Page 48 of Phantom
“What?” Barnard barked. “Why? He’s not an officer. Even we are not allowed in those meetings.”
“I decided that having our new secretary in the meeting was important,” Nick responded.
Secretary? Although his words flipped me upside down internally, I held my best poker face as everyone, Tess included, turned to look at me with shock.
“Secretary?” Tess asked before turning to look at her dad. “This may sound like a shock coming from me, but we didn’t vote on that.”
“Exactly!” Avery barked. “The bylaws say—”
“All officers must be nominated by an existing officer and voted and approved by a majority vote,” Taylor finished. “All of which, CJ was not.”
“I like CJ, obviously,” Tess said, “but there’s a certain way that we’re supposed to do things.”
The fear in Tess’ voice was similar to that when her dad first invited me into the meeting the night before at MiD. In this situation, I agreed with her whole-heartedly. Nick’s blatant disregard for the rules was going to get me killed.
“I’m fine with earning my position,” I said.
“Nicky,” Bullet started.
Suddenly, Nick pulled a gun out of his waistband, stuck it straight up in the air, and shot. The bullet pierced the bar ceiling with a deafening crack and sent splinters of wood flying everywhere. With just as much calmness as he might have if he were doing laundry, Nick set the gun down on the bar’s corner and crossed his arms.
“I’m the fucking president,” Nick said. “I know what’s best for us.” He pointed at me. “CJ is a new era that’s going to take our club to the next level.” The hushed tone in his voice was still terrifyingly loud in the silent room. “But, I understand your concerns, so let’s do things the right way.” He glared around the group. “I’m nominating CJ for the currently vacant position of Secretary of the Steel Knights. All in favor?”
Tess looked at me, and with a sigh, slowly raised her hand. “Aye.”
Nick turned and tossed a leer down at Bullet, who, after a long stare off, raised his hand into the air. “Aye.”
Bernard was next in Nick’s crosshairs, and he held out for much longer than Bullet but soon realized Nick wasn’t planning to relent. He held his hand up, not even extending his arm to do it. “Aye.”
Nick’s gaze shifted to Avery, but Avery had already caught on. He held up his hand. “Yeah, aye, Nicky,” he said, but he shook his head and rolled his eyes.
Finally, Nick stared over at Tayor. “That’s a majority vote.”
Taylor glared back at his father. “So it is.”
I locked eyes with Tess, and I knew that we thought the same thing at the same time.
This isn’t good.
Suddenly, all of my plans were shifting dramatically. Nick was a great guy. He’d welcomed me into his club and his family, and he had treated me better than anyone ever had in my entire life. That didn’t change the fact that he was forcing me into a position that wouldn’t be good for me, him, or Tess.
He was making it so that staying wasn’t an option.
The confidence that I had that I could tell Nick the truth about where I’d really come from and not have him behave irrationally was abating fast. He was becoming a wild horse, and if his brotherhood’s reactions were any indicator, he’d never been like that before. I had to leave, and it had to be soon so that things could return to normal before everything he and those before him had built came crumbling down.
“So, with that sorted, does anyone have any objections to getting on with what I fucking wanted to get on with?” No one responded, so Nick grabbed his gun, slid it back into his waistband, and then continued. “Good. We spoke with the Blazing Rebels and the Raging Vipers last night, and they’re going to help us in a few different ways, the main of which will be helping us plan an ambush. That will only happen after we’ve done some reconnaissance. One of you will take one of the members into Rumble to see what you can see. Is there a volunteer?”
When my hand went up, it was met with a melody of scoffs and gasps of disbelief.
Nick pointed at me. “CJ?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Nick recoiled a bit. “You don’t?”
Luther was a paranoid psychopath who kept more guards stationed around Rumble than the Secret Service kept around the White House. If two people he’d never seen before came wandering into Rumble, he’d know within minutes, and if they weren’t Oscar-worthy liars, he’d blow their brains out before they were a hundred yards inside the city limits.
“No. The plan you laid out about the rumor, that’s good, but we shouldn’t do it in the desert, and we shouldn’t wait…” I didn’t want to sound too knowledgeable, but I knew Luther had rushed off impulsively toward an enemy more than once, mostly because he was a lunatic who loved to fight. “If it were me, and I suddenly heard that my rival gang was battling with itself, I’d try and take immediate action, maybe even before I could rally all of my allies to help. I would assume there was enough conflict that I could take advantage with just a few men.” I cleared my throat. “That’s just me, though.”
