Page 133 of The First Cut
“Me,” Sever volunteers.
“I didn’t see that coming,” Repo mutters.
Sever takes the ice pick from me after I yank it out. I pass him the hammer with a warning. “Not too hard. I don’t want him dead yet.” No joking, the man pouts.
And I thought I was fucked-up. I look at the mess I’ve made of Driller. Yeah, it’s safe to say I still am.
“You got a small pair of forceps over there?”
Repo turns to look before grabbing a pair and walking over to hand them to me.
“Thanks.” I wait for Sev to be done with Driller and for the man’s screams to die down.
I shove the forceps into his mouth and grip his tongue. I pull it out as far as I can before I use my scalpel to slice it clean off. I toss the piece of tongue toward the bucket but miss. It lands on the ground, starting a kickabout between Sev and Repo.
I look at my watch. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve worked up an appetite. I say we take a break, get something to eat, and let Driller spend a little time alone with his new reality.”
“I think I need vodka. Lots and lots of fucking vodka,” Snoopy mutters, heading for the door.
“I need to find Lena and get my dick sucked before I explode,” Sev announces.
“You have some serious fucking issues, man,” Repo states, slapping him on the back as he follows him out of the room.
I wait for everyone but Byte to leave. “You good?” he asks me.
“I look at him and wonder how the fuck he had so many people believing his bullshit. He’s fucking pathetic.”
“I don’t think it’s so much that we believed in him. It’s that we didn’t ask questions. We wanted little to do with him because most of us knew he was a shitty VP. But he never did enough for us to call him on it. Until now. We won’t make the same mistakes again.”
“No. You won’t.”
I get cleaned up, change clothes, and grab some food before checking in to see if the kids are okay. After Germ confirms that both are fast asleep for the night, I call Gunther.
“How’s she doing?”
“She’s asleep now. About twenty minutes ago, a nurse came by and gave her some more pain meds. She barely managed to stay awake to take them.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. She say anything after I left?”
He says nothing. I check the phone to make sure the call didn’t drop. “Gunther?”
“She broke.”
“What?”
“As soon as you left, she broke down.”
“Fuck!” I run my fingers through my hair. “I shouldn’t have left.
“No. She needed you to. She’s trying to be strong for everyone. She needed space to fall apart. I swear to you, Hannibal, she’s okay. I’d have called you if she wasn’t.”
“I can come back.”
“Let her sleep. Do what you gotta do, and come see her tomorrow.”
I curse. I need to be with my old lady, but Gunther’s right—she doesn’t need me right now. The club does. I gotta step up and be the president and show her exactly what I do with people who cross me.
“I gotta go. Keep me in the loop if anything changes.”
