Page 94 of Thug

“I don’t give a fuck if you stare at the floor,” I said. “But I need you to pay attention.”

“I’m listening,” he muttered.

“All ears,” Panzer said. “Have at it.”

I tossed my half-eaten donut in the trash and licked my fingers clean. “Gray went shopping one day and told the salesclerk who was helping her that she’d opened a biker bar. The chick asked her if she knew Randall Holderman. Said they’d been—”

“Same Randall Holderman?” Panzer asked.

“Same Randall Holderman,” I replied.

“Go ahead,” he said. “Just making sure.”

“So, this chick explains that she’s been fucking Holderman, and that he didn’t show up for a date. Gray tells her that she’s got a bar that’s filled with bikers every night. She says she’ll ask around about him. So, she does. She asks Brisco if he knows Holderman.”

Brisco raised his head. “Where’s this headed? You ain’t said two words to me in a week, and now you’re telling us old news in private.”

“In the meeting today, I’m telling the men the truth about all of this,” I explained. “I thought it was only fitting that you two know everything before the meeting. I didn’t want to take either of you by surprise.”

Brisco gave me a shitty look. “Why you want to tell everybody the truth? What fucking good is that going to—”

“Gray and I are together,” I said. “We’re in a relationship. She isn’t going anywhere.”

He looked puzzled. “So?”

“So,” I said. “I think it’s important that they know her worth. That she’s a stand-up gal. That she’s not a snitch, and that she can be trusted.”

“What…” Panzer looked at Brisco and then at me. “In the fuck are you talking about?”

There was no sense in beating around the bush any longer. “Brisco thought Gray was a snitch,” I explained. “When she came up missing a few weeks back? She was really missing. Brisco had two of the fellas kidnap her, thinking it was in the club’s best interest. She was in the desert digging her own grave when—”

Panzer shot up from his seat. His eyes were filled with an undeniable intensity. With his hands balled in fists, he peered down at Brisco. “Get up!”

Brisco looked up. The only concern he seemed to have was what remained from his missing cats. He met Panzer’s angry gaze. “Sit down, asshole.”

“Get up,” Panzer said through his teeth. “You big, dumb, chicken-shit motherfucker.”

Brisco’s posture straightened. “Talking to me like that’ll get you got, little man.”

“Settle down, Panzer,” I said. “I wanted to have both of you in here so we could get through this without making a huge deal of it.”

“You can either get up, or I’ll stomp your ass where you sit,” Panzer seethed. “That girl has done nothing but take us in like family. You’re a piece of shit—”

Brisco’s stood, slowly. Assuming they were going to argue, he opened his mouth to speak.

Panzer swung a haymaker with his right hand.

His fist plowed into the lower portion of Brisco’s jaw. The impact resembled a freight train colliding with a car that had been abandoned on the tracks. The sickening sound of bone hitting bone and teeth being knocked together caused me to cringe.

Brisco’s legs folded up like a cheap lunch bag. His body hit the floor with a thud.

“Jesus, Panzer,” I said, clearing the corner of my desk. “You knocked him the fuck out!”

“Good thing,” he said, rubbing his fist. “Because if I hadn’t, Ida kept hitting that prick until he was dead.”

I felt for a pulse. “Well, he’s alive.”

“Damned shame,” Panzer murmured.