Rex
“Fuck, are you okay?” I demanded as the video call connected.
Storm looked wrecked, and I didn’t fucking blame him.
Today had been a shitshow, and it was a miracle that it had ended how it had.
Storm granted me a shaken nod. “I nearly fucking lost them, man.”
“That bitch,” Link ground out. “She’d better be rotting in hell. What’s the point in being one of Satan’s Sinners if she ain’t?”
He had a point.
We were all in on the video call, dealing with the aftermath of the clusterfuck that had gone down in Coshocton.
“Kendra got mixed up with Sticky, Hook, Grim, and Doc. They set fire to one of our warehouses, had all the guys riding over to deal with that mess. When I got the call they had Keira and Cyan, I headed out by myself.
“I was fucking lucky that North had come over.” He rubbed his eyes. “The men came racing to my place, though, once they got the Code Red message. They had my back.”
“Of course they did,” I said gruffly. “You’re their Prez.”
“No. Grim sowed a lot of dissent amid the MC.” His jaw clenched. “I seriously thought I was fucked. Keira got Kendra though. I can’t say I’m sorry, man,” he directed at me.
“You’re kidding, right? Rex hated her more than the rest of us did,” Nyx retorted. “And that’s saying fucking something.”
Sin leaned forward. “Do you need Cruz to come down and get rid of the bodies?”
“I got it handled.” Storm’s eyes were round with remembered terror. “I nearly fucking lost them.”
“But you didn’t,” I said, my tone sharper than I’d like, but I wanted him to snap out of this.
He hadn’t lost them. They were alive and well, and I didn’t need him spiraling.
That was a surefire way for him to lose his girls.
“They’re safe, and they’re with you, and you have a fucking future now that cunt’s dead. ”
Giulia had told me how, at the baby shower last month, Kendra had tried to punch Rach in the belly. If I’d had an ounce of sympathy in my being for her, it had faded at that.
Dad had asked me to give her some kind of legacy, and I’d complied. He hadn’t asked me to be charitable.
“I’m gonna go, man.” Storm still looked spaced out, and it had nothing to do with his drugs of choice. More like a whacked combo of fear and adrenaline. “Fraction, Cyan’s dog, is with the vet—”
“They hurt him? Those fucking bastards!” Nyx growled.
I shot Nyx the side-eye. “You caught what your brother’s got?”
“Fuck off. You don’t kill the dog. It’s like the fucking law.”
“It really ain’t,” Link muttered.
“Well, it goddamn should be.”
“Storm, you get going, man. We understand. Give our best to K and Cy, yeah?”
“Will do. Thanks, brothers.” He paused, then his brow puckered. “It might be nothing, but…”
“But what?” I probed when he fell silent.
“When I was working Hook over, he mentioned something about an expensive necklace being hidden in a secret safe on the compound here.”
“What about it?” I asked.
“They had hidden safes there?” Maverick queried in surprise.
“Yeah, they did shit differently than Rex. Butch was a prick. They didn’t split their cuts fairly.” Storm scraped a hand over his head. “I only ask because Hook mentioned something about it being stolen from a crime family in New York. You heard anything about that?”
I shook my head. “I haven’t. Has anyone else?” When I looked around the table, I saw everyone seemed to be as confused about it as I was. “You think it’s a big deal?”
“I gotta find it first, if it even exists. I just… I thought it was curious, that’s all.’
“Sin, you could ask Declan, right?”
“Sure. I’ll text him when we’re done.”
“Great. I can get Rach to ask around with the Italians. If anything comes up, I’ll let you know.”
Storm nodded. “Thanks, Rex.”
Link said, “Heard you’re gonna brand Keira.”
My brows lifted. “You are? And she wants that?”
“She does.” He swallowed. “It’s time.”
“Fuck, that’s awesome news,” Nyx rasped.
“It goddamn is,” Steel rumbled.
“Yeah. I got my Old Lady back, and that cunt nearly stole her from me.” Storm’s jaw clenched. “Okay, I’m going. Speak soon, brothers.”
The video call ended, and most of us rocked in our seats now that his face faded from the TV screen on the back wall.
“I wasn’t sure that’d ever happen,” Sin said slowly.
“Me either,” Nyx replied.
“I knew,” I murmured. “They just needed to get their heads out of their asses.”
“Yeah,” Link agreed. “They had a lot of shit to work through, but what the fuck is the point in loving someone if you can’t do that together?”
He was right.
Which was terrifying.
Steel cleared his throat. “A necklace in a hidden safe? What is this? A Nancy Drew story?”
From the looks of relief on all our faces, the lot of us were grateful for the change of subject.
“He wouldn’t have brought it up if it weren’t important,” Maverick pointed out as he rubbed his temple.
It was a common thing to see. Those goddamn headaches of his.
If I could take them away from him, I would.
“That’s fucked up what happened. Hijacked by ex-Sinners, almost goddamn killed, his family nearly—” Mav blew out a breath.
“We’re lucky today ended the way it did. ”
Slowly, I nodded. The main emotion I was feeling right now was relief. Seventy-five percent of that was aimed at the fact that my brother and his family were safe. The other twenty-five was aimed solely at the fate that had been delivered unto the half-sister from hell.
How goddamn horrendous was that?
Kendra was dead.
She’d never done anything wrong to me personally. It was only her existence that was an affront—
I really shouldn’t have felt relief, but I’d never claimed to be a good person.
Shit, I’d have to tell her mom.
Goddammit to hell.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I ordered, “Be ready to ride over to them, Link, Sin, in case there’s more unrest in that chapter.”
“What the fuck about me?”
I shot Nyx a look. “What about you, dipshit? You really okay with leaving Giulia and Samael right now?”
His mouth rounded.
Nyx had a habit of forgetting his new circumstances, then, when he remembered, he looked like he’d been whacked on the head with a baseball bat, followed by…
Yeah.
The dopey grin.
I almost shook my head at his contented look.
It was starting to creep me the fuck out, and I knew I wasn’t the only one. At least it always shut him up.
“Speaking of unrest, I’ve been meaning to bring this up with you, but I’m thinking about promoting Cruz to the council.” When there was no arguing, and I meant zero, I raised a brow. “I expected some criticism.”
“Why? He keeps our asses out of jail for the most part,” Sin said with a shrug.
“There’s no position for him,” was all Steel had to say.
“That’s the only issue? How about we fucking make one? He’s our Reaper, ain’t he?”
Nyx’s lips twisted. “We’d need to get him a patch.”
“Seeing as you’re domesticated now, I’ll leave that with you.”
He flipped me the bird. “Fuck off.”
Shooting him a grin, I murmured, “Got nowhere to fuck off to. Harlow still doesn’t have his patch. We can have a dual celebration.”
“Sounds good to me. I’ll make the arrangements,” Steel, as Secretary, confirmed.
Sin said, “I wanted to talk to you about that actually. It didn’t feel right partying so soon after Bear…”
Everyone nodded their understanding.
“So… we’re agreed then?” I got a bunch of nods and had to admit I was taken aback by the lack of blowback about making a new council position out of nothing.
Cruz was one of the best men I knew, but these fuckers were argumentative dipshits. I’d expected to have to bring forward my A-game.
Looked like that wasn’t necessary.
A fact that was cemented in place when Maverick, moving onto other business, remarked, “José flew through the primaries—totally whooped Kinnock’s ass.
He’s set to be the next mayor. If that’s the case, I don’t think we’ll have any issues with Farrow becoming sheriff.
Rachel was right to push this—we’ll have the town hall and the sheriff’s department in our pocket. ”
“She’s smart as fuck, that’s why.” I’d been slow off the mark with this being election year. I was almost ashamed of how myopic I’d been and was beyond grateful my Old Lady was hot shit. “I’ll be meeting with him in a couple weeks.”
“You need to bring up him lifting the noise ordinance in the city limits,” Sin rumbled. “Couple of guys got fined for that last week.”
“I will. Anything else?
“There are zoning issues with building houses on the compound. It’s listed as agricultural right now, but it needs to be residential. Plus, the quotas need adjusting. The plot’s limited to six houses, but Giulia and me aren’t the only ones who want to live here.”
“Consider it handled.”
After, we discussed the strip joint which was raking us in so much dough that Maverick was having to offset a lot of the income to offshore bank accounts so we didn’t need to pay Uncle Sam more than he was worth.
Then we discussed opening another on the outskirts of West Orange’s border with Verona.
After that, we conferred about what had gone down with Storm when Digger called to give us another update. Which was when it became clear that we’d almost lost Storm in today’s fuckfest.
It was bad enough losing him to goddamn Ohio, never mind to a graveyard.
As the late meeting came to a close, I muttered, “I’ll speak with Cruz in the AM about a promotion. He might not fucking want it.”
“Nah, he’ll want it,” Nyx disagreed. “Did you hear about Indy getting through to the finals on that TV show? We got the news earlier today.”
“I did. Rach told me.” I tapped the ink on the side of my throat. The scales of justice—if they were sentient, they’d have hated being on my skin seeing as I was beyond shady. “Good thing I got to her before she’s mega famous,” I teased.
Nyx grinned, but he looked proud as fuck. “Yeah. Got myself a back full of Indy Sisson’s artwork.”
“Shame you’re not a swimsuit model so you don’t get to show it off to the general public,” Sin joked, which, of course, led to him and Nyx duking it out as they left my office.
I didn’t bother rolling my eyes as, one by one, they started to leave.
Link, on the way out, told me about Lily going Bridezilla with their wedding which was gonna be a ‘white wedding,’ Steel bitched about Stone’s shifts which were fucking with their ‘fucking’ time, until finally, Mav and I were left in peace.
Arching a brow at him when he made no move to leave, I asked, “You got something to bitch about too?”
“Nah. Alessa’s perfect. If you wanna kill someone, you can off my doctors, though. I’d be okay with that.”
“They’re trying to fix you. I ain’t killing them until you’re on the path to being healed.”
He shot me a look loaded with disbelief. “That ain’t gonna happen, Rex. You know that, don’t you?”
I frowned at him. “Fuck off. Don’t be living your life like that. We gotta be positive.”
“I ain’t living my life negatively. You kidding me? I wanna be around until I’m at least eighty. Alessa’s totally gonna be a GILF.”
I chuckled. “Pervert.”
“You know it.” He grinned at me. “I just meant you can’t fix what’s fucked, just gotta deal with it. There’ll be good times and bad, but I know she’ll see me through.”
“Just like you will with her. Hell, just like we all will. We got your back, brother.”
“I know you do.” He scratched his chin. “You remember Drew?”
“The school shooter?” I blinked at the change of topic. “What about him?”
“He turned seventeen two days ago and ran away from Shady Pines.”
Hissing under my breath, I argued, “How could they let him get out? He was fucked in the head.”
Mav shrugged. “His records show he was an exemplary patient and he was in there on a voluntary basis anyway. School’s out so I don’t think he’s a risk.”
“He ran away for a reason,” I pointed out, but I didn’t let him answer as an uneasy feeling settled inside me. “Watch out for him.”
“I will.”
“Did he ever email that address I gave him?”
“Nope. But I’ll carry on checking the inbox.”
“Thanks, man. Appreciate you keeping on top of that.”
“It’s what I do.” Gathering his laptop, he asked, “You think Giulia will be pissed when she finds out North is back on the radar and he turned pussy and went to the Ohio chapter and not back here?”
I winced. “Fuck, never thought about it that way.”
He hummed. “Something to watch out for.”
“Ain’t there always in this fucking job.”
His lips twitched. “Rach okay?”
“Yeah. Had more bloodwork done. She and the baby are fine. Late August/early September’s when she’s due. I’m shitting myself.”
He laughed. “‘Course you are. That’s how you know you love her.”
“Didn’t need to be terrified to figure that out.” I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, I’m going home. You?”
“Nah. Alessa’s in the kitchen. She’s making some Ukrainian thing for dinner tomorrow and it needs a whole night to prep.”
“No offense, bro, but I’ll be glad when Giulia’s back in the kitchen.”
Mav’s grin was sheepish. “None taken.”