Rex
“He was dead,” Sin snapped. “I know what a dead body looks like.”
I raised a hand. “Sin, calm the fuck down. He was dead. Okay. So where’s his goddamn corpse?”
“I don’t know. Fuck. I don’t know.” He shot me a raw look. “He needs to be dead. He has to be.”
“Brother, you’re not the only one who needs him not to be alive.”
“Could Bear have moved him?” Link asked, his voice grim. That was as much a testament to the severity of the situation as anything else. Link was rarely anything other than playful.
“Without telling us?” I shook my head. “I can’t see it.”
“It’d make more sense than anything else.”
“He’d have told us,” I repeated staunchly.
Dad had kept a lot from me, but I didn’t think he’d have kept this a fucking secret too.
“Does it matter?” Steel asked softly. “Whatever happened to his body, whether he’s living it up in Boca Raton or is gracing some other grave, he’s left us alone.”
“Of course it matters,” Sin yelled. “I want him dead. I want to know he’s dead.”
“I do too,” I grated out. “How the fuck is Rachel supposed to have any peace if one of her attackers is still alive and free?”
“You say that like that doesn’t happen all the time,” was Steel’s calm rejoinder. “Not everyone gets to enjoy the perks of having Sinners as family.”
“She does though. She’s my Old Lady, Steel. If anyone should know that her fucking rapist is worm food, it’s Rachel.”
Steel raised his hands, palms up, in surrender. “I don’t see that there’s any point in getting stressed. We’ve got plenty of other shit to be dealing with. The funeral, the fucking wake, Nyx and Harlow’s first hunt, Giulia’s about to pop—”
I rubbed my forehead, uncaring that I was probably smearing more dirt on it. “Where’s Maverick?”
“Hospital,” Nyx rumbled, speaking for the first time since this whole debacle with Grizzly had commenced.
“Alessa was here though.”
He shrugged. “She’ll go in later.”
“I think she wanted to be here for Rachel and Giulia. That’s why Lily came,” Link added.
“Same with Tiff,” Sin remarked gruffly, his hands fisted at his sides.
Whether she liked it or not, it seemed Rach had been inducted into the Posse.
At any other time, I’d have smiled, despite the headache that was roaring my way. But right this second, I didn’t have it in me to fucking smile, not when the reality of our situation was grim.
“Unless Maverick can pull a rabbit out of a hat, we’re not going to discover what happened to Grizzly,” I rumbled, staring down into the empty pit as I faced the stark truth.
“I don’t want to say that, but it’s true.
We wouldn’t even know about this if Giulia hadn’t gotten it into her head to have the bastards exhumed. ”
“Ignorance is bliss,” Link mumbled, shoving his dirty hands into his pockets.
“In this instance, yeah.” The timer on my cell bleated.
“Jesus, that went fast. I need to get back to Rach.” I turned off the timer by handing it to Nyx who was the only one of us with clean hands.
“Have Cruz get rid of any evidence of Dog’s body, and, I guess, fill in both holes.
While you’re in the mini Cat, you can dig out Dad’s space beside Mom. ”
Nyx nodded. “I was going to do that anyway.”
“Thanks, man.” I blew out a breath as he handed my phone back to me. “I doubt I’ll return to the clubhouse today, but you can call me if you need me.”
“We’ll keep things at bay,” Nyx rasped. “You can lean on us, Rex. We managed without you since Christmas.”
My jaw clenched at the implied criticism, but before I could answer, Sin stated, “He meant no shade, Rex. Just that you’ve got Rach now. Things are different.”
I tipped up my chin in understanding but made no comment other than to say, “I’ll speak to you later.”
As I headed toward the clubhouse and onward to the gates, I knew they stayed clustered together, discussing the situation, their eyes on me until I moved out of sight.
Mind whirring, I ran up the hill to our place.
Ours.
It still felt so damn good to call it that.
As I ran through the gates, I saw Rain and Harlow were sitting on the veranda. They didn’t have their ears to the front door, but I could tell they were on red alert.
Frowning, I wondered if they were getting close.
I had plans for Rain after his service ended, and hanging around with a serial killer in the making wasn’t a part of those goddamn aspirations. I still had hope that Axel’s G.I. Joe brainwashing would die out before graduation and he’d want to become a cop.
If he did, his association with the club was a major strike against him to start with; I didn’t need him contending with any extra weight around his neck.
I knew how that felt.
I loved Nyx. He was my brother. But handling his craziness was a full-time occupation, and honestly, it was only possible because I was Prez. Because I ruled over my particular roost and had the resources to manage Nyx.
Rain wasn’t Prez material.
The thought made me feel disloyal, but that was how it rolled when you were a leader—the truth, even if it was painful, had to be in sharp focus at all times.
He was too intrinsically good for that. He could lead, but whenever I thought about his future, I saw him getting promoted, becoming captain of a precinct in the city somewhere. Not the leader of a bunch of outlaws.
“Why do you look like you’ve been playing in the dirt?”
I arched a brow at Rain. “Do you really want to know?”
His eyes rounded. “Club business?”
“Club business.” I shot Harlow a glance. “It stays between brothers.”
“Whatever,” Harlow muttered with a dismissive shrug, which was clue enough that the second he found out what had happened at the compound, he’d tell Rain.
Fucking motormouths.
“Why aren’t you at the clubhouse?”
“Nyx sent me away.”
“Why?”
Rocking back in his seat on the outdoor sofa, Harlow blinked. “I don’t know why Nyx does what he does.”
Who the fuck did?
“You didn’t do anything wrong?” I persisted, trying to figure out why his ass was here and not at the clubhouse.
“Not as far as I know.”
Did Nyx just want him away while we illegally exhumed two graves?
There was no logic in that, though. Nyx and he were going on a two-man mission to slay pedos in the tristate area, but he couldn’t know about something as basic as an illegal exhumation?
Grunting a dismissal, deciding that that truly was a problem for another day, I headed into the house without another word.
Hearing movement upstairs, I started up the steps but the door opened behind me and Rain stomped toward me.
I didn’t even have a chance to swivel around before he was grumbling, “He won’t say anything, but that guy Lever’s being a dick.”
One hand on the railing, I turned back to study him. “Most of the Sinners are dicks.”
Rain scowled. “I know that, Rex.” The ‘duh’ went unspoken. “I’m a Sinners’ brat myself. I know how you roll. This is different. This isn’t just hazing.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Explain.”
His eyes drifted to my arms and the filth covering them. “I should have let you shower, but Harlow was worried you’d ask Nyx about why he was here—”
“He lied about that?”
Nodding, Rain said, “He’s embarrassed.”
My brow furrowed. “You got feelings for him?”
“What?” Rain scoffed. “No. I’m not into him, Rex. Jesus. You into Nyx?”
Lips twitching, I shook my head.
His gaze turned inward. “He’s… I feel responsible for him.”
Shit.
“Why?”
“Why do you feel responsible for Nyx?”
“I grew up with Nyx, Rain. There’s a difference.
When I first learned to walk, Nyx was the one whose building blocks I smashed.
When I first learned how to ride a bike, he and I as well as Link, Steel, Mav, and Storm were the ones who were racing into town to try to steal porn magazines from the convenience store—” I waved my hand.
“Most of my firsts happened with those dickheads around.” I meant that in more ways than one.
“You, on the other hand, barely know the kid.”
“It doesn’t feel that way.”
“I repeat—you into him?”
“No, dammit.” He huffed. “I’m just… It feels like we were supposed to be friends. It feels like I was supposed to have his back.”
“You enlisting at the end of the school year?”
He swallowed. “Yes.”
Dammit.
Still, becoming a soldier would look good on his resume if, after he came home, he wanted to be a cop.
Then, I thought about that slightest hesitation of his, and it had me asking, “You don’t sound so sure.”
“I’m not…” He heaved a sigh. “This isn’t about me.”
“It isn’t?”
“No. It’s about Harlow. I’m telling you, Rex, Lever is being a prick. He somehow got a hold of Harlow’s goddamn Bible; the fucker won’t give it back. Harlow used to wear a rosary. Not anymore. Lever grabbed Harlow by it and it broke. Right before he beat the shit out of him—”
My jaw worked—I hated petty fucking crap like this. I’d never understood why grown-assed men resorted to such childish games.
“I’ll deal with it.”
“You will?”
I saw and heard the hope in his expression and his tone, and I nodded. “I will.”
“Thanks, Rex. Don’t tell him I said anything? He’s a proud man.”
“Ironic considering he was gonna be a priest.”
Rain’s nose crinkled. “I don’t think he’d have been a good one.”
I didn’t know why that had me barking out a laugh, but it did. After this shitty fucking day, I needed something to laugh about, and Rain had just given me a reason.
Going to slap him on the back, I stopped an inch away from making contact.
Rain grinned. “I appreciate you not getting me dirty.” His gaze went to the ceiling. “Rach okay?”
“No. But she will be.”
“You two together now? For real?”
I nodded, sent him a measured glance because I should have talked to him about this sooner—man to man. “You okay with that?”
“Would have preferred you to get together about ten years ago, but hey, it’s reassuring that you’re shit with women. You can’t be good at everything.”
Snorting, I said, “You’re pushing your luck.”