“I was going to do this slowly – painfully. But you’re not even worth the time I would have to spend cleaning my tools afterward,” he sneered, stepping back to watch as the blood and life slowly drained from the traitor’s body. “See you in hell.”
We all followed Optimus from the room. I shut the door to the small shed behind us.
Target didn’t deserve an audience for his death. He didn’t deserve to have his Brothers around him as he took his last breaths. He would die alone, with only his thoughts to comfort him into the next life.
“This is big,” Blizzard said quietly, his joking now pushed to the side.
Optimus nodded. “He said the plan would be the same, which means Chelsea is still a target because of her association with me.”
I looked at my Brother, my long term friend. “We’ll protect our girls. They won’t get to them.”
“She’s not my girl.”
“Bullshit,” I said sternly. “When’s the last time she was with another Brother? When’s the last time she wasn’t in your bed.”
“She’s not my fucking girl,” he shot back.
Optimus had history. I could see in his eyes that he was right back there. All those years ago when his father died and he’d made the choice to do what he had to do to protect the ones that he loved in the middle of a war. Optimus made his decision back then and it haunted him to this day. The ghosts of his past were very real, and ones that he couldn’t escape. There was a story there, but unfortunately it wasn’t mine to tell.
“You guys all knew, Target knew. What if he told them?”
I knew exactly what he was talking about, and the likelihood that Target had told his family Optimus’ secret was high.
Blizzard, Tally and I all looked at each other. We knew what the answer was going to have to be. We all knew his feelings for Chelsea and why he wasn’t taking things to the next level.
“We don’t know how quickly the DePalma’s are going to retaliate. It could be tomorrow, it could be a week from now, maybe even months.” I swallowed the lump in my throat and said the words that we were all thinking. The words that were possibly going to throw his world into a tailspin. “You’re going to have to bring her back, it’s the only way you can make sure they’re safe.”
He rubbed his fingers over his short hair then in a flash he screamed, slamming his hands against the brick wall. With that, he stormed off with noises of banging and crashing following in his wake.
We had to prepare ourselves for a war. It was coming. We could feel it in the air. On top of that, Optimus now had to deal with a whole other problem – one very close to his heart, one very personal.
I hoped that he lined up his shit, got it straight and stepped up like the president I knew he could be. Because I could only do so much, and if this club didn’t have a strong leader when the shit hit the fan – we were all done for.