by Reid, Ruby
The ride had been a long one and although he was tired, there was work to be done. He’d done a lot of thinking on the ride, spending nearly ten and a half hours by himself and wondering how he could rectify a situation that had recently been taken out of his control. He was irritated and frustrated, but more than anything, he felt hurt.
And Jameson Cane did not like that feeling. When his old man had beat him half to death at the age of thirteen, Jameson had sworn that he would never be a victim again—he’d never be hurt again. And those that did manage to hurt him would pay a very dear price.
He’d spent the last twenty years or so of his life living by that rule and it had paid out well. He had an entire club behind him and made more money than half of the respectable businesses in his club’s territory. There were times when he wondered if the ass-whippings his drunken daddy had administered to him was really responsible for it all.
Jameson had no qualms with violence. And if the situation deemed it necessary, he had no strong arguments against killing. It all came down to the situation. He was really a reasonable man, all things considered. He was willing to show mercy when it was warranted and absolute vengeance if it was necessary.
But this time was different. This time, he had been betrayed by one his own. He sincerely hoped that there was some vital and logical reason that Alex had bailed on him, not finishing the job with Marco. Marco should have been close to dead right now because of Alex. Instead, Marco was being treated for his wounds in a Chicago hospital. And to top it all off, Jameson had received a call from Slim, letting him know that Alex had essentially abandoned ship.
As Jameson brought his bike to a crawl and turned down a decrepit alley, he saw Slim. He was perched on his own bike at the end of the alley. When Jameson entered the alleyway, Slim’s dark figure visibly tensed up.
Jameson parked his bike by Slim’s and wasted no time with formalities. He hopped down off of his bike and stretched his legs and back. The muscles in both were wound tight from a life spent on a motorcycle, but it did him a world of good to stretch.
“How are you?” Slim asked, his voice like that of a ghoul in the darkened alley.
“I’m pissed off,” Jameson said. “I appreciate the hell out of you calling me and filling me in on all of this, but on the other hand, I could beat the hell out of you for it.”
“Sorry, boss.”
Jameson waved the comment off. “It is what it is. No use in complaining about it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“So you’re sure he’s gone?”
“Yeah,” Slim said. “I had a drink with him before he left. He didn’t come out and say that he was done with the club, but that’s the impression that I got.”
“Any idea how bad he beat up Marco?”
“No. But to tell you the truth, Alex looked sort of disgusted when he told me what he had been doing.”
“I’ve seen something similar before,” Slim said, lighting a cigarette that burned like a red evil eye in the dark. “Sometimes you’ll get involved in too much violence and it sort of breaks you. You go soft. It happens a lot with married men…especially when they have kids. But damn…I never thought it would happen to Alex.”
“I’m not too sure that’s what happened with him,” Slim said.
“Then what the hell was it?” Jameson asked.
“I don’t know, sir. I wish I did. Alex was a good friend.”
“Was being the key word there. Unless he has a damn good reason for this, he’s as good as dead to me.”
Slim looked like he wanted to say something, but he remained quiet. He knew better than to say anything unless spoken to when Jameson was in one of these moods.
“Come on,” Jameson said. “I’m here an entire day early, so we might as well get started. Let’s go take a look at the Unknown’s new HQ.”
Slim gave a nod and mounted his bike. He looked incredibly relieved that the awkward conversation about Alex was over. The two men peeled back out onto the street, headed for the first building they would use to establish a presence in Chicago.
There was going to be trouble and quite a bit of fighting to get it started.
Jameson could barely wait.
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