Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Drew
“So what do you think?” I asked them all from my seat at the head of the table. Glancing around from left to right, my eyes eventually fell on Jedd as I waited for him to speak.
“I think,” he said slowly, inhaling before reclining back in his chair. “I think if Ayda is happy enough with what you’re asking of Tate then it could work.” Jedd began to nod, his head turning to the right of him as he glanced at Slater.
“Am I the only one that wants to rip these little fuckers’ heads off?” Slater asked quietly.
A few grumbles erupted deep from the bellies of the other men.
“Spoken like the true sergeant at arms,” I muttered under my breath.
“Nope. I’m with you, Slater,” Kenny agreed from my right where he sat next to Harry, one hand on the table while his arm hung limply over the back of his chair. “They disrespected us in the worst possible way. We should make them pay.”
“More importantly, they disrespected Pete.” Slater’s brows rose as my attention slowly turned to him. “And I’ve got to be honest, Drew. I'm a little surprised by how well you’re taking this.”
I clasped both hands together and just shrugged. There wasn’t much I could say about any of it, mainly because my mind was so weighed down with the thoughts of the real threats that were out there, waiting for us to slip, ready to pounce from the shadows.
“They’ll get what they deserve at some point,” I muttered, not meaning to smirk at the men who were sitting around my table.
This meeting was almost comical. Where once we’d been talking about which one of us would do the drug runs across the border, now we were discussing who was going to play dress up and deal with a bunch of kids.
Harry’s chair creaked beside me, and without him having to say anything at all, he commanded everyone’s attention, just like that. Even mine.
“I think what Drew is trying to say is this: The more attention we give these boys—and make no mistake, these little pissants are just boys—the more they will think they are winning. Let a fighter get a few punches in and suddenly he thinks he’s a champ, right?
We’ve got bigger fish to fry, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore them.
At the end of the day, we’re all here every single day, for three reasons.
One—because we love the shit out of each other, and we’re a family.
Two—because we need the freedom of riding like we need the air in our lungs.
And three…” He paused to pour all his attention onto me, a small smile playing on his lips as if he was already feeling smug about being able to explain our motives better than me.
“Because we love Babylon. And if there’s anyone out there that’s going to try to damage this place, we'll do our best to protect it, whether it’s against the law or not. Ain’t that right, Tucker?”
“Don’t even try to pretend you ain’t here for the free pussy, Harry,” I said, raising a brow.
The whole table began to tremble, each man slapping his hand down on the top as their rough laughter got stuck in their throats.
Harry’s elbows hit the surface before he dropped his head and ran both hands over his bald head, back and forth, back and forth.
“It’s like dealing with infants, every damn day,” he muttered from beneath his arms.
Leaning over to slap him on the shoulder, I straightened up in my chair, pulling my cut down against my chest while I tried to get back to business.
“But what he’s saying is right. I’m not going to treat these little fuckers like they’re dangerous because then they’ll start to believe it.
There’s nothing more explosive than a kid with too much ego and no fear in his heart. ”
I didn’t miss the cough from beside me or the way Jedd raised his balled up fist to his mouth and uttered a not so quiet, “Sounds like someone we once knew,” at Slater’s shoulder. My arm shot out to the side, my finger jabbing in his face. ”Fuck. You.”
“When? Name the time and the place and I’m there, stud.
” Jedd’s laughter was so deep, raw and infectious, it wasn’t long before the whole place was up in arms. This meeting had gone downhill so fast I didn’t see much point in carrying it on.
Running a hand down over my mouth to try to contain my own grin, I shook my head and reached for the gavel beside me, slamming it against the wood before throwing my arms in the air and falling back into my seat.
“Get the fuck out of here, all of y’all. I’ll take your jokes as a yes vote, and we can move the hell along.”
Jedd and Slater jumped up out of their seats first, but Jedd was out of the doorway before Slater—his hand holding onto the door as he looked over his shoulder and gave me one last glance.
It was a look that told me this wasn’t over in his eyes and while he might be playing his part in this circus we’d created, he’d be pulling me aside to talk about this later.
Harry’s chair scratched across the floor as the weight of his body pushed it back.
For once, he seemed happy enough with a decision I’d made, and the firm but careful slap to the top of my arm as he walked by told me so.
I wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but I kinda liked those moments from him.
It made me feel like I might not be quite the fuck up I’d always imagined myself to be.
I was already thinking of ways to spend the night with Ayda without focusing too much on the worry that she was trying to hide from me.
My thoughts were traveling down several paths until I heard a small cough escape from Kenny beside me.
Peering up at him and then glancing at the door, I let my head roll slowly to look back at him and just waited.
Kenny shuffled in his seat a few times, his neck stretching from side to side before he brought his hands to rest on the table in front of him.
Eyes down were never a good response from him.
He was one of the cockier members of our club.
He was the joker, the clown, the idiot, so much so that he struggled to do the whole serious shit, which is why he looked as awkward as he did then.
His mouth moved as though to speak a few times, but nothing came out.
“What’s up, brother?” I asked quietly.
“I’m not used to this feeling that I’ve got right now, Drew. I-I’ve gotta be honest with you about that.”
He looked more on edge than I remembered seeing him since I got out of prison. He looked like the boy who I’d left behind back then, not the man who’d stood before me wearing nothing but confidence since I’d been released.
Scowling further, one hand rested on the arm of my chair, my body leaning away from it as my chin came to rest on the fist of the other hand. “What feeling’s that?”
“This…” He batted the leather on his chest just once. “This unease I’ve got going on. I’ve never argued with you or questioned anything you’ve ever done. You know that, right? You remember all those times I’ve given you my yes vote, even when everyone else said no?”
“I remember, K-Dog.”
“Good.” He nodded firmly. “Good. Then you should know that I wouldn’t argue with you unless it felt right to.”
Flaring my nostrils, I held a big breath of air in my chest before releasing it slowly, my voice strained when I forced words out. “Spit it out, Ken. Honesty is always appreciated around this table, and that’s something you should know by now. There’s nothing you can’t talk to me about.”
Kenny’s head snapped up in my direction, his expression deadpan as he spoke. “Don’t get Tate involved in this. Kids or not, amateurs or pros, I’ve come to know him, and something tells me that once he’s in, he’s all in.”
My eyes narrowed in his direction as my chin slipped, pushing my fist to my mouth. “Tell me why.”
“Because I know him, Drew. He follows me around like he’s a damn puppy and I’m the only one that can lead him out into the yard to take a piss. Don’t get me wrong, I like having him here. He’s become a brother to me, without having to wear the cut. But…”
“But…?”
Kenny’s hands slapped down on the table weakly, his shoulders sagging. “He’s just a boy—a boy who hasn’t been allowed to be a child. I know he thinks he’s got the world at his feet, and I know he looks at you as some kind of hero.”
I couldn’t help the raise of both brows, but I didn’t speak, instead clearing my throat and silently asking him to go on.
“He sees what you are, flaws and all, and he asks a lot of questions about what you were like at his age. I think anything you do now to encourage him into this lifestyle could mark the beginning of the end. If he thinks he’s been useful to the club, he’s gonna want more of that.
He’s gonna soak up that high and feel ten feet tall. ”
“Like you did?” I breathed against my hand.
He nodded once, his eyes dropping back down to the table in front of him. “Yeah. Like I did.”
“Do you regret the choices you made?”
“We all have our moments,” he whispered.
“I guess we do.” I sighed softly. “Kenny?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for being honest with me.”
Rubbing his lips together, he pressed his hands down and began to stand.
There wasn’t much left to be said. He had concerns, and they were noted.
He was no different than Ayda. He was no different than any of them out there.
All I had to do was show them that no harm would come to him that wasn’t intended.
The only scare Tate Hanagan was going to get was going to be from me.
Because if anyone thought for one minute that I was going to allow the woman I loved to lose her only blood relative because of my club, they were all more fucked up in the head than I realized.
I’d made the Hanagans a promise all those weeks ago at the safe house, and it was a promise I had zero intention of ever breaking to either one of them, no matter what that meant for me.