Page 99 of Existential

I smirk, lifting the cigarette to my lips again.

“I took care of Heather so you didn’t have to. I was doin’ you a favor.” Fucking asshole believes his own bullshit.

I lean in close and cock my head a little. “Do I look like a fuckin’ idiot to you?”

“No.” He straightens against the pole.

“Then why you talkin’ to me like I am one?” I blow the smoke from my lungs into his face and back up, turning to step away when he opens his goddamn trap.

“You’re not an idiot, pres.” I stop dead in my tracks. “You’re fuckin’ weak.”

I turn slowly, checking as I do to see if anyone inside has picked up on the conversation out here. Negative. “Come again?”

“You’re weak.” Jerk puffs his chest out and tips his chin up, daring me to say otherwise. “You fuckin’ fall apart and everyone pats your back like you’re a goddamn hero. You’re nothing but a fuckin’ name. If your old man didn’t have that job before you, you wouldn’t have stood a goddamn chance at gettin’ the gavel.”

I hit him so hard that his head snaps back against the pole. The metal rings like a tuning fork as he shakes the fog in his brain away.

“You think you’d make a better president?” I ask as Murphy and Jo Jo squeeze themselves through the doorway as one.

“What the fuck is goin’ on?” Murphy asks, stepping between us.

Crackers appears behind Jo Jo, giving me a silent nod of solidarity. He gets this.

“Tell them what you just told me,” I say to Digits, jerking my head to the men crowded in the doorway.

He looks them over, scowling. “Can’t tell me none of you don’t feel the same.” Digits jerks his head my way, eyeballing the men. “Only reason Hooch sits at the head of the table is because his old man put him there.” He turns, looking me up and down with disgust. “Why else would we vote in a junkie drunk to lead our club?”

Jo Jo steps back inside the room, as does Timmy-boy who’s along on the trip for experience. I don’t take offense to it; they’re not the kind to get involved in disputes. Jo Jo is the best soldier a man could ask for. He doesn’t have to like you to respect you, and if your name is attached to the top billing, he’ll work for you until he can’t physically move to lift a hand anymore.

“You’re makin’ some pretty hefty accusations there, boy,” Murphy warns.

“I’m tellin’ the truth,” Digits challenges. “When this trip is over, I’m callin’ for a vote of non-confidence.”

“You fuckin’ serious?” Crackers exclaims. “On what grounds?”

“He’s been dealing with feds behind our backs, gettin’ wasted and leavin’ you to take charge, endangering the club by getting sloppy with his fuckin’ executions.”

“Sloppy?” I half laugh.

“Yeah. You buried that body properly, Jessup would never have found it.”

“Maybe I wanted it found?” Just not by the law. The grave was obvious to anyone actively searching so that Carlos would see the job had been done. “How else would Carlos believe his idiots had topped Mel?”

“How fuckin’ stupid is that?” Digits shakes his head. “I’m done keeping quiet on your shit, Hooch. You put this club at risk.”

“And what do you fuckin’ care about the club, you conniving, abusive fuckin’ asshole?”

“More than you.”

“That why you’re blatantly breaking bylaws so you can try and get your dick wet where it ain’t welcome?”

“What?” Digits feigns shock as the other men stand in silence, watching on.

“I know what you were doin’ with Dagne, asshole. I saw the messages you sent her, blackmailing her, threatening her to try and get her to submit to you.” I step forward, thrusting my finger in his chest with each final word. “She. Doesn’t. Like. You.”

“Even if it’s unwanted,” he sneers, “the attention I would have given her is more than you have.”

My hand slips to his throat, Murphy’s arm wrapped around my shoulders in response as he tries to coax me off.

“Easy, brother.”

“That how you broke Heather?” I ask, hand still on Digits’ throat. “Abuse and rape her until she gave in?”

“Bitch liked it in the end, didn’t she?”

I push hard against his windpipe as I lift my other hand to join the first, yet Crackers latches on to my wrist and twists me off Digits with Murphy’s help. Blood rushes past my ears as I stare down my VP and SA in turn, settling on Murphy as he mutters. “Either way, remember?”

Right. Now isn’t the time, as much as I’d love to choke the life right out of this no-good traitor. Tomorrow his number is up. Tomorrow he deals the hand he’s been given.

And I hold all the aces.

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