Page 26 of Last One Standing
“Are you building suspense or something? Dude, get on with it.” Gabe made a get-on-with-it gesture.
“Fine…ass. You all remember, we went to that show at Stilettos and Sangria, yeah?”
“We never had the sangria, by the way. Just sayin’,” JJ added.
“I’ll assume that’s a yes. And Phoenix and I went and saw another show. What I found out was, Brick, the president for the Dead Kings, wasn’t happy with us. Maybe me, I dunno. Kona, or Anita Pounding as some of you may know him as, explained the first time we were there at Leo’s invitation.”
“Which was the truth,” Mason interjected.
“Right. And Phoenix and I were there at his brother, Pika’s, invite, the other day.” Everyone was following. “Kona was able to convince Brick the first time who we were, but the second time he didn’t buy it, and he hurt Kona.”
“Oh, my God!” Phoenix covered his mouth. It wasn’t going to be easy to hear, but he’d chosen to be here.
“Turns out Brick does this a lot and according to Pika, it’s getting worse, and he thinks Brick will eventually kill Kona.”
“Domestic violence doesn’t get better; it only ever escalates unless someone intervenes. Has Kona filed a police report?” Mason asked.
“That I don’t know, but if he did, it’s clear nothing came of it.”
“I can dig and see if there were any calls or reports made on this,” Nick offered.
“Thanks, but we do nothing until we vote, and you haven’t heard the request.”
“We aren’t going to sit back and let them beat Kona,” JJ huffed.
I held up a hand. “Kona has been stashing some of his money for them to run. Problem is, if they run the MC will find them, and I don’t want to think about what will happen to them. Pika is asking us for protection against the MC.”
There was a pregnant pause before Gabe chimed in, “Like forever?”
“Why don’t we just get rid of the MC?” Of course Four would go that route.
“Murdering an entire motorcycle club won’t go unnoticed, especially since they’ve been causing so much unrest here.”
“I know you all don’t trust the police, or want much of anything to do with them, but I’m sure people in town have called the police on them. They vandalized the pawn shop on Harper Street last week. How are they not in jail for all they do?” Matt asked.
It was Shep who answered. “Could be the Kings are paying off the police. Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen corrupt cops. Maybe the MC is threatening the owners to not press charges or name them. We don’t know, but if we go asking, we will absolutely draw attention to this and if we do that, if it comes to having to go head-to-head with the club and they are…” He hummed. “Accidentally murdered, we will be looked at.”
“Accidentally murdered, that’s not a…ohhhh.” Phoenix nodded.
“Well, I mean, you all were hired to protect Phoenix, so I mean if we’re hired to protect Kona and Pika, and the cops find out, it wouldn’t be odd, right?” Matt made a good point.
“But forever?” Gabe was stuck on that.
“Do you really think the Kings aren’t going to come at us to get Kona?” Nick scoffed.
“Oh, I’m sure they will, and if they come onto our property, or start something in the streets, we would be in our rights todefend ourselves. We won’t start anything, but if we have to, we’ll finish it.”
“Do Pika and Kona even want to stay in the same town as them?” JJ wondered.
“Originally, Pika said they wanted to run, but that’s not necessarily realistic. We can’t scatter and half live somewhere else to keep them alive. That would have been a deal breaker. My hope is we protect them, fight the MC if they come at us, and they eventually fuck off out of here.”
“Nice fairy tale, Angel,” Four huffed. “Men like Brick don’t give up. They literally die for what they covet.”
“That’s the thing. He doesn’t own Kona—you don’t possess people!” My voice rose.
“You like hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim,” Nick singsonged, and I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
“What’s happening is wrong. So we need to vote if we’re going to protect them, see this through, and be ready for this to get bloody if need be.” I wouldn’t acknowledge Nick.
