Wild Like the Wind (Chaos #5)(125)

“What I know about my brother Black is he’d take that blade along his throat again and again and again if somehow doin’ it meant he could stop the pain that’s been crippling his woman now for years. Black would do anything, give anything, once she suffered that blow, to see her happy again.”

“He wouldn’t give this,” Arlo hissed.

“We all kicked in but it wasn’t me and it wasn’t you who took those boys trick or treatin’, Arlo. It wasn’t me and it wasn’t you who was the rock of Chaos Keely and those boys could lay their hands on to keep them steady. It also wasn’t me and it wasn’t you that was the guiding light that led both Black’s boys to our Club. And I’ll say this, and you can argue it until you’re sick but you’d be wrong. All that would mean everything to Black because the love behind it given to his family would mean everything to Black. Now I don’t know and you can’t know if that would make Black feel Hound earned the place he’s now got with that family. What I know is, it’s not for me to say it’s right or wrong. Black, Hound and Keely’ll have to deal with that in another life.”

He swung an arm with his finger pointed Hound’s way and kept going.

“What I will say is, my brother finally found his old lady and he’s got my support. You bring him down, it won’t be Rush you raise your fists to next, it’ll be,” he jerked his thumb to himself, “me. And that’s the last I’ll say. I’m done talkin’. You know my vote. And now I’m gettin’ a beer with a chaser of a bottle of vodka.”

He didn’t wait for anyone to say anything else. Brick walked out with a lot less heat than Rush but he didn’t waste time leaving the room.

“Fuck,” Dog muttered angrily.

“You love her, son?” Big Petey asked Hound.

Hound looked to Pete. He said nothing. And he said nothing because he was standing there, ready to face whatever they decided, so it was the stupidest question he’d ever heard.

“You love her,” Big Petey muttered.

“You went there, you knew it wouldn’t stand,” Tack said, and Hound looked to him.

He jerked up his chin in assent.

“You knew it’d come down to this,” Tack went on.

Hound nodded once.

“You think of Black even once?” Arlo rapped out.

Hound looked to Arlo.

“For eighteen years, almost nothin’ else on my mind but him,” Hound answered.

“And her,” Arlo countered.

“Yeah,” Hound said low. “Definitely her.”

“He was your brother,” Dog gritted.

“He wasn’t. He just is,” Hound returned to Dog then looked to Tack. “I knew I’d be right here. You don’t need to call the fuckin’ vote. Even a single brother needs me to prove how much what I got with Keely means to me, he can take his shot at takin’ my blood. They need me to prove I understand what it means I’m movin’ in after Black, he can take that shot to take my blood. If they want to tie my hand behind my back and have a go at me every week for twenty years, I’ll stand through it if it means in the end I’ll still have her and I’ll still have my brothers. But it’s not gonna take that. It’s gonna take whatever comes from this. So let’s just fuckin’ get on with it so we can get past this and I can get back to my woman.”

“You’ll take my fists,” Arlo told him something he knew.

“Bring it,” Hound invited him.

“Mine too,” Dog bit out.

Hound nodded.

No one said anything until Tack called, “Boz?”

Hound turned his head Boz’s way and he saw a look on his brother’s face he’d never seen in his life.

It was fierce at the same time it was broken.

“I think my brother has taken enough of a beating spending years lovin’ her and not havin’ her, so I’ll not add my fists to it,” Boz said, and Hound stared at him, for once not able to hide his reaction and that reaction was staggered.

He had not known Boz had caught on to the feelings he had for Keely.

He had not expected that reaction to what was happening right there in that room.

He had thought Boz’s loyalty would be to Black.

Not Hound.

“Right,” Tack murmured then louder, “Run it down, men.”

“Out,” Shy stated immediately.

“That’s not a surprise,” Arlo muttered irritably.

“No, it isn’t. Can’t chose who you love, Arlo. You fall in love someday in a way that means you got the skirt you want and you’re not chasin’ more, brother, you’ll get that,” Shy replied. “Not me who’s gonna make any man pay for somethin’ that important that he gets in a way that’s outta his control.”

“Out,” Snapper put in before Arlo could form a reply, but he wasn’t done. “And just sayin’, I get what this means and that it’s important. Especially to the brothers who knew the man that was lost. But we got shit happening. Bounty’s pissed at us, probably gearing up for payback and I’m not sure it’s in his job description that their vigilante brother is gonna give us a heads up on any of that. Valenzuela’s either dead or in the wind and neither are good for us right now. And we got a renegade ex-brother who’s got it out for us. We might not have found any surveillance equipment anywhere that’s Chaos but there’s a woman out there who knows sensitive information about our Club she should not know and she didn’t get that knowledge in a vision. This means there’s a very real threat out there. So I’m not real certain why we’re spendin’ so much time on something that’s divisive in the Club when we need to be spending time comin’ together and getting ourselves and our women safe.”