Page 21 of The Bonds We Break
“Thanks,” I say gruffly. “Clutch out in the garage?”
She nods. “Yeah. There’s something wrong with my car. It’s making a weird noise. So I’m in the truck.”
I sigh. “You sure you can drive that thing?”
Gwen chuckles. “Clutch has forgiven me for hitting the garage wall. I can’t quite see over the hood properly. And now we have an agreement that I’ll always leave it on the driveway, and he’ll pull it in when he gets home.”
“How utterly domestic.”
“You really don’t want to know what I had to do to earn his forgiveness.”
I mock vomit. “Knowing my VP’s sexual proclivities, I really don’t.”
“You doing okay?” she asks.
I shrug. “Same old, same old.”
She nods as if she hears all the words I’m not saying. “A little birdie told me there is a bit of a rift in the club right now.”
I tap the bar for the prospect to top off my whiskey. “Yeah, well. That little birdie better learn to keep his mouth shut.”
Her shoulder nudges mine. “He’s just worried about you.”
“And I’m worried about him telling his old lady shit about the club.”
I see the twinge of hurt in Gwen’s eyes. “I know I’ve been away from the club a long time, but not by choice. You know this. And I hope I’m more to the club than just an appendage Clutch fucks. One day, hopefully, I’ll be Landon’s wife, Mrs. Bailey. I’m your sister. My father was president of this club, and my grandfather founded it. We have the same lineage, only you were born with a dick and can exist in here.” She gestures around the clubhouse. “And I wasn’t, so I get to be on the outside looking in. Don’t ever refer to me as just an old lady, Uther.”
We sit in silence. Her, because she’s said her piece. Me, because I don’t even know how to respond to that.
I hear what she’s saying, and to be honest, she reminds me a little of Rae. Or Rae reminds me of her. They’re both forthright with their opinions.
“I’ll say this and then never speak of it again,” Gwen says. “You trusted these men with your life. They’ve never let you down. Something about this decision hurt you, because you saw the outcome so clearly, you could taste it. But the majority of this club didn’t. Make your peace with it before your desire to be right comes ahead of the club’s best interests.” She stands and kisses my cheek. “Enjoy your lunch.”
And with that, she’s gone, and the world seems a little darker.
I’m hungry, having left half my breakfast on the table when Rae started with all that Shakespeare shit. I open the brown bag, and inside are all the things I used to love as a kid. She’s made me peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and drawn another smiley face on the banana. There are two triangles of Laughing Cow cheese, which I haven’t eaten in years but remember I used to spread on everything. And she’s broken a KitKat across the two bars rather than splitting them like any regular person would—she remembered it used to irritate the shit out of me when I’d open one and find them broken in any other way than straight down the middle. On the front of the KitKat wrapper, in black ink, is the wordha!
Halo and Vex step into the room and join me at the bar. “Got a minute, Prez?” Vex says.
“Sure thing.” I wrap the brown bag up.
“Cute lunch bag,” Halo says. “Gwen stop by?”
I nod. I think of Gwen’s words about how I should make my peace about their choices of whether to kill Saint or not. Both Halo and Vex had voted no. “What did you need?”
“The Righteous Brotherhood,” Vex says. “How much effort do you want me to put into hunting them down? Spark is on my back daily for details. Given they tried to take Iris, he’s on a mission to eradicate them. But that’s time and money for the club. I mean, I think it’s worth it to shut these guys down.”
I recall the day when we raided that warehouse and faced off against them. The day when Saint revealed who he really was. “I’ll talk to Spark. Let’s ease up. They’re off our turf. Our town isn’t at risk anymore.”
Halo shakes his head. “You gotta think through the full story. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that these fuckers will want revenge.”
Revenge. There’s that fucking word again. I’ve already heard it one time too many today.
“Who was that chick with the snake hair in mythology ... if you cut off her head, she grows two more?” Halo asks.
Vex rolls his eyes. “You’re confusing two stories. Medusa is the snake-head chick. The Hydra is the one that grows back two heads for every one chopped off.”
“You got a point?” I ask Halo. I’m over weird historical analogies. My day seems to be full of them.
