Page 2 of Bourbon & Blood

I looked up at the girl’s window. The only thing that was pretty on this block was her.

“I ain’t here for pretty,” I reminded him. “That’s not what y’all keep me ‘round for.”

He sighed again, and it wasn’t happy.

“We don’t ‘keep you around’ for nothin’,” he said and I snorted. “We don’t. You’re one of us, our brother, at least that’s how this issupposedto work.”

I chuckled darkly at that. With Ruth at the helm, that’s hardly how it worked. He was the king of his fucked-up little kingdom, alright – but he wasn’t no benevolent king. Not like Cutter and his boys seemed to work.

I looked to Hex and sighed.

“You want change,” I said and it wasn’t a question.

He nodded judiciously. “We all do, I reckon.”

I grunted in agreement to that one – problem was, what form that change would take.

“A coup, then?” I asked.

“Think there’s any other way?” he demanded.

I shook my head and ran a hand over my bald head, the stubble of the hair just starting to grow, rasping my rough palm like sandpaper. I scowled.

“You got a leader picked out?” I growled.

“Was kinda hopin’ it’d be you,” he said and I hocked and spit, giving him a down and dirty look.

He held up his hands in surrender and said, “Okay. Don’t shoot the messenger.”

I cocked my head. “That what the rest of them boys want?” I asked.

He looked at me a little startled and said, “You really ain’t got no clue, do yah?”

My scowl deepened and I growled a little and he laughed, climbing to his feet, and slapping me on the cut that covered my back.

“Only man in this club they respect more ‘n Ruth and fear just at much… is you,” he said. “Now, they might respect me, but they don’t fear me the same way they do you, and sometimes in moments when the respect runs thin, even momentarily, you gotta have that fear or somethin’ else to fall back on.”

I lowered my head, shook it and said, “Call a meeting on the downlow. I need to hear it from them.”

Hex nodded and asked me, “You don’t want it, do yah?”

I glared at him, and he nodded to himself.

“Tells me you might just be the right man for the job, then.”

“Fuck outta here,” I grumbled and took another deep hit off the spliff while I unscrewed the cap off my flask for another pull off it.

I looked up to the window again, hoping for another glimpse and felt my brow crush down even harder.

All that long red hair was pressed to the glass as her boyfriend plowed into her.

It wasn’t the show I was hoping for. Instead of the calm I usually felt at seeing her, all I felt was more rage. Especially when his hand appeared over her shoulder, pressed to the glass.

“Fuck,” I muttered, and flicked the remainder of my marijuana cigarette away. I downed the rest of what was in my flask in three long swallows and got up.

I turned, shaking with rage, and walked back toward the club. I’d either slug it out or fuck it out and nobody’d better get in my fucking way.

CHAPTERONE

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