Page 3 of Bullet
“He was an Unchained Dog,” Bucky grunted.
Nick nodded. “He was, but a little flip-flopping isn’t entirely unheard of in our world, though I might have trusted him less. Though maybe not, too. I don’t know. He’s a weird blind spot for me, that’s all I can say.”
“He’s like you,” I interjected. “The last couple of months notwithstanding, you’re typically much more like him. Reserved, not super flashy, silently tough. You saw yourself in him.”
A small smirk cracked across Nick’s face. “That was pretty insightful of you.”
I shrugged. “I have my moments.”
He crossed his arms. “You’re probably dead on there, Bullet. He felt like family already. Maybe that’s why. In any event, none of it is worth the way I behaved, so I apologize. As President, I have the responsibility to offer up my position. I believe any of you would have exercised better judgment than me, so if any of you would like to vie for this spot, I would respect that nomination.”
Avery, Bucky, and I exchanged looks, and then I looked across at Nick. “Don’t be so dramatic,” I huffed. “No one is asking you to step down, just be a little more mindful next time.”
The small smirk curved wider across his face. “Thanks, guys. I don’t want to step down, but… you know…” He shrugged. “Anyway. We’ll get through this, and I promise, I’m bylaw-bound from here on out.” The tension in the room immediately dissipated. Nick was wearing the stress of losing his kids like a brightly colored coat, but he at least seemed to be in a better place as far as the club was concerned, and that could only bode well for us. “Which brings me to our next topic of discussion. Obviously,” he motioned to the empty chairs, “we’re down a few bodies. Tess has left the VP position vacant, Colin left the Secretary position wide open, and Tay—”
Just like that, the tension was back. We all watched as Nick rapidly deteriorated. Tears quickly welled up in the corners of his eyes, and his jaw clenched. Despite his best attempts to keep his emotions back, a couple of tears broke loose and slid down his cheeks. Apart from when he announced that Taylor had fallen to Tess, Nick hadn’t brought up his son once. Signs of stress aside, it seemed like he was holding it together well, but suddenly he was shaking and barely managing to hold himself up.
Bucky held out his hand timidly and set it on Nick’s shoulder. “Hey, Nicky, we know. It’s okay, man.”
Nick wiped his eyes and then took a deep breath. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Avery said. “It was your kid.”
Nick cleared his throat a few times. “Yeah. I know he was off his rocker a little, but—”
“Nick,” I cut him off. “I’m not like a therapist or anything, but I don’t think it’s wrong of you to mourn your kid.”
Nick nodded. “Yeah. Thanks.” A few more tears escaped his eyes, and he slapped his hands against his cheeks and shook his head. “Wow. Sorry. Okay. Well, you guys know. I mean you were fucking there. Point is, we have the VP, Secretary, and Sergeant at Arms positions to fill, so there’s going to be some changes internally probably. We have our member pool to pull from, but promotions from within isn’t off the table either and we do need to do some recruiting.”
“Can I ask a question?” I asked. “The Secretary position, why didn’t we have anyone in that position before? We have careful records. I know because I’ve used them. Who was doing that?”
After first taking a deep breath in and then out, Nick replied, “Well, we kind of did. I was breaking the rules a little bit before you guys, but this one I can’t take entirely on myself. You guys wouldn’t reallyletTess do the VP stuff. None of ya.” He looked at Avery. “Well, hardly anyof ya. Thanks, Bullseye.”
“No problem, Nicky,” Avery replied.
“Most of you wouldn’t take Tess seriously. She didn’t know as much, but in order to make sure she was actually doing stuff here, I gave her the Secretary duties as well. She was the one keeping all of our records. Actually, she went off and documented us to the best of her ability, all the way back to when my grandpa established us.”
Bucky let out a hollow whistle and my jaw dropped as well. “That must have taken forever.”
“Yeah, she worked on it for a year or more,” Nick said.
Knowing how many times I’d referred to our club history for spending habits and audits, that realization was bittersweet. Tess and I didn’t really… get along. It wasn’t so much anything she’d done personally, but more my personal distrust for women. My experiences drove my feelings, but they hadn’t steered me wrong yet, so the guilt I’d slowly been developing regarding Tess was disconcerting, to say the least.
“Well, hopefully, we’ll get a chance to thank her someday,” Avery said.
Nick nodded. “Yeah. Hopefully.” He cleared his throat again and continued. “Anyway. I’m working on a plan right now. Got a few things in mind, but I really want to bang it out solidly before I present it, so have a little patience with me. I hope to have things chiseled out soon. If any of you have any thoughts though, please talk to me. Obviously, time is of the essence, but we’re gonna do it right this time. I do think we’re gonna have to go for open enrollment, though. The bylaws call for this, and my old man did it a lot, but it’s not my favorite method. I prefer recommendations from existing members, but shit, we lost three officers, plus Stag, the poor bastard.”
Bucky turned his head down. “He had it coming, grabbing Tess the way he did, though. Dumb drunk couldn’t get out of his own way.”
“He’s dead, Bucky, Jesus,” Avery hissed.
“What?” Bucky replied. “Rest in peace and all that, but we were all smart enough not to piss Grim offthatbad.”
“He didnotplay games when it came to Tess,” Nick said. “I suppose, if nothing else, he looked after her, but she wasn’t really able to live her life.” He shrugged. “Truth be told, though, if Taylor hadn’t ended him, I was going to for putting his hands on my baby girl.”
“A prospect didn’t make it through, too, right?” Avery said. “Didn’t one of them go toe-to-toe with Tess right before MiD?”
MiD stood for Music in the Desert, the fundraiser The Steel Knights and our allied clubs hosted in the desert every year. I’d heard that one of the prospects got cut the day of, but I never knew the details.
