Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 118333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Tank slapped AK on the back. “Leave him. It’s his brother. He wants to stay with Flame and Madds. You know how he is.”
AK squeezed Ash’s shoulder before walking away. Beau’s face flashed in my mind for a second. But before my chest could fucking crack further and leave me paralyzed, I let the image go. Tank must have sensed something was wrong, because he hooked his arm around my neck and said, “Whiskey, Tann. Now.”
I followed him to the bar, from where I could hear raised voices. When we walked in, I instantly felt the tension in the room. Arizona and Gull’s prez had gone, off to get the bodies of his brothers. We made our way to our chapter. Zane, a prospect and AK’s nephew, was behind the bar. I saw him take a deep breath of relief when he saw AK walking toward him. AK leaned over the bar and kissed the kid’s head, telling him without words that he was okay.
I couldn’t fucking take it. All the fucking family shit, the old-lady shit. Seeing it every day was like a cancer eating away at me. Fucking showing me what I didn’t have.
“Zane. Bottle of Beam.” Tank’s voice sounded next to me. I sat on a bar stool, away from Bull, Hush, and Cowboy. I wasn’t fucking welcome on that table. Could see Bull and Hush always watching me. The fucking Nazi they’d been forced to let into their lives. “Ignore it,” Tank said. I closed my eyes, then opened them again when Tank put a shot of whiskey in front of me. I knocked it back.
The noise of the bar disappeared around me as Tank asked, “You see any of them?” I nodded. Tank handed me another shot. “You know them?”
“Yeah.”
“You train them?”
I paused, letting the guilt seep in. The guilt I deserved. “Yeah.” Tank placed his hand on my back. I took another shot, waiting for the whiskey to numb me. I dropped the empty glass to the bar top. “But they got new tricks.”
Tank didn’t speak for a few seconds. I knew he was judging if I could fucking handle it. Then he said, “Beau.” It wasn’t a question.
I rubbed at my eyes. I felt tired, but my body never let me sleep. Instead, in the dark hours, my brain decided to showcase every fucking thing I’d ever done that I regretted. Screaming at me that, outside of Tank and Beauty, I had no one. And worse . . . that my brother, my once best friend, was now running the soldiers I’d been raised to lead. Beau, who had idolized me so much he’d followed me into the army, only to come out to find me gone and standing shoulder to shoulder with his enemies.
Beau, who was now using all his army knowhow to fight a war against me. Fuck, I hadn’t even had the chance to say goodbye to him before I got the fuck out of the Klan for good. Just upped and left him. He never tried to find me. I’d never heard from him at all since he’d come home.
It was clear he was gonna always be Klan. Believed the ideology still. And no doubt no longer saw me as his brother, but as a traitor to his race.
He’d hate me now.
My own brother hated me.
“They’re good,” I said to Tank. “They’re real fucking good.” I took another shot and checked around us to make sure no one was listening. They weren’t. Too busy dealing with their own place in this war.
I stared down at the empty shot glass in my hands. “I get that the Hangmen are strong. Their reach is unrivaled. And they have a lot of ex-military. Psychos who would kill just for fun. But today . . .” I shook my head. “Fuck, Tank. For weeks now we’ve been hit by the Klan. And each time they’ve been organized, mobilized, and trained to do exactly what they set out to do.” I laughed, no humor. “He’s done it.” Tank looked at me. I could tell by his face he knew exactly what I was going to say. “My old man. His dream has been realized. He has a Klan army. One that can actually do what he wants—start a real fucking war.” I shook my head, guilt burrowing a hole in my stomach. “And I’m responsible for creating it.” Tank poured another whiskey. “Destroyer of worlds.”
Tank smirked. “Oppenheimer quotes? You’re getting deep, brother. We’ll blame the whiskey.”
“It’s true. I created the Klan nuclear bomb, and now I get to sit back and watch it get dropped.” My throat started to close, but I managed to rasp out, “Get to watch my brother, my fucking baby brother, be the one to give the order.”
“We’ll stop them, Tann.” Tank gestured to the brothers from all the southern state chapters in the room. “We got men. We got balls.” Tank pointed to himself, then me. “We got us. We know the Klan. Maybe we just need to start thinking that way again. To figure out what their plans might be.” Another shot, the numbness this time starting to spread through my veins. I rolled my neck, my muscles loosening as the liquor began to do its job. “And we got your contact, yeah? Still got someone inside who’s helping?”