital, I’m not surprised to see a car waiting for me.
I want my bike, but I know that’ll take longer to get.
I open the door and, despite my desire to just get in quickly and get the fuck out of here, I take it easy.
Even let General help me get into the SUV.
I grunt, which he nods to. Our way of saying “thanks” and “you’re welcome” without saying it. ’Cause we’re men and all.
“You good?” Atom asks as he eases out of the parking lot.
“Peachy.”
He huffs a laugh, and I look out the window as we drive back home.
It’s going to suck for a bit, but I’ll do what the doc says.
I’ll get the therapy. Anything it takes to get back to what I was.
I don’t do well with being down and out.
I know Casper, the new boss, will want me to get a full workup from General to get a green light before I can do anything remotely fun.
Like go knocking heads in or some shit. Law would have done the same.
It’s just what a good boss does. And I’ve got no issues with Casper being the man in charge.
I know Law liked him for the job even while I was still biding my time to get my in.
When we pull up to the clubhouse, I see it’s busier than ever. Brothers from other chapters are still hanging around, and more protection is on the gates. We’re still rebuilding from when they got knocked down by Ivan’s men, but we’ve got things in place now to prevent another attack.
“Party’s in the back,” Atom says as he slowly gets out. He’s not injured as far as I know, so that means he’s just keeping pace with me to give me some of my damn dignity back. It’s crap but it’s appreciated all the same.
I take a breath when I get out of the car and stand tall.
Shit hurts, but I’ll live. General gave me some meds, and I plan to take them and sleep for a week.
After I show face. I need to make sure everyone sees me as the man who’s still standing and not lying in a bed somewhere.
Well, unless I’ve got a woman with me, that is.
When I get to the back, I see a sea of faces I know and some I don’t. I take it in and give a few chin lifts. I don’t see Casper. He must still be inside.
But I do see her.
Ruby’s sitting at a table with Milly, Bass, Abigail, and Mickey. She’s talking. From the looks of it, even bantering. Small smiles, forced smiles, on her lips as she does. Her attire is her usual: tight jeans and a corset top.
“Brooklyn,” Chains hollers at Milly. “You got visitors.”
I watch, like half the damn place, as the East Coast mafia comes up to join them. Milly seems happy about it. Bass ain’t shitting himself, so I guess that’s good. But the look Tommy gives Ruby? I don’t like it. And when he leans a bit too close, his eyes lingering, I really don’t like it.
I walk that way and all but turn red when I see him touch her. Just on the back. Just a small amount. But it’s not his right to do.
She doesn’t see me as she giggles about his manners and runs into me.
I could have moved out of the way, but I didn’t.
Call it what you want. Maybe I wanted her attention on me.
Maybe I needed to feel her against me for the brief time I had.
All I know is I didn’t move, and I let it happen.
It hurts a bit. Okay, it hurts a lot. She just ran into my fucked-up shoulder and jammed against my hip that just got a pin in it.
Still, the pain is worth it. Even if she’s annoyed at me.
“Koop, what do you want?”
I look her over for half a second, then ignore her completely.
Or so the others watching would think. But there’s no way to ignore or forget a woman like her in your vicinity.
Her scent penetrates my brain, and I clench my fists to keep from pulling her close and sinking my nose in her hair.
Hair that’s down, free of any bindings. I itch to wrap it around my fist and pull her tight to me, just to get a reaction other than snark from her.
She’s been on my mind a lot. More than usual. Ever since I held her and let her fall apart in my arms, something snapped in me, and I’m almost consumed by the memory. When she fought me, I let her. I was the thing she needed in that moment. A punching bag. Something to let her anger out on.
And I see that right now, she just wants to forget. To pretend for a bit longer that things aren’t as bad as I know they are for her. If seeing me causes her strife, then I’ll leave. I won’t like it, but if that’s what she needs, I’ll do it.
For now.
I hold my hand out to the man behind her. “Tommy.”
He grabs mine in greeting, and I grip his a bit harder.
“’Sup, man.”
“How’s the neck?” I make a show of looking at his scar as he turns his head to show the bandage on his neck.
“Still hanging. Let me catch up with you later. Got a girl to talk to about a drink.” He barely lets me nod before he’s ushering Ruby away.
I didn’t miss the expression that she was giving me the whole time. Sure, it was a glare, but her eyes were on me and not him.
I take a second to watch them go and then make a beeline for the clubhouse. I stop only once to ask where Casper is, and when I’m told he’s in his office, I let myself in despite the door being closed.
“We need to tell her,” I bark at Casper. He’s sitting with his head in the books, Domino across from him. I sit because I’m in pain, but I won’t tell them that.
Casper throws the paperwork down, and I see the tiredness in his eyes. He went from cleanup duty to running the mother chapter overnight. Not an easy task, but one he took on willingly, so my pity for him is nonexistent.
“Tell her what? That we lied to her? That her dad isn’t dead, but we need him to look that way?
That he’s in a coma, and we don’t know when he’s coming out of it?
That we’re hiding him from damn near everyone because we can’t have our enemies coming after us thinking we’re weak, or worse, using his condition to truly end him? ”
“If it’s the truth,” I say with a tight jaw. I want to say so much more, but I keep it together. Barely.
Casper shakes his head. He probably thinks I’m na?ve, but I know what I’m doing. He looks at Domino, who just shakes his head. Whatever. They can think what they want about me. I don’t like hiding this from her. It doesn’t feel right. Never has, even if I agreed to it to begin with.
“The truth? We don’t have time to deal with this shit. We’ve got enemies, and we can’t be weak. Telling Ruby is a liability.”
“She can keep her mouth shut,” I spit back.
“Can she? She’s a wild card. Law didn’t even know half of the things she was up to. She’s unpredictable, unstable. You willing to bet your life on her keeping her trap shut? You willing to bet your brothers’ lives? Their wives’? The kids’?”
I cross my arms and look away from them. I can’t let them see what I’m feeling. Not sure if I’m able to lock down my emotions right now with all the other pain going on in my system. “Still ain’t right.”
“Maybe so, but unless you want to go against me and take the president’s badge, it is what it is.
So get on board with it and do it quick.
I’ve got other shit to deal with, and you throwing a hissy fit about having issues with keeping a secret ain’t even in the top ten of shitty things I need to deal with today. ”
I do want to challenge him for the badge. I want to do it so I can run this like it should be done. Like telling Ruby the truth. But I’m not strong enough. Not for the club, not for her.
Without saying anything, I leave, slamming the door shut as I go to make one last statement.
I’m so close to getting my ass kicked for insubordination right now, but I can’t help it.
My mind is all over the place. Since Law was shot, I’ve barely had time to think things through.
I went from scrubbing his blood off my hands to feeling Ruby in my arms to rushing off to Russia and getting fucked up.
All to come back here and see I lost my possible promotion and watch another mafia prick hang on something I shouldn’t want.
I make it to my room, shutting and locking the door behind me. Slowly, I sit on my bed and take the two pills that General said to take with water. I do so with the whiskey on the nightstand. There’s water in it, sort of.
I don’t bother undressing; it would take too much effort. Instead, I just lean back and close my eyes, willing sleep to come. Once I have the rest, I plan to do some thinking. Planning out what the next steps are and what I need to do.
But all I see when I close my eyes is Ruby.