Page 61 of Resurfaced Passion

It meant Rider was out to break him.

It was a dirty trick Rex himself would have done.

Then something cold occurred to him. Eyes narrowed. His overstuffed gut tightened. One of Rider’s men was Lawless. The craziest psycho to walk, he murdered for fun as stories went. But he was also smart and cunning as they came. Fucking Ajax liked to sing the boy’s praises for whatever reason, he didn’t care.

“Check the accounts.” He issued, with a feeling of dread. He watched his son pull out his phone and open the banking app. Rex supposed he should be more up to date with that shit, but he hated technology. He preferred his cash in his hand, hidden in safes, not being monitored by nosy bastards who wanted a cut.

Up above, the whir of the fan almost silenced out his son’s gasp, but Rex caught it and knew the words that would come next even before he opened his mouth.

“I don’t get it,” the boy stammered, eyes wide. “It’s empty. All three accounts are empty, dad. This can’t be.”

Yeah, it could fucking be. It was.

Fury like nothing before bubbled in his chest along with the sharp pain across his shoulder as his fisted both hands and banged them on the table.

“It’s a mistake. Has to be a mistake. I’ll call the bank now.”

“You fuckin’ know it’s not a damn mistake, boy. They emptied the accounts. When I wanted to keep shit underground, you insisted we keep the dealership accounts legit and go above board. How has that worked out for us, you useless little prick?” He spat, approached on slow legs. Before his son could even say a word, Rex, drew back his arm and smacked the boy with the back of his hand right across his face. It made him stumble and fall back into the door. “Get the fuck out of my sight. I don’t wanna see you again unless you got good news for me.”

“Y-yeah, okay. I’ll fix it, dad. I swear.”

He wasn’t gonna fix it.

For years he’d thought all was lost in getting his position in the MC back. When he was Prez, he was treated like a fucking king, a God and he hadn’t been able to accept the position was no longer his.

He’d lied, cheated, done some underhanded shit in order to gain the right to take back the gavel, no matter what he had to do against his nephew.

Sure, the boy was family, but he was also the man in Rex’s way.

The one and only reason he hadn’t put a bullet in that little punk’s forehead was his younger brother.

As much as Ajax bitched about Rider, he also would cause a war if anything happened to him. More than once in those early days of being ousted, Ajax killed a man for daring to say a word wrong about Rider. His idiot brother had lost his VP station too yet spoke out for the guy who fucked them both over. One of these days he wouldn’t care about Ajax’s feelings, and he’d put Rider in the ground himself.

“Is everything okay, honey?” A voice brought him out of his murderous thoughts, and he sent his gaze across the room. His wife framed in the doorway.

He’d once loved her. Way back when they were two dumb kids fucking around in his daddy’s barn, but then he knocked her up and he was trapped for life. The love soon disappeared.

Now she was a giant pain in his ass.

“Let me guess, they both came running to mama?” He sneered.

How in the good fuck could he have two boohooing mama’s boys for sons? His grandsons were heading the same damn way too.

He was disgusted and disappointed.

He had loyal men working for him, and he’d made a partnership with those crazy commies in thebratva, but there was no one he could trust. Not fully, not with anything he needed to do. And certainly not his fucking sons.

Not even Ajax. The one person who’d always been his confident. But once his brother moved back to Colorado, he suspected the tides of loyalty had changed.

Rex felt abandoned and betrayed.

“They’re both upset, Rex. You could go a little easier on them.”

Grown ass men and the bitch wanted him to go easy on them?

“Say that when you have to move in with your sister ‘cause we can’t afford all the fucking bonbons you eat.” He snapped nastily, even as she flinched, he felt nothing. “Leave me alone, Della, so I can pick up their fuckin’ messes yet again.”

“You know, one day, Rex, you’re gonna turn around and none of us will be here, you will have chased us all off with that vicious temper of yours.” She turned on her rotund hide and left his office.

---