Page 54 of Death's Deal

“So.” Drawing out the word, Joker quips, “Aside from nicknames, anyone have any fucking idea what we do about the elephant in the room?” Placing his feet on the nearest chair again, smirking and clearly content no one is ribbing him for the foot position this time. “I mean. I don’t know your sister as well as some, but I doubt she’s about to let someone roll her out of her home straight into the arms of the man who was integral in the demise of her best friend. Jus’ sayin’.”

“I don’t like to agree when Joker clearly has his feet where they shouldn’t be,” Miss growls, knocking Joker’s feet back to the floor. “But yeah. I don’t see your sister letting this go without someone taking a bullet.”

Looking at Busta, seeing the war he’s waging inside about this whole fiasco, I have to say he is unusually quiet. In the grand scheme of things, his baby daughter would not only lose her mother and brother before her first birthday, but her father would go to jail, and she’d be placed in foster without ever knowing the truth of her life.

My son. He wouldn’t be any better off. He would lose the cushy life he’s lived, thrust into a juvenile detention center all because of his grandfather’s and father’s interactions.

“This isn’t going to sit well with Jaz,” Busta states, “but do we have a choice?”

“Choice?” speaking out, Piper’s normally meek voice rings out in a high-pitched fever against our thicker tones. “There has to be. Indentured servitude is never the right thing. No matter who puts you there, family or foe, it hurts all the same.”

“Baby. This is a terribly different situation. This isn’t me in a box, or you a slave to the Queen, this is a trade-off. She still has a way out, and a team of agents behind her to pull her free if things get rough. She’s undercover, and it’s more in our court than it ever was in yours.” Hoping to placate Piper, Cap is hoping to soothe her. We all know the stories of her life with the Queen. We have seen the scars she bears. That Cap bears. It’s a lot.

I can’t find myself siding with Piper and, unfortunately, I have to agree with Cap. “He’s right. “We were told they want us involved and they want Jaz to draw out this Mano, but that doesn’t mean we can’t set the terms of the deal. Setting a timeframe. Maybe we can arrange one of us as her bodyguard detail? One of the lesser-known boys. Even someone from your northern clubs, Busta.”

With a simple shake of his head, he says, “I don’t see that Johnson will have the power to pull that string. He more than likely had to promise our compliance to get them to not throw charges at us for all the shit we’ve recently pulled. Taking all of our assets and leaving us to rot for the war we just raged in the city, I see that was more the higher-up’s plans. I’m sure Johnson went to bat for us as it is.” Standing, he paces behind his chair. “We may be able to adjust the terms, but the overall run of this is going to be their decision.” Looking my way, Busta asks, “We need to vote this. Then at least she can’t think it was just a show of slight hands that decided her fate.”

Considering that, as her brother, I can make the call to imprison her, I know I don’t like it. What I have to do as a President, for this I’d need a full vote. Looking at my watch, seeing it is now coming on three thirty in the afternoon, I suggest, “Let’s meet at nine for a full vote. An all-club church. We can meet out at the docks at the storage facility on pier forty-nine. We’ll hammer this out one way or another.”

“That sounds good,” Cap says, rising out of the chair and stepping to shake my hand. “I don’t envy you, brother,” he says as we clasp. “Your sister is one tough woman, and she will not make this easy on you.”

“Can’t say I’m looking forward to the conversation either.”

Pulling a section of thick moustache into his mouth to worry on the bristly hairs, Miss replies with a simple wordless nod.

Rising and heading to the door, Joker smirks, “It seems like we might be going to jail or set up as traitors, so I’m going to get my dick sucked hard by at least three women. I want a good memory before the bad ones start.”

Miss stands. “And with that, I think I just might finish what I had started before you interrupted me.”

“I’ll see you soon,” I state, smiling and turning to Toni, as she acknowledges our departure with a slow blink.

Moving to leave, as my hand hits the handle for the door, and Toni passes out before me, Cap calls back, “Death. I don’t wish to be you.”

Cap’s words are truer than I want them to be. I’ll need all the luck I can get to navigate my sister’s revenge. Whatever we all decide, she is going to make our lives a living hell.

Chapter 29

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