Page 24 of Deserter

Chris had straightened and looked to each of us to intervene before glaring at Dragon. “You leave the dirty work to your men? Wolverine would’ve handled this himself, like a true leader. No eres nada.”

You are nothing.

The rat had been right. Wolverine firmly believed in swinging the sword when it was warranted. He never relied on the club to exact justice for him. While Dragon liked being in charge, he was a shit leader, as evidenced by our falling numbers.

I realized how tired I was of being the good soldier while Dragon went off to sample the drugs we intended to sell. I was tired of watching Wolverine’s club crash and burn when I knew that I could turn it around. Dragon still saw me as a kid though and never missed an opportunity to remind me any time I tried to bring up my ideas.

“Nos encontraremos en Hades, hermano,” Dragon had added with a sneer.We will meet in Hades, brother.

In between digging and being forced to listen to Comedian’s godawful jokes, Chris had taken the situation and used it to his advantage. He’d looked me right in the eyes once Dragon took off with our supplier and dealt the death blow.

“You’re the one,” he’d panted. “Wolverine always said you were going to run the club when he was gone, but here you are, taking orders from a pussy like a good little soldier. Why?”

To be honest, I had no idea why.

Slim’s hand on my shoulder had kept me from charging after Dragon and demanding that he finish the job himself. Wolverine had considered this man a friend and in turn, he’d sold our secrets to the feds in exchange for protection. That should’ve been our main priority.

I’d never been able to come to terms with why Wolverine had hand-picked Dragon as the replacement. He wasn’t loyal to anything that couldn’t be snorted or shot up.

Chris’s words had struck a chord; maybe I was nothing but an errand boy for a shitty leader.

I’d picked the words apart over the next thirty minutes before losing my patience and putting a bullet in the back of Chris’s head. Both Comedian and Slim had jumped back as his body fell into the shallow grave.

“Fuck, Grey!” Slim had shouted. “Give me a fuckin’ warning!”

Comedian had just stared down into the grave with a grin. “I didn’t even get to the punch line on that last one. I like that—catch ‘em off guard.”

We’d taken out the witness.

Our guys were going to be home with their families before Christmas.

Save one.

Comedian would be spending his in Hades.

We were in Bandits’ territory and on the radar of several alphabet agencies. That coupled with the fact that our numbers had been down since Dragon took command meant I had to execute this perfectly.

“Grey,” Slim tried again. “You gonna keep starin’ off into space or tell me what the fuck is going on?”

“I’m fine… just tired of the same bullshit.” It wasn’t a complete lie. When Wolverine ran things, we were on top of the fucking world. Now, we were no better than dogs fighting over scraps. We’d even lost our bottom rocker to the Serpents. It was a fucking disgrace.

Nobody wanted to see a change in leadership more than me. Wolverine was going to get us back where we belonged.

He had to fix this.

I was sick of losing.

I grabbed the bottle of tequila in front of me and poured each of us another shot as Comedian sauntered back up. “To winning.”

Slim had just repeated the words and knocked his shot back when there was a commotion near the front. Dragon didn’t even look up from his line before barking, “Grey, fuckin’ handle it!”

“Hermanos, lo siento,” our supplier, Daniel, exclaimed as he fought his way through the crowd.

Brothers, I’m sorry.

The men let him through, but I was already moving off the barstool and back behind the bar.

Something was wrong.

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