Page 37 of Reckless Pawn

JD shook his head. "This isn't on you, son. Frank is a fucking bastard of the first order. I knew gaining his trust with your background was a long shot. Even if he believed you, he was never going to trust you. At best you were a distraction."

He stared down at the burned in design on the table in front of him. At JD's familiar reference calling him son, something inside him had begun to shut down as memories of his history crept past his barriers. He tried to push them out. He didn't want to think about JD with his mother, or his father. Instead he focused on the reaper in front of him and reading the words below it. "Reap what you S.O.W." The one constant thing in his life that never changed and the mantra he still lived by.

"Look at me, Houston."

He raised his head and met JD's eyes. His President stared at him, his features hardened by time. During the ten years Houston spent away from the club meant that JD and Axel had taken on the responsibility of cleaning up the club without him. There was no one else for them to fall back on after his father landed in jail for manslaughter with no chance for early parole.

While he'd hit the road and joined the Marines for good reasons, it didn't diminish the fact the family he'd left behind had been forced to take up the slack.

"I've got something more important for you to work on." JD's voice broke Houston from his stuck-in-the-past stupor. "We've discovered a new asset right here in our own backyard that we think can get us the inside information we need to end this thing. An asset you happen to be best suited to work with."

He slid a file folder down the table that stopped in from of him.

"Open it."

The fine hairs on the back of Houston's neck stood on end. Something wasn't right here. This wasn't the first time he sensed being in the middle of someone else's cross-hairs and he had a couple of bullet hole scars to prove it. He reached for the file and slowly peeled it open.

"What the fuck?" He sat stock still staring into the face of Izzy. The woman he'd unsuccessfully tried to get out of his head no matter how hard he tried. "What the hell is this supposed to mean? Is this a joke?"

"She has a lot of information about her father's organization," Axel answered. "A lot more than any of us knew. And she's willing to share it with us. Share it with you to be precise. Have to hand it to her. She's a crafty negotiator."

Houston looked between the President and the Vice President. "Hell to the no. This is a goat fuck in the making and I'm not going to do that to her. She's been through enough."

"She wants this," Axel said. "No, let me rephrase that. She needs this. She may be brash and more than a little bit reckless, but what happened to her in that shit hole was a direct result of her father's actions. I don't think she can fully move past it until she gets her retribution."

Houston shook his head and closed the file. "You mean revenge. That is not going to help her forget."

"It's not revenge, it's justice. And trust me I've spent enough time with her to know exactly what she needs."

He sprang to his feet on a growl. The idea of Axel spending time with Izzy instead of him had him seeing red. He clenched his fists. The surrounding club members also rose to their feet, ready to defend their VP.

"Easy, Houston. Go too far and there's no coming back. If you force us, we'll do this without you. Axel will work with Izzy."

Axel smiled up at him. "It might take me a minute longer, but I think she likes me."

"You fucking touch her—" He lunged toward Axel only to be brought up short by JD's meaty fist wrapped around his arm.

"Enough. Both of you. Houston, sit back down and let's finish this." JD turned to him when he failed to move. "Houston, sit your ass back down in that seat and let your brother finish. We're all here for the same goal and that's to get the missing girl back before she shows up in some fucking dumpster or worse."

Houston heard JD's reasonable request and fought to ignore it. All he could see in his head was Axel together with Izzy and it pierced his chest with the sharp pain of betrayal. Again. Blood rushed through his ears. But he wasn't like his father and he didn't fucking share.

"HOUSTON!" JD yelled. "Sit the fuck down."

He turned and retook his seat. "This isn't over," he warned.

"Yeah, yeah. We know. She's your girl. Why the hell do you think you were recalled?"

Axel's lips were moving, but his words weren't sinking in. He needed to get her away from here. "If you don't need me undercover, then our deal is over. I'll take her out of here. Once I get her far enough away from her bastard father, the sooner she'll get over his betrayal."

"You aren't going anywhere," JD said between clenched teeth. "Your club needs you to do this. Are you really able to leave us hangingagain?"

JD's voice sliced through him. Didn't matter he'd been thinking the exact same thing only moments ago. Hearing it from the man who was one of the last ties to his mother cut deep.

"Look, son. I ain't trying to make you feel guilty about the past. As far as I'm concerned it's water under the bridge. Everyone did what they had to in order to stay sane. It was a dark time for Wrath, especially you, and no one blames you for leaving when you did. But you need to make a decision and you need to do it now. Cause I'm not interested in making anymore ‘deals’ to keep you here. Everyone in this room considers you a part of the club, part of our family. Now it's your turn to decide. Are you in or are you out?"

Houston grappled with JD's words. He'd spent a decade trying to forget all the pain and death surrounding his father's club. The blood that soaked Sultan earth because of a lunatic's whims.

In the couple of short weeks he'd spent with the club while waiting on word of Izzy, he'd learned a lot. But it took more time for those words to sink in. He needed time. Except he didn't have any more time.

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