Page 73 of Cougar

“Think it’s his way of retaliating for us fucking up his man?” Willie asks.

“No,” I pipe up. “Knuckles would never do that. If he wanted us dead for doing what was done, he would have done it already. He would have done it then. This is something else.” I walk to our prospect’s lifeless body. Scattered all around him look to be pictures. “Come look.”

I kneel down and grab one of the photos. In a grainy picture is the prospect outside of a building talking to Stephens. I grab another. He’s meeting with Bigfoot at our storage units. The same ones where Mallory was kept. Pulling another, it’s texts from his phone. All correspondence with someone labeled BF. Not hard to figure out who that is.

BF: It will be fine

Me: It fucking wont! U were supposed to get rid of her. Not keep her like a fucking pet!

BF: Dont talk to me like you know WTF ur doing. Ive been in this game for years.

Me: Jesus fucking christ. Why do you have her anyway?

BF: Something about her

Me: Didnt realize ur a P.

BF: TF I am! Shell be legal soon.

Me: Haha. Ur fucked, man. Fucked. Find another we can turn into the boss or we’ll both be fucked in another way.

BF: Dont fucking worry about it.

“Oh my god, this has to be about Mallory,” I say. I look up and find Prez, passing him the piece of paper. He takes a moment and reads it through before he gathers more pictures.

“Son of a bitch. Bigfoot wasn’t working alone. So even after Bigfoot was taken, this piece of shit was still here. He had access to all of us. He’s the one who…” Cowboy trails off and stands up. We barely have time to dive out of the way before his gun is pointed at the prospect, and Cowboy is unloading a clip into his dead body.

Once the clip is empty, Cowboy drops to the ground. “He tried to kill my dad. This fucker tried to kill my dad, and because of him, Storm’s gone. This isn’t enough. I need more bullets. Someone give me a fucking gun!” he shouts, but none of us listen. His head falls into his hands. Dizz wraps himself around Cowboy and holds him.

The moment he pulls Cowboy into his chest, I can see Prez relax. This is something none of us would be able to do for him. We all let them be for a while as we continue to go through the pictures. One, in particular, catches my eye. It’s incredibly grainy. It looks as if Knuckles was able to clear up a broken image. Or one that someone tried to destroy? I don’t know. I know fuck all about computers.

“Butcher,” I call out and look up from the picture. Sticking my hand out, I tell him, “Look.”

Butcher reaches across the body and takes the picture. He squints at it and turns his head sideways before his face goes red. “This mother fucker killed my piggies.” He gets up, crumbles the paper in his fist, and walks away.

“Where the hell is he going?” Gears asks.

“I don’t know, but something tells me none of us are going to like it,” Sever responds.

Cowboy clears his throat, and we all turn our attention toward him. He stands up and pats Dizz on the back. “Alright, I don’t know what the fuck Butcher went off to do, but I’m not waiting for him. We need to get back to what we were talking about before this happened. Why the fuck Artem showed up.”

I knew this was coming. I glance around at everyone before I take a deep breath. “I got him here. I saw the way Whitley, Mallard, whatever, was acting. He’s in love with Knuckles. It’s clear as day.”

I watch as Cowboy’s eye twitches. “You had no right,” he yells at me.

“You’re right. I didn’t. But you saw them. Those two fucking love each other. The same way I love AJ and the same way you love Bri. Plus, I took a chance when I thought back to every time I had to deal with him as Mallard. He never once treated me like the others did. Never. And let’s not forget that he didn’t process anything from Rambo when he was accused of murdering Steffie. And what do you know? I was right to trust my gut. You wanna put me on the ring after this is over? Go ahead. I did what was right, and I don’t regret it.” I snap.

Cowboy goes to say something in return when the doors slam open. Butcher walks toward us with, oh, shit. “Move!” We all dash away from the body just as Butcher swings the giant machete up and back down onto the prospect’s body. He starts hacking, and I gag, but when blood spatter gets on Angel, we all decide it’s best to let Butcher do what he’s gonna do and leave the barn.

“You had no right, Cougar!” Cowboy tells me again.

I sigh, “I know I didn’t. I understand what you’re saying. But, I also thought about how if it was AJ and I tied to the ring and hanging from the rafters, I would want someone to believe me, or her, when we were begging.”

“We would never harm an Ol’ Lady!” He says through clenched teeth.

“Yeah, you’re right,” I deadpan, “And you shouldn’t have hurt an Ol’ Man either. Look, I know I’m outta line. I get it, and I will accept all consequences, but you shouldn’t have done what you did,” I look at Dizz. He laid into Whitley as if Whitley was the responsible one for everything that happened to his wife.

“Yes, normally, what was done is how it’s done when someone outside of our club is being questioned. But it should have been taken into consideration he’s claimed by one of our own. You beat the fuck out of an Ol’ Man and then our brother. Instead of taking a moment to listen to what the fuck he had to say. Was I thrown off when looking at Mallard but being told his name is Whitley? Yes, of course, I was. But I also started wondering what’s going on. Knuckles has never betrayed this family. He’s done everything he could to make sure we’re okay. Fuck, he was afraid we wouldn’t want him here anymore because he’s gay.”

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