An Outlaw Monster (Back Down Devil MC #10)(67)

That’s where I drew the line. I knew Ripper caused this mess. I knew we were in fault of this. But goddammit, nobody just walked up to my Prez and bumped into him.

I got off my ride and stepped forward.

The cocky * turned toward me. He opened his mouth to say something smart but he never got the chance. I swung my right fist like it was a boulder. I hit the guy and sent him off his feet. When he hit the ground, he was on his back, hands up, trying to reach for someone.

“Anyone else want to run their mouth to my Prez?” I asked.

Two other guys stepped forward. They at least took their sunglasses off.

“Conor,” one said and offered his hand to Trev.

Trev didn’t shake it.

“Fair enough,” Conor said. “I’m in charge of the meet.”

“Because your MC has no guts,” Jasper said.

“I’m wearing the cut,” Conor said. “This guy next to me is Bullet. He’s muscle. He’s fully armed and will shoot. We are under orders from Rocco to kill if anything goes wrong. I’m just going to be upfront about it. We just want what’s ours and we want to leave.”

“The guns you paid for,” Trev said. “You paid a previous President of this club. A President who turned his back on this club. A President who was put down by his own members.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Conor said. “A deal was made. Things have been in motion since then. You want peace?”

“Fuck you,” Jasper said. “We’re going to arm our enemy and expect peace from that?”

Bullet opened his leather cut and showed that he was packing two sawed off shotguns.

Yeah, shit was serious.

And it was only going to get worse.





thirty-four.



(harlee)



He handed me a glass of water and there were black dirt specs in the water. I was thirsty but not that thirsty. So I put the glass down and just sat there in the chair. Tom was on his second can of beer and sat on the edge of the couch with a bottle of whiskey on the coffee table. Every few seconds he looked to the window, gritted his teeth, and then gently rocked back and forth.

He was scared.

Maybe he knew or had an idea of what Trent had to do to him.

It was a very unsettling feeling being with a man who was supposed to be killed.

Tom looked at me and half smiled. “You okay?”

“Fine.”

“So you and my boy… that’s serious?”

I held up my left hand and showed the diamond ring. “You tell me.”

“Oh, wow. Damn. That’s a nice ring.” He leaned toward me and stared at the diamond. “That’s a good cut. A good diamond. Worth a few pennies, huh?”

Tom then laughed. It was almost a maniacal kind of laugh.

I hid my hand then, fearing Tom was going to try and swindle me out of my ring. He had that sense about him, that he was always looking for an escape. Maybe that’s why he was so nervous. He was waiting for Trent to get back so he could ask for more money or protection or something.

“So… uh… where’s my son now? What’s he doing?”

“I can’t answer that,” I said. “You know that.”

“Just trying to kill time here,” Tom said. “You know that.”

He grabbed the whiskey bottle and poured another shot. He threw it back. He was so nervous that some of the whiskey dribbled from his mouth and ran down his chin and dripped to his jeans.

Tom then put the shot glass down and he jumped up. He wiped his hands on his jeans and he started to pace. He walked to the front door, stood up on his toes to look out the top window on the door, and then he turned and darted away.

Finally, after a couple minutes of him seeming like he was going f*cking crazy, his cellphone started to ring. He lunged for it and squeezed it tight with a look a jubilation on his face. He looked at me and his face started to drop.

He swallowed hard and said, “Hey, I have to take this call. It’s really important. I’ll be in the bedroom.”

Tom turned and trotted away.

I heard the door shut and I stood up.

Something was wrong. Something was very off with the situation. He wasn’t supposed to leave me unprotected. And if he was going to get himself into trouble with me around I would need to call Trent.

I slowly walked toward the bedroom and heard Tom’s voice.

“We’re settled on it, right?” he asked.

Then there was silence.

“I’m telling you, man. Right here, right now. You want a picture or something? I could send that.”

I inched even closer to the door.

What the hell was he doing? Was he selling something? Was he that desperate for money?

“Okay, okay. You have nothing to worry about, man. I’m easy. I just want a chance in all of this. You know? I had a bad run. I can admit that now. I had a really bad run. But I’m good to go now. Nothing to worry about with me. Everything is in place. I told you it would be. Right? I didn’t lie.”

I backed away from the door and put distance between me and the bedroom, but not enough that I couldn’t hear what he was saying.

“Hey, we both know what’s right here. This is good for everyone. It’ll take care of a lot. Okay. Right. See you later. Yeah. Bye.”