She held her hand up to stop me. “You don’t have to explain yourself. Not to me. And regardless of the other circumstances, I would never frown upon a man wanting to be involved in his child’s life.”
I sat there in stunned silence long after she returned to Avery’s room. I couldn’t believe how kind she was to me after my sheer existence ruined her daughter’s life and the lives of her grandchildren. The more that I thought about it, I started to think it might be better if I wasn’t involved in my child’s life.
“Hey, brother. You okay?” Coal asked.
“Uh, yeah, I’m good. Any word on Grant?”
He nodded. “He’s out of surgery and in recovery. He had some minor internal bleeding, but they were able to get it stopped. He’s got a concussion, and his eye socket is fractured, but no other broken bones.”
“Fuck, they really did a number on him.”
“Yeah, they did. Copper is fucking pissed. He sent me to come get you. Said he had something he wanted to discuss before Grant gets back from recovery.”
I got to my feet and followed Coal to what I assumed would be Grant’s hospital room. Copper was standing front and center with his arms crossed over his chest. “I want a brother here with Grant around the clock. I don’t think they’d be stupid enough to come to the hospital and try some shit, but I didn’t think they’d be stupid enough to fuck with someone from my club. Coal, you’re on duty tonight. Savior, you take tomorrow.”
13
Copper
Iwas fucking pissed. How dare these motherfuckers come into my town and start fucking with my club? I didn’t really give a shit about the illegal fights. I didn’t even care that they’d asked a few of my members if they were interested. What pissed me right the hell off was them not taking “No” for an answer.
Once Grant was out of surgery, and we were sure he was stable, I sent everyone back to the clubhouse for Church, including Savior.
“We need to address the situation with the gym. I know how I’d like to go about it, but I’m open to suggestions.”
“Why don’t you tell us how you’d like to go about it first?” my pain in the ass little brother asked.
“I thought Judge and I would stop by and have a chat with the owner. Tonight. Let him know where he went wrong and see how he wants to go about unfucking his fuck-up.”
“All in favor?” Bronze asked.
Unanimous “ayes” sounded around the table.
“All right. Judge, let’s roll. The rest of you stay here in case things don’t go according to plan.”
Bronze laughed. “You mean in case we have to bail you two out of jail.”
“Suck it, bitch.”
Twenty minutes later, Judge and I pulled into the parking lot of the gym. Spazz did some digging and found out the owner’s name but not much else which seemed shady as shit.
We walked through the front doors and went straight to the first employee we found. “Need to speak with the owner,” I rumbled.
“I’m sorry, you’ll have to make an appointment for that,” the twerp squeaked.
I slammed my fist onto the counter. “This is me making an appointment. Where’s his office?”
He pointed a shaky finger to a hallway along the far wall of the building. “Thanks,” I said and wasted no time heading in that direction. I laughed to myself when his makeshift security guard stepped out into the hallway blocking our path.
“Can I help you?”
“Are you Todd Russo?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m his security.”
“Then step aside. I have a meeting with your boss.”
He arched an eyebrow. “And you are?”
