Page 17 of Rooster

“Ah, it’s not some chick. I just...”

“What’s her name, Roost?”

“Maggie.” I glanced over at him as I admitted, “I ran into her a couple of times, but I don’t know if anything’s gonna come of it.”

“You like her?”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

“Then, make something come of it.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Of course, it is.” Wrath gave me one of his looks. “If I can make something come of me and Mia, you can make something come of you and this Maggie chick.”

He had a point. Mia was Stitch’s daughter, and he was one brother you didn’t want to piss off. Hell, most men wouldn’t dare to even glance in her direction, much less try to claim her, but Wrath would’ve walked through fire for her. There was some back and forth, but in the end, he won her over and her father, too.

That should’ve been enough to inspire me, but I’d been down this road before. I wasn’t looking to get burned, so I told him, “Yeah, yeah. We’ll see.”

“We’ll see.Hmph.” Wrath gave his beard a quick scratch. “That doesn’t sound like the Rooster I know.”

“The ball is in her court.”

“Well, if she doesn’t make a play soon, you might wanna give that ball a little nudge. That is if you think this is a game worth playing.”

“That’s just it. I’m not sure.”

“That’s something you’re gonna have to figure out later.” Wrath’s attention was drawn back to the road ahead, and as we pulled through the clubhouse gate, he ordered, “Right now, we need your focus on things here. Once we get shit settled, you can figure things out with your girlfriend.”

I gave him a nod, then parked and followed him inside to the conference room. It didn’t take long for it to fill up with the rest of the brothers, and Prez wasted no time filling them in on everything that had happened. While they all had concerns about working with Grant, they were more concerned about Cotton stepping into Bruton’s role, especially Savage.

I got it.

Cotton was his father.

During his time as president, he’d been in some tight spots, and there were times when we all feared for his life. When Cotton stepped down, Savage thought the days of him being in danger were over, but now there was a chance he was going to be taking on an even more dangerous role—a role none of us were sure he should take. I could tell by his clenched jaw that my brother was on the verge of losing it. His eyes were locked on his father as he said, “I’m not sure about this.”

“We’ve gone over this, son.” Cotton glanced over at Prez as he said, “With me in this position, we would have access to it all—the who, the when, the where. I would be the one running the show, and while I’m running it, I would be looking out for the club’s best interest at every turn.”

“But you don’t even know what you’d be getting into. It could be dangerous... really dangerous.”

“Gun running is gun running, son. It’s all dangerous,” Cotton argued. “Me taking Bruton’s place isn’t going to change that.”

“Your father is right,” Prez interjected. “This could give us a real advantage, and in this business, that’s hard to come by.”

“And we’d have some extra help from our new friend.”

“But we don’t know anything about this guy.”

“We will soon enough.”

Savage was struggling. I could see it in his eyes, but he didn’t argue. He simply gave his father a nod and let it go. I understood his concern. There were a lot of unknowns with all this, but it wasn’t anything Cotton couldn’t handle. And even if he found himself in a tight spot, we’d be there to help out. It’s what we’d always done and always would.

We’re brothers, and we were going to need each other more now than we ever had before.

Maggie

I’d been staring at my phone for at least half an hour. I’d already composed the perfect message, and it was ready to go, but for some reason, I couldn’t make myself hit that send button. I had no idea why I was hesitant. It was just a short text telling him which day to come over for dinner.

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