“Shift towhat, exactly?” Maple asks. “Something that gets more people killed? Or just drags the cops to our doorstep a little faster?”
“Thought you wanted nothing to do with the club? Why the sudden curiosity?” I tilt my head. “Worried the money Kurt slips you each month is going to stop?” Fire blazes in her eyes, and I let my lips curve into a knowing smile. “Didn’t think I knew about that, huh?”
Maple opens her mouth, but Mom shakes her head with a wave of her hand. “But all the cars moved?”
I nod, lifting my fork to my mouth. “Yeah, they’re all gone. With more force than it was worth.” Then I glance up at her, hesitating for a moment. “There was a Dominion Sons patch there.”
The entire table goes still, and even Maple freezes as her eyes lock on mine.
Mom shifts in her seat, pushing her food around like she’s lost her appetite. “Kurt mentioned they recently absorbed a club in Quebec.”
“Yup…” I nod slowly. “And they’re now running heavy drugs, with serious movement.”
Maple huffs and drops her fork with a clatter. “For fuck’s sake, Alder.”
“Stop,” I say loudly and forcefully, shooting her a glare that causes her to actually shut the fuck up for once. “That’s not going to happen to us.”
“You don’t know that,” she says in a low voice.
The anger that has been simmering since she got here quickly starts bubbling to the surface. “You think I can’t stop it?”
“That club in Quebec probably thought the same thing,” Maple shoots back. “So did the clubs in Saskatoon and Winnipeg. But that didn’t stop the Dominion Sons from taking them over.”
“Maybe they didn’t push back hard enough,” I say, my grip on my fork tightening.
Maple scoffs and shakes her head. “Of course. You really thinkyou’rethe one to stop them?”
My heart thumps as I lean forward, each one of my muscles wound tight with building rage. “And what the fuck doesthatmean?”
She folds her arms on the table and meets my gaze dead-on. “You didn’t stop Dad from being murdered by someone tied to one of your bullshit deals.”
I see fucking red.
The whole table rattles as I shove to my feet and slam my palms down hard on the table. Mom and Cedar both flinch, but Maple doesn’t move.
“I was fifteen,” I snarl. “What the fuck did you expect me to do?”
She just lifts a hand and gestures to my cut. “To not keep wearingthat. To not keep playing the same game that got him killed, and puts all of us in danger.”
Mom reaches out and lays her hand gently on my arm. “Sit, lovebug.”
My jaw clenches as I stare at Maple for another second before I sit back down in my chair.
Mom pushes a small crystal from the centre of the table towards me and gives my arm a light pat, while Cedar glances between us as she quietly eats.
“We know you did everything you could, Alder,” Mom says softly, with a gentle smile. Then she turns to Maple. “Andyouknow Alder handled it and made it right.”
Maple’s eyes flick towards me, and for the first time in a long time, I see something behind the hate. The part she doesn’t say out loud, but I know is in there.
She hates the club because she hates the crime, the blood, and the way this business took our dad. But Iknowshe was happy when the fucker who took him got a bullet to the head.
Even though she’ll never admit it.
Because that bullet came from me.
She just drops her gaze, picks up her fork, and quietly starts eating again.
Mom turns back to me. “I know you’ll do right by the club. And do what’s right.”
