by Jade Kuzma
“Declan?”
Michelle broke me out of a trance I didn’t realize I was in. I looked at her and she raised an eyebrow at me.
“What’s on your mind?”
I sighed a deep breath through my nose. I wasn’t about to let her worry.
“You’re on my mind,” I said.
I leaned forward and kissed her. I pushed my tongue into her mouth. As soon as I did, she jumped away from me.
“Have you been drinking?” she said.
“Just a shot or two.”
“You know I can’t be anywhere near alcohol.”
“Oh… Right… The baby… It was just a taste.”
“Is that something you really want to risk?”
I reached down and put my hand on her stomach. I brushed my palm over her shirt and felt the slight bulge protruding from underneath the fabric.
“I’d never risk our child,” I whispered.
I enjoyed the feeling of being next to Michelle. She was the only thing that made sense to me at this point.
I heard the entrance to the clubhouse open up.
“We’re closed—”
I turned around and saw Sully standing there. He had his hands in his pockets as he walked toward me.
“Haven’t heard from you in a bit,” I said.
“I’ve been busy,” he replied.
“I’ll bet.”
“You mind if we talk for a second?”
“I’ve always got an ear for a brother.”
“I’ll get back to work,” Michelle said as she got up from her seat.
My wife knew when club business came up. I guess after spending so much time around me she developed an intuition.
I pushed the bottle of liquor I had toward him.
“Help yourself.”
He poured himself a shot and swallowed it down with a quick gulp. A deep sigh through his nose followed right after. Not a good sign.
“I take it Stephanie didn’t have much information for you,” I said.
“Not Stephanie. Not anybody in the club that night. Nate might as well have been shot by a ghost.”
“That’s how the Triads work. They do a good job of making sure nobody knows they exist.”
“How’s the rest of the club?”
“Well… Petey, Brawn, and Needle are busy gearing up. Ghost is still at the hospital making sure nobody gets near Nate.”
“He’s still hanging in there.”
“He’ll wake up. Ghost will get some answers from him when he does.”
“Let’s hope he wakes up soon.”
Sully stared forward. He wasn’t blinking like there was some heavy shit on his mind.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I got your message. You’re really serious?”
“I’m serious. I wouldn’t joke about something like that.”
“No,” he sighed. “No, you wouldn’t.”
“What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” he said with a laugh. “You really think we can do this? You think we can go to war with the Triads and win? This isn’t some no-name motorcycle club. These guys are real professionals. They’ve got us outnumbered and outgunned. Shit, they know where our clubhouse is. The only time I’ve ever seen Lin, he was riding around in some unmarked SUV.”
Listening to Sully made me chuckle to myself.
“When you paint it like that, I guess we don’t have a chance,” I said. “Then again, I think it’s the best chance we got.”
“Garnet… Declan… Can I ask you something?”
He slowly turned toward me. There was a look in his eyes. The motherfucker almost looked heartbroken. With all of the shit going on, it wouldn’t have surprised me if something happened between him and his old lady. But I didn’t mention that.
“You’d do anything for the club, wouldn’t you?” he said.
“You already know the answer to that.”
“What I mean is… What if you could save the entire club? What if you could save every club member from dying an unnecessary death but at the cost of yourself? Would you do that?”
I put a hand on his shoulder and sighed.
“If it meant saving one club member, I’d put a bullet in my own head. You. Ghost. Petey. Brawn. Even Needle. You’re my brothers. I would die for you without hesitating.”
“Yeah… But what if it was just one member? What if only one of us could survive and the rest of us had to die?”
“That’s the beauty of being a Reaper. We’ve all got each other’s backs. We’re all willing to sacrifice. This is all that matters.”
I lowered my hand down and pressed my finger into the patch on his chest. Sully looked down and kept his eyes locked on his patch.
“Did you expect anything else?” I asked.
“No… Sometimes you just need to hear things you already know.”
“Where’s all this coming from? You got something going on in your head, Sully?”
Sully wasn’t looking at me. The motherfucker looked like someone just shot his dog. I gave him a moment. Eventually, he looked up at me and nodded.
“I’m with you,” he said. “No matter what. You tell Needle and the boys to make sure there’s enough gear for me. We’re not going down without a fight.”
“That’s for damn sure.”
I patted him on the arm and finally saw a smile come to his face.
“Why don’t you have another drink with me?” I said. “Everything’s taken care of.”
“Thanks but… There’s something I need to do.”
“All right. Stay heads up. You never know when shit might go down.”
Sully gave me a nod before walking out of the clubhouse.
“What was that all about?”
I turned and saw Michelle standing next to me.
“It’s nothing,” I said with a shrug. “Just talking to one of my brothers.”
“Why don’t you stop sitting around and help me with this? It’s not like you’re doing anything else.”
Michelle pointed her broomstick at me. I could never resist that mischievous smile on her lips.
“Fine,” I sighed. “Let’s get to work.”
Endgame: Chapter 16
JON
Three days had gone by since Nate got shot. It was hard to tell considering I spent the entire time in the hospital. Everything seemed to blend together into one jumbled mess.
I managed to convince Anna to head back to the shelter. She couldn’t take much more time off and the people there needed her. It was for the best in more ways than one. Garnet planned on going to war with the Triads and everybody else in the club was in agreement. There was no need for a vote. All of our asses were on the line and there were no other options.
While the rest of the club prepared for an inevitable showdown with Lin and whatever he had waiting for us, I stayed by Nate’s side. If there was any chance that he would give me some information that I could use, I had to take it.
I was the one who put him up for a vote. Nate was a prospect because of my recommendation. Today was the day he proved why he deserved to wear the patch.
I stood next to his bed and looked down at him. Nate was already pale but three days unconscious made him look even worse. His face was gaunt. The rest of him was wasting away. But the doctors assured me that somehow, he’d make it.
When he blinked his eyes open, he slowly turned his head toward me. Seeing the motherfucker stare back at me… I had to try not to jump through the fucking ceiling.
“Hey,” I said.
He kept blinking his eyes, examining his surroundings.
“What’s going on?” he said, his voice weak.
“You’re in the hospital. Someone put a bullet in you. Do you remember that?”
He closed his eyes and sighed a deep breath. His throat shifted as he swallowed. The poor bastard looked like he was in pain.
“Ghost…”
He said my name softly. Then he opened his eyes wider and smi
led softly at me.
“I remember. When was it?”
“About three days ago.”
“Three days… I’ve been out of it for that long.”
“People have been out of it for longer. You’re pretty strong to come back that quickly.”
“Yeah… I guess…”
It was hard to see him in the state that he was in but he was breathing. That shit was enough for celebration.
“Did I miss anything?” he said.
I didn’t know where to begin so I went back to the obvious question.
“Do you remember what happened?”
“I… I remember,” he sighed. “I was in Finn’s. I was talking to Stephanie and some guy bumped me from behind. Made me spill my beer.”
“Who was it?”
“I don’t know,” he said with a shrug. “Some bald guy. A little older.”
“Club member?”
“He was wearing the uniform but…”
“But what?”
“I don’t remember the patch. It didn’t look familiar at all.”
“Right… What else do you remember?”
“He said to take it outside. I walked out by myself. We met in the alley. That’s when he pulled his piece on me. I remember laying there…”
He blinked his eyes as a tear streaked out from one of them.
“…I remember the blood… There was so much blood… I thought…”
“It’s all right,” I said as I put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re okay. Keep going, Nate.”
He shook his head and swallowed to compose himself.
“There was a van,” he said.
“A van?”
“It opened up and they pulled someone out. It didn’t even look like he was alive.”
“The Triad…”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t get a good look at him. But the guy… The guy who shot me… He took my gun and shot the body.”
“He took your gun and…”
I only had to think about it for a second. Whoever did this made it look like Nate shot the guy in self-defense. It wasn’t Nate. It wasn’t the dead Triad member. It was someone else.
“What else do you remember about the guy?” I said. “The one who took your gun. What did he look like? He was bald… What else?”
“I don’t know… He was older. Kinda chubby. Maybe a little too old to be in a club. There was something about him that seemed off.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been around clubs long enough to know what club members are like. This guy… He didn’t seem very tough. It was almost like he didn’t wanna shoot me.”
“Why would you think that?”
Nate closed his eyes. I knew he was trying hard to remember so I didn’t push him.
“I remember,” he said.
“What do you remember?”
“He said he was sorry.”
“He what?”
“I could see it in his eyes. Even though it was so dark in that alley. It almost looked like he was gonna cry. Like he didn’t want to do what he just did.”
I put my head down and thought about it.
A man shot Nate and a Triad member and immediately regretted it…
I shook my head, trying to put all of the pieces together, but nothing seemed to fit.
“He wasn’t working for the Triads… He wouldn’t have shot his own man…”
I turned my head up and stared right into Nate’s eyes.
“I need you to be absolutely certain about this, Nate.”
“Yeah… Of course.”
I leaned in closer to make sure he understood.
“You didn’t fire your weapon?”
“No. I would remember something like that.”
“There’s nothing wrong with defending yourself. It’s a good thing if you did.”
“I remember, Ghost. That guy… He pulled my own piece from me and shot the other guy… That body he’d pulled out of the van…”
Nate wasn’t the kind of kid that would lie to me. He was too honest for that. It was part of the reason I put him up to be a prospect. He was always loyal. Right now wasn’t an exception.
“What’s going on, Ghost? The police don’t think I shot that guy, do they?”
“You don’t have to worry about the police. You…”
I stopped when I realized what I was about to say. The last thing I needed to do was tell him about the shit going down with the Triads. Not after he just woke up from getting shot.
“What is it?” he said.
All I could do was smile at him. The kid looked death right in the face and lived to tell about it. I wasn’t about to let him down now.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Just stay here. Rest. Listen to what the doctors tell you to do.”
“I don’t think I have much of a choice…”
He sighed as he sank into his bed. The short conversation I had with him seemed to drain him. I stayed with him until he drifted off back to sleep then left his room.
I pulled my phone out as I headed out of the hospital. It took a few rings before Garnet finally answered.
“Yeah?”
“It’s Nate. He’s awake.”
“Good to hear. He got anything for us?”
“He’s got something, all right… Tell everybody to meet up. They all need to hear this.”
Endgame: Chapter 17
DORIAN
I massaged my temple with my index finger as I leaned against the table. My head down, I thought about all of the shit running through my head. No matter what I did though, nothing I could do would make it go away.
I had a decision to make. And every choice I had in front of me seemed like the wrong one.
Garnet had already given me his advice.
I couldn’t bother Gina either. I had to keep her as far away from this as I could.
There was only one other person I could talk to.
I looked up and saw the big man sitting on the other side of the glass. He had a big smile on his face. He always had a big smile. It was remarkable considering his surroundings.
He picked up the receiver and I did the same.
“Dorian. Always good to see you.”
“How are you doing, Logan?”
“I’m alive,” he sighed.
I smiled back at him.
Talking to Logan always put things in perspective. He was gonna be locked up for a long time. Knowing he would get out eventually made it a little easier to stomach.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon.”
“Yeah, well, I needed a friend to talk to.”
“You’ve got a lot of friends, Dorian. You were always the most popular guy in high school.”
“This isn’t high school,” I said with a laugh. “Besides… I wanted to talk to my best friend.”
Logan was more than I could ask for from a friend. I’d known him since we were younger. When I was a quarterback, he was my offensive lineman. When we joined the service, he was the man out there protecting me in the field. Now here he was, behind bars, and I was the one who needed him.
“What’s going on?” he said.
“I just… I needed someone to talk to.”
“You know I’m always here for you.”
“Yeah… You always were… Remember that time we took your dad’s truck out?”
“There were a lot of those times.”
“That’s true. But I’m talking about the one time I wanted to take that girl out.”
“Oh, right… I remember. What was her name again?”
“Jennifer—”
“Jennifer! She was a hot one. You always got the groupies back when we were in high school. How was she?”
“She was… She was great,” I said.
Seeing the enthusiasm on Logan’s face made me burst into laughter. I guess spending time around a bunch of other guys, you’d do anything to get away from it, even if it meant just hearing a story about a woman.
“So it was worth it?” he said.
“I don’t know… Wasn’t that the same time your dad caught you for taking his truck?”
“Oh, he was pissed, all right. He gave me a good scolding when I came rolling in that morning. Just my luck that it was the one morning he decided to wake up early so he could notice it missing.”
“Yeah… I’m sorry about that…”
“But you said she was great.”
“What?”
“Jennifer. After you dropped me off and borrowed the truck. You had a good time, didn’t you?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“Then it was worth it. My pops yelling at me was just a small thing. Being with Jennifer… I’m sure that’s a hell of a memory for you.”
“Something like that…”
I chuckled softly to myself. It was nice hearing my friend laugh just the same.
But as soon as we both stopped, my thoughts went back to everything the club was dealing with. With the situation Lieberman put me in, I had as much weight on my shoulders as anybody else.
“What’s wrong?” Logan said.
“What?”
“Don’t give me that shit. I may be stuck in here but I’ve already known you long enough to know when something’s wrong. Tell me.”
Logan raised his eyebrows at me. I knew that I could tell him anything. I trusted him just as much as I did Gina or anybody else in the club.
Lieberman was going to frame me. I couldn’t tell Logan that there was a possibility that I was going to share a cell right next to him. I guess all I really needed right now was to talk to a friend outside of the club.
Looking at Logan, I saw my life flash before my eyes. Everything that I’d done had all led up to this. In case anything happened, I had to tell him.
“I… I’m sorry,” I said.
I swallowed to keep down a sudden ball of emotions building in my throat.
“I’m sorry I let you down,” I said. “I should’ve been there for you.”
“I’m my own man, Dorian.”
“You’re your own man but that doesn’t mean we don’t need some help from time to time.”
“It looks like you could use some help yourself.”
“Yeah… I think I could…”