Page 22 of Love’s Decree

“Be safe, babe. Call me when you can,” she said.

“Always, sweetheart. Soon as I wrap up, I’ll hit you. Come here. Give me a kiss.”

The smile I loved to see spread across her lips as her lips met mine. I hated to let her go, but duty called. After a final peck on her lips, I let Rory go with Dobbs and Curry.

When I arrived at the clubhouse, I searched for Gavin. He was usually in his office, staring at the monitors. I went to the back of the clubhouse. There he was, along with Jaxx and Major. They had the prospects, Jalani and Kurt, tied to chairs.

“Somebody wanna tell me what’s going on here?” I asked as I approached them.

“Ya man, Kurt. here has been busy. Not only is he the one that stole the money; he’s been talking to the police. Jalani over here got caught trying to steal some bricks from last night’s shipment. The prospects have been real busy,” Jaxx explained.

I looked over at Jalani and Kurt and shook my head. “I guess my warning that I would kill you myself wasn’t enough, huh? Y’all don’t value your lives, going against your club like this. Major, what the fuck you were doing while these fools were running around making a fool of this club?” I asked as I pinched my nose out of frustration.

Major stared at me with a blank expression. His position in the club was to lead our new prospects in the brotherhood. I guess he wasn’t the man for the job. These two fools didn’t respect anything we had going on with the Sons of Destruction.

“Brick, my bad. I don’t know how any of this got past me. Whatever you gotta do to me, I’ll take it,” Major replied.

I pulled my gun off my waist band. Major, I would deal with later. I walked over to Kurt first and took the rope from around his mouth.

“Since you like talking to cops, tell me what you told them,” I said.

Fear was in his eyes. “I didn’t give them anything. They wanted me to tell on y’all, but I didn’t. I swear.”

He was lying, and listening to him was pointless, so I pulled the trigger and put a bullet in between his eyes. I heard liquid creating a puddle on the floor coming from Jalani as he wet himself.

“You got enough courage to steal, but you can’t hold your piss. What made you think you could get away with stealing from the club?” I asked.

I pulled the rope from around his mouth so he could speak. He coughed a little then said, “Kurt told me he needed some money. He said you guys wouldn’t miss one brick. I was trying to help him out. Please don’t kill me, Brick.”

His plea fell on deaf ears. The moment he agreed to help Kurt, he chose his loyalty, and obviously, it wasn’t to the club. I gave him the same fate as his homie, putting a bullet in his forehead.

“Gavin, do me a favor. Pull the tapes from the last couple of weeks. We gotta see what Major was doing while these two were plotting, scheming, and talking to police,” I said.

Gavin gave me a nod while Major had a frightened look on his face. The prospects were too comfortable with taking from us, and I needed to understand why. This wasn’t Major’s first time training prospects, so I couldn’t understand what went wrong. Gavin would find out sooner rather than later.

“Can y’all call the crew to clean this shit up? And Major, don’t leave the clubhouse. If Gavin finds anything I don’t like, your ass will join your prospects,” I said.

I gave Gavin and Jaxx dap as I headed out. These fools ruined my day. I had caught too many bodies to count; that part wasn’t new to me. Kurt was dead, so he could no longer be an informant. The downside was I would never know what he told the police. With the shit going on at the club and making sure Rory was safe, I was exhausted.

13

RORY

Aknock at the door interrupted my morning routine. It stopped my search for my favorite pair of heels. I groaned as I walked toward the front door. When I checked the peephole, Curry stood with a bouquet in his hand. My heart sped up with fear. There was no way I was getting a delivery of black roses to my home. I slowly opened the door. The fear that brewed in my chest must have been on my face.

“Morning, Rory. These are from Brick. He got me playing delivery man now too,” Curry said.

“Thanks, Curry. Appreciate you,” I replied as I took the flowers from him.

Relief filled me as I unwrapped two dozen red roses. I looked around for a note, but my phone rang instead. It was Aasim. “Good morning,” I greeted him.

“Morning, sweetheart. Do you like the flowers?” he asked, sounding groggy.

The image of him lying on his back in his black fitted boxers made me miss him.

“I wish you’d come instead,” I admitted.

“Shit got hectic yesterday. Why don’t you pack a bag? I’ll come scoop you after work. I missed you sleeping next to me.”