Crash (Brazen Bulls MC #1)(60)

That scramble was the least of the problems at the moment.

“The Horde don’t need a minder.” Big Ike spat the words at Kirill, and Rad went tense again.

Kirill studied Big Ike as if he found him quite interesting, but he didn’t give him a reply. Instead, he turned back to Brian. “This is how we go. Or we don’t. But I like this…as you say…’straight shot’ in middle. If not this way, maybe we find another.”

He’d returned his attention to Big Ike as he’d spoken the last sentence. Rad didn’t know if Big Ike heard what Kirill was really saying, but Rad did, as did Delaney—and he thought at least a couple of Horde had heard it, too.

Kirill was saying that the Horde would work with the Volkovs on the their terms, or the Volkovs would take the route by force.

Little Ike, standing behind Frank, took a step toward the table. “Sounds good. Always like riding with friends.”

Little Ike wasn’t an officer, but he was a patch, and if the Horde was anything like the Bulls or most any other MC Rad knew, that meant he had a voice and could use it when he wanted. But his father was obviously irate. A vein in Big Ike’s temple swelled and throbbed so forcefully that Rad could see it from across and down the table.

Before he could speak, though, Reg, his VP, set his hand on his shoulder. “Makes sense that we both try each other out. Make sure we like working together.”

Nice. Frame it to give Big Ike a way to save some face, pretend that it was a mutual trial. Rad checked to see if Kirill was content with that, and he was nodding at Reg.

Big Ike nodded, too. “It does make sense. Okay.”

There were so many silent sighs of relief in the chapel at that moment, Rad would have sworn the temperature went up.



oOo



Once they were out in the party room, though, things got interesting again. Rad was going to have a f*cking ulcer before the night was over.

Right there in front of two clubs and five members of the Volkov family, including their second-in-command, Big Ike charged at his son, driving his hands into Little Ike’s chest.

Or his belly, actually. The son had a good eight, nine, ten inches on the father. But the father didn’t seem to care. He didn’t say a word, just bellowed like an animal and slammed into his son.

None of the Horde moved to do anything to stop the confrontation. It was like they wanted it to happen. But Rad did not. Not here, not now. He gestured to his men, and Ox and Eight Ball joined him to head toward the scene and get it under control.

Before they got in the middle, though, Rad saw Little Ike’s eyes, and he put up his hands to hold his men.

The son put his hand around his father’s neck and held him away. He was obviously not squeezing hard enough to cut off Big Ike’s breath. He didn’t take a swing. He didn’t lift the smaller man. He didn’t throw him. He simply held him off, out of reach.

It looked like what Rad’s brother, Chris, had so often done when they were kids and Rad—he’d been Connie back in those days, or Conrad when their father was coming for him—had gotten angry and tried to fight his older brother. Chris would just grab hold of him and stiffen up his arm, and Rad wouldn’t be able to reach him to land a punch.

Chris would laugh and laugh until Rad caught the bug and was laughing, too.

Little Ike held his father steadily, and eventually his father stopped trying to get to him. For a few seconds, the two Lundens glared silently at each other. The room around them, filled with close to fifty people, was just as silent.

“You want to go again, old man?” Little Ike asked in a voice like a low rumble of thunder. “I said you wouldn’t touch me again and live. Is this that day? I’ll just stand here and squeeze. Be a fitting way for you to go, wouldn’t it?”

Delaney reacted sharply to that and stepped forward. “We got a ring, brothers. If you need to work this out, it’s at your disposal.”

In a loud voice obviously intended to show that he had not lost his power, though his son’s hand was still around his throat, Big Ike said, “No need, D. I’m sorry we brought this personal shit into your house.” To his son, he said, “Don’t ever talk over me at a meet.”

Little Ike released his father. “I’ll speak when I have somethin’ to say. I’ve got the same patch on my back as you.”

Then he turned and walked to the bar. On the way, he hooked his arm around one of Maddie’s girls, a curvaceous little blonde, and brought her with him, his hand on her ass.

When Rad turned back to the place where that scene had gone down, Reg was leading Big Ike toward the door that opened on their patio.

Kirill had come up to Delaney, and Rad moved closer, in case his president needed him. Though Kirill spoke quietly, only for Delaney’s ears, Rad was close enough to hear.

“You are friend of father, I know, but he and I will not be friends, I think. I like son. He will lead Horde runs. Not his father. You will make this happen.”

Delaney stared in the direction Big Ike and Reg had gone. He looked tired and older than his years. “I will.”





CHAPTER SIXTEEN



In the time that she and Rad had been together, Willa had come to feel differently about time alone, a conflicted feeling she hadn’t had before.

Before Rad, for the most part, alone was just what she’d been when she wasn’t at work. She’d been watchful and guarded when she was away from home and alone, and she’d been quiet and content inside her little home with her dog, and that had been her life.