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They leave without comment.
Malik sits back and clasps his hands behind his head. “This where you give me the lecture on behaving?”
“It’s where I remind you that anything you learn on this trip doesn’t leave the club.”
He nods slowly. “You think I’m gonna run and tell Loco everything as soon as I get back?”
I ignore the question because he’s baiting me. “Our organizations have gotten closer and aligned more over the last few years. But, if we ever patch you in, your loyalty can only be to this club.”
“I gotcha.”
“Do you? Our goals might align now. But that can easily change in the future.”
“What’re you worried about, Rock? You think ’cause Loco’s black and I’m black, I’m gonna side with him?”
I sigh and sit back even though I knew this would eventually come up. “Is that what I said? I don’t judge people that way. I like to think I’m colorblind.”
Malik tips his head to the side. “Can I say something?”
“Since when do you ask?”
He laughs for a second, then turns dead serious. “You’re full of shit.”
“How’s that?”
“You’re not blind. You see color.” He taps the side of his head. “You may not think too far outta your white-man bubble, but I get that. What I think you don’t do is make assumptions based on color.”
“I just assume everyone’s an asshole until proven otherwise.”
He laughs even harder. “Yeah, set your expectation low. That way you’re never disappointed in people, right?”
That pulls a chuckle from me. “Right.”
“But,” he continues, “you don’t see a black man and say, ‘he can’t be a brother because he’s gonna rob us.’ Or, ‘I can’t let the black dude around my wife because he might rape her.’” He cracks a smile at the death glare on my face. “You understand what I’m saying?”
“I do.”
Malik’s not finished, and I’ve learned that once he gets going, it’s hard to stop him. But he doesn’t usually waste words, and I’m always interested in seeing things from a different perspective. “The brothers all seem to follow your example. You’ve been in this game long enough to know how rare that is.”
“Now you understand why we’re a small charter. Why I don’t trust every biker who approaches us and says they want to patch in. And why we don’t hand a cut out to just anyone. Not even to prospects.”
“I do. I do. I’m looking forward to earning it.”
“Believe me, Wrath’s looking forward to making you work for it.”
He cracks up, throwing himself against the back of the chair. “Oh man, I don’t doubt that for a hot minute. That fucker hates everyone equally.”
“That he does.” I offer him my hand, and he shakes it. “So, you’re good?”
“Yeah, one last thing.”
I barely restrain myself from rolling my eyes. “Go ahead.”
“I understand where you’re coming from on the loyalty to the club issue, but you need to understand, I ain’t gonna fuck Loco over just to prove myself to the club either.”
“Wouldn’t respect you if you did.”
“Figured that would be your answer, which is why I told you.”
The atmosphere is a lot tenser at the Demons’ than it was on our last visit.
“What’s got you so twitchy, Chaser?”
He’s usually levelheaded and not prone to drama, so I’m unsure of how to handle him.
“Waitin’ for my dad to get here.” He shakes his head. “Why don’t you take a room. I’ll let you know when he’s here so we can sit down at the table.”
I grind my teeth together but follow Mallory to the back of the clubhouse where they have a bunch of guest rooms.
She hands me the key to the room right next door to Wrath’s.
With Wrath not understanding the concept of personal space, five seconds after I get out of the shower, he opens the connecting door and strolls through.
“Come right in.” I glare at him. “Can I get you anything?”
“You all right?” Wrath asks.
“Yeah, I love the invasion of privacy.”
Ignoring my irritation, he drops down into a chair and pulls out his phone while I slip into a pair of jeans.
“Is it too much for you to let me get dressed?”
He glances up and shrugs. “I’ve seen it all before, Rock.”
“Why are you here?”
“Talk to Hope?”
“Sent her a text. This shit better be over with fast. I don’t want to miss that doctor’s appointment.”
“Once we know what it is, head home and let me handle it.”
I actually consider his suggestion, something I wouldn’t have done a couple years ago. Wrath’s much better at controlling his mouth and temper these days. “Nah, Stump’ll take it as a sign of disrespect if I don’t stick around.”
“Well, fucker should give us more details next time.”
“Yeah, you say that to him.”
We both laugh.
He abruptly stops and pins his stare on me. “How are you? You wanna talk about anything?”
“Not really.”
He tilts his head in an are-you-really-going-to-make-me-say-it way.
“You know, don’t you?”
“I suspected and Hope confirmed without saying the actual words.”
As calm as she tried to act, the news rattled her too. No surprise Wrath figured it out.
“I can’t right now. But thanks.”
“Whenever you need to. You know where to find me.”
“Thanks, brother.”
Finally, Stump gathers his crew together, and we sit down at their table about an hour later. “I’m sorry my son had to be so vague, but we couldn’t risk discussing this over the phone.” He gives Chaser a subtle nod.
Chaser drops a newspaper in front of me.
“Shit, I didn’t realize anyone still read those,” Wrath quips.
Stump doesn’t laugh.
“What am I looking at, Chaser?”
He flips it over. I scan the articles and zero in on a small one right beneath the fold.
Man who slaughtered two people under influence of PCP-laced marijuana.
Tension coils my body tight. I glance at the paper again and try to remember exactly how much territory the Demons run.
“This happened just over the Canadian border?”
“Yeah,” Stump answer slowly, watching my reaction.
“That your territory?”
“We share it with DeLova’s crew.”
I shift my gaze to Chaser, whose jaw tightens. “We used to run the whole thing.”
I’m not in the mood for a history lesson. It’s not important.
We have a much bigger problem.
“You trying to tell me this was our supply?” I slap my hand on the paper. “Who the fuck you got distributing for you?”
“Some newer players. Young crew.”
“So they decided to pad their supply? To what? Make more money or claim they had some crazy new strain?”
“We’re not completely sure what happened yet.”
Fuck me fucking sideways. Sparky will have an absolute fit if he finds out someone tampered with his work.
“Jesus Christ, you realize Sparky actively cultivates for the highest THC content he can. Lacing it with anything is fucking stupid and unnecessary.” Granted, this crop hadn’t been up to Sparky’s standards. It was still way better quality than any of the shit Stump could get his hands on from anyone else.
“Shit.” Wrath grabs the paper from me and quickly scans the article. “They’re going to be looking for the dealer and work their way back up the chain.”
“That’s why we called you as soon as we found out.” Chaser glances at his father in a way that suggests that it wasn’t a unanimous decision to inform us of this fuckup. “At least five other people. Two on our side and three in C
anada have been hospitalized for violent hallucinations or seizures.”
“Fucking great. How much did you sell to him?”
Please don’t say the entire shipment.
“About half of what we bought from you. The other half went to recreational use around here and to different crew south of us who we trust.”
