“Two?” I prompt when he appears lost in thought.
“Two.” Chaos swallows. “We pull some of the old boys back in and hope we can kill this before it even starts.”
Highway groans, head lolling over the back of his seat, and Fang drops his forehead to his hand. Have to say, I share the sentiment. Giving those old bastards even a sniff at the reinspromises a whole lot of meddling and several wrinkled thorns in our sides that’ll take time to remove.
They’re life members. Always welcome. But we’ve done a good job of keeping the old boys separated from the actual running of the place for years now. And for good reason.
Half the assholes don’t agree with how we do things. And they’re not shy about showing it.
“To be fair,” Highway says. “Expecting a bunch of pensioners to wield weapons is asking a bit much, don’t you think?”
“Don’t know,” Fang replies. “Pretty sure my old man could still shoot the grays out of your beard at a hundred yards.”
Highway drags a hand over the carefully groomed facial hair, eyes narrowed. “Jealous of why I have them?”
“Why do you think I keep myself clean-shaven?”
“Because if you didn’t,” Loki states, “you’d look like fucking Santa with all the feral pussy you eat.”
Fang narrows his gaze on our enforcer. “It’s always more fun when they bite and scratch, buddy. Not everyone likes them submissive and boring like you do.”
He gets a steely smirk in response.
And all the while, Darko continues to record the argument in the minutes.Can’t say we’re not thorough.
“You two finished?” Chaos sets his phone screen down on the table. “Because if you have better ideas, I’m all ears.”
At last.
“We’re stuck when it comes to solutions,” Crow responds, seemingly happy to have moved on from the pissing contest. “It’s not as though we can do a recruitment drive and boost our numbers when the county is so small.”
“You didn’t come from around here,” Fang points out. “Why do we have to stay local?”
“Because if we scout outside the area, we let the Devil’s Breed know that we prepare ourselves for something. Something we’d rather avoid. Am I right?”
“We do,” Chaos agrees.
“So, we borrow a couple of members from each of our chapters and slap a Minnesota patch on their back. How the fuck would the Breed know any different if they look like us?”
Chaos leans back to study me with a slight furrow in his brow as he thinks it over. “You might be onto something there.”
“I’d rather do that than bring in the old boys.” I hold his gaze a beat, silently saying what the table doesn’t need to hear.You were there. You know.Bringing my father back in would be the worst mistake of all.
“What about your new friends in Nebraska?” Circus rasps.
The whole fucking table turns their head toward the guy.
“The Fallen Aces?” Chaos asks.
Circus nods.
Chaos sighs.
“They do have history with the Devil’s Breed,” I point out. “And they did willingly help us with the loading dock.”
“I know.” Chaos taps his pointer finger on the back of his phone.
“What’s the hesitation then?” Loki twists to face our president a little better.
