I grinned.
Technically, the Devil Sinners took control of California before the King’s Men. Even before the Mansen Brotherhood. They were an older chapter, their club forming three generations back. But the fucking new blood who took the throne as president of the club about a decade ago didn’t know how to run shit. He was driving the club to the fucking ground, and when Dominic decided to settle in Sacramento, he also took away most of their business.
They couldn’t go to an all-out war against us because we had them beat in numbers and tactics.
And now the little cockroaches were leaving.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure they won’t be able to cause any trouble in Texas. Would be hard to, if there’s not a fucking club.”
I shook my head and stood up. “I’m not worried. But don’t you have something better to do than to go hunting?”
He shrugged. “The Mansen brothers are still fucking hiding like cowards, and unless I have someone on the inside working for Mayor Gallagher or Judge Hudson, there’s no way to tell where the fuck they are.”
His eyes moved past me and to the front door, a light flickered in his silver eyes. If Ryleigh’s eyes reminded me of a storm in the ocean, raging and beautiful, then Micah’s eyes reminded me of a lake—calm, cold, still water, and just as beautiful. His eyes reminded me of the lake our mom died in. It shouldn’t bring me comfort the way it did, but I already knew I was fucked in the head. There was no use denying it. I should be scared of my own brother.
I wasn’t.
I grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “No.”
“If you’re so adamant about keeping the girl around, might as well make her useful and have her spy on her father for us.”
“We’re not using Ryleigh as a fucking spy, got it?”
He shrugged off my touch, shooting me a bemused stare. If he thought for one second, I would be okay with him using her… then fuck, that was exactly what he thought.
He leaned back against the porch rail. “Whatever. When are you coming back home?”
I wondered if he really had given up on the idea, or if he was changing the subject to placate me.
“A week or two,” I answered.
“And you’re sure the girl won’t talk?”
I nodded, even if there was a niggling doubt in my gut that said I couldn’t be sure she won’t go to her dad once I let her go.
“She came back for me.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?”
“I was fucking outnumbered with the Devil Sinners. I got most of them out, but the first one recovered faster than I thought. He was coming toward me, and I would have fucking died. I’m sure of it. She ran him over with my truck and drove us back to the cabin.”
Micah didn’t say anything to that, but I could see in his eyes that there was begrudging respect there.
He looked off to the side. “Kai’s initiation is coming up. Just make sure you’re there when it happens, yeah? The kid looks up to you, and he might act tough, but he would be crushed if you’re not there.”
I nodded. “I haven’t forgotten.”
Kai might be the heir, but Dominic wasn’t going to just hand over the entire empire over to the kid. He was doing what every one of us had to do. He had to go through the initiation process, and he would have to do something for the club.
Micah killed for the club.
I brought in a business system that made the club millions and took care of a traitor.
Kai was going to get the evidence we needed to find out who the key players were in the Mansen Brotherhood, to discover who was trying to uproot our entire operation.
That was probably fucking tricky, but the kid was smart, and damn nifty with his fingers.
He would just need access to the mayor’s work computer in his office before he hacked into the system.