I picked up my blade and moved toward him. He shrunk back as much as he could, but the chains didn’t give much leeway.
“Don’t worry, Nealey boy,” I said, patting him hard on a shoulder that had been out of its socket not too long ago. “I’m not going to do too much damage. That’s for Prez to do. Thing is…this is going to be long and slow…for the years of abuse you put the girls through. Believe me, Ace may look like a saint, but he's far from it. He’s going to ruin your mind, body and soul. We’re just having a little taste first. You don’t mind, do you?”
“Fuck…y-y-you,” he finally spat out.
“Wh-wh-what was that?” I mocked him, earning chuckles from all around. “Don’t worry, Nealey boy. This is going to be hard and fast. You just happened to have caught me on a really bad day…and that sucks for you but it’s gonna be cathartic as fuck for me, so thank you for that.”
My blade slid down his back, between his shoulder blades. He let out a cry of pain which was music to my ears. I skimmed the blade around his arms and moved in front of him. He tried to spit in my face, but I moved my head just in time.
“Careful, you don’t want to use up all that hydration in your body,” I said. “I happen to know that Prez is holding out for Chains to get better so he can take his frustration out on you. Good news is his arm is out of commission so you’ll be waiting a while, bad news is...we all have a lot of anger toward you, and what you did to our women…so get comfortable…coz this is only the start of the pain.”
I carved the letter S into his side. He let out a scream but this shed had been fitted with soundproofing in the last few days, so he could scream all he wanted, and no one would hear a damn thing.
Viper moved over to me, and motioned for me to follow. Hawk was up next with Neal, and I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty.
I slid my blade back into my holster and looked over at Prez, who nodded at Viper. What the hell was I missing?
Once we were outside, I saw the blood all over us and motioned Viper to go inside to clean.
“What’s the deal?” I asked him once he was clean and in a new outfit. He was always slow in the shower.
“Our guns are being stopped up in Belfast,” he said. “We need to make a deal with the President of the Destructive Sons MC to get them on a safe passage to us.”
“What kind of deal does he want?”
“Drugs, we run them through Dublin and Limerick.”
“Won’t that put us in O’Farrell’s crosshairs?” I asked.
“It’s only for a few weeks, then we can tell the O’s what we know and they’ll be taken out.”
“Seems risky.”
“Since when don’t we live for the risk?” Viper asked. “You finished being a pussy now? Can we get some shit done?”
I smacked him across the back of head but I knew if Ace needed this, so we would do it without hesitation. We moved down to the bikes, and I followed him out of the compound and headed North.
Shona
I looked across the table at the same eyes as mine. It had been years since I last saw my brother, and time had not aged him well. I could see the worry lines on his forehead, and the bags under his eyes. He was not living his best life, and I felt a little bad I hadn’t been in touch as often as I should have been.
“Why’d you come back, Sho?” he asked.
“You’re not happy to see your little sister?” I asked, trying to make light of the situation.
“Shona.”
I sighed and sat back in the booth seat of the local diner. It had been so long since I’d been in Belfast that I didn’t even remember half the streets I neededto take to get to my childhood home. Luckily, I remembered the diner my brother and I used to sneak away to, to get the best greasy burgers and shakes from. Keefe was only two years older than me, but we’d been thick as thieves growing up. That is until he turned 15 and my father started grooming him to be like him and my other brothers. I’d lost my best friend that day. That was also around the time my life had turned to utter chaos and destruction.
“She called me,” I told him. “She’s scared.”
He slumped back in his seat and sighed, running his hand down his face. He always did that when he couldn’t control his emotions. It reminded me of Ace and sometimes of Savage. I’d seen both of them do that.
“I’m trying to get her out,” he said. “She’s fallen in with one of the prospects, and he’s using her.”
“She’s your little sister, Keefe. Do what you couldn’t do for me.”
The pain in his eyes told me I’d overstepped. I was surprised he had agreed to meet me after so long of me ignoring his calls, but somehow I’d known he was still the loyal brother I remembered.
