Page 10 of Sleeper

“Until tomorrow, brother.” Spider killed the line and shook his head. “You’re one lucky son of a…Well, you’re a Bastard,” he stated as he laughed to himself.

“We all are, Spider.” An eyebrow lifted in his direction.

“No. Well, yeah, we are. I was going to say you were a lucky son of a bitch, but I didn’t want to insult your mom, so I chose your dad.”

“I see.” I smiled. Some days it was easy for me to follow Spider and others I didn’t have a damned clue what he was talking about. I understood perfectly what he meant and appreciated the respect he was trying to give Mom, but he was a confusing fucker at times.

“You’re right.” Tin Man tapped his finger on his lips. “This is too easy. It’s like their junky asses wanted to be found. I heard Fuckboy from Los Angeles was in the area. I’ll see if he’s up for a road trip. I doubt he’ll turn down a trip to Kingpin’s.” He grinned, thinking of our brother. We all knew fucking was Fuckboy’s favorite pastime.

“Looks a whole hell of a lot like fucksticks orchestrated an elaborate plan to get us over to Nashville. If I thought they were capable of it, that is. This smells like the Feds, brother. I don’t know the first thing about any of them, but from what you’ve told me your dad would sell anyone out if the price is right.”

“He would and he will.” His past track record is proof of that very thing.

“Spider, you talked to McFaye recently?” Wiley looked across the room to where Spider was seated.

“I haven’t, but if she’s behind this, she’s going down with us.”

“How so?”

“How do you think I got the guns past border patrol in the first place?”

“No shit? McFaye is dirty? That bitch,” Wiley cussed. We all hated the Feds, but Wiley and Ghoul were at the top of that list.

“No, brother. I blackmailed her.”

“She still in your pocket?”

“For now.”

“Good, keep her there. We might need a favor,” Tin Man declared. Tin Man was doing a hell of a job filling Ghoul’s position while he was on the road. Tin had always been a damned good brother, but never really had a chance to step up too far. He was always in Ghoul’s shadow. Seeing that he rose to the occasion without any trouble gave me a sense of peace. I hated to even think about it, but if Ghoul didn’t get his life in order soon, Tin might be acting Prez on a regular.

“Exactly what I was thinking.” Spider smiled.

Belle was going to be pissed. I couldn’t let her stay at the house by herself, not after she’d been on her own for so long, but taking her with us to Nashville wasn’t an option either. I didn’t have a woman in my life I trusted enough to leave Belle with, so this was going to be a problem. The only person close with us that came to mind was Sledge’s old lady, Lina. I held my reserves about her given her association with the Bratva, but Sledge trusted her. It was a shitty solution to an even shittier setback, but I didn’t have a whole lot of options. Mrs. Slayton would do it for me, but that’d be like putting a target on her fucking back, so that was a no go also.

One laugh jarred out of my body when the idea came to me. Mrs. Slayton and Lina together would be the safest option and the fucking funniest to boot. Mrs. Slayton would mother hen the shit out of Belle and Lina would protect all of them with her life. I didn’t have to know much about Lina to know that. She came from a fucked-up background and her family double-crossed the club and her, both of which was why they were now dead. She trusted Sledge’s decisions and since we were his family, she considered us to be hers, too.

“Something funny? I like to laugh.” Sac grabbed my cigarette from my fingers and put it in the ashtray. I looked at him. “Can I help you?”

“You had granny ashes falling on your hand.”

“The fuck?”

“What, your granny didn’t light one cig and let it burn down to the filter while she cooked and watchedWheel of Fortune?” His head cocked to the side like I was the one being weird.

“Sac, I never met my granny.”

“Neither of them?”

“No.”

“The next thing you’re gonna tell me is you didn’t go to church every Sunday as a kid.”

“I didn’t, Sac.” My eyes bulged at him, and I shook my head, knowing now how wrong I was. One day his fucked-up princess wouldn’t come, because there was no way anyone would put up with his ass except us.

“Sledge, what’s Lina up to these days?”

“Not shit. Well, pet shop shit, but nothing she couldn’t move around if needed. What’s up?”

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