Page 105 of Three to Fall

Ice looked like shit, his hair a mess, his eyes red-rimmed like he was hung over or high.

Anger swirled inside me as Ice’s gaze landed on me and he started making his way through the crowd.

“Easy,” War warned beneath his breath, jokes about the reverse harem I’d found myself in put aside. “Kara doesn’t need you getting in a fist fight right now.”

I breathed out slowly, knowing he was right.

Everything had turned out okay in the end.

But that was real hard to remember when it was clear Ice had gone on a bender instead of doing what he was supposed to do.

He stopped in front of me. “I’m so fucking sorry. I know I forgot the flowers.”

I didn’t say anything. What was there to say? If I opened my mouth, I was probably just going to make things worse. It wasn’t even just about the flowers. It was about the fact I’d asked him to do something important and he’d decided going out and getting lit was more important.

“Where have you been?” War asked, clearly no happier than I was.

“At the Louisiana club. I only just got back into town. Drove all night.”

War shook his head. “Your business there was done days ago, so that ain’t gonna fly. You just stayed to party, that about right?”

Ice didn’t say anything. But War took his silence as confirmation. “You’re supposed to be Kara’s friend. You should have been here for her. But you’d rather be with Riot and his boys than with me and mine when we needed you. That how it goes? You want to patch in with Riot and his crew?”

Ice shook his head.

War’s face twisted into a scowl. “Don’t lie to me. Riot called me this morning and said you’d asked him to join the Louisiana chapter.”

I blinked. War hadn’t said a word to me about that, though fuck knows I’d been run off my feet this morning and hadn’t had a chance to talk to him before now. “What the fuck? Why the hell would you want to do that for? You know the shit they’re into!”

Ice’s face paled. “He said he wouldn’t say anything…”

“Yeah, well, that’s what you get for trusting Riot. He’s not exactly known for being honest.” War sounded tired. “This needs to be discussed in church. Not here, where people are grieving,and the sight of your face pisses me off. We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Or the next day. Or whenever the fuck I feel calm enough to deal with it.”

Ice nodded and turned away, slinking back to his bike and pulling on his helmet without talking to anyone else.

War sighed as Ice rode away, everyone staring after him. War reached over for Kara, touching her arm gently to get her attention. “I’m really sorry about that.”

She shook her head. “No. It’s okay. I understand it’s club business.”

He nodded. “Can I borrow Hawk for just a minute?”

“Of course.” But Kara’s big eyes were full of worry.

I gave her a reassuring nod and then turned to Grayson. “Can you take her home? I have my bike and I won’t be far behind.”

“Sure.”

War dropped a kiss onto Bliss’s mouth, whispered something in her ear, and then she walked away with the rest of the club, everyone making their way to the parking lot.

When it was just me and War left by the gravesite, he sighed. “We’ve fucked up with Ice.”

I screwed up my face, not wanting to admit it, but he was probably right. “We should have patched him in earlier, shouldn’t we?”

War shoved his hands in the pockets of his dark denim jeans. “He fucked up today. There’s no doubt in my mind about that. Both with not being here when he was supposed to. And in asking Riot to make him a member. But I feel like we pushed him into it.”

“It’s not all on you. Your whole life has changed in the past five years. This club isn’t your number one priority anymore.”

“I’m the prez. I should have been leading better. Making sure he was getting somewhere, building that trust with him so I felt comfortable patching him in.”

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