He sent the message, which said he would meet them all at Lee’s house, and that it was important. Life or death important.

Once they’d all assembled at Lee’s and texted back Where the fuck are you? I had Tex tell them, Change of plans – get the fuck over here ASAP.

“They’re gonna know this ain’t me,” Tex said.

“How’s that?”

“This ‘ASAP’ bullshit. I don’t use fuckin’ acronyms.”

“You just used the word ‘acronym.’”

“So?”

“It’s a hell of a lot more complicated than ‘ASAP.’”

“I’m what you might call an idiot savant in that regard,” he said in his country drawl. “But I still don’t use fuckin’ ‘ASAP.’”

“Maybe you got one of those ‘word of the day’ calendars.”

“Do I look like a guy who’s got a ‘word of the day’ calendar? Hell, do I look like a guy who’s got a fuckin’ calendar?”

With his greasy hair, unkempt beard, and sweat-stained t-shirt, he had a point.

“And why the fuck did you make ‘em go to Lee’s, if all you wanna do is get ‘em over here?” Tex complained.

“I want them all to show up at the same time.”

“Why, may I ask?”

“Because I don’t want to have to repeat myself four times.”

“Well hell, Jack, it may help, since I still got no fuckin’ clue why you’re here.”

“Shut up and have some hair of the dog. Your hangover’s making you cranky.”

 Three of the four made it; Bucky was the only no-show. They arrived about an hour later, proving nobody either knew or cared about the meaning of ‘ASAP.’

First I heard the motorcycles pull up. Once the engines cut off, I heard them cursing out in the front yard at Bowser.

“Tex, get this goddamn dog the fuck outta my face ‘fore I have to shoot it!”

“BOWSER! GO ON, NOW!” Tex yelled, and the Rottweiler stopped barking.

The front door opened and Fishbone, Lee, and Indiana ambled into the tiny front hallway. I heard them before I saw them, their boot heels clunking on the decades-old, warped hardwood floors.

“Tex, what the fuck’re you doin’ textin’ at the ass-crack of dawn?” Lee yawned.

“And what the fuck’s with all this ‘ASAP’ shit?” Fishbone called out.

Tex looked at me like, See?

Indiana was the first to walk into the room. As soon as he saw me he stopped cold, and the other two basically plowed into him.

“What the fuck, Indiana – ”

Then they all saw me, and the room went quiet.

“Jesus Christ,” Lee whispered.

“Hey guys,” I said neutrally.

They all looked back and forth between me and Tex, like they were trying to figure out if this was a set-up or not.

“Why is it that every time one of you fuckers see me, I feel like I’m at my own funeral?” I asked.

“Maybe ‘cause Lou’s fixin’ to throw you one,” Tex said.

“Jack,” Indiana said, “let me just be the first to say, I’m real fuckin’ sorry about how all that went down at the Roadhouse – ”

“Thank you, Indiana, but that’s not why I’m here. Where’s Bucky?”

They all looked at Tex again, who shrugged.

“Didn’t answer,” Fishbone said.

“Probably balls-deep in a hooker, if he’s even conscious,” Lee said.

Indiana continued, “Jack, let me just say, I AM sorry about that shit. I wanted to step up and help, Jack, I swear to God I did, but – ”

I was getting a little pissed now. I’d thought I was over it, but I guess I wasn’t.

“I said that’s not why I’m here.”

My tone was a little shorter than I meant it to be.

“Then what are you here for, Jack?” Fishbone asked.

“I need you guys to leave town for a while. Tell Bucky, too, when you get a hold of him – and Sanford and Craig, too. Tell them they should get the hell out of Dodge – immediately – and stay gone for a week or two. Anywhere, doesn’t matter, as long as it’s at least three or four hours away. Out of state would be better.”

They all stared at me like I had a horn growing out of my forehead.

“What?” I demanded.

“Look, whatever the fuck’s goin’ on between you and Lou, is between you and Lou,” Tex said. “It don’t concern us.”

“This isn’t about me and Lou – ”

“The fuck it ain’t,” Lee muttered.

I glared at him. “You got something to say?”

Lee kept quiet. So did Fishbone and Indiana.

“I got somethin’ to say,” Tex snapped. “Eyeball. Chuck. Benjy. Wild Bill. Cowboy. Jergens. Irish. And Vince. That’s what I got to say.”

My stomach tightened. Other than Benjy, those were all the Midnight Riders who had tried to kill me, Kade, and Fiona.

And now they were all dead.

“What’s Lou been telling you?” I asked.

Tex’s fixed me with a cold stare. “Enough. Where’s Kade? You kill him, too?”

“No, he’s recovering from getting shot by one of Lou’s assholes,” I snarled. “In fact, Eyeball and Cowboy tried to kill me at my house two nights ago, right before they torched it to the ground. Vince, too, I guess, from what you said. And Chuck, Wild Bill, Jergens, and Irish tried to kill me and Kade yesterday at Lou’s meth lab, right before Lou put five bullets in Benjy’s back.”

Everybody’s voices started overlapping.

“Meth lab?!”

“Bullshit – ”

“No fuckin’ way – ”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Tex said, waving his hand to shut the others up. “You’re tellin’ me Lou’s got a meth lab?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re tellin’ me Lou killed Benjy – not you.”

“That’s right.”

“Why the fuck would he do that?”

“Because Benjy killed that stripper a year ago – remember her?”

“Yeah, so?”

His flippancy about Ali’s death enraged me; for the first time, I wanted to bitch-slap him.

“SO,” I snarled, “besides the obvious point that she didn’t deserve to die – Lou was trying to cover his tracks. He was the one who put Benjy up to shooting her.”

“And why the fuck did he do that?”

Shit.

I knew exactly how the answer was going to go over.

“Because Lou suspected her of being a snitch for the DEA,” I said.

The other three by the door cursed.

Tex shrugged. “Then I’d say the bitch got what she deserved.”

I stared at him angrily. “We turned over a new leaf three years ago, Tex. We said we weren’t going to do that shit anymore.”

He sneered at me. “I think it was also implied somewhere in there that we weren’t supposed to kill other brothers in the MC.”

“Maybe you should’ve told that to Lou before he sent them to kill me,” I snarled.

“I think there’s some things you ain’t tellin’ us, Jack. And I think those things are probably the one bit of truth in all this bullshit you’re shovelin’.”

This was not going how I’d wanted.

“I came here to warn you assholes to stay away for your own goddamn good – ”

Tex ignored me. “Like, who was at your house the other night when Eyeball, Cowboy, and Vince allegedly decided to torch the place?”

“Allegedly’s a big fuckin’ word for a guy who doesn’t use ‘ASAP.’”

“I guess it was on that Word of the Day calendar, motherfucker,” Tex said coldly. “Was that whore from the Roadhouse there at your house? That private eye bitch?”

My hands tightened into fists. I was glad my gun wasn’t within easy reach, because Tex would be a dead man if it was.

“Her name’s Fiona, and don’t talk about her that way,” I snarled.

“Was she there or not, Jack?”

“That has nothing to do with – ”

“WAS SHE FUCKIN’ THERE OR NOT?” Tex roared.

I glared at him. “Yeah. She was.”

The reaction from Lee, Fishbone, and Indiana was less than positive.

“Uh huh,” Tex drawled. “And have you been in contact with Sloane and the Bastards lately, Jack?”

Now I stared at him in shock.

Did Lou tell them EVERYTHING that’d been going on?

“I think that look on your face pretty much answers my questions,” Tex said. “‘Course, it looks a little suspicious that you didn’t volunteer that information up front.”

I suddenly got a cold feeling in my gut. I couldn’t say what it was, exactly – just the sense that something wasn’t right.

I glanced at Lee, Fishbone, and Indiana. They were all tense.

I looked over at Tex and saw his right hand was sliding between the cushions of his sofa.

Though he looked outwardly calm, a bead of sweat slowly trickled down the side of his face.

Then he moved.

I lunged up out of the recliner, grabbing my own gun from the back of my jeans.

Tex came out with a piece of crap .38. Of course, being hungover, he wasn’t nearly as fast as me.

I pulled the trigger.

BLAM!

Tex’s right shoulder sprayed red, and the .38 dropped to the floor.