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Fuck, Hyde had been off the grid most of the time since King left on Friday. He’d shown his face for an hour or so yesterday, but that was it. I didn’t want to burden King while he was away, but he’d made it clear he wanted to know this kind of shit. “I’ve hardly seen him, King, so I can’t really answer that. I’ve left a message for him to make sure he’s at the drop this afternoon, but I’m yet to hear back.” We had a shipment of coke coming in at four, and I needed Hyde with me for it. The motherfuckers who supplied us had grown increasingly hostile lately. Fuck knew what I’d do if he didn’t show.
“Fuck,” King muttered. “I’ll call him, too. Let me know if you don’t hear back from him in the next hour or so.”
After we ended the call, I placed my phone on the counter of the bar where I sat in the clubhouse and found Kree watching me with concern. “What?” I asked her. She’d grown into a good friend the past few months, and I often ran shit by her because she always came u
p with good suggestions.
She leant her hip against the counter. “Is Hyde okay?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Why?”
“He doesn’t seem okay to me. Working in the bar, I hear a lot of whispers. And it seems to me that you’re all frustrated with him, but it also seems that no one has checked on him.”
“Fuck, Kree, you know what Hyde’s like. He doesn’t let anyone in. I’ve tried to talk with him a few times, but he either shuts down or loses his shit with me. There’re only so many times someone can be told to fuck off before they do. What do you expect me to do if he’s not interested in sharing whatever is on his mind?”
“Ask again. And again. Devil, friends don’t give up on each other. Eventually he’ll confide in someone, but only if he knows you care.”
I sat and contemplated what she said while she poured drinks for some of the guys. She was right. But, Hyde could be a prick. Knowing that, though, told me I was the club member who would have to try harder to get through to him. Fuck knew, none of the others would have the patience.
“Since when did you start smoking again?” I asked Hyde while we waited for the drop that afternoon. Thank fuck he’d turned up. Not that he’d bothered to reply to my message or King’s.
He glared at me. “None of your fucking business.”
Hyde had quit smoking two years earlier. He’d always been a heavy smoker, so it had stunned all of us when he’d just up and quit one day. After the way he stopped cold turkey, I’d never expected him to take it back up.
“Why the fuck are you such an asshole, Hyde? I don’t get it. We’re your brothers, just trying to look out for you, and you treat us like absolute fucking shit some days.” None of us knew much about his past, and that seemed to be the way he preferred it. I’d never pushed to know more, because I believed everyone had a right to privacy, but maybe knowing more about him would help me understand why he was the way he was.
He took a long drag on his smoke as he stared into the distance. We were waiting outside an abandoned warehouse that we used as one of our drop-off points. Thunder rumbled overhead, and the clouds darkened, threatening for the sky to open and dump rain on us. Hyde’s features darkened, too, as he contemplated my question.
Finally, he looked at me and said, “You ever done something that altered your entire life, Devil? Something that also impacted other people’s lives, too. In a bad way, I mean.”
I thought about that for a moment. The answer wasn’t one I wanted to think about too much. “I’ve done bad shit that’s affected other people’s lives. And it affected me, too, but I wouldn’t say it altered my life entirely. Why?”
“I have.”
“And?” I wasn’t sure where he was going with this.
He finished his smoke and stubbed it out before glancing back up at me. “And… I think maybe I fucked up more than I thought I did.”
Kree was so fucking right. Hyde needed us. As I tried to figure out how to word what I wanted to say, the guys we were waiting for showed up, and the moment was lost.
I watched as Hyde stalked their way, his body tense, and I hoped like hell this drop went okay. His unpredictable nature concerned me, so I hurried to catch up to him.
Rolland had brought three guys with him today instead of the one he usually showed up with. We’d agreed a year ago when we started working together that we’d both only ever bring one person with us to these drops.
“What’s going on?” I asked him when we met in the middle. I jerked my chin towards the men he’d brought. “What happened to the deal we had?”
His shifty eyes moved between Hyde and me. He knew us both because King always switched up who he brought with him. “Got shit to discuss with you boys today and didn’t wanna take a chance that the information I’m about to share would get me killed.”
“Fuck,” Hyde said. “Start talking and let’s see how this shakes out.”
Sweat rolled down Rolland’s face, and I figured it wasn’t just because of the heat. A large thunderclap overhead caused him to jump. “Fuck,” he muttered. “This shit ain’t all on me, so you just keep that in mind, yeah?”
I stepped forward. “When Hyde tells you to start talking, he doesn’t mean to start talking shit. Spit it the fuck out!”
He raked his fingers through his hair. “Okay, so the deal for me to only supply Storm… it has to end.” As he said that, the three men with him all pulled their guns and trained them on us. “As of today, I’ll be supplying you and one other guy. And like I said, this ain’t my preferred decision. I owe someone.”
Hyde’s lips pulled up into a snarl. “Who else are you supplying?”
