Page 36 of Nova

11

Nova

Ihated leaving my daughter and Promise this morning but needed to meet with the rest of my brothers to discuss the shit that took place last night. Knowing Kiwi is with them puts my mind at ease.

Pulling up to the clubhouse, I punch in the code, and the gate rolls open. Parking my bike beside Wick's, I head inside, finding him, Fender, Everest, and my brother sitting at the bar, enjoying cold beers. "Hey, brother."

"How's it goin'?" I step to the bar.

"How's your woman fairin' this mornin'," my brother asks, knowing most of what went down last night. He was the first one I made a call to the moment Promise described the cut the guy had on.

"The piece of shit roughed her up a bit, but she's handlin' the situation pretty well." Anger builds in my gut, thinking about the bruise on her face. I'm pissed at myself that she is caught up in a feud she has no part of. "I had Kiwi stay behind. I'll fill him in on what we discuss later."

My brother nods. Standing, he tosses his empty bottle in the trash. "Alright. Let's head to church and formulate a plan." He strides across the room, and the rest of us men follow.

The four of us sit around the table. Fender slides a pack of cigarettes across the table toward me, along with a lighter. Taking one from the box, I light it, pulling a toke. "What do we know about the Hell's Punishers?" Riggs directs his attention to Fender.

"The club is from north Louisiana. They've been around for years. The President goes by the name Crow. The one Nova gave a beating to; they call him Creep," Fender informs us, and I scoff.Creep. The goddamn name suits his sorry good for nothing ass. Fender continues. "Not only is he the President's brother, but he's the club's VP."

"How many members are we lookin' at?" I ask.

"At least a dozen," Fender states.

Shit.They have more significant numbers than we do. "They sent a clear message last night. They want some restitution, and that they won't be leaving the city any time soon." I snub out my cigarette. "I should have finished the job," I admit.

"Well, lucky for you, the bastard is still alive."

"For now," I grit my teeth.

"Shit went down in a public place, during a public event," my brother adds. "If Wick didn't get there when he did, you would have been lookin' at a murder charge."

He's right.I fuckin' hate when he's right.I wouldn't have let up until he was lying on the floor with no life left in him. "He touched my baby girl."

"And he deserves to be six feet under for it," Riggs' features harden. "This shit with the Hell's Punishers and the vendetta they have against you—against the club is just as personal to the rest of us as it is to you, brother." My eyes scan the table, looking at the faces of my brothers. "You forget, Wick and I helped raise Piper. I think I speak for both of us when I say what happened to her feels as if it happened to our own child." My eyes shift between him and Wick. "They fucked with our family. Plain and simple. If Hell's Punishers want to start a war, they'll get one."

The room falls silent for a beat. I feel the tension in the room heighten. It wasn't so long ago that we dealt with a threat to the club. "What is our option here? Do we go to them? Put this shit to bed, or do we hang back, and wait for their next move. Cause I've got to tell you, my gut is tellin' me they want to play games with us. Try and fuck with our heads. They assumed Promise was a useful target just by seeing her with me. What's to say they aren't watching us as we speak. I don't want to sit around on my ass waiting for one of those fuckers to strike again." At this point, my nerves are frayed, and I'm fucking furious. My entire body is shaking with rage.

"Fender, do we know their whereabouts?" Riggs asks.

"Negative."

"Then we wait." My brother's eyes cut to me. "We can't fight what we can't see."

I push myself from the table, my chair falling to its side, skidding across the floor. Holding my words, I pace the floor, with my fists balled at my sides.

"We play this smart. The Hell's Punishers are loose cannons. They displayed that not only at the event, but last night as well. Going off half-cocked like that can make a man stupid and make mistakes. You have to trust me on this one, brother," Riggs says, getting me to see reason, but vengeance has me bloodthirsty and blind at the moment. "Everest, you and Fender ride the streets today. Dig up a little intel on our visitors. The city has eyes and ears everywhere." Riggs stands, and I stop pacing. "Cain, go home and keep Kiwi with you. Have him tap into street camera feeds or if they possibly had surveillance cameras anywhere in the vicinity of the apartment complex Promise was staying." Riggs slaps his hand on my shoulder. "We'll get the motherfuckers. You hear me?" I nod. He then addresses all of us. "Until we know where these assholes are hiding, we travel in pairs. Got it?"

Church ends, and we head back to the bar, where Josie places cold beers in front of us. "Does the club still own the building across the street from the tactical store?" I ask before lifting my bottle, downing half of my drink.

"Yeah, brother." Wick is the one to answer.

"Any plans for it?"

"What do you have in mind?" Wick turns to face me.

"Promise and her friend, London are shootin' around the idea of opening their own firm together. The practice London works at now is state-run, and a real shit hole, in a less than desirable part of town. What would the club's thoughts be on leasing the building to them both?"

"Start their own firm?" Riggs runs his hand down his beard, giving my idea some thought. "Is this you admitting you're going after this woman. You claimin' her?" he pauses a beat. "To be honest, I never would have thought you'd go for a woman like her. Hell, I never thought you'd settle down. Now here you are only knowin' this woman a week and you're tied up in knots. My brother, the Casanova, has fallen hard. And you've set a record doin' it." My brother smirks, and the others wait for my reply. He's not wrong either. They don't call me Nova for nothing.

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