Chapter 21 Cassius #2
The way he said my name so casually, so easily, as if calling me Billy… I wouldn’t let it show how it got to me. But, fuck me, it did. It very much did.
“Maybe years ago, under my father’s reign, things would have operated in the shadows,” Prince went on.
“Actually, there was no maybe about that. King had everything from MCs to mafias to smaller crime rings under his belt. But that’s done with.
It’s so much fucking easier to live out in the open, showing your tattoos and your preferences for the world to see, and let them decide than to try to keep everything under wraps.
“So as it relates to your brother? We’ve told him plenty of times.
And yet he keeps coming back. Tries to make deals with us, tries to get us to align with you.
You’d think at some point in the last four years, he’d get it through his head.
Tell me, is it possible to get rich being as bullheaded as he is?
If that’s the case, maybe we’re missing out. ”
Fuck.
The truth was, it wasn’t Dante who was being stubborn. The first six months, first year, sure. But now?
It was me.
I was the stubborn fuck.
I was the one who was finally encountering what billions and billions of dollars and untold amounts of power could not acquire—the Black Reapers and love.
I wasn’t sure what it said that those two things went together, but here I was.
“When would you get involved?” I finally asked. “What would it take for your club to bring out its weapons and to bring change?”
“If you think we are warriors of justice, fucking forget it,” Crush said.
“We like what polite society would frown upon,” Prince said. “We might all be married, but we love ourselves a good drink or pick-me-up every so often. But if you want an actual answer to your question?”
Prince shrugged.
“Fuck with family, you get fucked up. Fuck with our club, you get fucked up. Fuck with the defenseless, if we find out? If we see it? You get fucked up. But otherwise? Someone could rob you in front of us of all your money, and we won’t give a shit.”
So.
I’d have to resolve this myself. I couldn’t keep my hands clean.
But that didn’t mean I had to kill someone or even literally draw blood. There were ways I could protect Sarah and make the Morrils—almost certainly the Morrils—suffer.
But no longer would I be able to be above it all. No longer would I be able to just pay someone off or act like it wasn’t my problem.
Because now it was my problem. Now, it was something I had to get involved with. Now, it was time to show… well, I guess, to show Sarah how far I’d go to protect the ones I supposed I cared about.
Because if anyone was going to break her, it should be me. Not some asshole down the street who thought he could take me down.
“I think you’ve made your position clear,” I said. “I will not waste your time any further.”
“See to it that is the case,” Prince said. “Crush grows tired of having his phone ring with your brother’s number. Trust me when I say—if we ever need to get involved, you will not need to make any phone calls. We’ll know what’s happening before you can even sniff it.”
That seemed a bit like bravado, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe I was folding my hand too quickly, but frankly, it was kind of invigorating to think about getting my hands a little messy.
They’d been clean for so damn long, it would be good to go back to the days when money and power didn’t matter as much as how much you stood up for what you cared about.
If I regretted this in an hour, if I felt like I’d acted like a giant pussy in this meeting, I could always come back.
I nodded to them. Neither Prince nor Crush nodded back. I exited the clubhouse. Outside, Connor stood with arms folded, nodding toward my car. I walked out and saw Dante with his arms folded, standing no more than a foot away from the man I presumed to be Butch.
“Last warning,” Butch said. Good Lord, the man had a voice that would make baritone jazzmen jealous. “Step back.”
“Dante, let’s go,” I snapped.
“This fucker thinks he can stonewall me and get away with it,” Dante pleaded.
“Now, Dante,” I said. “I’ll explain more in the car.”
I wondered if Butch would give a hint of a smug smile, a victorious expression that said never fuck with him again. But his face never, ever changed. Fucking hell, that man, whatever his story was, was a biker’s biker.
We got back into the car, and only when the doors were locked and we’d gone at least two further blocks did I feel like I could breathe normally again.
It was kind of surreal and, strangely, kind of thrilling.
It’d been a long-ass time since I’d gotten knocked down a few pegs, and in a weird way, it felt kind of good.
It was like we could take a punch and keep going. We hadn’t gone soft with our wealth and status. Maybe I was bullshitting myself, but I had far more confidence I could get involved myself.
“That was a fucking disaster,” Dante said. “That big-ass man wouldn’t say a goddamn word to me, and the scrawny fuck didn’t say anything to me either. Like talking to two statues. I would have had more fun talking to statues anyway.”
“Enough,” I said. “Dante, we are going to resolve this ourselves. Not the Reapers. Not our security team. Ourselves, however we have to.”
“You’re sure about that?”
I nodded.
“I’m not saying we’re going to go punch Leo Morril in the face, as wonderful as that might be. But I am saying if we find out they are the problem? We’ll confront them. We’ll do what we must.”
Dante drew in a deep breath and exhaled. Then, strangely, he didn’t say anything at all.
“What?”
“You care about Sarah a lot,” he said. “A fucking lot. You’re going an awfully long way to protect her.”
“And? Your fucking point?”
“The last time you were this invested in something, it led to where our business empire is today,” Dante said.
His voice had gone quiet. “But the only reason you succeeded was because you took the emotion out of it. You calmed yourself and then executed. And you did that by spending time with Virgil.”
Fuck.
He was right.
“I think you should go to his grave as soon as you can,” Dante continued, his voice somber. “You’ve got a lot of fantasies flying in your head right now. I’m not sure if you want Sarah or if you want to destroy her. I’m not even sure you know. You need a clear head, Cassius.”
He was very right. I didn’t say a word back to him, but by the time I got dropped back off at Ruby, I knew what tomorrow held.
I would be visiting my little brother.