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King followed suit before saying, “You seen the feds again?”
Ghost’s stubborn side kicked in. “I’m not answering that until I know what’s on the table.”
King leant forward and dropped his voice to speak quietly. “Your parole is coming up.”
Ghost took in the full meaning of what King meant and blew out a pissed off breath. “You’re a fucking cunt, King.”
“Yeah, that might be, but I do what I do for the club.” He stopped for a moment before adding, “Except when an asshole tries to step in on my territory. The shit I do to him for that is solely for my benefit.” Fuck, we were going to dredge up the Jen shit from years ago.
“Jesus, are you ever gonna let that go? I was fucking drunk. And Jen wasn’t into it, anyway.”
King’s eyes darkened as he shook his head. “I’m not talking about Jen.”
I sat up straighter and looked at King. This was news to me.
Ghost stared at King for a long silent few moments, recognition all over his face. He knew what King was talking about. “Fuck, man, that was a long fucking time ago. I was young and dumb as shit. And so was she.”
King’s body snapped back as anger flooded his face. “Don’t ever fucking talk about her like that again.”
I blinked. I’d seen King in a murderous rage many times, but this… this was off the fucking charts. The venom laced through his words revealed the level of hatred he had for Ghost. If I were sitting on the other side of the table being asked if I wanted parole, I’d say fuck no. Because the minute Ghost got out, he’d need to take cover from King. And there weren’t many places in this country that anyone could be safe from my president. His reach was that far and wide.
Ghost’s face whitened. “Look, Ivy was—”
King punched the table. “Don’t fucking say her name!”
“Jesus, King,” I muttered, eyeing the guard watching us. “You’re drawing attention.”
He ignored me. “You thought I’d never find out, Ghost? What I can’t figure out is why you even thought Ivy would be into you? And don’t try to feed me some bullshit about her saying yes to you. Jen told me everything you told her about that day.”
Ghost looked down at his hands resting on the table. He didn’t answer King straight away, and I wondered where this would all end up. I joined the club a long time after Ivy left, so I didn’t know what had gone on. But I’d heard the stories about the love King had for her. Apparently when she’d left it had ripped him apart and he’d spent years getting over her. I was beginning to think he’d never gotten over her, because I’d never seen him like this over Jen or any other woman.
When Ghost finally looked back up at King, the fight had gone out of him. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I saw guilt flash in his eyes when he spoke. “I was twenty-three then, King, and all I ever seemed to do was fuck shit up. I was drunk every damn day, and half the time I had no idea what I was doing.”
“So that makes it okay to try and fuck someone else’s woman? The thing is, Ghost, it wasn’t just my woman you tried it on with. You screwed anyone who stepped on your path. And because of the power you had in the club, you got away with it. Over and fucking over. And when Ivy said no to you, you kept on fucking trying.”
We all sat in silence after that. Ghost had nothing to come back with and it seemed that King had said all he would on the subject.
Finally, King stood and said, “You keep your mouth shut when the feds visit, and move your sister back home so I know where she is, and I’ll help push your parole through. You don’t do any of those things, and we’re done for good. I’ll happily watch you rot in this hellhole.”
On our way out to our bikes, after King had secured Ghost’s agreement, I said, “You didn’t strip him of VP because of Jen, did you?”
King slowed, his eyes meeting mine. “No.” His gaze drifted off somewhere behind me for a beat, before coming back to me. “I didn’t fight hard enough for Ivy back then. The minute I could, I fucking did.”
I didn’t understand his meaning, but that was the thing with King—most people often didn’t. He talked i
n riddles half the time, and his mind sometimes worked in ways that made no sense to me. But if you needed someone on your side who was loyal as fuck, King was your man. I couldn’t even begin to imagine a time when he wouldn’t fight hard for someone he cared about, and I wondered what had gone on back then for that to have happened.
23
Hailee
I pulled my car into the driveway and killed the engine. Rummaging in my handbag, I found what I was looking for at the very bottom. Pulling a tissue from the packet, I wiped the tears from my eyes.
No one needed to see me like this.
It had been the Monday from hell, and I’d cancelled all plans for the night, including our usual Monday performance at Flirt. I’d also texted Devil to say I was going home to bed. I just wanted to curl into a ball and forget the world for the night.
My phone buzzed with a text on the seat beside me.
