Page 61 of Dragon Strife
“Fine!” Cash shouts as he wrestles with his cut. “Fuck this! You will be the reason the Steel Dragons find themselves dismantled and later when the March finds a war on their front lawn! Your father would be ashamed of you!”
“We’ll never know, will we? Your so-called President killed him instead.” Genni tosses each word out as if they’re poisonous, hoping they infect everyone in the room. “Jaeger shot Vic in the head, stealing every last one of his judgments.”
“Watch your mouth!” Cash exclaims as he throws his cut to the floor, making a few brothers gasp. Then he turns on his heel to leave. My heart begins to pound at the tremendous loss we would suffer without having a medic.
“Cash! Wait!” I call out as I run to him. “Don’t leave. You’re not exiled.”
“You’re not the President, Quinton,” Genni singsongs. “Say goodbye to your friend.”
“You’re not the President either!” I turn around to scream at the top of my lungs, knowing my next words will break me, but hoping they make her back down. Genni needs to get out of this building before a brother retaliates. I’m still drowning in the guilt of what happened to her before, I won’t survive it again. “You’re fucking everything up because of your silly need for revenge. Your father made mistakes! Ones we’re still paying for and none of us will follow you as you make more!” The relief is immediate but the shame is heavy, like the floodgates have opened and I can finally express my bottled emotions. Only it’s at her expense. I grip the edges of my cut and bend toward her to deliver the final blow. “No one wants to follow a girl who can’t seem to rein in her emotions. Stop drowning us all in your fucking tears! We’re a biker club! We do bad shit and drink it off later. You won’t find us whining about how our siblings are calling us names!” Oh, it feels so good to let the vitriol out because it was slowly poisoning me. Then I drop my hands back to my sides, waiting for her tantrum and then for her to ultimately leave.
The door slams shut behind me and I turn to find Cash gone, his bike starting up outside.
“Emotional? Whining?” Her voice is calm and even, not at all emotional like I’d hoped. My heart drops into my stomach as she casually crosses her arms over her chest. “Silly? Sounds like an emotional teenager.” She lets out a hum before speaking once more. “Are you saying that’s how I’m acting?”
“Yes!” I throw my arms up in the air and motion for Laith to step in. “This is getting out of hand.” This plan is failing and fast.
“You know it’s more than that,” Laith supplies as he steps closer to Genni while eyeing the brothers. “This isn’t some sibling rivalry. What happened to V was disgusting and could’ve been avoided. Greed has had its grips on this club for too long. When I first joined, we were a true brotherhood, doing what we had to survive, but staying within our means. Greed took over with the cartel and we started moving things we had no business moving. We made enough money with Glitz, and yet, it was never enough. Now Jaeger wants to up that, make more money with blood and drugs.”
I’m stunned when Genni reaches over and links her hand in his while looking at him like he hung the fucking moon. Like she used to look at me. When the fuck did that happen? And how will that work out with Malik? They’ll end up killing each other and her if things get messy. Which they will.
“There was a time when you were emotional, Chino,” Genni says as she gives me a cunning look.
“No, there wasn’t,” I vehemently disagree. I know where this is going and I refuse to let her use our intimate moments against me.
“Whatever.” She shrugs and turns to the bar. “I need a drink while I let my brother stew a bit. I think he’s starting to come around.” She sits at the bar and raps her knuckles along the shining wood top, the new surface still pristine. Chip comes forward with a grin and pours her a glass of whiskey.
“We need Jaeger out of that basement,” I growl and move toward her. “Stop with your tantrums.”
“Guess that’s the emotional girl in me.” She snickers as she downs the contents of her glass. Laith sits next to her like a dutiful bodyguard as she motions for another drink.
“Brothers!” I call out into the room. “I’m calling mass!” I head for Church and look over my shoulder when I hear her chuckle.
“Go ahead and have your little meeting,” she calls out. “I’ll work on showing these brothers of yours just how emotionalyouare.”
I roll my eyes at her threats and motion for my brothers to follow me. I need to get in that room and free Jaeger. This is getting out of hand.
Being back here at the club without Slayer is like trying to learn how to walk after losing a leg. I feel disjointed and I can’t fucking concentrate. She has all the faith in my brother, but she doesn’t really know who he is. I never wanted to bring it up, to talk about our past and the reasons why he and I are so estranged. To be honest, it’s no one’s fucking business, and I felt like I took care of those lingering feelings of hatred by shooting him in the motherfucking face. I truly thought after that happened I’d wiped my hands clean of Laith Charles and would never have to deal with him again.
What a slap in the fucking face to now have to share the girl I consider the most precious thing in my life, and that’s a lot, considering my cock and balls are attached to me. She has quickly won that first spot.
“Hey, boss,” Davis says as he strides into the room. “You wanted to see me?”
“Yeah.” I motion to the seat beside me at the table. “I want to thank you for how you handled the situation with Genevieve. I know that couldn’t have been easy, and you’ve absolutely proven your loyalty to this club.”
“It was a relief, you know?” His finger begins to move over the grooves of the wooden tabletop once he sits down, his eyes avoiding mine. “I hate to say it, because what does that say about me as a person? But it’s the truth. The second it happened, I was relieved. It was like it erased every bad moment I ever endured with him.”
I place my elbows on the table and lean forward, tipping my head to get a good look at his face, and when his eyes finally meet mine, I see the relief there in their blue depths. I also see echoes of grief. “When I first joined this club, he said I would be on trash duty.” I grin when Davis’ chest begins to rumble with laughter. “Man, I was fifteen, and I thought,hell yeah,I can take out a couple of bags of garbage now and then. No big deal, but we both know that’s not what trash duty is.” Davis slowly shakes his head, his grin growing across his face. “The first time I had to cut up that body and stuff it into garbage bags, I thought I was going to die,” I admit to him. “How could I know how many organs a human has inside their body? It’s insane.”
“A lot of people know how many organs are inside their body.” He shoots me a taunting look.
“You know what I mean.” I wave him off. “You don’t exactly know what’s inside your fucking body until you’re cutting one up, and that’s the fucking truth.” I scrub my hand down my face and chuckle into my palm. “But I did it. I kept doing it for six months and he finally said,I’m swearing you in tomorrow, Charles,and I kid you not, Davis. I nearly pissed myself with happiness. This place, these brothers, were my family, and your father, Barrett, replaced the father I lost.”
“I wish I could say the same,” he says quietly. “I was never good enough. I don’t know the last time he spoke a full sentence to me or even looked me in the eye.” He runs his hand over his beard, gripping the ends in his fingers. “That man hated me, and the moment V shot that bullet into his head, I almost collapsed with relief. It was freeing, like the shackles of a toxic family were finally stripped away, and it was my time to shine. Look what happened! She made me Sergeant at Arms.”
“You deserve it, brother.” I smile and nod at him, my chest warming with gratitude. I was worried that he may have been holding on to resentment that would slowly grow over time.
“Thanks.” He nods and moves to stand. “I gotta go get some things together because Cruz is due back in a few days from his trip to New Mexico. He and I need to plan our next move for the weapons run.”
