“King is on the warpath.” Dirt blew out a heavy breath. “He’s done waiting. He wants to sort this mess out. Once everyone is back here, we’re going on the offensive.”
“Any idea what he’s thinking?”
“Stealth has never been our wheelhouse,” Dirt laughed. “A few of the guys from the other chapters haven’t left yet. He’s asked them to stickaround. The Kingsmen are small. We know they can’t stand against our numbers. But that is a decision we all need to make in church.”
I didn’t like the sound of an all-out war, but we couldn’t keep sitting back and letting them hit us. Their mind games were getting irritating. So far, though, the only person the Kingsmen had killed was Itchy when he was caught in the bomb. They’d stirred up some shit and hurt us, but we’d retaliated by killing a couple of their guys, but we’d not made our involvement obvious. King was right. We needed to stop things before it got any worse.
Before Waverley got hurt.
“Ok, keep us posted. We’ll be there in about ten minutes.”
“Any idea how you’ll approach it?”
I looked at Ballistic, who could hear Dirt even though I didn’t have him on speaker.
“Get Kansas to find us a stopping point so we can figure out our next move,” Ballistic told me.
I relayed it to Dirt, who said he’d text us a place, and we hung up.
“Well, this is a clusterfuck,” War commented.
Kansas sent us the name of a truck stop that was at the start of the road we needed to take diverging off the highway. Ballistic pulled in and we went inside. We weren’t as obvious as normal, given we weren’t wearing our cuts. War had a black sweatshirt and cap on, Ballistic was wearing a dark shirt un-tucked over his jeans and I’d gone for a t-shirt and black zip through hoodie. We were all able to hide our weapons with what we were wearing.
As much as King didn’t like us carrying because that put you in a whole worse heap of shit if you got picked up by the cops not on our payroll, this was a mission we couldn’t afford to be unarmed for.
A server brought us over some coffees. She didn’t stick around to make small talk, even though her eyes flared with interest when she saw us. We were just giving off that stay the fuck away vibe.
Ballistic didn’t like this hanging around shit. He was a get in and get out kind of guy, always had a plan. We were going in dark here, in a strange place, with no idea what was waiting for us. I didn’t think he regretted it, though. He thrived on violence and mayhem.
When he got up to go to the bathroom, War turned his gaze to me.
“Don’t,” I said before he could even start in on me.
“I wasn’t going to say anything.” He held his hands up.
“Bullshit,” I glared.
“Actions speak louder than words, Hud,” he told me. “You’re here.”
“Not protecting her?” I snarled at the insinuation I’d abandoned her.
“No, you stupid dick, you’re getting him back for her. She has enough assholes protecting her. This is what means the most to her and you’re doing it for her.”
I clenched my jaw and looked out of the window. I didn’t enjoy hearing that. I didn’t want to know how much it meant to Waverley that I was getting back the guy she’d been dating for the last year.
“She’s only scared for him because she feels responsible. It changes nothing that has happened with you and her.”
“I don’t give a shit,” I told him, picking up my coffee.
“Right, that was so convincing.”
“Cut it out,” I told him. “I don’t need to hear any of this. I have a job to do and the last thing I need is a heart to heart about my feelings. Or lack thereof.”
He huffed a laugh. “Keep telling yourself that. You think none of us have seen the way you are with her? Jesus, man, you fucking claimed her. To King.”
“Fuck off, War.”
He gripped his coffee cup tighter, weighing up his options. I wasn’t above punching him in his face to shut him up if he kept pushing me, and War was well aware of that.
