Page 3 of Bound By Temptation

My memory was nowhere near as good as his. Raid, on the other hand, could remember shit from when we were five. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t have it all written down somewhere under lock and key.

That’d be a hell of a read someday.

“Nick’s in some serious shit out in Vegas.” His face grew very serious, pulling my attention.

“What’s happenin’ now?” I asked, taking another long pull. It tasted like water. The way this was going, I’d need to get back home or to the clubhouse so I could have a full bottle of Jack ready and waiting.

“Brother…” Raid paused and shook his head, looking down at the table and then back to me. His eyes completely hard and serious. “Two hundred seventy-three thousand, four hundred seventeen dollars and seventy-two cents in the hole to be exact.”

My eyes rolled back in my head as my lids shut. This fucker was going to get himself killed and not by Ravage. “Fucking hell. Bookie?” I asked, opening my eyes.

Because he sure as fuck didn’t have anywhere near that kind of cake on hand to dish out. He was an electrician by trade, and while he made decent money, he sure as shit didn’t make over two hundred thousand.

“Yep. Old Red.”

It was my turn to stare at my brother. “Fucker’s fucked.” That wasn’t even the half of it. Old Red had been in the bookie business for three, maybe four decades. Had cash coming out of everywhere from all of his dealings. Some shit legal. Some not. But whatever he had going on, no one fucked with him.

He had the best reputation as a bookie in Vegas because he didn’t take any shit from anyone. He gave you money, you signed a contract and paid his fees—that were non-negotiable—and you paid him back at a specific time and date. But he didn’t take that contract to the courts; nope, he’d destroy your life and wring every bit of cash he could, even if he had to sell you. He had no qualms with any of it.

There was an old saying “you couldn’t squeeze blood from a turnip.” Well, Red would squeeze and squeeze until blood magically appeared.

Even here in Georgia we knew who the man was. Didn’t have any dealings with him, but Ravage knew who key players in our world were.

Yeah, Old Red was an evil fucker. One I sure as shit would never go to for fucking money. Ever.

Nick was a fucking idiot. Always knew he was a few bricks shy of a full load, but this was taking it to an entirely different level.

And if that fucker of an uncle used our names or the Ravage MC to get ahold of the funds, I’d kill him myself. Considering he was calling Raid, it was a crap shoot if Nick did or not.

“Nick wants us to give him the cake to cover that? I mean, since I just have that in my sock drawer or some shit.”

Raid chuckled. We both knew we could get our hands on that much cash easily, hell we probably did have it at home, but it was always nice to have a mood break to laugh, especially with this topic. “Don’t know the answer to that one because he didn’t elaborate when I told him no. I’m thinkin’ he either wants us to pay, or he wants to work for Ravage to get the funds. Either way is a no go.”

Fuck yeah that was a no go.

“You tell Dad about this shit?” I asked, pulling on my beer once again.

His head shook in the negative. “Nope. We’re goin’ together to talk about this shit.”

“Thanks so fuckin’ much. What I’ve always fuckin’ wanted,” I grumbled. There was a reason that Nick didn’t go directly to my dad or Uncle Breaker. That meant it was a possibility of being worse than Raid thought, and more along the lines of my thoughts of using the Ravage name which didn’t sit well with me one bit.

Raid smiled. “I can’t have all the fun when it comes to family shit.”

“Yeah, but you’re better than I am with it,” I responded, pointing my bottle at him.

“Bullshit,” he shot back immediately. “You just know I’ll handle it, so you don’t even fuckin’ try.”

I shrugged on a smile, then took another swig from the bottle. He wasn’t wrong. He did just that all the time. “Damn straight. So, when we meetin’ with our old man?”

“Tomorrow mornin’ at his place. Just thought you needed a heads-up on what I was about to drop down on the old man.”

“Fuckin’ perfect. Let’s find some pussy and get the fuck outta here.”

On a smile, we both got up from the booth. At least there would be some good shit tonight to drown out all the bullshit.

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