Page 46 of Thunder

They fist-bumped. Instead of calling for the formal or informal toast, Granite simply said, “My blood for my brothers, and by extension, their women. My life.” They echoed the sentiment, before Trip mounted Thunder’s sled to wait as they drove away.

The front of the shop was dark, no movement. But they could see some light source from the back. That could work for their advantage. Looking into the light from the dark was better than being in the light looking into the dark.

They got parked and Granite handed Thunder a suppressed nine. Thunder took it and tested the weight. It was lighter than his, but there was zero pain in his shoulder. He would stay and handle anything that arose around the SUV. Not necessarily with a gun, but it was nice to have just in case. Not knowing what was waiting on the inside could spill over and become dangerous on the outside.

Blast, Taps, and Granite got out of the SUV and were against the building quickly. They spoke mostly in choppy words and hand signals. Thunder almost wanted to laugh. They were arguing Thunder’s position. Thunder spoke through the open window. Loud enough for them to hear, but not loud enough for his voice to carry. “Taps is right, Prez. Orders or not, when shit starts going down, I’m not going to sit still. As much as I’ll want to obey. . .” He trailed off before uttering the words he won’t.

A skinny figure came lurking down the sidewalk. One Thunder recognized even in the flipped image from the side mirror. He jumped out to protect his brothers. At the same time, he found himself on his feet with the gun aimed at Rainbow Bob’s head, the man spoke a relieved, “Oh Granite, thank God.”

“Don’t move another fucking inch, asshole.” Thunder’s order was gritted out between his teeth. He shifted his face toward his brothers without taking his eyes off Bob. “Granite, I’ll give you one guess who the fucking female is?”

“Son of a bitch,” one of his brothers cursed. They shifted from the wall and pulled Bob back against it into the shadows. If people thought Taps was scary, they’d never seen Granite in action.

“I let you walk away with barely a fucking scratch when you broke the goddamned rules. So give me one reason I shouldn’t gut you right where you stand. Or better yet, let Thunder have some more fun with you first. I can guaranfuckingtee you, he won’t take it easy on you this time. Not after you put hands on his girl.”

“That’s… I didn’t… I swear. Petty didn’t tell me what was going down. As soon as I realized it involved the club, I called Ripley, you can ask her,” the fucker whined.

“Yeah, well, it involves the Phantoms too, so you’re fucked.” Granite unsheathed the knife he had on his belt and held it against Bob’s cheek.

Bob yelped and Blast reached over and covered Bob’s mouth. “Now,” Granite threatened. “You have one second after my brother moves his hand to start talking. If your voice rises above a whisper, I’m going to need new boots because dead man’s blood doesn’t really go with what I’m wearing.”

Bob nodded and Blast removed his hand. “I didn’t know, I swear. Petty came back last night shot and—”

“Fuck,” Thunder swore. “That bitch shot me?”

Again, Bob nodded.

“She saw us. But how did she track Andy back here?”

“They go way back and she made an appointment to get to her.”

Granite let the knife bite into Bob’s cheek.

“Didn’t you promise to let us know if she was going after us? I seem to remember you promising that in exchange for your life.”

“I did, I mean I do. I wasn’t with her last night. She didn’t tell me who shot her or what she was up to until we pulled up. By then, it was already in play. She left me out back and before I could figure out a plan or call you, Tracey called me from inside. Told me Styx was coming, and I needed to disarm her and bring her in. I did, well, I did half of it. I got her inside and told her what I could in the short time I had. She told me to call Ripley. Ripley told me you’d be here, and that’s what I was doing. I’m supposed to be watching the back, waiting for him.” He shifted his eyes to Thunder.

“You’ve gotta send me in, Prez.”

Granite released Bob with a firm, “Don’t move a muscle.” He turned on Thunder. “You’ve got an extra hole in ya, you can’t go in.”

“That’s just it, Prez. She shot me, she knows that. She’ll see me as weak. Let her guard down and then maybe we can take her easier. We’ve got a weapon inside. Two as soon as Bob walks me in at gunpoint. Trip can ride up as planned.”

Thunder turned to Bob. “Can Petty see the back door from where she’s hunkered down?”

He shook his head.

“Just her?”

He nodded.

“Then that makes three because Trip can creep in behind us and lie in wait. That’s all before you three breach the front. We could take her down fairly easy if there are three of us unknown on the inside. Three against one, four if you count Andy.”

Granite swore and paced a few times, stroking his beard in thought. Thunder reached for his own before remembering it was gone. His president turned to Bob with menace oozing from every pore of his body. “If one of my brothers dies, hell, if one even gets a hangnail because you’re lying, there will not be enough pain I can bring you, but I will damn sure give my all trying, you feel me?”

“Yes. . .sir. I never wanted on your bad side, you know that. I’d never cross the Phantoms.”

They all just scoffed. Granite gave the signal. Trip fired up his sled and headed down the alleyway. Bob and Thunder cut between the buildings and met him around back.

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