“Yes, I do. You want to talk now?”
“That night, at her party. She tricked him, Dix. Made him think he was sleeping with me in a dark room, all because she got it in her head that Mommy and Daddy loved me more. She made it her lifelong mission to completely fuck me over as much as possible.”
“Oh my God. I am so sorry.”
“Me too. He named Bolton after me, Dixie. It runs that deep.”
“Good, you deserve nothing less. Where are you at?”
“Further than I’d like to admit. Trust is a difficult thing for me.”
“Well, with family like yours, who needs enemies?” Dixie says.
Girl, you don’t know the half of it. “Shadow scared the shit out of my mom, and it was glorious.”
“What? I need a play-by-play, like yesterday.”
I laugh and relay the situation, feeling a thousand times lighter. The road to happiness had started out bumpy, but it would be worth in the end. I hoped.
Shadow
“You took your sweet ass time,” Stone says when I walk into the meeting.
“Had to set someone straight about my girl.”
“You want to tell me what’s going on with that? Because I don’t want my club ripped apart over some bullshit.”
“Hey, Psycho’s square, and I can’t see how it’s anyone else’s business. She’s going to get my ink and wear my vest. After the club’s get together, it’ll be clear to everyone. So this can be squashed. If someone has a problem, they can bring it to me and we can settle it in the ring and walk away after. No harm no foul.”
“Sounds good to me, brother. I think it’s past time for my sweetheart to find some happiness. She’s got a softness to her most people lose. Hold tight to that, you hear me?”
“I hear you, Pres. You want me for something?”
“We need your…expertise.”
I go into game mode. “What kind of job we talking?” I ask, barely leashing the monster that lives inside me. I got a taste for it. Torturing is easy when it’s for my family. I know how to get inside people’s head and wear them down, until they’re spilling their guts. It’s how I protect what matters. You can’t be soft out here, there’s no room for it. People will attack any weakness and exploit it.
“We need some information from a certain tight-lipped individual.”
“This about the leak?” I ask.
“Caught a narc among us.”
“What? A member?”
“Nope, Hang Around. A new one. Hasn’t been here that long. Found a bug in the clubhouse.”
“Son of a bitch.”
“Yeah, so we know how the word got out about the guns,” Stone says.
“He with the cops?” I ask.
“That’s the thing, man. Not anymore, went rogue. Thinks we wronged him and the cops did nothing.”
“He’s a dangerous fucker then. Nothing to lose. Where we at on him?”