Devin
After the whole damn thing was over, I went home and slept for what felt like a week. Turns out it was only forty-eight hours, but damn. That’s still the longest consecutive sleep I’ve ever had in my life.
Katia did us a solid, getting us off with the cops. I knew that after that, it was my responsibility to clean up the club and make sure the cops never had a reason to fuck with us again. After all, LA’s a big city. There were lots of ways to make legitimate money, right?
When I called the guys to order, it was Troy’s first day out of the hospital. He was still bandaged up, but he was paler and shakier than he had been before the whole thing went down. I welcomed him back to the club with a night full of strippers and booze. The strange thing was he didn’t even seem interested.
“Man, you okay?” I sauntered over to Troy and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “You’re barely drinking. They still got you on meds?”
Troy shook his head. “Nope,” he said. “Just got somethin’ on my mind, that’s all.”
The other guys showed up and we partied and drank for a few hours. When I was just starting to feel the slightest buzz, I clapped my hands and called for a meeting. The guys all followed me into the meeting room of our clubhouse, and I shut the door.
“So,” I said, my voice echoing off the wood-paneled walls. “I gotta talk to y’all. Big changes in store,” I added. “And I can thank Marlo, Tristan, and Troy for helping me out of the biggest jam I’ve ever been in.”
There was raucous cheering and applause. For a moment, I smiled. It was good to be back. But there was something on my mind, something even more pressing than the needs of the club. And her name was Katia Reynolds.
“So,” I said again. “We’re gonna have to have a talk and a vote about the way we keep running things,” I said. “You guys on board with that?”
Troy, Tristan, Marlo, and the rest of the guys nodded. After I thanked them all for helping me out with a toast, we settled down into the leather chairs.
“This is serious. Katia talked to the cops. I don’t know what she did, but she worked her magic and now they’re gonna leave us alone,” I said firmly. “So, we gotta make sure we stay on the right side of the law. Y’all think we can do that?”
Tristan snorted. “Boss, come on, we gotta stay legal now?”
I nodded firmly. “I came too close to losing this club, and I’m not going to let that happen again,” I said. “And it’s your job to help out with this transition. We gotta make sure that we all have legitimate, and I mean legitimate, sources of income. I’m talking body-guarding and maybe a little security work.”
The guys nodded. “It’s a relief,” Troy called. He grinned. “I don’t fuckin’ think I can take being shot again.”
The guys all laughed for a moment until I pounded on the table and called to order.
“I don’t give a shit what it is, but you all need to figure out what you’re good at and how to make money,” I said sharply. “Find a store that needs a guard, or find a way to pass a piss test and start working as a private investigator. You think you can do that?”
Once the guys realized how dead serious I was, they agreed to change their ways in a heartbeat. In a certain sense, it was almost sad. It was like the end of an era. No more guns, no more drugs for Wicked Bones. But I knew that now we had a better chance of being able to keep our club, and furthermore, keep all of our guys out of prison.
When the meeting was over, I banged the gavel on the table and went to talk to Troy. He was still perched in a corner, watching the rest of the guys take shots and chat up the strippers. He looked forlorn and morose.
“What’s wrong, man?” Slapping a beer in Troy’s hand, I stared into his face.
“I dunno,” Troy said.
I rolled my eyes. “Always so fuckin’ verbose,” I muttered. “You okay? You havin’ nightmares or any of that PTSD shit?”
Troy snorted. “Fuck no,” he said. He took a long swallow of beer and banged the bottle down on the table. “How’re you, man? Lookin’ a little weak.”
I sighed. “I can’t get Katia out of my mind,” I muttered. “It’s been days, and I can’t stop thinking about her. I bet she fuckin’ hates me for leaving her and for not being able to save her faster. Wouldn’t you?”
Troy shook his head. “No,” he said. “And besides, she did a good thing. She took up for us with the cops, didn’t she? Why the hell do you think she hates your guts?”
“I don’t know.” I mumbled, taking a long drink of my own beer. The malty, yeasty liquid was well on its way to filling up my stomach and numbing some of the hurt and loneliness that I’d felt ever since I’d watched Katia climb into the back of a police cruiser for a ride to the hospital.
“Don’t be embarrassed, man,” Troy said. “You love her,” he added simply. “Why not just tell her?”
I squinted. “Wow, you really think I’m a fuckin’ pussy, huh?”
Troy burst out laughing. “No,” he said. “But come on, Dev. We’re getting old. We ain’t gonna be young forever. Don’t you ever think about settling down?”
I rolled my eyes. “No,” I said. “That was never my job. That was always my brother’s plan and my family’s expectations.”
“And Katia Reynolds’s not good enough? What are you waiting for? Someone better?” Troy snorted into his beer. He finished the bottle and tossed it across the room where it landed gracefully in the recycling bin. “Stop waiting,” Troy said. “You’re happy with her; I can tell. I watched y’all at dinner, and I saw it.”
I nodded. “I do love her,” I said. “Shit, did I just say that out loud?”
Troy laughed. “And she’d be happy to be with you, as long as we don’t do anything illegal,” he said. “Tell me, come on. That’s the real reason you’re so dead-set on not going back to drugs or guns, ain’t it?”
I hated to admit it, but he was exactly right. I nodded slowly.
“Yeah,” I mumbled. “That’s it. I don’t want her to be ashamed of me. I want her to be proud. I know I’m not some Hollywood fop, but I don’t give a fuck. She’s the most perfect woman I’ve ever met. Even when she’s being a total asshole, I love her.”
Troy rolled his eyes. “You know what you have to do,” he said. “Call her. Ask her out to dinner.” He raised his eyebrows. “I’m sure she paid you fuckin’ well. Use some of that money to take her someplace nice. Chicks like that,” he added confidentially like I didn’t know shit about women.
“I’ll think about it,” I said moodily.
But deep down, I knew the damage was done. I was in love with Katia Reynolds, and if I didn’t tell her, I’d regret it for the rest of my life.