Page 125 of Ridin’ Dirty

“Cut the shit. We know you’re tryin’ to settle the score. Trouble is, you got your math all wrong. You keep it up and there will be war between our club and yours. And if you think you’re lookin’ at the whole of it, you’d be wrong.”

“You think we’re afraid of you? Bring it the fuck on,” declared Razor.

“Maybe your dumb ass isn’t afraid of us,” began another of the Stallions, this one younger, yet no less formidable. “But we’re not talkin’ violence in the streets. One call to Gabriel Alverez, and whatever drug game you got goin’ up here is dead. We’re not tryin’ to lose lives, but it’ll be your men lost if it comes to it.”

“A life has already been lost,” barked Duke. “You’re gonna come on our turf and threaten us? You’re the ones who started this fuckin’ mess!”

“What you call a mess, I call justice,” argued Nighthawk. “You went after family—my family,” he bellowed, jabbing a finger into his chest. “Fang in the ground is less than an eye for an eye. You got off fuckin’ easy.

“Call off your dogs. Stay out of our territory. Stay the fuck away from my daughter, or I swear to god, we will dismantle your club piece by piece.”

He said what he came to say, and they all understood that as he gave his back to Duke and returned to his Harley. The other Stallions revved their engines all the while, the sound loud and obnoxious, drowning out any hope of a King response.

Carmine didn’t watch the others as they went to their hogs, his focus trained on the back of Duke’s head. He could tell by the set of his shoulders, the man was furious; but what Nighthawk said was true. They were let off easy. The Kings were one club in one city. They couldn’t survive the warfare with which they’d been threatened—a truth smarter men would heed.

But when Duke turned around, his eyes full of prideful rage, Carmine knew…

The end was coming.

Five Days Later

I’d been thinking about it for days…

The look in his eyes.

The words he said.

‘I can’t stop it this time.’

I didn’t understand what it meant. More than that, I couldn’t let it go. It was like a nagging realization not yet fully formed in the back of my mind, trapped in my confusion. It didn’t make sense—my brother helping the Stallions.

Unless a piece of my best friend was still in there.

Maybe the Copper Kings hadn’t swallowed him whole after all.

Of course, I wasn’t stupid enough to hang my hopes on it; but it gave me enough gumption to work up the nerve to seek him out. The fact that it was his birthday gave me all the excuse I needed to plan a trip to the King compound.

In the days following the Stallion’s last visit, things had calmed down a bit. The Kings and their whores weren’t trying to turn tricks outside of their territory, and Route 66 had returned to business as usual. Or, almost—Max still laying low with her aunt in North Dakota, at Nighthawk’s insistence. No one was assuming things would simply go back to normal after the latest confrontation, but the lack of escalation implied the Kings didn’t have a death wish.

All that said, it meant I was still pulling doubles a couple days a week for Viv, which only left me with a free morning to pay my brother a visit. I was up earlier than usual, but still not early enough to catch Riley and Reaper before his workout. I was dressed for the day and in the process of making my coffee when I heard them return through the back door. I smiled, hopeful he didn’t come home empty handed.

“Did you bring me something good?” I asked, not bothering to turn around.

My smile developed into a quiet chuckle when I felt him at my back. He extended an arm on either side of me, propping himself up against the counter as he brought his lips to my ear and muttered, “I’m always a good time.”

He reeked of sweat, but the heat of him wrapped around me was stupidly comforting, so I didn’t repel from the scent of him.

“You know what I mean,” I replied, pushing my backside into him playfully. “Not sure I have time for much more than breakfast if you’ve got any.”

“Where you goin’ this early?”

No longer feeling quite so playful, positive he wouldn’t like my response, I cleared my throat before I admitted, “It’s Carmy’s birthday.”

I felt him stiffen.

“So?”

“I just want to talk to him, baby. I⁠—”