Page 54 of Roses Are Dead
“Now what?”
“Carl’s disappeared.”
That was bad news, and good news. I focused on the bad part first. “He owes us eight grand. When did this happen?”
“Whoosh’s guy, the one who saw him with the cop? Says he walked out of his house, hopped in his truck and never came back. That was the night you took his girl. There’s been no movement inside for over twenty hours.
This was out of character for Carl. “I know he visited his sister’s house the first night. And as far as I know, that was about ten, ten-thirty.”
“Maybe he stayed there?”
I shook my head and relayed what I knew. The second conversation Roishin had with John seemed normal.
“I don’t like this. First the cop, and now poof.”
Wolf was right to be worried. “How’s Sketch?” I asked.
“Pissed. Izzy insists she’ll take the fall for anything that went down.”
“We can’t let her do that.” Not only would that raise more questions, like why did the other gang members disappear, but the cops already knew she was with Sketch and admitting anything would implicate him.
“Sketch is on it.”
“Do we bring her in, talk with her again?”
Wolf shot my suggestion down with a single shake of his head. “Let Sketch handle it, okay? Izzy will come around.”
I frowned. Sketch had recently gotten custody of his kid. The situation had to be freaking him out. But there was another person we had to worry about. “Is Whoosh holding up?”
That earned a snort. “Fucker, he’s acting like he’s got his patch already. I’m thinking of putting a pause on it just to teach him a little humility. I might stall the vote tonight.”
It would serve him right.
“But that’s not what I needed to talk to you about. Sprout told me that you stepped up the other day.”
Aw shit. This was a dressing down. I braced myself for the worst.
“And I appreciate that. The club agrees we need a VP who can handle decisions without calling a fucking meeting all the time. After all the bullshit we went through, we are all smart enough to know we can’t have another Kush slacking off and leaving every decision up to the president.
“You did good making the moves you made, even if you kind of fucked up taking Rose—Roishin. I’m going to have a talk with Jackson about rotating you out of his protection detail, so we can install you as VP.”
If I hadn’t been sitting down, I’d have ass-planted on the chair. As it was, I had mixed emotions about all this. Foremost was the question I asked, “Who’s going to be watching Kate and Zoe?”
“We’ll keep doing what we’re doing. Prospects, members, that sort of thing.”
“And when a fucking prospect screws up?” I reminded him.
He grinned at me. “Guess who’d be in charge of picking ’em?”
Fuck. Me. Wolf sure knew his way around the role despite only being in it a few months. Or, maybe not… “I suppose that was Tits’s idea?”
He grinned a little wider. “My wife might have had a say in it.”
I scratched at my ear, pretending I hadn’t heard that. Bad enough the club knew Wolf’s soft spot for her, but if someone on the outside knew? We’d be laughed out of the organization.
“Fix this shit with Carl, and the job’s yours.”
Unspoken was, fuck it up, and you’ll never have a chance.
