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Cruise laughs then wipe his hand down his face. “I really don’t give a shit what you think of me, Lick. Never have, never will and I think that’s the issue between you and me. You can’t get under my skin like you do with everyone else around here. On top of that, I don’t give a shit if you believe me or not.”

“Then explain it to me, Cruise.”

“I skipped town the next day. I didn’t feel right about what went down, and there was no way I was going to have any of those fuckers turn on me and pull me into their shit if it went down with the cops. No one knew my name. I wasn’t stupid, so I took off. A year after it happened, I met Hopper. He was the VP for the New Orleans chapter. I didn’t think twice about it.”

Lick laughs. “Fucking convenient if you ask me. Seems like you’ve had your eye on Devil’s Fury for some time.”

“His story checks out. I confirmed it before I allowed him to transfer over,” Cut confirms his story.

“As I was saying, I was a year in, and one of the members there started telling me about his career in Special Forces. It was on a run that we were staking out. He kept his mouth running, and I wasn’t about to stop him. He told me some of the shit they did in the middle east. Ways to get rid of the enemy more quietly than blowing them up. His ways of disposing of the enemy didn’t make national news, and that’s the way their commander liked it. They were able to get more done on the down low. It took me an entire year to earn his trust, but I fucking did it.”

“And?” Lick didn’t sound convinced.

“I applied what I learned and took out all those motherfuckers, all but one. He’s a slippery little shit, and I can’t seem to get my hands on him.”

“Tre,” I say.

“Yep, Tre De La Cruz,” Dyke confirms.

“He went underground once he felt the heat of his brothers dying out of the blue. He’s not stupid, and he’s been very good at watching his back and covering his tracks. Of course, I’ve been doing all this shit on my own, and I don’t have the resources to find him.”

I turn towards Cut. “Call a meeting with Louie.”

“Fuck that,” Lick says. “We need to keep our distance from the Diablos.”

“I agree with Lick.” Sin says. “We’re square with them. Even though we’ve put the shit from the past behind us, there’s no reason to continue to trust them. Louie has no reason to give up one of his members.”

“What Tre and those fuckers did to Tessa has Louie Sr. written all over that. Jr. isn’t going to take that shit lightly.”

“He knows what the fuck went down that day, Hawk. It’s his fucking club that did it. Those are his fucking members that are dying left and right. You think he’s going to just hand Tre over to us once he finds out that it was Fury who killed his men? No fucking way.”

“No one is going to tie that body count to me. I made sure of it.”

“There’s got to be another way,” Sin says.

“I’ll call a meeting,” Cut confirms.

“Let’s get this shit taken care of!” Lick slams his hands on the table. “We’re still Fury, motherfuckers! Ain’t no one better forget that shit, either.”

“We don’t know what’s going to happen yet,” Cut says. “I said I’ll call a meeting, I don’t even know if Louie’s gonna take it. Now, we’ve spent enough time on this. We need to head back and put the memory of Bubba before all this other shit.”

No offense to my Prez, but nothing in my life will ever be put before Tessa and Sam again.

Tessa

Last night, after I fainted, I stayed in bed. Bianca told me to rest, and she would take care of Sam. I didn’t fight her on it.

When I open the bedroom door, the smell of coffee and bacon hit my nose. The murmur of voices and the clanking of dishes grow when I make my way towards the kitchen. “Morning,” I greet everyone. I pad over to Sam and drop a kiss on the top of his head.

“I got to stay up really late, Mom,” he says as he kicks his feet back and forth, scooping a spoon full of cereal into his mouth.

“I’m sure that was fun.”

“Here.” Savannah hands me a mug full of dark coffee. “The cream and sugar are right there.” She points to the canisters on the table.

I take a seat next to her little girl and fix my coffee. Grace looks up at me and gives me a full, syrup-filled smile. “Hi, baby.” I tap my finger to the tip of her nose.

“She’ll get you if you aren’t careful. She’s still in the stage of throwing her food.”