“Take us to Frank,” Jace cut in. “Him getting shot.”
Dad looked at Jace. “I hid and Frank was talking to him. They were arguing over the Bitter Aces. You guys. Your club. How to handle things. Frank wanted me to listen and make a move if need be. But then they got heated. Really fast, too. Before I could make a move, he shot Frank right in the head. Right between the eyes. That’s when I felt my heart jump. It was like a sledgehammer to my chest. I had to wait for him to leave and I bolted. I got into my car and drove myself to the hospital. I collapsed in the ER waiting room and when I woke up, I was here.”
“You keep saying he,” Jace pointed out.
“Who is he?” I asked. “My brother?”
Dad nodded. “Yes, your brother.”
“And what’s the name?” Jace asked. “So I can get this figured out.”
Dad looked at Jace. “His name is Glen.”
I looked at Jace and saw his face drop. I’d never see the look on Jace’s face before.
“What is it?” I asked him.
“Glen,” Jace said. He looked at me. “That’s the guy who tried to kill me.”
chapter twenty-five
(jace)
NOW
I stood at the table. Smoke lingered in the air. Everyone had spoken their mind and now it was silent. Everyone taking a drink here and there. Our thoughts racing wild. We had everything laid out on the table.
Glen was the guy who tried to take me out all those years ago. He was the one running the games in and out of Bishop. He was the guy who had kept Frank as a pawn. Which then made Jake a pawn.
Now it was time to strike back and take Glen down.
That’s where all eyes went to Sid. He was the President. It was up to him to formulate a plan for us to vote on.
But I sensed something about the table. Something wasn’t quite right. A couple of the older guys - at the far end of the table - they just sat there with a weird look on their faces.
“What is it?” I asked. “I’m feeling something here.”
“You tell him,” Bill said in a rough voice. “I’m not fucking spilling old blood.”
“Old blood?” I asked.
“Sit down,” Sid said to me.
I listened.
I looked to the door.
I had Ava in the clubhouse. She was in the back in a spare room that I used as a fuck pad. Her father ended up getting all worked up at the hospital and needed to be sedated. The nurse filled in the gaps. The son of a bitch had been so hopped up on pills that his heart couldn’t handle it. There was a risk of heart attack, the possibility of surgery, and, shit, he might just croak right there in the hospital.
It was a fucking mess.
Ava was doing her best to process basically a life of lies.
I tried to be there for her, shutting my anger down.
Christ, imagine it… she had a secret brother. And that brother killed her mother. Jake confessed that the murder involved money and jealousy. Glen was jealous that Ava had a normal life and he didn’t. He was a brutal man.
And I was about to find out just how brutal.
“Glen was a prospect for the MC,” Sid said.
The entire table lit up with grumbles. Sid whistled and waved a hand. Everyone shut their mouths.
Sid kept his stare to mine. “He was brought in by some old guys. I was sitting VP to Spade. We were rebuilding after a bloody war way out in Reno. We were focusing on the small town feel again. Glen was fast paced and no fear. That’s what caught all our attention. He was intense. A month into things he started going too far. Breaking out of his role. Hurting people. Getting picked up for dumb crimes. And then we got word he was working behind our backs. Going to the guys that were connected, wanting to trade favors. In my opinion Glen wanted to blackmail the Bitter Aces into a leather cut. That didn’t fly with Spade. Or me.”
“He was voted out,” I said. “Lost his prospect cut but not his life.”
Sid nodded. “We had no concrete proof. We weren’t in a position to start taking out our own guys. So we made some cuts to our prospects and we included him. He got pissed off. Really pissed off. He promised to come back at us, hard. We took it for what it was worth. Spade had him roughed up a few times and then he slipped away. That was the end… or so we thought.”
“Until he attacked me,” I said.
“Yeah. By then he was moving up the ranks in his own gang and shit with the MC was getting shaky. We prevented a war by killing Arnie, even if Glen slipped away. Spade called a truce and let it all slide. I swear to you, Jace, I voted against that. I sat in the VP seat and…”