Page 10 of Bullet
Seth offered a silent nod, compared to Bucky’s very boisterous, “Fine by me, Squared! I have another nomination. Joey Williamson.”
Half the members behind the bar started to hoot as Joey made his way from the back of the bar near the pool table to the front. Avery, Vil, and Small Fry’s hands went into the air, and even though they didn’t need the numbers, I put mine up as well.
“I second,” Avery got out first.
“Third,” Vil said.
Small Fry followed with, “Fourth.”
And I rounded us out. “Fifth.”
Nick let out a whistle. “Well, Joey. Seems you’re liked around here! All right then!”
A few people near Joey tapped him on his shoulder to congratulate him.
“I have one,” I said with my hand in the air. “Mario Boone.”
Near the door to the bar, Mario was standing, and his eyes had widened with shock. Perhaps no one else really got the chance to talk to him throughout the night, but then Avery put his hand in the air and yelled, “I second.”
Mario walked over and stood with Colt and Joey, still with a surprised expression on. “Thank you,” he said.
Over the course of the next fifteen or so minutes, nominations continued until we had seven people standing in front of us. Along with Colt, Joey, and Mario, the rest of the members nominated a shorter, but stockier man named Karl Collier, with long blond hair falling down his back, a man named Marshall Roman, who had a purple heart patch sewn onto his jacket, and the two guys Seth had mentioned to me, Travis and Kyran.
“Well now, this looks like quite the array,” Nick said with a wide smile on his face. “Are there any other nominations, or is this it?” Directly behind Nick, Texas cleared his throat. Nick looked back over his shoulder at him. “Yes?”
“Uh, yeah. I do have one more nomination.” He took a deep breath in, held it for a few seconds, and then let it out. “I’d like to nominate Seneca Villetrio.”
A body shifted in the crowd, and then a woman side-stepped her way through the group. She had bronze skin, a short, black haircut with the right side of her head shaved and the rest brushed over and hanging down the left side of her head and a little in front of her face, and striking gray eyes.
“Whoa,” Avery whispered next to me. “She’s been here all night?”
I hadn’t even noticed. Apart from the couple of guys I’d spoken with, the onlywomanI noticed was Celia.
The crowd murmured and muttered to themselves as Seneca came to a stop at the front of the crowd, and she just stood there, patiently waiting for anyone to second. The room was silent, and for as dejecting as that had to have been, she stood there with a look of confidence that was shocking, to say the least.
Nick waited, not closing the nomination for as long as he could, but then he lifted his hand into the air. “Well, I’m sorr—”
Then Seth’s hand went up. “I second.” Everyone’s gaze shot to him. “I talked to Seneca for a bit. She’s never even driven a car before, just bikes. That’s…” He chuckled. “That’s pretty cool.”
Vil’s hand went up after that. “I third.” He smiled. “She’s a punk rocker like me, plus she’s tough as nails.”
After that, Small Fry’s hand went up. “She beat Bucky in an arm wrestle,” he snickered. “Fourth.”
“No,” Bucky spat out, “she’s pretty strong though, I’ll give her that.” His hand went up. “I’ll fifth.”
I felt conflicted. If so many of them had positive experiences with her, why had no one nominated her before now?
As if they’d all heard my thoughts, all the members turned to look at me. “What?”
“I’ll defer to you,” Nick said to me.
“Why me?”
“Because of Tess,” Nick said simply.
That was a shattering statement. Seneca was a woman, and my trust issues with women created more than one issue with Tess. Was I prepared to take on the full responsibility for the way she was treated? No. But, if we were to say who had the biggest problem with her…
“She only needs two,” I replied. “A nomination and a second. She had that four votes ago.”
