I wasn’t sure what it said that those two things went together, but here I was.
“When would you get involved?” I finally asked. “What would it take for your club to bring out its weapons and to bring change?”
“If you think we are warriors of justice, fucking forget it,” Crush said.
“We like what polite society would frown upon,” Prince said. “We might all be married, but we love ourselves a good drink or pick-me-up every so often. But if you want an actual answer to your question?”
Prince shrugged.
“Fuck with family, you get fucked up. Fuck with our club, you get fucked up. Fuck with the defenseless, if we find out? If we see it? You get fucked up. But otherwise? Someone could rob you in front of us of all your money, and we won’t give a shit.”
So.
I’d have to resolve this myself. I couldn’t keep my hands clean.
But that didn’t mean I had to kill someone or even literally draw blood. There were ways I could protect Sarah and make the Morrils—almost certainly the Morrils—suffer.
But no longer would I be able to be above it all. No longer would I be able to just pay someone off or act like it wasn’t my problem.
Because now it was my problem. Now, it was something I had to get involved with. Now, it was time to show… well, I guess, to show Sarah how far I’d go to protect the ones I supposed I cared about.
Because if anyone was going to break her, it should be me. Not some asshole down the street who thought he could take me down.
“I think you’ve made your position clear,” I said. “I will not waste your time any further.”
“See to it that is the case,” Prince said. “Crush grows tired of having his phone ring with your brother’s number. Trust me when I say—if we ever need to get involved, you will not need to make any phone calls. We’ll know what’s happening before you can even sniff it.”
That seemed a bit like bravado, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe I was folding my hand too quickly, but frankly, it was kind of invigorating to think about getting my hands a little messy. They’d been clean for so damn long, it would be good to go back to the days when money and power didn’t matter as much as how much you stood up for what you cared about.
If I regretted this in an hour, if I felt like I’d acted like a giant pussy in this meeting, I could always come back.
I nodded to them. Neither Prince nor Crush nodded back. I exited the clubhouse. Outside, Connor stood with arms folded, nodding toward my car. I walked out and saw Dante with his arms folded, standing no more than a foot away from the man I presumed to be Butch.
“Last warning,” Butch said. Good Lord, the man had a voice that would make baritone jazzmen jealous. “Step back.”
“Dante, let’s go,” I snapped.
“This fucker thinks he can stonewall me and get away with it,” Dante pleaded.
“Now, Dante,” I said. “I’ll explain more in the car.”
I wondered if Butch would give a hint of a smug smile, a victorious expression that said never fuck with him again. But his face never, ever changed. Fucking hell, that man, whatever his story was, was a biker’s biker.
We got back into the car, and only when the doors were locked and we’d gone at least two further blocks did I feel like I could breathe normally again. It was kind of surreal and, strangely, kind of thrilling. It’d been a long-ass time since I’dgotten knocked down a few pegs, and in a weird way, it felt kind of good.
It was like we could take a punch and keep going. We hadn’t gone soft with our wealth and status. Maybe I was bullshitting myself, but I had far more confidence I could get involved myself.
“That was a fucking disaster,” Dante said. “That big-ass man wouldn’t say a goddamn word to me, and the scrawny fuck didn’t say anything to me either. Like talking to two statues. I would have had more fun talking to statues anyway.”
“Enough,” I said. “Dante, we are going to resolve this ourselves. Not the Reapers. Not our security team. Ourselves, however we have to.”
“You’re sure about that?”
I nodded.
“I’m not saying we’re going to go punch Leo Morril in the face, as wonderful as that might be. But I am saying if we find out they are the problem? We’ll confront them. We’ll do what we must.”
Dante drew in a deep breath and exhaled. Then, strangely, he didn’t say anything at all.
