Page 85 of The Kings of Kearny

“So Redding went rogue, and Liam’s been trying to reel him in ever since?”

She pointed her beer at me. “Bingo.” She took a sip of her drink and then shook her head, her bright red curls brushing her shoulders. “The problem with power is that you become used to it, used to the way that people respond to you. In the MC world, Liam is a known commodity. The men and women he interacts with on a daily basis know him, know his reputation, respect his authority, and for the most part, they do what he says. He’s accustomed to that, so when he deals with people outside our world, he’s a bit...arrogantisn’t the right word.”

I nearly snorted. It sounded like a good enough word to me.

“Blind is more like it,” she amended. “His expectations are skewed by his experience. He expects them to follow orders, do what he wants. He’s becoming ill-equipped to deal with the unexpected. He didn’t foresee Redding acting out or breaking rank, and even now, he’s treating him like he would a wayward biker, sending in Mike to straighten it out instead of cutting ties or fixing the fucking mess he’s dragged us into.” Her accent grew thicker as she talked, anger seeping into her words, andfuckingcame out sounding more likefecking.

Liam owed a lot of apologies to a lot of people over this. Hopefully, they came as easily to him as they did to his son.

I looked away from Jennifer, out into the night beyond, the wheels in my mind spinning. “And now that we all know about Redding, time has run out for Liam to take care of this quietly.”

“Aye,” Jennifer answered. “At least Daniel had the good sense to keep this shit to himself. His silence is the only thing giving me hope that this situation is fixable.”

I turned to her, frowning. “How so?”

“If he’d told the club what Liam did, they would have turned on my husband. Daniel knows how ugly that would get, so he’s giving Liam one last chance to make it right before he mounts a full-scale insurrection.”

“He made a comment about the club being more loyal to him than Liam,” I said.

She nodded. “That’s what happens when you start your own club. Liam’s made a cock-up of the whole situation. King members aren’t stupid. They see his microaggressions against their leader, and they don’t like it. If Daniel gives them marching orders, they’ll go to battle for him.”

“Did Liam agree to back off? Let Daniel patch in that club in Georgia?”

“Yes,” she said. “But only because I threatened to divorce him if he didn’t.”

“What about the cease-fire between him and Daniel?”

Her expression flattened. “He’ll sign it if he wants to stay married.”

I raked a hand through my hair, nails digging in, anger getting the better of me. “What a goddamn mess.”

“What a goddamn mess indeed. I could have married a nice Irish boy,” she mused, “like me mam wanted. But no, I justhaaadto have the tall, handsome American.”

That got a laugh out of me.

Her eyes crinkled at the corners, belying her amusement. “Not too late for you, you know.”

I grinned. “I know that.”

“And yet you want to stick around?”

My smile fell, and I nodded.

“Then welcome to our world,” she said. “You sure you can handle it?”

“I can handle it,” I said. But would Jakob still want me in it after what I was about to do? I glanced toward the house, motioning toward it with my beer. “What do you think those two are planning?”

She followed the gesture, staring back toward their home, worry creasing her face. “Something violent. Something meant to send a message. Redding breaking rank makes Liam look weak, and he’ll want to make an example out of him.”

“To who?” I asked. “The only people who know about this are us, Mike, Daniel, and whoever Daniel told.”

Her answering smile was rueful. “That’s more than enough people.”

I shook my head. “What if there was another way to fix things?”

Her eyes sharpened. “What do you mean?”

“What if there was a way to fuck over Redding and the Jokers without dragging the rest of us into it?”

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