Rough Ride (Chaos #5)(56)

He was doing this staring at the bar and not being social in a way that wafted off him like a nasty cloud, warning everyone to stay away.

Not a single brother or any of their women were stupid, so they stayed away.

There were a lot of reasons for Boz’s current disposition. But in his present mood, Snapper could not make an approach to try to pry out of him which one was fucking with his head right then and driving him to get shitfaced. Or worst case, if all of them were.

If the man wanted alone time, even if he was seeking that in a room full of people, Snap was going to give it to him.

So he let that go.

Big Petey was in a huddle at the far end of the bar with Dog and Brick.

Both Dog and Brick had left some time ago for the Western Slope to open up a new shop there. But now, both were back in Denver to help them concentrate on their troubles.

Brick would be taking off soon, though. He needed to get back. He’d found a woman worthy of him, a feat for Brick since most the women he chose fleeced his ass or ended up making a play at leading him around by his dick. All reports, this one was neither. This one was all good. She lived in a biker town called Carnal. The wedding was imminent, and for it, the brothers would soon ride.

Snap did not like the look of this huddle. Shit was serious and it wasn’t getting any better mostly because it wasn’t getting anything. Since Rosalie had taken her beating from Bounty months ago and Chaos rained down retribution, the only thing that had happened had been the fact that not too long ago, they got a delivery on their picnic table outside that very building.

But that had been some nasty shit and as such had sent all the brothers, already on edge, straight to the verge. Worse, they didn’t even have enough a hold on what was happening to give it a damn good yank in an attempt to shake something loose.

No one wanted Armageddon.

But it was worse knowing it might be out there, waiting, and they had no choice but to wait for it to hit, a sneak attack.

That huddle could indicate sides were being taken even if the thing they most didn’t need in the Club right then were lines being drawn. Snap felt a line had been drawn when Rosie had been pulled in then torn apart, it was just that after that had happened, in Snapper’s estimation all the men had stepped to the right side of that line.

In its history, Chaos had splintered once. It got ugly. Right now, it could not splinter again. And even though every brother knew that to be true, with the shit going down, it seemed an inevitability.

On the fucking verge.

Tab and Shy were not there. Nor was Rush, Tabby’s brother by blood, Snapper’s brother of the cut. Tack and Tyra either.

Tab had recently sustained a loss. The night of the picnic table. She hadn’t been back to the Compound since and was finding recovery difficult. So Shy, Rush, Tack, Tyra, and Tab and Rush’s little half-brothers, Rider and Cutter, were seeing to their girl.

Another shot across the bow.

Yeah, on the goddamned verge.

Roscoe and Hopper were playing pool with Lanie and Carissa. Joke was in the garage across the forecourt, keeping his shit tight by letting his head fall deep in a build.

Lanie and Carissa were losing in a big way. Lanie and Carissa also did not care, their frequent laughter and bright personalities, along with Rosie’s quiet serenity, were the only things that was keeping the doom hanging over the Chaos Compound from enveloping them, choking out the air, strangling them standing.

Snap saw it in Roscoe and Hop. The brothers shot smiles at the women but their bodies were tight. Of late, Roscoe had taken to habitually cracking his knuckles, and right then was no different. Hop had wound his head around to loosen the neck muscles twice that Snap had caught.

On the verge.

Big Petey moved from the huddle toward Renae, who was shooting the shit with Arlo on stools at the other end of the bar, close to the double doors that led to the Compound. This happened as Dog headed to the back hall, where he’d left his old lady, Sheila, in his room. His woman was undoubtedly passed out or simply physically immobile after the hard-core sex sounds they’d all heard drifting into the common room, prompting Snap to turn up the music. Brick’s route was to the pool table.

Snap watched Pete’s movements closely.

Arlo had a woman who he’d claimed as his for a long time, and Snap didn’t know a lot about that, he just knew he stepped out on her. Frequently. After Boz (who also liked variable pussy even when his cock was owned by just one) left Bev, Arlo was the last brother with a Chaos patch who did that shit. And Snap had not left attention to Renae to that brother alone. He’d kept an eye.

He didn’t like it.

Pete, it was coming clear, liked it less.

Then again, the look on Pete’s face, the reason why Snap wasn’t a big fan of Arlo setting up to make a move on Rosalie’s mother was not why Pete didn’t like it. Pete had around ten years on Arlo, but he wore it on his face more like it was fifteen. Or thirty.

But the man was the most loyal, solid human being Snap had ever met. More than Tack, who could be volatile, even if he had a fierce check on that shit. Even more than High, who’d learned the hard way to keep his shit cool. More even than Brick, who was mellow and smooth almost all the time, even if he hadn’t just finished a blunt.

As Pete instigated a cockblock, Snap again scanned the space.

High and Millie had High’s daughters that he’d had with his ex, so they were up in that crazy-ass mansion the man had bought his girls in north Denver.