Tricky couldn’t think straight. His hatred for Zodiac blinded him to everything else.
“Back when Joker ran things,” Jagger said, startling me since I’d nearly forgotten he was in the room, “he never would have handed over a member of his club to be executed.”
Joker nodded slightly at this comment while Tricky frowned at his VP.
“If a guy went rogue,” Jagger continued, “and that’s what those assholes did today, Joker would have handled the problem in-house. If you want those men dead, you’ll need to allow us to be the ones to put them in the ground.”
Joker glanced at Madden, who gave his son an approving nod.
“Not to shit on your kumbaya moment,” Zodiac sneered. “But you’re forgetting something about these rogue bikers.”
“And what’s that?” Tricky snapped.
“If you ice these three fuckers, what are their buddies going to think? Before they were Jokers, half of your club is Baton Rouge kids. Their fathers are former bikers. How the fuck do you think they’ll react to you killing their sons?”
A suffocating silence filled the room for an overly long minute. Everyone adjusted to the idea of war. The only ones with any real idea about what that might look like were Zodiac and Exile since they knew the players.
“I have a plan,” Clint said, breaking the awkward silence.
“Of course, you do,” Tricky muttered.
“My plan should give everyone what they want, but there is also a possibility of trouble in the future.”
“Don’t be a tease,” Zodiac sneered. “What’s your plan?”
“These guys can’t die yet,” Clint said. Though I felt Zodiac ready to complain, he kept his mouth shut. “And they can’t die publicly. Tricky will need to insist his men brawl one-on-one with three of us. It’ll be brutal, but no one dies.”
“Just a fight?” Joker asked and glanced at Tricky.
Clint nodded. “A one-on-one brawl with a guy pissed about their wronged woman. It’s something these assholes will understand since they don’t respect the foxes.”
“But they do die, right?” Joker asked. “Leaving rogue members in a club leads to shit like Zombie shooting up the mall back in my day.”
Clint nodded and said, “Back when you were undermining your former president, you quietly killed his allies. That’s how we’ll handle these three. A car accident here. A random act of violence there. Maybe have one of them overdose. Make it possible for their families to believe the deaths are unrelated.”
“And if they don’t believe it’s unrelated?” Zodiac asked.
“Then, we make a list of people to kill and start checking them off. But that will be after Trent is born.”
Zodiac’s hostile demeanor shifted once Clint used his son’s name. He was thinking about the future rather than his current bloodlust.
“What if these fuckers beat you in the fights?” Joker asked, sharing a smirk with Lucky. “It could happen.”
“Doesn’t matter if we win or lose,” Clint replied casually. “The brawls are a way to keep our tempers in check and get the fuckers to lower their guards.”
Jagger asked, “What if they start trouble before we get around to killing them?”
“Tricky needs to raise holy hell about this shit. These guys think it’s all fun and games like the brawl at the Fire Hooch. But what happened today can’t happen again. They could have killed one of the foxes,” Clint said, losing his cool. “Elle might have lost her baby. Do you have any fucking idea what I would do to your club, Tricky, if my nephew died? Those men would have destroyed your entire world over their egos. So, you best remind them how you’re their fucking president, not their fucking pal.”
Clint rarely lost his cool. When he did, even hardened men paid attention. Joker’s gaze flashed from Clint to Ford and Pax. These were men who filled the local quarry with their enemies. Time had passed. They’d retired. Yet, here they were, once again, talking about where to hide bodies.
“Letting them live might come off as weak,” Madden said when the silence lingered for too long.
Joker nodded. “It’ll be a good way to test more of those Baton Rouge boys. See if they learn their lesson and obey their president or keep pushing the boundaries.”
Joker looked at his son, who was glaring at Zodiac. “It’s better to have a small, loyal crew than a large club full of backstabbers.”
Tricky ignored his father’s wise words and snarled, “This shit didn’t happen until Zodiac started wagging his dick around town.”
