“I’m fine,” I confirmed, tipping his head toward the ambulance rolling into the parking lot.
We walked away from “Dirty Harry” and made our way to Pops. He was crouched down on the ground over the young worker’s body. The kid had taken a shot to the leg and would be fine but Pops was obviously shaken up. Wu had shot the joint up and taken our guns, desecrating any future deal we were trying to make with Spinelli.
“We’re sure it was Wu?” Riggs asked.
Good question.
I pinned Jack with a look, questioning him with my eyes, knowing we had two clubs gunning for us when everyone else only was worried about one.
“Yeah, they didn’t even try to hide their identity, sending their message loud and clear,” Wolf said as he lit up a cigarette. “Those fucking Dragons, man,” he took a puff and turned toward Jack. “Give me the green light, make them watch as I fuck all their mothers,” he offered.
“Christ, Wolf,” Bones snarled. “What the fuck did their mothers do to you?”
“Them bitches brought those fucks into the world,” he insisted.
Fact.
Jack patted my shoulder, assuring me it was Wu, and proceeded to Pops, giving him his undivided attention. I turned around and stared at the damage, knowing it would take a lot to bounce back from this.
I overheard Jack promise Pops he would make things right.
“Yeah, you will,” Pops announced as the paramedics pushed him aside to work on the kid. “Don’t feel like revisiting history son, did my time, buried enough innocent lives to last a lifetime.” He rose to his feet, brushing the dirt from his pants and stepped closer to Jack. “You need to get a handle on these bastards before they draw more blood,” he demanded.
Another fact.
The paramedics pushed us aside and worked on the kid, applying pressure to the wound as the other opened the ambulance doors. They lifted the stretcher into the back of the ambulance and Pops climbed up, taking a seat on the bench beside the kid. The paramedic closed the door before running around to the driver’s side. The sirens sounded and brought me back to the day I sat on the floor holding Christine and waited for help.
I shook my head, refusing to go back to that hell, knowing I didn’t have time for that trip. I walked back over to Riggs and Jack, back in beast mode, ready to make someone pay for every hole in the building in front of me, not to mention the one made in that innocent kid’s leg.
“What are we going to do here?” I questioned, rolling a toothpick between my teeth before I glanced back at Brantley.
I wanted to spit in that motherfuckers face.
I wanted it more than my next breath.
“You know they’re going to be riding our asses now,” I informed Jack as I stared at the posse of assholes standing around doing nothing.
“Fuck ‘em,” Jack hissed, blowing out a heavy sigh.
“Gladly,” I ground out, spitting the toothpick onto the ground before lifting my eyes back to Jack’s. “We putting this club on lockdown?”
“No, not yet,” Jack said, surprisingly. “For now round up the prospects, put them on Reina, Lacey and Lauren,” he ordered, turning his eyes to Riggs. “That going to be a problem?”
I realized the club needed all hands on deck and I would have to pull Bones off Lacey and saddle her with a prospect. That didn’t rest with me, knowing no one would ever value her life more than me. I reminded myself we had eager prospects, young guys that would do nearly anything to earn their colors.
But would any of them stand in front of a gun aimed at her?
They better or I’d be the one pointing the gun at them.
I diverted my eyes to Riggs and watched as he fought for control over his emotions, his eyes conveying all the fear a man has after he’s found the life that’s worth more than his.
Riggs was scared of losing his heart.
I felt every ounce of his pain.
“It’s a precaution, Riggs,” Jack assured. “We need to bide our time and keep our heads. We can’t keep our heads if we’re worried about our women. You feel me?”
A third fact.
I paid close attention to the pep talk Jack was giving Riggs, pretending I was the one on the receiving end of it.
“Then trust me when I say we will get these motherfuckers,” he declared. “We always win, even when it looks like it’s impossible. You know why? Because I’ve lost too much to let anyone else ever take a goddamn thing from me and mine.”
He was talking about his son.
And I was picturing his daughter.
“Get that look out of your eyes, Riggs,” he ordered. “Looks like you found your heart, kid. Now, you have to hang on to it.”
A final fact we all needed to keep in mind.
Heart.
It wasn’t only the thing that kept you from being reckless it was what gave men like us purpose in this world.