Page 51 of Red's Peril: Part 1

But before I can lose my shirt, Drummer bellows from the hallway. “Wraith? Got a moment?”

Our eyes meet. I signal good luck with a waggle of my eyebrows. As he leaves, Beef looks up puzzled.

“What’s going on? Drummer seems to be coming down hard on you boys.”

Shrugging, I raise my chin to Rock. “Deal me some better fuckin’ cards this time,” I growl.

I try to concentrate. Maybe Vegas isn’t for me if I can’t win a simple poker hand. This time my cards are better, and I expect to beat Rock’s suspected straight flush. I’m already grinning when I lay my hands down, but he just smirks and sets out a full house.

Damn the man.Not for the first time, I check the cards, looking for any mark on them. But of course, find none. He’s justthatgood.

Sighing, I watch as he slides his winnings toward him.

“Red?” Drummer’s voice bellows again.

“Uh-oh.” Beef looks up and shakes his head. “Looks like it’s you in trouble now.”

He isn’t wrong, I think, standing and pushing my chair into the table. For a moment I stand, eyeing my brothers and the cards, wishing I could just sit back down and carry on, maybe learn a few tips from Rock. It’s hard to think this might be the last night I’ll have in the Arizona chapter.

I’m not ready to move on.

There’s a lump in my throat as I leave the table and I go for my meeting with destiny, and with Brick.

Chapter Nineteen

Following Rainman and Brick, I take one last look in my rearview as we turn out of the track leading to the compound that’s been my home for the last two years and head off into an uncertain future.

Am I doing the right thing?Fuck knows.

I’d met with the Vegas prez and VP and had liked them. Their vision for the club tallied with my own, and their honesty that their chapter had veered away from it had impressed me. They’d asked for my ideas and listened. Who was I, a lowly member, to bring up suggestions for the direction of their club? That they’d given my ideas credence had encouraged me to offer more.

Riding with Drummer had obviously influenced me, but so had my time from before. I’d started with Manny as a youth who washed cars and swept floors, worked my apprenticeship, and, had I stayed, I know he’d have offered me the manager role. I drew off the experience I had of keeping mechanics in line, and with the basic knowledge of bookkeeping, and how money flows.

It was clear that they wanted me, and I’ll be fucked if they hadn’t offered me something that I hadn’t realised I’d wanted. A chance to be more than just one more man in the pack. Oh, there was no promise of an officer spot, how could there be when all positions were filled? And as I didn’t wish death on anyone, I might never be given such responsibility in Vegas, or Tucson, come to that.

But they told me the members would respect me for what I could bring to the club. That they were waiting for a man to bring fresh insight, to drag them out of the depths to which they had sunk.

Brick was clever, more open than Drummer, quicker to acknowledge his faults. Easier to get along with, but there was a hardness there too. A suggestion that he’d be your best friend for life until you crossed him. Then the kid gloves would come off, and you’d better have somewhere to hide, or they’d never find your body.

Rainman reminds me of Peg in a number of ways. Direct, no nonsense, and a hardness born from the realities of life. He was the quieter of the pair, but I could tell he missed nothing.

At the time, I hadn’t known how Wraith’s own interview had gone. I suspected he’d, too, impressed them, and they him.

I’d been hesitant meeting him later.

“You finished with them?” He’d been waiting for me to exit the room. “Vegas sounds a fuckin’ mess.” He visibly shuddered.

“It does,” I confirmed. “But there’s a kind of challenge in wanting to have a hand in sorting it.”

“Rather you than me, Brother.” Then he realised what he’d said. “Oh, fuck. You actually want it?”

I’d slowly raised and lowered my shoulders. “Not sure I want it as such, staying here is more enticing. But there? Yeah, I think there might be a place for me. Unless you…?”

He closed his eyes briefly. “Brother, I’m going to miss you like fuck. Hell.” He broke off, and wiped his hands down his face. “Kinda expected we’d be riding together forever.”

My gut clenched. This was almost as bad as leaving Cheryl in my rearview. It fucking hurt. Wraith was my kindred spirit. “We’ll still be here for each other. And we’re still in the same club.”

He opens his eyes again and narrows them. “Bet Drum would have you back if it doesn’t work out.”

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