Unbeautifully (Undeniable, #2)(73)

Self-disgust switched instantly back to anger. Ripper, his goddamn sergeant at arms, hadn’t just disrespected him by doing whatever the f*ck he’d been doing with Danny, he’d kept it a secret. That shit didn’t fly in his club. His boys knew that.

You patch in, you become family. Brothers.

You don’t disrespect your brothers.

“You ain’t never been straight with me,” ZZ rasped. “I don’t even… Fuck, I don’t even know you!”

Danny’s head snapped up. “No,” she whispered. “You did, you knew—”

ZZ’s upper lip curled into a snarl. “Don’t, Danny, you just f*cked another guy with my ring on your finger, so do not f*ckin’ patronize me.”

“We didn’t f*ck,” Ripper spat angrily. “So you can stop shittin’ on her.”

ZZ’s eyes shot to him and filled with hate. “Oh yeah?” he sneered. “So what, you were just talkin’ and decided talkin’ would be a whole lot better without clothes on?”

“I think talkin’ is better without clothes,” Cox called out. “Just sayin’.”

Deuce added Cox to the list of hits he would soon be putting out.

“I didn’t say that,” Ripper gritted out. “I said we didn’t f*ck, never said I didn’t try.”

If he wasn’t busy holding on to ZZ, Deuce would have smashed Ripper’s head through the wall. Then his own. That had been a visual he could have gone five lifetimes without ever getting a glimpse of.

His entire body now trembling with built-up rage, ZZ turned back to Danny. “You are a f*cking whore,” he said quietly, purposely punctuating every syllable with a hard, venomous edge.

Deuce saw red and just reacted. With his hand still wrapped around ZZ’s neck, he pulled him forward then slammed him back against the wall. “That’s once,” he growled. “Next time you call my kid a whore, I will end you, you f*ckin’ feel me?”

“She ain’t a whore, Prez?” ZZ yelled, glaring at him. “So what the f*ck do you call a bitch who agrees to marry a man and a couple hours later is in his brother’s bed?”

“She ain’t a whore,” Ripper growled, his expression one Deuce was very familiar with. It was the same one Ripper had before he took a f*cker out, cut him to pieces, and sent him straight to meet his maker. Lethal was the only way to describe it.

His two boys stared at each other, ZZ’s chest heaving, ready to throw down the second Deuce let him go, and Ripper, stretching his neck side to side, cracking his knuckles, impatiently waiting for it. Wanting it.

Right. Shit was going to go south real quick if he didn’t get these two *s far, far away from each other. Then he needed Danny to put some f*cking clothes on.

Then…him and Eva were goin’ to have a serious talk about allowing Ivy access to the club. By the time Ivy was Danny’s age, he’d be way too old to be holding his boys back from fighting over his daughter. And god knows they would. Ivy looked like a cross between Danny and Eva. As beautiful as both his wife and eldest daughter were, Ivy was going to surpass both of them. Not good.

Jesus. Why couldn’t he have had boys? All boys. Little f*cking shits like Cage. A whole slew of ’em he could throw condoms at and be done with it.

“Oh Jesus,” Mick whispered, and Deuce’s eyes shot to him, following his gaze to the end of the hallway. Jase stood there, his white T-shirt and jeans still stained with Dorothy’s blood, tears streaming down his cheeks, holding a gun in his hand.

“Jase,” Cox breathed. “Broth—”

Jase’s arm shot forward and he aimed the gun at Cox. “Don’t f*ckin’ move,” he whispered hoarsely. “Don’t f*ckin’ speak.”

Nobody moved. Nobody said a word.

And Jase fell to his knees. His hand shaking, he brought the barrel of his gun to his temple.

Deuce dropped his hand from ZZ’s throat and stepped away from him.

“Jase,” Deuce said quietly, trying to keep his cool. “You got four kids who need you, brother, don’t f*ckin’ do this.”

Jase let out a choking sob. “I was gonna leave, Prez, I was gonna leave that bitch a million times, but I felt so guilty ’cause of the kids and I tried to do right by both of ’em and instead I f*cked it all up. All I do is f*ck everything up.

“I love her,” Jase whispered. “She made shit real good, you know? They don’t know if she’s gonna make it, Prez, and…and I don’t wanna be here without her.”

Using his thumb, Jase pulled back the hammer.

“JASON!” Cox roared, taking off down the hallway. “Don’t you dare!”

The echoing boom of a bullet discharging rattled throughout the hallway as Cox fought Jase for the gun and won. He tossed the piece away and pulled Jase into his arms.

“No, motherf*cker,” Cox rasped, holding tight to Jase. “You do not f*ckin’ die. Do you get me? You. Do. Not. Die.”

All three women were crying, Danny was wrapped tightly in Ripper’s arms, Adriana and Kami were wrapped around each other, and both Blue and Mick were staring down the hallway at Cox and Jase, their expressions a mix between stunned and pained.

He looked around the hallway for ZZ and couldn’t find him. He should have cared where ZZ had gone, should have cared that his boy was messed up.