HARD KNOX(41)

“I don’t do that,” Larry said.

“Look,” I said, “we get our shit where it has to go. End of discussion.”

“I’m not talking to you, son,” Will said.

“Call me son again and I’ll rip your f*cking throat out.”

“Everyone relax,” the old man said.

“So what tool is it?” Artie asked. “Are you the wrench? The needle nose pliers?”

Artie laughed.

Nobody else did.

I reached for my leather cut to get a smoke and all hell broke loose.

Larry stood up, rage in his face. He leaned over the table and reached into his suit jacket. The crazed son of a bitch pulled out a screwdriver and drove it into the skull of Artie.

Then he looked at Will. “What do you think the tool is?”

I sat there and muttered, “Jesus Christ…”

Larry took the screwdriver out of Artie’s skull. Artie slumped over the table.

Funny enough, Will quickly paid up. We set the protection run. We got our payday for the work. Life went on. Well, for everyone but Artie. Larry had his guys grind him up and take him to the dump.

That was just a friendly reminder of living life on the edge.

Sometimes you were Larry’s screwdriver and sometimes you were Artie’s brain.





twenty-five



(knox)



NOW



You’d think such an important meeting would be conducted indoors. Instead of that, we were in a parking lot east of town. I stood next to my ride and watched as two black cars came down the road. The first car stopped and out came two men.

Anthony and Tony. They were greased up, looking like out of a movie, and they refused to shake my hand.

“You put Vinny in a corner,” Tony said. “He’ll f*cking kill you.”

“And I’ll be in charge of hiding your body,” Anthony said.

“Thanks for the advice,” I said.

I stepped forward and Tony grabbed my arm. “Hold up, tough guy. Weapons. Now.”

I took out my gun and my knife and handed them back to Ari.

Anthony then patted me down to make sure I wasn’t hiding anything.

I was then clear to approach the other car.

I did so without an ounce of fear. Shit, as far as I was concerned, if you had to hide behind thugs and tinted windows, how powerful were you? My old man never stayed away from a confrontation or a good fight. Ever. People knew who the President of the Reaper’s Bastards was. Hammer was everywhere.

I’d live the same way.

The window slowly went down and I saw a set of eyes. Crow’s feet in the corners. Brown eyes. Eyes of power and pain.

“I’m not talking to a f*cking set of eyes, man,” I said.

The window then went down some more. It was a skinny man with a very defined face. A scar at the corner of his lip. He looked pissed off, but that wasn’t my problem.

“I’m Kn-”

“Knoxville,” Vinny said. “The son of Hammer. The son of a man serving a life sentence. The son who decided to bring his MC to life again. Yet he wears the wrong patch.”

“Trust me, Vinny, I’m wearing the right patch,” I said. “Can we just get to our business?”

“Of course,” he said.

“I’m not looking to start a war,” I said. “The Reap and your family has existed for a long time. I know some relationships go deep. I’m fine with that. I’m here to just get a face to face.”

“Speaking of faces,” Vinny said. “I know one of my men has a problem with you. Porter.”

“That’s another reason why I’m here. What happened I couldn’t prevent. I did it with my bare hands and I would do it again. What he did…”

Vinny waved a hand. “Personal stays personal. Porter is a hard worker. Not the smartest. A little bit rogue sometimes. You hurt his pride.”

“Good,” I said. “I don’t give a shit.”

Vinny half smiled. “You remind me of your father, Knoxville. But I don’t want to discuss memories or two men fighting over a woman.”

“I’m warning you, Vinny, that if Porter comes near me, I will kill him,” I said. “I’m not f*cking around with that.”

“It takes balls to stand there and speak like that to me,” Vinny said. “Normally, I’d just give a nod and your brains would be splattered all around.”

“Thanks for the hospitality,” I said.

“But you’ve come with more information.”

“I have. I have a piece of paper with information about men you had taken out. Their names and exact locations where they were buried. To the rest of your family these men went missing. They were casualties of a war. But you and I both know you killed them on your own. For your own benefit.”

Now that got Vinny’s attention. His lip started to curl and I was half sure he was going to pull a gun on me and shoot me.

“Here’s the thing,” I said. “I’m not going to tell you the names or the places. I’m sure there’s more people so you can think about it. I’m not going to blackmail you in a corner over this, Vinny. I’m not going to hold you hostage for money or favors. I’m just making it known the Reap is here. We’re not leaving our town, or our city. We can exist peacefully or we can wage a war. That’s not up to me.”