Page 81 of Frenemies

Did I say children? I meant fucking babies.

Beast leaned over and whispered, “Can I shoot them.”

Apparently, Snake heard him because he slammed his pistol down on the table and growled, “I’m gonna fucking shoot them.”

“Oo, calm down, Billy the Kid,” Tanner sang.

To which Mannix grumbled back, “What the fuck is it with you and westerns?”

“No one asked you, Davy Crocket.”

“You motherfucker.”

Mannix jumped out of his chair, and it looked like he was getting ready to flip the table over until Kickstand spoke up.

“Can we get on with it? I’ve got shit to do.”

Tanner waved his hand through the air, “The only thing you have to do is sit on the porch and pick your nose.”

This was what happened when church was called on an unscheduled day after a night of drinking. You ended up with a bunch of guys who were worked up because they should still be sleeping off the night before.

“Enough,” I yelled when two others stood up to join the fray. “Jax’s is selling little girls.”

That shut them the fuck up. Within seconds everybody had sat back down with their eyes trained on me, and let me just add, none of those eyes were happy.

I slapped the file down on the table and explained what The Reapers were doing with the Mayor of Ashen Springs. Despite what my princess wanted, the unanimous vote was to kill them all and hang their bodies from flagpoles.

The last part was unsurprisingly added in by Tanner. The only question was how to handle a raid on Ashen Springs.

“That’s not our turf,” one guy argued.

“So we take it.” Someone else added.

Kickstand sat forward and rested his elbows on the table. “Isn’t that town already controlled by the mafia or some shit?”

Not sure if I’d go as far as to call a secret society a mafia, but he did have a point—turf was a big deal in our world. It would be disrespectful to go in without permission. Unless, of course, we were at war with said controlling faction.

Snake sat forward and voiced what everyone was thinking. “So, who do we have to talk to?”

“That would be me.”

We all turned to eye the man in a three piece suit steeping through the door.

Like Tanner, Kickstand was a little rough around the edges. He was up and out of his chair with his chest puffed out before I could blink.

“This is a private meeting, jerkoff.”

His brashness caused Louis to arch a dark brow. “Doesn’t look very private to me.”

I could’ve stepped in, but I was curious how the king of Ashen Springs would handle this situation, especially when two other guys joined Kickstand in his staredown.

Kickstand crossed his arms. “You think you can come in here with your hoity-toity suit and tell us what to do?”

“It just seems to me that if your meeting was that private, you’d at least lock the door.”

Louis didn’t even flinch when three guns were pulled out and aimed at him. As much fun as this was, shit was getting real now. I gave it about two seconds before he was gator food. Unfortunately, we needed him.

“Back down,” I waved my hand at my men, signaling them to put their weapons away. “This is Louis Kessler, the man who controls Ashen Springs.”

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