“Plan? Whatever are you talking about?”
“You tried to kill my wife.”
“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he replied, smugly.
“You tried to kill my wife and now I’m going to kill you.”
“Is that so?”
“You and your entire club,” I replied. “Tonight. Ten o’clock. At the old White Owl Paper Mill. You and I are gonna take care of this.”
“What exactly arewegonna take care of?”
“We’re gonna end this war tonight. Bare knuckles. Winner takes all.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s so.”
“And why would I agree to such a contest? I’m gonna take everything I want from your club anyway?”
“If you’re so convinced you can run rough shod over my club then why are you afraid to face me alone?”
“I’m not afraid of you, Hatch. I never have been. It’s why you never liked me.”
I scowled. “I never liked you because you’ve always been a fucking asshole, but now you’ve crossed the line.”
“And you think you can take me down?”
“You champion your club, and I’ll champion mine. Losing club leaves their patches in the dirt.”
“All or nothing, Hatch? You really wanna spend your last few moments of life watching your club lay down their colors?”
“Ten o’clock. White Owl paper mill,” I said and hung up.
Katie
THE LOW MURMUR of Rooster’s voice settled over me, and I smiled. However, in my sleepiness, I realized he was on his phone, and in the other room, so I sat up and listened.
“Can’t do anything here, brother.”
I frowned.
“Shit. Yeah. Gotta figure that out. If I tell her…” His voice faded away as the sound of his footsteps walked down the hall.
If he tells me, what?
I scrambled out of bed and wrapped a blanketaround myself, rushing out of the room and into the living room. His back was to me, his phone to his ear, so I did my best not to make any noise at all.
“She’ll insist we come.” He sighed. “I know, Billy, but if Maisie’s sick—”
I gasped. “Maisie’s sick?”
“I’ll call you back.” He hung up and set his phone on one of the side tables. “She was. Her appendix was close to bursting. She’s good now. The surgery was successful, she’s gotta stay in the hospital for one more day, then she can go home.”
I cocked my head. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”
His hand scrubbed the back of his neck. “Fuck.”
