Page 38 of Brooks (Dirty Misfits MC 1)
I turned on the coffee pot. “Then, he said ‘Plan B requires him. You know that.’”
“Who?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. But I remember those words exactly. His voice… it was, almost distorted in a way. Like, he was possessed or something.”
“Or desperate,” he murmured.
I furrowed my brow. “Desperate?”
He shook his head. “Was there anything else?”
I leaned against the counter and folded my arms across my chest. “Nothing after that. He caught me in the hallway eavesdropping and told me that if I opened my mouth to anyone about anything I had just witnessed, I’d have to deal with him.”
Brooks’ eyes darkened. “He threatened you?”
“He made me promise I wouldn’t say a word and then made me keep my gaze out the window. Like he didn’t want me watching him at all.”
“Did he say anything else to you after that?”
I hesitated. “I mean—”
Brooks closed the distance between us. “What did he say, Raven?”
I looked up at him and held my breath. “He said if I didn’t do as he asked, the fate that would ‘befall me’ would be worse than what I could ever imagine.”
I decided not to tell him about the kiss against my ear. Brooks already looked as if his head were about to pop off with anger, and if I told him Chops physically touched me?
I wasn’t sure the man wouldn’t end up right back in jail for murder.
“Anything else?” he glowered.
I didn’t want to lie to him. “Please, don’t ask me that.”
He narrowed his eyes. “If that man said something—”
I shook my head. “He said nothing after that, I swear.”
He paused. “So, he did something.”
My eyes watered. “Brooks, please. You’re scaring me, just like Gage used to.”
That seemed to disarm him, and he physically backed away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean t-to scare you.”
I released the breath I had held. “It’s okay.”
He raked his hands through his hair. “Did that man hurt you?”
I looked him dead in his eyes. “No. I’d tell you if that happened, one hundred percent. He didn’t hurt me at all. Just scared me pretty badly.”
He ran his hands down his face. “Son of a bitch. I’m gonna kill him.”
I rushed to his side. “No. Don’t even joke about that.”
He glared down at me. “Who the hell said it was a joke?”
I cupped his cheeks. “Brooks, promise me you won’t hurt him. Not now, anyway. You can’t fight Chops just because of me, okay?”
I waited until Brooks nodded before I released my hold on him. I mean he wasn’t the only one who didn't like Chops. I was never fond of the man. We never saw eye to eye on anything, and the way he treated the women around him disgusted me. Every single hook-up he ever had, he talked down to them like dogs. He’d boast about his escapades as if their worth meant nothing to him, and no girlfriend he’d ever had around lasted more than a couple of weeks. The man was a walking relic of the past in his ways with women, and it sickened me that he ran the club my late husband gave his life for.
Brooks turned his back and walked into the living room. “Jesus fuck, I want to strangle him so badly.”
My head fell back. “And you can do that if you want, but not on my account. Find out what he’s up to first. Make that the reason. Because whatever his plan was, it backfired.”
He slowly looked over at me. “So, he’ll be using another plan.”
I reached for the dinging coffee pot. “Yep. Want a cup?”
“Please.”
I grinned. “You’re the only tough guy I’ve ever come across that has manners.”
“Gage had manners.”
I clicked my tongue. “Sometimes.”
He chuckled. “Guess that’s better than nothing.”
Maybe. “Anyway, I assume you’re going to have to enlist the help of the guys to do this. Who do you trust?”
I grabbed both of the mugs of coffee and walked over to him as he started talking.
“Right now? The only person I really, truly trust is Porter. But the guys sort of proved to me this morning that I can kind of trust all of them. Thanks.”
I passed off his coffee. “Welcome. How so? What happened this morning?”
He eased himself onto the couch. “Well, it’s not protocol usually to talk about church meetings with outsiders, but since this kind of happened after the meeting…”
I placed my hand on his knee. “What happened?”
He looked over at me. “The guys essentially admitted to me that Chops is out of control and something needs to be done about him.”
I patted it before sipping my coffee. “That’s good. That’s very good.”
He slid his phone out of his pocket. “And I’m probably going to shoot Archer a text here in a second to keep an eye and an ear out for Chops while I’m gone. The man will have more of an emotional stake in all of this.”
