Page 11 of The Devil's Ice

“”No fuckin’ ‘but’s,” Wolf growled. “I’m gonna talk, you’re gonna listen, and then you get your turn. But I’m still fuckin’ President around here, Johansson, and so I get to say what’s on my mind first. Clear?”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“OK.” Wolf took a deep breath. “Now, I know that you ain’t thrilled about me goin’ to the Highway Hellions and workin’ with Viper Grant, helpin’ him to take all the work and contracts from Dawson Kinney and The Blood Crew. And if I’m bein’ honest with you, man,Iain’t thrilled about it. I hate that fuckin’ snake like snake poison, and I don’t trust him. But…” He stared hard at Ice. “ButI love Zee and you guys and their womenmorethan I hate that asshole. This is about everyone that I care about, about keepin’ them safe. It ain’t about advancin’ Viper’s MC business interests and increasin’ his personal bank balance. You get me?”

Ice nodded. He knew all of this.

“We’re in agreement so far,” Wolf said. “You see the need for what I’m doin’.”

“Yeah.”

“So, the problem ain’t so muchwhatI’m doin,” Wolf continued. “It’s that I’m doin’ italone. Specifically, that I’m doin’ it withoutyou.”

Ice nodded tightly.

“Well, all I can say about that is: fuckin’ get over yourself, man.”

Ice blinked. He hadn’t been expectingthat.

“You think that without you, I’m lost? I can’t handle it on my own, need you to hold my hand over in Utah?”

“N – no,” Ice stammered, then shut up again at Wolf’s thunderous glare.

“No,” Wolf said firmly. “Now, what Idoneed is an Enforcer here, keepin’ an eye on everythin’ and everyone that I care about. You know this, but you keep refusin’ to see that I’m right, so here I am, havin’ to explain myself to youagain. That’s fine, that’s your call, man, so you carry on bitchin’ and sulkin’, if it makes you happy. But it won’t change my mind a goddamn bit– I’mtrustin’ you and you need to trust me.” He glared at Ice. “And I’m leavin’ on Monday no matterhowyou feel about it, so the sooner you get with this new reality, the better. I can leave with us on great terms or shit ones… your call, man. What are you gonna do?”

Ice stared at Wolf, knew that the battle was lost, that it had been lost ages ago. Wolf was going, that was that, and Ice couldn’t protest any more than he already had. Time had run out, and he’d wasted it by staying stuck on this one point, his demand for Wolf to take him to Utah like some kind of personal bodyguard. Meanwhile, Wolf and Scars had spent the past couple of weeks agreeing on everything to do with The Road Devils, making plans, setting up safety nets… and Ice had just opted out. Wolf was right, he’d been sulking and whining, he’d been part of all the problems and exactly zero of the solutions. He’d been an utter coward, all over the goddamn place.

With his MC brothers… and with Vix too. He had some serious amends to make. Starting with the glowering man in front of him.

Ice cleared his throat. “I – I’ll do what you want, Wolf… I just want to say one last thing. If I can.”

“Shoot.”

He looked away from Wolf’s intense stare, turned his gaze to the brilliant autumn colors. “I’m so worried that I can barely fucking sleep.”

Wolf cocked his head at the other man’s tone. It wasn’t angry or confrontational, for a change; instead, it was soft, almost…

Scared? Ice Johansson scared of somethin'?

“OK,” Wolf said, took a deep breath, took his own anger down several notches. “OK, man. What are you worried about that I’m missin’?”

“Losing someone.” Ice hesitated, then ploughed on. “Someoneelse.”

Wolf stayed silent, waiting for Ice to say more. He knew that if he spoke now, Ice would clam right up, retreat back into that unearthly cold and calm, and Wolf very much wanted to have this conversation with his Enforcer… because he couldn’t have it properly with anyone else.

Oh, sure, he and Scars had talked at length about the never-ending shit storm that began with Dawson Kinney starting a splinter MC, carried on with Keira’s asshole murderous father, and Jo’s asshole murderous ex, and fucking asshole murderous cult leader Gideon and Crusher Alcott, and which was now rolling merrily on with Crusher’s MC and Viper Grant.

But they rarely – likenever– talked about their profound loss, the real one that still felt like a body blow to Wolf. He was a man who wasn’t shaken by much, but he’d been shaken to his core by recent events.

His golden eyes were still open, even as his body turned cold in a pool of his own blood.

“I mean…” Ice cleared his throat again. “If we’re looking at Enforcers, it’s just me and Cain now from the old crew. The twins are gone and it’s for a happy reason, and Holt’s stepping up and he’s really good, but still. Me and Cain and the twins were – we wereseamless. You know? After all those years together, we didn’t even have totalkabout what we were doing, we all just knew each other’s thoughts and reactions. It saved us, more times than I can count.” He sucked in a deep breath, and Wolf knew what was coming next. “And – and Rebel. What happened to Rebel. I can’t get past it, and I feel like I should have stopped it. I feel like – like I’ve lost control ofeverything, like I’ve had no way to protectanyof us for the past few years, and I just can’t get a handle on any fucking situation atall,and now I have evenlessof a chance of doing that with the twins out of the picture. And if you go to Utah, I feel like…” He stopped, unsure how to finish that sentence.

“You feel like what?” Wolf asked quietly, shocked to his core that Ice had put so many words together, all in a row, all at once. “Tell me.”

“Oh, shit.” Ice looked straight at Wolf, decided that he had nothing to lose anymore, and to just come straight out and say it. “I feel like we’re going to lose you too. I’m worried about letting you out of my sight, because – because then we’ll never see you again, and if I could have been there and maybe had your back, then I’ll – I’ll never forgive myself. And I’ll never sleep again, I swear.”

Wolf and Ice stared at each other; they were both men of very,veryfew words normally, but they both had to take a few steps out of their reticent natures. There were things that had to be said, and time was running out to say them.

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