Page 34 of Bullet
Seth started to snicker, and then clapped a hand over his mouth to prevent me from seeing. “What?” I asked.
“Nothing, I just don’t think I’ve ever seen you excited like this before,” he said. “I mean, I know we haven’t known each other that long, but it doesn’t seem like this is something you do a whole lot.”
He wasn’t wrong. In no time at all, I was already having fun in my new position, which was a little frightening. It helped that it couldn’t just stop returning my calls likesomepeople I knew, but it made me realize how much investing in something new freaked me out.
“Yeah, it’s new for me,” I admitted to Seth. “It’s good though. I’m excited.”
We spent the next few weeks working on the club expansion while simultaneously training Seth up on the books. I was impressed with how much Seth was able to take on each day, and the more we worked together, the more it felt like we were working side by side as opposed to me training him in my former profession.
I never heard from Celia, but for some reason, it didn’t make me as angry as it did the first time she ghosted me. Maybe it was because I was operating with the expectation that she would disappear again at some point, but it made me sad more than it made me angry. I wished I could have been the one to break her out of her flighty, commitment-fearing phase, but it seemed it wasn’t meant to be.
“It’s a good thing, you know?” Avery said as we discussed it. “They say some people come into our lives for a short time but to teach us important lessons. She was able to get you to stop seeing women in such a negative light, and the fact that you are able to look back on it openly rather than blame her and shove her into the same box as women from your past is a sign of growth.” Me, Seth, Nick, and Bucky all looked at Avery with our brows furrowed. “What?” he asked.
“Maybe I need to make Bullseye the club therapist,” Nick joked.
“That intelligence is definitely fleeting. I wouldn’t trust it,” Bucky said.
Avery punched his arm. “Fuck you. I’m very smart.”
Avery actually was one of the smarter people I knew, but I didn’t realize he was that insightful. It made me feel better to think that something good had come out of my relationship with Celia. I just wished it was actually her and I being together, not some cosmic lesson that needed to be learned.
Oh well.
“So,” Nick said, redirecting our attention back to the club. “Is it true? Do you really have a number for the expansion?”
“Yep,” Seth replied. “Hoppa’s Construction Company can handle the entire thing as a general manager. They’ll take care of securing all the different subcontractors and help us get this thing built from the ground up. We just have to pick a spot. Based on everything we decided for the blueprint, the contract comes out to two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand with a twenty-percent upfront cost to break ground, so we’ll need to hand over fifty grand to get it started.”
“Do we have it?” Nick asked, looking at me, then at Seth.
“Not quite yet,” I said. “It’d be better if we did it out of our fourth-quarter profits right before flipping over the year to avoid the least damage to our bottom line. We can cut a check sometime in October or later.”
“Still, that’s only a couple months away,” Nick noted. “We have a lot of work to do if we’re going to be breaking ground on a new placethatsoon. We’re going to have split attention for a while, so we need to lay out a prospect plan for Dynamite to follow and make sure that the border runs are situated, although...” He looked at Bucky. “You’ve been killing those lately.”
Bucky elbowed Avery. “Well, I’ve had some help. Treasurer says that now he’s gottwoaccountants breathing down his neck, he wants more money, so he set up more in-roads. Discreet midnight runs make for fast transportation and I think we’re close to doubling up.”
“It shows,” Seth said, tapping the reconciliation book. “It’s buying our new facility.”
Nick folded his hands together with a smile on his face. “Man. I miss my kids, but ifthisis what a well-functioning operation feels like, I hate that I cost us this for so long.”
“It’s like you said,” I cut in, “we’re putting that behind us and starting from scratch.”
He nodded. “Right you are. I’m excited, boys. This is gonna be huge for us.”
“By this time next year, we’ll be moving into our own facility, and it changes everything. You three,” I said to Bucky, Avery, and Seth, “are gonna be integral in keeping the members in line as we move forward and making sure to tighten the ranks. The new era of the Steel Knights is going to completely change the landscape of Hoppa, and we can’t let it fall behind us.”
“Hoo hoo!” Bucky yowled. “Nowthisis what I joined up for!”
Nick smiled at me. “Things are about to get fun.”
Chapter Thirteen
Celia
The pan sizzled as I dropped the eggs in, filling the kitchen, once again, with the smell of spices and butter. I imagined the way Harry liked to make his eggs in my mind and replicated the process because they were so good, but I didn’t like the pit it left in my stomach. It was more than just anger or frustration, it was a longing.
I missed him.
There was more than one reason to stop playing around with him. Getting vengeance for my dad was all well and good, but it wouldn’t mean anything if all I did was fall for the guy and get no revenge and end up getting hurt myself. There wasn’t anactualfuture for Harry and me—there couldn’t be. After all, once he learned who my godfather was, that the men who were in the car he flipped with his reckless disregard for others were the same ones I’d called “Dad” in my lifetime, all of my lies and deceit would come spilling out.
