Page 82 of Savage Outlaw

“Swear to God, thin fuckin’ ice, brother. We shouldn’t have to be chasing your ass down every goddamn day.”

The consensus was felt by all. He was absent more than not.

“Gimme a break, for fucks sake. I’m here, aren’t I?” He grumbled, rubbing a hand over his forehead. He looked ready to chuck his guts everywhere and there was a definite tremor to his hands.

“A break?” This from Hawk who usually kept his trap shut at meetings. His voice was ice and terror. “You’ve had nothing but a fucking break, Arson. Your best friend was critical, where the fuck where you? Why aren’t you helping out at his gym? That’s left to Butcher and Pretty. Capone is filling in for Pretty at the garage which means Grinder has to do shit he doesn’t normally do. We’re all fucking pitching in, son. Where the fuck are you?”

Fuck. No one ever wanted to get a verbal tear down by Hawk, because if it happened—if someone managed to push him so far that they got more than three grunts out of him, it meant he was ready to blow. But no patched brother around that table disagreed.

“What’s wrong with you, Arson?” Pretty-boy asked, his question went ignored.

Anger filled Arson’s face. “I’m fucking sorry, okay. I had shit to do.”

“Shit like fucking some bitch and falling into a bottle. Yeah. We know.” Grinder said.

“Oh, fuck off, G. Try climbing out of your wife’s pussy and have an opinion of your own for once.”

It was like Grinder was fired out of a cannon. His chair crashed back into the wall and he reached over the table to get at Arson with a roar. Only the quick thinking of Preacher grabbing his boy stopped him from going atomic bomb in their church.

“Say that again, you dumbfuck, and I’ll make it so you have to drink your steak through a fucking straw for the rest of your life.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Snapped Arson, slouching in his chair. His bloodshot eyes focused forward.

“What is your problem, brother? Time of the month?” Piped Snake to take the tension out of the air.

“Fucking sick of you all crawling up my asshole. Last time I checked I was an equal brother around this fucking table. Don’t need to tell you where I am every second. That the kinda club you’re running, Prez?”

Rider’s eyes slit and Butcher was almost sure there was going to be a mass scrap any second now.

It was an enraged Grinder who got in first. “Have you even been to visit Tag? Do you give any fucks that he can’t see? That he had his face broken? Yeah, better things to do, isn’t that right,brother? Long as you get your dick wet, who the fuck cares, yeah?”

Rider had laid his hand on Hawk’s shoulder to get the VP in order, Preacher still had a hold on his boy. Butcher wanted to get on the road to Wyoming, not have to patch up the boys if Grinder blew a gasket.

“Fuck this. And fuck all you. I don’t need this.” Arson growled, pushing away from the table. And he strode to the end of the church and wrenched the door open, letting it bounce off the wall.

“Drama fucking queen,” Hawk hissed through his teeth.

“Boy’s got issues.” Capone imparted.

“Right. Let’s get this over with.” Rider started. “Got news about our boy this morning. Prince Charming can see. He has double vision right now, they’re not sure if he’ll gain full sight. He’s having a second surgery on his cheek in a day or two.”

Man, Prince Charming was gonna be left with one wicked scar on his face, Butcher thought, but he was alive. It would kill their boy if his lack of vision prevented him from riding again. He’d swung by to see him this morning and smuggled in some breakfast foods from the diner, he seemed to be in good spirits, especially since he had hot nurses taking care of him.

It was as the meeting was wrapping up that Preacher cleared his throat and pinned his green eyes on Butcher. “We gonna talk about theDiablosout there, Doc?”

“Roux.” He all but growled. “Her name is Roux.”

“Yeah, we know that. Doesn’t change the fact who her daddy is. Does he know she’s in our house?”

“Don’t give a fuck about Axel. Roux and I are together.” In defense mode, Butcher expected them to have an opinion, they’d had a lot to say back then too about how dumb he’d been to mess with the baby-girl of another Prez.

“Hermano, you got a death wish or what? This stinks of trouble. You want that?”

Trouble, not so much, but Roux? Absolutely. He’d walk through Hell to have her at the end of it.

He didn’t bite into an automatic retort even when he wanted to. The boys were looking out for him. So, he met each of their stares. “Roux is my girl. I know it’s not ideal, but it doesn’t make her any less my girl.”

“You realize what this means, for the treaty betweenDiablosand theSouls.” Rider spoke.

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