The front door slammed open, and men piled out. Brothers who’d always had my back until they didn’t. Zombie reached me first and threw his arms around me. “You stupid son of a bitch!”
“Where the fuck have you been, Chasm?” Warden asked behind him.
“Hiding in plain fucking sight, brother,” I answered with a smirk. “Let’s go inside, and I’ll tell you what I can.”
We piled into the main room, and I looked around. Not much had changed since I’d died.
“This place is fucking depressing,” I said.
“Yeah, we need to do some updating. Still working on getting all the accounts straight. Steele and Stone weren’t exactly forthcoming with everything.”
I looked at the men around me. “So what’s this bullshit about me being president?”
Zombie smiled brightly and slammed the patch into my chest. “Congratulations, brother.”
I stared at the patch in my hand. “You guys really want this?” I asked, not looking up.
“No one else we’d rather have. Except maybe King, but I don’t think he’s willing to come back.”
I snorted rather than answer. King was a good man. Despite my doubts, he knew how to lead. I guess he’d gotten that from his father, Braesal O’Malley, the head of the Irish Mob in Boston.
“What about everyone else?” I asked, looking around to see who my officers were.
“Everyone handed in their patch. Starting fresh, now that the trash is gone.”
“Everyone?”
“Everyone,” Zombie confirmed. “We figured you knew who you could trust.”
I wasn’t sure I could trust anyone. But I looked at Romeo and Ace. “You two staying or going?”
“We’ll stay for a few days; help you get set up. But our place is in Nebraska now.”
“Okay, I guess we better have church and figure out what the fuck we’re doing.” Shouts and cheers echoed through the room as we all moved down the hall.
I walked into church, and memories assaulted me. Times I’d spent in this room, discussing jobs, enemies, money, pussy. I looked toward the corner and asked, “Where’s Steele’s desk?”
“After you... died,” Ambush began, “Steele moved into an office. That was when things really started getting shady.”
“Guess I’ll have to check that out later. Anyone opposed to me moving the desk back into church?”
A round of nos went through the room. The men moved to their seats, and the guys from Nebraska hung back against the wall. One seat remained for me.
The president’s chair.
I slowly made my way to the front of the room. My hands held the back of the chair, and I looked around the table. “Not sure I can sit in this chair, brothers. Not sure I deserve it.”
“You deserve it, brother. King told us everything.”
I stiffened at Venom’s words. “What are you talking about?”
Venom looked over at Krypto, who looked to Ambush. “He told us what happened that day. How Steele held him back. He said he didn’t have the proof, but he believed Steele set you up. He told us you’d been suspicious for a while about Steele and Stone having something to do with Titan’s death.”
“And he told us how it was his fault you were in that warehouse alone.” Omen said. “He’s never forgiven himself.”
I looked over at Romeo, who just stared at me with his eyebrow raised.
“I wasn’t completely honest with King that day.” Romeo pushed off the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. “I was meeting someone. Someone who had the information I needed to prove Steele had Titan killed. But somehow Steele found out and turned it around on me. When King stalled, I assumed he was in on it.”
