There were those who hated the violence and there were those who craved it. It was part of the reason I’d introduced the underground boxing club as a huge part of our business, all those years ago. It kept the ones who craved blood sated, for the most part.
Only I paid the price for that one in the end, too.
We all did in our own way.
I couldn’t put it off any longer. Turning away from Harry, I pushed myself out of the door, jumped down onto the earth beneath us and started to walk over towards The Hut.
“Everything okay, Drew?” asked Jedd as he looked down the stairs at me before I began to climb them and met him ona level.
“Peachy.”
“What did you do?” He folded his arms across his chest again and widened his stance as he watched me. A few of the fellas behind were approaching us to listen in on it, and the memory of their faces as I launched myself at that kid, just an hour or so ago, flashed through my mind, forcing me to tense my jaw and swallow quietly.
“Close all the fucking doors! NOW!”
And then everything went silent.
Everything except the sound of a young voice crying out as his body was slammed up against the wall by none other than Jedd Thomas himself.
We had him.
Bingo.
“Well, well, well. Look what we have here…” Jedd snarled in the kid’s face, curling his fists tighter into the T-shirt on his chest before he pulled him away from the wall, just to slam him back harder against it.
My feet moved across the floor like I was on fucking skates, sliding this way and that way as I felt the fire erupt in my stomach, and pushed past every single man that was in my way. I hadn’t gotten a good look at the guy yet, but when I did, I wanted him to stare straight into my eyes and see who the fuck he’d just messed with.
“Wanted yourself a little party at the club’s expense, did you?” Jedd growled as I finally made my way over. He’d gotten such a good hook and hold on the kid’s T-shirt, he was able to press his fists into the central point of his chest and push him so far up the wall, his feet were barely touching thefloor.
“Who the FUCK are you?” I snapped, falling in line behind my brother and setting my face to crazy bastard mode. My jaw was working double time and my nostrils were flared as I tried to take in enough breaths to stop me from seeing so much red, so soon out of prison.
“I… I… Please. Don’t. I didn’t mean to… I wasn’t going to…”
“How did you get in?” Jedd asked. I could see the twitching fury in the shaking of his forearms as he held him in place.
“T-the…”
“Answer faster,” Jedd warned him quietly.
“The window, sir.”
“You break into my place and now you wanna call me sir?”
Even though my eyes were narrowed and my fists were balled down by my side, the sound of the kid’s stuttering voice forced my shoulders to drop just a fraction of a fucking inch, as though I was almost going soft for him. He couldn’t be any more than fifteen—sixteen at most. His shaggy hair hung over his face and he hadn’t a mark on his perfect white skin. The clothes he wore looked a little on the small side for him. His muscles were pressed too tightly against his T-shirt, but other than that, he didn’t look any different to any other teenage boy out there.
“I’m sorry. I-I wasn’t thinking. I don’t know what to call you. I would never… my sister, she…”
My hand reached up to rest on Jedd’s shoulder as I looked behind me nervously and spoke through the small gap in my mouth. “Put him on his feet.”
Jedd didn’t answer at first as his fists shook and kept him in place. But when he slowly turned his face to look at mine, I saw the flash of disbelief in his eyes. “What?”
“You heard me. Put him on his feet.”
I waited for him to argue. I guess I should have known better. He wouldn’t do that in front of the whole pack. It would only show disrespect and get them whispering so soon after I’d been let free. Dropping him down on the floor, he kept a hold of his shirt and just stared at me. “You wanna handle this?”
“I guess I do.” I groaned and sighed, moving into Jedd’s place in front of the kid. My hands found the belt of my jeans as I slid my thumbs around both sides of my waist and began to re-dress myself and fasten up my trousers. “Here’s how it’s gonna work, kid.” My chin rose higher as I widened my stance and looked down on him. “You’re going to give me a very specific and very quick reason as to why you were in my room, and then you’re going to give me one very specific and very good reason why I shouldn’t take you out into that yard and beat the living shit out of you. Ready…”
The other guys in the room drew closer and the air around us grew thicker and tighter with every silent second that passed us by.
