I laugh. Colt took over the head seat from my uncle a while ago. And with this change, we were finally able to make a deal with the Drifters to run guns for them in Nevada. Johnny and I decided it was better not to work with family, so as long as Jennings sat at the head of the table, we used a smaller supplier.
“It’s a bit out of the ordinary for the president to show up with a delivery, isn’t it?” I ask.
Laughing, he nods again. “Just want to make sure everything is running smoothly. How are things going?”
“Great,” Jethro says as he opens one of the crates on the truck. “We have a customer champing at the bit to get these.”
I smirk as I eye up the AS Val. “Silent assault rifle? What the fuck are they gonna use it for?”
“Not our business,” Jethro says. “But damn, this is pretty. I want one.”
“I bet we can work something out,” Jennings says and walks over to us. “Let a few of our single guys have some time at Velvet Desire, and we’ll call it good.”
“That sounds like an agreement that should be made between presidents, don’t you?” Colt asks, eyebrow raised. “Ah, who am I kidding? I want one of these, too, now that we’ve got a standing order for them.”
I pull Jennings into a large hug. He’s the only father figure I have left, and I didn’t realize how heavy the weight of my loss still hangs on me. Being with Misty has helped me forget enough to not feel it every second of the day.
“You holding up, kid?”
“Best I can.”
“I see Jethro’s wearing that pres patch.”
Touching my patch involuntarily, I tap it. “It wasn’t the best decision for the club if I took Johnny’s seat. Jethro’s a better fit.”
“Looks like we got another second generation putting the club first,” Colt says. “Respect.”
“Find anything out about theaccident?” Jennings asks.
I shake my head and sigh. “No. I tried to get the report from a cop, but he tried to fuck me over. He’s working with Butch.”
“Need us to pay him a visit?” a deep voice asks.
The large man with an impossibly deep voice makes me feel like a child. I’m not a small man, but I feel tiny in comparison. Undertaker, I think, is his name. Hisgovernment name. How the fuck does that even happen?
“Nah, I took care of it. Got his wife to leave him and take the kids, then his house burst into flames. It was the damnedest thing. Then we blacklisted him from Velvet Desire.”
They all laugh as the crews load up the boxes from their truck into ours. If I’d had more time, I would’ve taken a video of it to show. That would have been great.
“So things are still fucked with the Venom?”
Shaking my head, I hold back my snort. “Same as fucking ever. You know how they are, Jennings. Took our best tattoo artist. Used one of their girls to get him hooked on Venom Dust, and it was downhill from there.”
“That shit’s nasty. It started making its way to Black Valley, but Psycho’s making it more dangerous to sell it in town than use it,” Colt says, tossing a gun to Jethro who wears the biggest smile on his face. “He has ties to the cartel and knows how shit snowballs when drugs get involved.”
“Tommy was good. The best, honestly. Did most of the ink on a lot of us, but he got in debt with the fucking addiction. Not a bright one, either, and joined forces with the enemy to pay them off.”
“Was?” Jennings asks.
As good as it felt to get some of my aggression out at the time, knowing what I caused doesn’t feel great now. The high of fucking over Vold masked the guilt until it wore off. “Broke his fingers in retaliation, and they killed him.”
“Shit, you guys are ruthless,” Venom says.
He says it with a smile, and he’s the only person with that name that I don’t want to kill upon seeing. And from the way Jennings talks, it would be difficult—if not impossible—to do so.
The bleached hair slicked back would look stupid on anyone else, but with his angular face, it oddly works. I still can’t figure out how he’s as tough as I’ve heard he is. He’s lanky as shit and not overly tall. Nothing about him screams dangerous.
Except his eyes. And that creepy grin that looks like it jumped off the screen of a horror movie.
