15. Chapter 15
BONER
Things were about as good as they could get, which should’ve been enough to warn me of the incomin’ storm. Life never stayed peaceful for long in my world. It was the price’a the kind joy we sought and rules we made. Someone was always gunnin’ for what was ours and we’d spend our lives tryna defend it. But it was easy to be complacent when I spent my days workin’ my dream job at Hephaestus Auto with my brothers, visitin’ Blue at Lin’s to take her take-out curly fries and milkshakes for lunch from Stella’s Diner ’cause my girl was addicted, shootin’ the shit with brothers or locals at Eugene’s at night just to be in her orbit, steal a word or a kiss or two.
It was funny how simple heaven could be. The right girl, the right friends, laughter, and harmony. It was all I needed to feel like a fuckin’ king, like the world wanted me to gorge myself on the kinda happy I never imagined couldn’t last.
Even knowin’ my girl went home to the wrong house at night.
The only way I could stand it was knowin’ she was so busy workin’ two jobs and Rooster was so busy tryin’ to take over ours that she rarely saw him or the club members for any length’a time long enough to do her harm. And I checked for bruises every time I could.
What I couldn’t check for were the cuts beneath the skin.
But I tried to temper those with all the love I had wellin’ up in my heart.
And by puttin’ my own plans in motion.
Just that afternoon, I’d driven Grouch Pederson and his wife and kid to Tsawwassen to catch the ferry to Victoria. They’d be spendin’ time with the local chapter there under a man named Bolt who swore he’d make it safe for them ’til we could get the Raiders taken care’a.
Grouch’d been hesitant with me at first, but after a couple’a hours in the SUV I’d borrowed from Cressida where I made his kid laugh and charmed his wife with stories about Blue, he’d warmed up.
Enough to wave his family on to the terminal when I dropped them off so he could offer me his hand.
“Won’t threaten you if you hurt her,” he said mildly. “Because I don’t have any doubt you could kill me in a few very creative ways. But I will say, she’s a great girl despite everything she’d been through, and she deserves the best.”
I’d tipped my head. “Respectfully, Grouch, she’s a great girl ’ cause’ a everythin’ she’s been through. Endurin’ Rooster and Hazard and Otto made her brave and independent and full’a love for the small things in life. It made her the woman I love.”
He blinked, a little shocked. “Well, that’s not a bad way to look at it. I’m just saying, please, don’t be one in the long line of men who’ve disappointed her.”
“Since the moment I met her, I’ve been workin’ to get her free’a the past. Does that seem like the kinda man who’d ever fail to be there for her?” I asked sincerely.
His lips twisted. “No, I guess not.”
I’d nodded, knockin’ my fist against the door ’fore I opened it and climbed in. The window was down so I could look at him as I started the engine and said, “Take care’a yourself. She’ll want you to walk her down the aisle one day.”
I’d left him gapin’ a little, my laughter trailin’ out the window behind me.
Now, sittin’ at Eugene’s watchin’ Blue shine her beamin’ light on every table she spoke to, I felt a contentment I’d never known. The only thing that coulda made it better was tyin’ us tighter with laws, with customs and ceremonies, with shared ink and shared memories, any’a the ways I could make her more my own and make myself more hers.
I wanted to own her blood and bones and be owned that way in return.
But she was fuckin’ married, and the thought’a it burned.
The forbidden aspect’a our affair had long since grown stale. I wanted to take her home at the end’a the night. Out to dinner at La Gustosa. To parties at the clubhouse with my brothers and their families.
I wanted fuckin’ everythin’ with Blue.
“Never seen you smile like that,” Curtains said from my left, nudgin’ me with his shoulder so I turned to face him. “Not even when you get the occasional win against me in Call of Duty .”
I scoffed. “Occasional, my ass.”
“Leave your ass outta it,” he quipped with a grimace. “I see it way too fuckin’ much as it is livin’ with you.”
“Hey, you’ve got your section’a the buildin’. You don’t need to see me half-naked if you don’t wanna.”
“Not when you come into my kitchen every mornin’ to steal my food,” he argued, freckles fadin’ against his flushed cheeks as he got riled up.
I shrugged a shoulder as if I didn’t find it hilarious when he got worked up. “You always have the good cereal.”
“You could buy your own,” he suggested acidly, but I knew there was no real threat there.
Curtains and I bought an abandoned buildin’ on the edge’a Main Street a few years back and renovated it to turn it into somethin’ that would work for us. He lived on the right side, and I lived on the left, but we had a shared third story that was basically a giant man cave with games, a bar, a pool table, and anythin’ we had a hankerin’ to add to our collection’a fun and games.
We lived together ’cause we were best friends and also family. We lived together ’cause we’d both been without family for so long, we honestly couldn’t stand to live on our own.
No one got me like Finnegan “Curtains” Ramsey.
But I had the feelin’ Blue could, one day.
“That sugary shit will rot your teeth out,” I scolded him.
“You buy that bran crap and only eat like once a week, just get the good stuff, and you won’t have to eat all’a mine!”
“Are you two seriously arguin’ over cereal?” Axe-Man asked as he pulled out a chair and sat in it, pullin’ Mei into his lap as soon as he did. He looked at his woman with a weary sigh. “How the fuck do you put up with these two?”
Her smile was sharp in her pretty face. “I always love people who are willing to bleed for me.”
They shared one’a those looks then, one filled with understandin’ and love, that I’d always looked away from uncomfortably before. Now, I felt an echo’a warmth in my chest thinkin’a Blue and the looks we shared.
“She values a good sense of humour,” Loulou added as she draped an arm around my shoulders from over top’a the both behind me. “Boner and Curtains are one of the secrets to the club’s success.”
“Oh yeah?” Zeus asked, appearin’ behind her like an overlarge bracket, movin’ her blonde hair off her neck to press a kiss there. “Thought the secret was me .”
Loulou shivered but pretended to be unaffected. “No, they can cut any amount of tension with the knife of their hilariousness. I’m pretty sure you’d all have been in way more fights if they hadn’t been there to de-escalate things.”
“Maybe they should be in charge then, huh?” Z growled against her neck.
She squirmed, twistin’ in his hold to look down her nose at him. “Maybe they should be. You are getting old.”
Z’s blade-grey eyes narrowed, and a second later, Loulou was yelpin’ as he flung her over his shoulder and stood beside the booth with her legs pinned to his chest.
“Gotta sort this one out, brothers,” he said calmly, squattin’ her ass firmly when she wriggled too much. “Have fun without us.”
“Zeus!” Loulou protested. “I was having fun.”
“You’ll have more fun in a minute,” he promised as he strode out the doors’a Eugene’s, our catcalls and whistles followin’ him out.
Blue appeared beside me with a low whistle of her own and a tray full’a fresh beers for the group. “Well, that was kinda hot.”
“Yeah?” I lassoed a hand around her hips to tug her into my side, a little loose from a few beers and the fuckin’ unreal sex I’d had with my woman in her car ’fore her shift. “I could carry you off caveman style right now.”
“Don’t you dare,” she said, but she was laughin’, and I didn’t think I’d ever seen her so at ease. She was settlin’ into the routine’a her life, bloomin’ under the light’a our relationship like a flower too long without sunshine. It was fuckin’ beautiful to witness. “Eugene already made a comment about tainting his product in the storeroom.”
Laughter rushed from my belly. “I think we both know every bit’a evidence he could’ve found wound up inside ya.”
“Bones!” she hissed, slappin’ at my arm, which only made me laugh harder.
Dane and Bat laughed across from me.
“Bones, eh?” Curtains drawled, lookin’ at Blue with those sharp eyes rovin’ over her the way he did over code, readin’ somethin’ others couldn’t. “You know, it’s Boner, yeah?”
I wedged an elbow into his side in retaliation.
“Yeah, but I think Bones suits him better,” she said softly, not even lookin’ at my best friend, just smilin’ at me.
Curtains snorted softly, finishin’ the rest’a his beer before placin’ the glass a little too firmly on the table.
“What’s your problem?” I demanded.
“Don’t got one.”
“The fuck you do,” I argued. “You do not act like this.”
“I better get back to it,” Blue murmured, excusin’ herself ’fore I could keep her at my side.
Still, it gave me the opportunity to turn the full weight’a my scowl on my brother. “What the fuck, Curtains?”
He just pulled a full pint Blue had laid down on the table into the bracket’a his arms and glared into the amber surface.
I looked up at Dane and Bat for a second, but they were sharin’ one’a their damn looks no one else had the key for, so I ignored them.
“Dude,” I said, tryin’ to control myself. “You get I’m into this girl, right?”
Curtains rolled his eyes. “I’m not blind or deaf, and you won’t stop talkin’ about her, so, uh, yeah .”
“Is that a problem for you?” I asked, incredulously.
I didn’t date seriously, but I had a rotation’a woman through my life over the years, and Curtains was never anythin’ but his usual dumbass, awesome self with them.
So I didn’t get this.
And the tension made my teeth ache.
“This is it for me,” I told him, an edge’a desperation like a blade cuttin’ into each word. “You get that? Blue’s mine.”
“She’s fuckin’ married, man, to a member’a the White Raiders,” Curtains reminded me, knuckles white around the glass. “She’s the kid daughter’a Rooster Cavendish. The man who put Axe-Man away for three years and who’s actively gunnin’ to take down the club. She is not yours; she’s theirs.”
“She’s as much theirs as an animal in a fuckin’ cage, and you know it,” I seethed, seein’ red and not just ’cause Curtains was a ginger.
For the first time ever, I wanted to hit my best friend in the fuckin’ throat.
“I’m just sayin’, you’re jeopardizin’ the club by doin’ this secret affair shit with her. Especially when it’s not that fuckin’ secrets seein’ as you’re flirtin’ with her in public and plantin’ those neon signs for her everywhere she goes.”
I blinked at him like I’d never seen him before. “What the hell, Curtains?”
He rolled his lips between his teeth, then cursed under his breath. “Never mind. I’m outta here.”
I sat numbly as he climbed over the back’a the both instead’a askin’ me to get out so he could storm outta the bar.
When I looked up at Dane and Bat, they were both watchin’ me with varyin’ expressions’a sympathy.
“What am I missin’ here?” I asked ’cause King was at home with Cressida and their kid, and Z had left with Loulou.
That left them, Wrath, and Kodiak playin’ pool on the corner, and Axe-Man and Mei who’d pulled out a sketchbook they were both drawin’ in as they spoke softly to each other.
Bat and Dane were my best option.
It was the latter who winced and offered, “He could be jealous.”
I gaped at them. “Jealous? What the hell’s he got to be jealous about?”
“Um,” Mei interjected. “Maybe the fact that the woman he’s loved is lost to him, probably forever, and now he has to watch his best friend falling in love?”
“Or he’s worried you’re gonna leave him or spend less time with him now that you’ve claimed an Old Lady,” Bat said over the rim’a his beer bottle before takin’ a pull. “I’m no expert on romantic relationships, but I get friendship, and this is classic.”
“Even though she was thrilled for us, Cleo had a hard time adjusting when Henning and I actually got our heads out of our asses and started seeing each other,” Mei admitted, and Axe-Man smoothed a soothin’ hand over her thigh. “We’re a family, all three of us, but obviously, it changes the dynamic.”
I blinked down at the scarred wood tabletop as I digested their words.
’Cause they made a fuckuva lotta sense when they laid it out like that.
Curtains and I had trauma bonded over savin’ Elsa only to lose her again, and even though I’d dated and Curtains fucked around to keep the edge off, there’d never been anyone we brought into our family’a two.
’Til I met Blue.
Curtains had this wholehearted belief that he’d never settle down with anyone but Elsa. No matter how hard I tried to convince him she wasn’t comin’ back.
So there he was, thinkin’ he’d probably live his life alone, but at least he had me, who didn’t give a shit about love and marriage and all that crap.
Then I did.
And I wanted it with a woman who was by no means a sure thing.
Which meant he was probably fuckin’ scared for me, that if things didn’t work out I’d end up like him. Married to a ghost, an idea I used to know.
Not to mention, I had been spendin’ less time with my buddy so I could sneak what time I could get with Blue. It wasn’t like we’d stopped hangin’ out. I still ended up on the third story’a our house every day shootin’ the shit with him, but we weren’t exactly inseparable anymore.
“Fuck.” I dug the heels’a my hands into my eyes. “I should go talk to him.”
“Probably,” Dane and Mei said simultaneously.
Bat and Axe-Man only sipped their beers, happy to stay outta my shit show.
“Alright.” I stood to get goin’ and say goodbye to Blue when the familiar growl’a motorcycles spiked outside and then settled into silence.
I hesitated, ’cause it was late and most’a the brothers were at home with their women or doin’ fuck all at the clubhouse. Uneasiness prickled the back’a my neck.
And a moment later, my premonition was proved right when a group’a bikers wearin’ cuts embossed with a skeleton ridin’ a motorbike swaggered into the bar in a cloud’a cigarette smoke and loud cussin’.
The White Raiders had arrived.
There were only four’a them to the five of us, six if you counted Mei who was a black belt badass in her own right, but the bar was filled with civilians, too, and there was no way we’d get away with a public fight without the cops comin’.
For one glimmerin’ moment, I thought about sittin’ down and resumin’ casual conversation with the brothers ’til it wasn’t so conspicuous’a me to leave.
But then one’a the Raiders spotted Blue, frozen like Bambi in the scope’a a hunter’s rifle, and I knew there was no peaceful way outta here.
“Hey bitch,” one’a them called out to her. “Hard to believe you’re still the same frail, ugly little thing Hazard used to own.”
“Still owns,” another muttered, clampin’ a hand on his shoulder. “He won’t like it if you try somethin’, Geyser.”
“Try?” Geyser snorted, strollin’ to Blue with his hand cuppin’ his junk through the denim. “I don’t gotta try for shit. Look at her all grown up and lookin’ like a true biker slut, now. She’ll beg for it. Won’t you, Faith?”
I was outta the booth and stompin’ toward them without any thought to the consequences when Blue firmed her slightly tremblin’ mouth and punched her chin into the air.
“I will not. And Bandit’s right, Hazard will eat your balls for breakfast if you lay a finger on me. So you want a brew? Sit down and I’ll bring it to you. Otherwise, get lost. I’m sure the clubhouse has the kind of entertainment you’re looking for.”
Pride surged through my chest, washing away some’a the red haze’a anger obscurin’ my vision.
Fuck, she was magnificent.
Eugene appeared behind her, mammoth and scowlin’ darkly.
Geyser, idiot though he was, stopped in his tracks and glared right back ’fore gesturin’ to his buddies to the right’a the room near the live band, grabbin’ a table at the back.
The tension in the room lowered instantly, but I still went to the bar, proppin’ my elbow on the counter as if I was askin’ Eugene for a beer and not checkin’ on my girl.
“You okay, Blue?” I murmured, keepin’ my eyes forward.
“That was nothing,” she said as if that was reassurin’ and not totally fucked.
“Please, don’t go back there,” I whispered, feelin’ like blades were slippin’ between every rib, each breath a struggle. “Can’t stand you bein’ in danger like that.”
“I won’t put the people I care about at risk,” she said, ironclad, implacable.
“Grouch and his family caught the ferry to Victoria this afternoon,” I told her. “They’re stayin’ with a buddy’a mine who’ll keep them safe if Rooster decides to go lookin’. You don’t have any excuses left.”
The soft look she’d worn when I mentioned Grouch faded to a scoff at my last sentence. “No more excuses ? I’m sorry, but you seem to have forgotten what I told you the other day.” She punched her chest over her heart. “I love you bone deep, Aaron Clare, and if you think I’m going to let my own father or shithead excuse for an absentee husband come after you and your family, you’re an idiot.”
She turned on her heel and stalked off to take beers over to the Raiders who’d seated themselves on the other side’a the room.
I blinked after her, wonderin’ how I’d fucked that so bad. When I wandered back to the table, Mei only shook her head at me slightly.
“You’re stayin’?” Axe-Man asked ’cause he knew I wouldn’t leave Blue when the Raiders were here.
I nodded, pulling over one’a the fresh brews even though I knew I was done drinkin’ for the night.
It was later.
The summer sun had set leavin’ the breeze cool through the opened windows and the patrons’a Eugene’s were loud with mirth. It was a great atmosphere with the country rock band puttin’ on a great show and my friends all around me. Mei had gone home to work on her latest graphic novel, and Kodiak had trailed out at some point after frownin’ furiously at his phone, but Bat, Dane, Wrath, Axe-Man, and I were still shootin’ the shit.
Blue hadn’t stopped by once.
Which was good, I knew, ’cause the Raiders had caught sight’a our crew an hour into their drinkin’ and sneered at us the rest’a the night. It was easy to tell they were itchin’ to start shit, but Eugene’d brought out his shotgun for a cleanin’ up at the bar, which seemed to deter them.
In the end, it wasn’t even Blue who started the fight.
Tempest Riley, Bat’s nanny and a one-time club slut, had come into the bar on a warm breeze, the air stirrin’ her long dark red hair and liftin’ the hem’a her short white dress so it revealed the bottom curve’a her bare ass. Heckler called her ‘Bunny’ ’cause’a her not-too-distant resemblance to Jessica Rabbit, and the Raiders took notice.
Catcalls and a few barks like a dog broke through the bar. One’a the bikers fell to his knees pantin’, and another called out, “Hey, Red, you need a seat, my lap is free.”
Tempest ignored them, goin’ straight to the bar instead’a comin’ to sit with us.
I looked across the table to see Bat’s and Dane’s eyes both fixed on her back.
“You guys fightin’?” I asked.
Bat’s eyes slid slowly away from Tempest, and he took a deliberate draw from his pint. “She’s the nanny. She doesn’t have to talk to us on her time off.”
Dane’s pale blue eyes stayed locked on her, though, and I wondered if it was gonna be awkward, him datin’ Bat’s nanny if it ever came to that. Tempest avoided club shit, but we’d all heard what a fuckin’ godsend she’d been with his twins, Shaw and Steele, especially after their mum died.
“Get your hands off me.”
The cold voice cut through the din’a the bar and drew my attention again.
One’a the Raiders, the guy named Bandit, was in her space at the bar, his hand half-up her skirt high on her thigh.
Bat and Dane were up only seconds ’fore the rest’a us.
Tempest wasn’t an Old Lady, but she was still a de facto member’a our family and no one fucked with one’a ours.
Let alone scum like the Raiders.
Dane made it to them first, haulin’ Tempest off her stool to drag her behind him.
Meanwhile, Bat, war veteran with two tours in Afghanistan under his belt and Sergeant At Arms for The Fallen MC, reeled back and landed a brutal punch to Bandit’s jaw.
I could hear the crack’a bone ten feet back.
The Raider, not more than twenty really, fell to the ground with a broken whelp, jaw noticeably broken.
“Fuckin’ brphen,” he wailed inarticulately.
“Fuck,” Wrath and I cursed in tandem as the rest’a the Raiders surged from their table into the action.
I grabbed the one that veered closest to me by the shirt front and slammed my own fist into his soft gut, the big silver rings on my hand actin’ like brass knuckles to deepen the hit.
Still, dude was big, so he didn’t go down.
He swung a wild fist at my head that I ducked, but not quick enough, the edge’a his knuckles clippin’ my ear so it burned with impact.
Around me, chaos as the rest’a the men erupted in a good old-fashioned bar brawl.
I caught’a glimpse’a Tempest smashin’ her pint glass across a man’s cheek, the skin splittin’ instantly, his head reelin’ back.
Huh, I hadn’t known she had it in her.
Wrath slammed a barstool into another Raider, grinnin’ wildly as he crumpled to the ground.
The guy I was fightin’ decided to dispense with pleasantries and launched himself at my middle, tacklin’ me to the floor. I grappled with him, usin’ the floor as leverage to flip him onto his back and follow it up with a punch to the face that lay him back down when he lurched up.
BOOM.
The reverb from the shotgun echoed through the bar and dust from the destroyed wood panelin’ rained down on the floor.
“Enough,” Eugene bellowed, cockin’ the shotgun again. “You want the cops here, Blue’s got ’em on speed dial. Otherwise, lower your fuckin’ fists and move away.”
The Raiders stirred first, skulkin’ a few feet back with jeers still locked over their mouths.
Eugene leveled the gun at the man called Geyser who stepped forward when I winked at him. “You wanna try me, motherfucker?”
Geyser scowled but lifted his hands. “Fine, you assholes are just lucky Daddy saved you.”
“Daddy?” Eugene asked with a blink before plantin’ a hand in the bar and hoppin’ over it to press the shotgun directly to Geyser’s chest. “Who’re you callin’ Daddy, boy?”
Geyser’s bravado withered in the face’a Eugene’s bulk, but there was bitterness and rage in his eyes as they swept over us ’fore he turned on his heel and stormed outta the bar.
The rest’a the Raiders followed, one’a them helpin’ the broken-jawed Bandit through the doors.
“You want help cleanin’ up?” I asked Eugene, surveyin’ the two broken stools, crushed glass and overturned table.
“No, just get the fuck outta here,” he ordered wearily. “It’s too late for more trouble, and you lot are always at the center.”
“Fair enough,” I agreed.
“Leave through the back just in case those fuckers are waitin’,” he suggested as Blue came out from behind the bar with a broom and dustpan.
I snagged her arm gently and tugged her into my front.
“Hey,” I said softly, bendin’ at the knee to look into her eyes better. “Is my girl okay?”
Her sigh was weary. “Yeah, Bones, I’m okay. Violence is kinda the modus operandi of my life. You’re not hurt?”
“Nah, those assholes? Like they could get a hand on me,” I boasted just to win that small little smile curvin’ her mouth. “On the other hand, yes, I’m gravely injured. I think a kiss would make me feel better.”
She grinned, shakin’ her head as she lifted my red knuckles and kissed them gently.
“Not exactly where I’m hurtin’, seein’ you in those shorts,” I corrected with a leer at the short denim leavin’ acres’a pale skin bare for me to ogle.
“You’re ridiculous,” she said on a huffin’ chuckle. “How can you make me laugh even when I’m annoyed with you?”
“It’s an art form,” I admitted with faux sincerity. “I gotta head out, but you stay safe, yeah? Eugene’ll walk you to your car.”
She rolled those blueberry eyes. “It’s like ten steps from the entrance.”
“Eugene’ll walk you to your car,” I repeated, all trace’a amusement gone. “Need you safe. You don’t wanna leave the Raider’s house, fuck, I hate it, but I respect you’re decision. Doesn’t mean I want you takin’ unnecessary risks.”
“It won’t be for long,” she promised, every inch’a her softenin’ as she leaned into me. “I-I found something this morning that I think should help.”
“Whaddya mean ‘found somethin’’?” I demanded. “Blue, do not put yourself in danger snoopin’ around! We got this handled.”
“I’ll do what I can,” she decreed like a queen ’fore her court.
Her independence and sass shouldn’t been such a turn-on when I was tryin’ to keep her safe, but it was.
“What’d you find?”
“I told Lion about it,” she said, then winced at my glower. “I may have been feeding him intel when I found it.”
“Blue,” I growled, torn between rage and pride as my brave girl. “Fuckin’ stop that. I refuse to be phoned from the hospital or the cops sayin’ you’ve been hurt.”
Or killed.
She pursed her lips, then sighed. “Okay, okay. I’ll cool it on the detective front, but only because I think Lion has it covered. Apparently, Otto’s agreed to testify against Rooster in the jewelry theft case for a reduced sentence. The law moves slow, but it should mean they’ll get him eventually, right?”
The law could fuck itself.
We’d learned the hard way that cops fell down on the job or were too corrupt to do it in the fuckin’ first place. The only way I’d rest happy was if I saw Rooster put in the ground my-fuckin’-self.
“Relax,” she said softer, steppin’ close to place a hand on my hip. “I’ll be careful, I promise. Everything is going to be fine in the end.”
“You believe that?” I had to ask ’cause there was always a hesitancy in her, a thin barrier that was still erected between her heart and mine.
Like she didn’t believe everythin’ would be okay.
Like I was a dream she was livin’ only for a short time.
I refused to let that be the case.
“Yeah,” she whispered, tippin’ her head back so that blue hair cascaded in a waterfall shimmer and her vivid cobalt eyes caught the bar lights and burned neon. “You make me believe.”
I stamped a firm kiss on her lips ’cause the Raiders were gone, and I didn’t give a fuck. I needed her to know how much I fuckin’ cared about her. How much she’d rocked my goddamn world.
When I pulled back, she was blushin’ prettily.
“Keep your phone near tonight,” I whispered. “I’m thinkin’ I’ll need a little stress relief.”
I waggled my brows at her and let her laughter rain down on me.
“Let’s go, Romeo,” Wrath said, clampin’ a hand over my shoulder to pull me back toward the hallway.
I tipped my chin up at my woman before lettin’ Wrath spin me forward. I slung an arm around the taller man and sighed.
“I’m in love,” I told him. “Head, heart, and dick. The trifecta.”
He was startled into snortin’ and rubbin’ a fist into my hair, somethin’ he’d learned from Z that annoyed the shit outta me.
I was shovin’ him with a sharp laugh when we emerged through the exit door out back and rammed into the back’a Bat and Axe-Man.
“What the fu––” I started, and then the shot went off.