Page 115 of At The End Of The Day

“If you are here, you are better than everyone else because not everyone who shows interest in the Serpents gets in. Very few people, in fact. We ain’t a big gang, but we don’t gotta be because what we lack in quantity, we outnumber in quality. Them other gangs can only wish to be as good as we are.”

Their moods started shifting, their heads bobbing in agreement, some shouting a “Hell, yeah,” here or there.

“There isn’t one person in this group right now that hasn’t sacrificed something for someone else here, and I expect it to stay that way cuz that’s what family does. We ain’t about to let outside forces fuck up our unity, I’m not about to let it happen inside. I understand the confusion about me and Dash, but don’t forget what we were in your eyes two months ago when we all last got together. We are the same.”

“We’re stronger,” Dash chimed in, uncocking one of the guns. “There was a disease inside of us, a fucking cancer that went unnoticed for years with Jackyl, but we cut that cancer out and now we got no secrets. We are all Serpents in this room, and before we became that, none of us had no one else. We stepped up to the plate for one another when no one else would. We are and always will be, brothers and sisters.”

More people agreed, some waving fists in the air.

“So, let’s put this whole, ugly mess with Jackyl in the past, forget about what me and Dash do at home, and get back to what we always was.”

The grumble amongst them was weak, but hopeful, for there was very little animosity staring back at us now. Mostly, it was coming from Tinkerbell because her ego was wounded.

“All right, then. Unless anyone got something to say, we’re done for the night.”

Very slowly, the crowd dispersed, Charlie hobbling off, Judy cursing out her husband, and people stepping over Sam’s body bleeding out on the floor. Tinkerbell lingered longer than most, her face scrunched, daggers shooting from her eyes. Huffing, she spun on her heel and stamped off, her hands propped on her hips.

The chaos fizzling, my insides sank and my muscles relaxed. Turning to Dash, I smirked and jutted my chin. Grinning, he strode over to me and planted a quick kiss to my lips.

“See?” he chuckled. “Easy.”

A soft laugh pushed through my nose. “Easy? What the hell are we gonna do about him?” I grumbled, swiping an arm at the dead man.

He pouted, tipping his head to scratch behind an ear. “Huh. No idea. Other than him,” he stressed, uncocked the other pistol, and tucked them into the waist of his jeans. “Everything was pretty easy.”

Grinning, I shook my head. “Yeah, well, don’t be too quick to think that.”

“What?”

“You heard what The Boss said. Leaders. Plural. You and me, we’re running the Serpents together.”

His expression fell and he gulped. “Yeah, I heard that. You knew about this?”

“I did.”

“And didn’t tell me?”

“Wasn’t allowed.”

“Holy shit.” His eyes bulging, a hand raked through his hair. “This is blowing my fucking mind right now.”

“Well, prepared for it to be blown a little more.”

He squinted and cast a sideways look. “What’s that supposed to mean? There’s more?”

“Yup. Time to meet The Boss face to face.”

His jaw fell with astonishment, his skin turning ghostly white. “What?”

Smiling, I took his hand, pressed a kiss to his knuckles, and dragged him off the platform, leading him to the far room. As we climbed the steps to the office, I glanced back at the dead body and cursed. We still had a very long night ahead of us. It would be near morning before we were crawling into bed.

My heart pattering quickly, I couldn’t help the small, mischief smirk. But at the end of this day, I’d be crawling into bed with my future husband, a husband that was not secret who was not hiding me. This was everything I’d always longed for.

Chapter 47

Vincent da Silva

Tuesday 10.15.2019