Page 6 of Being Us (Next Generation 4)

“Tell me again,” Rowan demanded from his perch behind his desk.

I sighed, pinched the bridge of my nose, and leaned my head back against the couch. I didn’t want to relive that night. That night that no doubt started a war. A war I could never win. Not on my own.

“I was meeting up with Meadow Rodriguez,” I explained, telling him once again what happened that night. That night so many months ago that took a life and destroyed another’s, including my own.

Gunshots. Yells. Screams. Blood. So much damn blood.

But what I remembered the most was the pain seeping from a rival club member. Shade lost the man he loved. He had his girlfriend, but I was sure it would never be the same. I didn’t know who shot and killed Sunny, but I did know that both Shade and Meadow would think I had something to do with it.

“Tanner.”

My eyes popped open at the barked use of my name. “Yeah.”

Rowan turned his computer until it was facing me. “Who’s this?”

I slid out from under Trigger and rose from the couch. Staring at the screen, I studied the image before me. A picture of a man dressed in a leather cut with my crew’s name on it, sat on the left breast. It said President, with the Devil’s Rejects logo on the right.

“That’s Tommy West.”

“Since when did he become president?” Rowan asked.

“Since I’ve been gone for months and everyone probably thinks I’m dead.” He probably became president a few days into my disappearance. “I’m sure it was after they stopped looking for me.”

“You think they were actually looking for you?” Rowan asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No. But the thought was nice.” I began pacing. “Tommy wasn’t my VP, so I have no idea how the hell he became president.” None of this made sense.

“Well it looks like you were replaced rather quickly.” Rowan turned the computer back around, clicking some more keys.

“Yeah, no shit.” I nodded to the screen. “Where did you find that?”

“On Facebook. It seems like your club has its own page now.” Rowan sat back, crossing his arms under his chest. “I’ll see if I can get my dad or mom to find out where this page was created. I’ll do some more digging and get back to you.”

I muttered a thanks and let out a heavy sigh.

I never wanted to be on social media. I didn’t care how good it made us look. Social media was dangerous, especially for our club, but clearly Tommy didn’t care about that. He obviously wanted to be known. Maybe he wanted to be famous. But for what, I wasn’t sure.

“I’m going to head out.” I grabbed Trigger’s leash and gave his head a scratch. “Time to go home, buddy.”

He lifted his head, gave me a deep bark, and jumped off the couch.

“How much longer do you think he has?” Rowan asked gently, nodding toward my dog.

“I’m not sure but I’m going to give him the best last days a dog could ever have.” And after he passed, even though I didn’t want to think about it, I would rescue another dog and keep it going. Most people wanted puppies and while I loved them too, it’s the old dogs I preferred. They helped slow me down. I had been going for so long, the next thing I knew, I would be an old man.

Trigger barked, pulling me from my thoughts.

I caught Rowan’s gaze.

He raised an eyebrow. “Problem?”

Clearing my throat, I wrapped Trigger’s leash around my hand. “Nope. No problem.”

Rowan sat back in his chair, his eyes burning into me. “My dad gets that same look, you know.”

“What look?” I shouldn’t have asked, knowing it meant that I would have to give a little more of myself than I would like.

“It’s that look that something happened but you’re trying hard to forget about it.” Rowan sat forward. “My dad has had years of practice on how to make it go away. He also has my mom to help him. But you…” He pointed at me. “You don’t.”

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