“Are you threatening me, Anderson?”
He laughed. “Kingston, if I wanted you to be threatened, you would be. If I wanted you dead, you would be. If I wanted you rotting in a prison cell, you would be. But here you are, standing with a motorcycle between your legs. And I’m going to set the tone for the rest of your day. And your life. I was going to wait for this, King, but I feel I’ve pushed hard at you.”
“What the fuck are you getting at?”
“Simple.” Anderson opened his jacket and took out a piece of paper. “This is going to tell you everything you need to know. An investigation I had into your brother… and your club. Years ago. Everyone has been protecting you from the truth, Kingston, but it’s time the truth comes out. I want you happy and free, Kingston. To live a great life with Lindsey, fucking her every morning in the shower and every night in bed.”
Anderson gave me the piece of paper. I unfolded it and stared down at it.
I looked up at Anderson.
“I’ll give you time alone,” he said. “My car is parked right up around that bend. Full tank of gas.”
Anderson started to walk away.
I looked back down at the paper.
The truth was there. Or at least a different version of the truth.
It contained the information of who really killed Tito.
I looked up from the letter again and Anderson was out of sight.
That was okay.
I wasn’t worried about him anymore.
I had to get to the Reap.
I had to get real revenge now.
I WALKED to the head of the table and put the paper down. I held my finger to Uncle Jakey’s name and looked him dead in the eyes. The rest of the room knew something big was brewing.
“Tell me right now. Everything. Right fucking now.”
Uncle Jakey looked at the paper then up at me. “Where did you get that?”
“Anderson,” I said. “He’s worried I’m going to flip on my deal with him. He’s been fucking with me since I met him about the truth of my brother.”
“Jesus Christ,” Knox said. “What the hell is this?”
“Everyone clear the table,” Slam said. “Let them hash this out.”
“No,” I said. “He can speak for himself.”
“Yeah, exactly,” Uncle Jakey said. He grabbed the paper from the table. “I’ll talk to my table. I have nothing to fucking hide. But can you handle it, King?”
“All I’ve fucking been through,” I said. “For this club. For my family. Sitting in prison, rotting away. I’m willing to accept death, but before I do that, I want the truth. All of it.”
“Then sit,” Uncle Jakey said. “Let’s all talk.”
I didn’t want to fucking sit but I did. I felt both Knox and Slam burning at me. Shit, if I went after Uncle Jakey and hurt him… I’d lose my cut and I’d probably get killed.
“There was a street war,” Uncle Jakey said. “I was caught in the middle. We had guys from up north pushing down into town. It was a fucking mess. Hammer still had the gavel. We knew what we were up against. The town getting overrun with thug bullshit.”
“My brother?” I asked.
“Him and his entire crew,” Uncle Jakey said. “You knew what he was doing, King. The shit he was selling. The shit he was snorting and injecting. The guy was a mess. They all were. The dealers became the users. And when they become users… fucking junkies have no straight mind.”
“What are you getting at with this?” Knox asked.
“We took a vote to push back,” Uncle Jakey said. “We couldn’t let the thing escalate. The plan was to muscle them out of our way. Push them somewhere else. Drive them into another town and let them all get busted.” Uncle Jakey looked at me. “For Tito… we wanted to save him. I promise you that, King. We wanted to pull him out of that and get him cleaned up. In fact, your mother even met with Hammer one time to talk. We all knew what he meant to you and we all wanted him to be under the protection of the Reap.”
I felt the anger rising inside me, knowing that the story wasn’t going to end well because I already knew the ending. The ending was with Tito taking a fucking bullet and dying.
“That didn’t happen,” I said. “What happened…”
“Was that your brother organized a small group to take down the Reap,” Uncle Jakey said.
The entire room fell silent.
All eyes were then on me, waiting for my reaction.
“What?” I asked.
“You heard me,” Uncle Jakey said. “Your brother set up a group to attack us. He wanted to take out Hammer. He knew about your mother meeting Hammer. He hated that you were so far into the Reap. And he knew we weren’t going to allow their drugs and violence to keep pushing into town. The big players were already moving away. So the junkies started to scramble. I’m sorry, King, but when you take out a hit on the President of this club…”
“Shit,” Slam said. “You guys took out his brother.”