Page 52 of Blue-Eyed Jacks
He didn’t need to know my next move.Knowing him, he’d try to help and get his ass in worse trouble than I was in.It was one thing for a man like me tolie to everyone, but a man like him?Jesus Christ, he’d make mortal enemies, and was the type to take it personally.“Your plan is to keep your head down, stay out of the crosshairs, got it?”
“That’s going to be difficult if Shock wants blood and starts sniffing around the edges.”
“Well, I’m making sure it isn’t yours.Got it?”
He grunted.“Huh.Here I thought you didn’t like me.”
“I don’t like anybody, you asshole.”With that, I hung up.He was baiting me to cut him in.I’d be damned if I did that.He’d already grabbed territory from me.I didn’t need him taking over my thinking.
“Sprout, you’re good at playing dumb, right?”
He made a face that normally would make me laugh.But today was not a good day for that kind of fuckery.“I need you to crank that shit up to a-fucking-hundred.”
“Why?”
That door was unguarded and unblocked.I motioned to it with my head.“Make sure that stays shut for one minute.”
He dipped his head, picked up a nearby chair, and propped it under the handle.Some days, I wondered why he wasn’t running this joint.Then he opened his big ass mouth and quipped, “I’m all ears.”Then, with practiced art, he tucked his mess of curly hair behind both, making them stand out like a fucking elephant’s.
“I fucked up, and Wolf might be president in anywhere from an hour to a month from now.”
He straightened to his full height.“How?”
I glanced at the door again, waiting for the wrong person to bust in.“Shock found Kate.”
His brows furrowed for only a moment.“The puker?”
Sprout’s memory was even better than mine.“Yeah.”
My confirmation made his face go dark.“Ma helped her.”
“Jesus, you’re fucking right.”I’d forgotten about that.His mom was one of the smart ones, but too damn helpful.Sprout shook his head slowly, digging my grave even deeper.“Damn it.She wasn’t supposed to stick her neck out.”
“Well, you know Ma, she’ll defy the devil if someone needs her.”
It was my turn to thwart the tragedy coming our way.“Isolate and insulate her, Danielle, the business, and anything—I’m talking anything not attached to the club.Got it?”
He nodded.I’m sure he’d already done a lot of legwork to protect his wife’s fortune, and his budding construction business that supported half this club.But what I was warning him about right now would topple the whole thing.
“If anyone other than me takes heat on this,” I shook my head.
“Walt’s right.”He called Disney “Walt” because that was his real name.I never did.It would imply we actually liked each other rather than keeping a wall of mutual respect, distancing my shit from his.Sprout didn’t have to do that sort of thing.
“How’s that?”Them damn big ears.I vindictively hoped his future kids got them and were ugly as fuck.
“You love her.”
Sprout was so wrong.“I’mcoveringour asses.Show some respect.”
A knock interrupted whatever he was going to spew out next.Wolf and his wife were waiting for me to fill them in.“Leave.”
“Your funeral,” he joked and swept off his imaginary jester hat at me with a wide smile.
“Guard the door from the outside,” I yelled at Sprout.He made a display of spinning around and sweeping up the chair to plant his ass in front of the open door.Added a bit of twerk in the antics to rub my face in the order.
Wolf shut it on him and held a chair for Tits before sitting down himself.
That was one of the things I truly appreciated about him.He was power hungry, but courteous.A great combination for leadership.Especially when leading a club sandwiched between Shock, Walt, and a growing outlaw club to the east.Not to mention we were sitting on millions of dollars.The pressure on me to walk that tightrope was immense.I needed someone with brains to replace me, but until Wolf, I hadn’t found the right man.
