Switch

“Kitt’s one of us,” Sly said. He stood at the head of the table. It was scarred and charred, the one thing we’d recovered intact from the Wolf Den fire. Scarlett had it brought down to the basement of Sly’s house. She’d had it refinished, keeping the burn marks in place. It was fitting that today Sly chose to unveil it.

“There’s no other way to see the attack on her as anything but an escalation,” he said. He kept his gaze locked with mine. I swallowed past a lump in my throat. He didn’t hold it against me for keeping her secret as long as I did. He barely blinked when she told him who she was. They had a long road ahead of them. Kitt had to unlearn the lies she’d been told about him. But here, today, in front of the whole club, he offered her the full protection of the Great Wolves.

“Manny Torre probably already knows we took Paco and that probie out,” Gunn said. “They’re going to retaliate. Hard.”

“We strike first,” Sly said. “I’d hoped we could end this another way. Squeezing the cartel at the border isn’t working fast enough. And I don’t think Manny’s got full control of his own people. Paco was too trigger happy.”

“He deserved to die,” I said. Forever, I’d know in my heart he was two seconds from killing Kitt. If I’d gotten there too late ... if I lost her …

“We all know what’s at stake,” Dex said. He knew better than anyone.

“We’ll have no protection but ourselves,” Sly said. “When we hit back, expect heat.”

We knew what he was saying. There would be no deals to cut. If anyone got caught, we’d do serious time. And the feds were already waiting for the minute we made our move.

“You trust Max’s word on this?” Sly asked. I’d just finished telling him what my father suspected from law enforcement.

“He’s got no good reason to lie,” I said. It meant some of the men at this table might not survive. For anyone who did, we could face hard time.

“Time was,” Dex said, “the feds and locals would look the other way. Club-on-club violence wasn’t anything they gave two shits about. They will this time.”

“The only way this ends is if we chop off the head of the snake,” Charlie said. “Paco’s dead. Once Manny is, they’ll be in disarray. The cartel won’t trust Manny’s number two. That is, if the members can even agree on who that is. It’ll be a small window of time, but it should be enough.”

“Anyone else have anything to say?” Sly asked. He held the gavel in his hand. The room went quiet.

“All right. This is a bloodshed vote,” he said. “It must be unanimous. I put it to you. All in favor, say aye.”

My pulse pounded in my ears. My eyes went to the gavel. We took a beat. Then, one by one, every member of my club voted for bloodshed, including me. It was the first time it had happened in over ten years.

So, we had our mission. Manny Torre had to go. It wouldn’t be easy. His place would be heavily guarded. But it was worth the risk. Until we cut out this cancer, none of our families were safe.

Sly dismissed the table. As I started to rise, he came to me. I looked around. The others filed out and it was just the two of us. I looked at him.

“You in love with her?” he asked me. The question took me off guard. For a moment, I thought he’d be angry. He wasn’t. His look was solemn, concerned. With everything else going on, the man was still trying to process he had a grown daughter he never knew about.

“Yes,” I said. The answer came thundering out of me from some deep place. I loved her. I loved Kitt. I had been willing to lay down my life for her and I knew I’d do it again.

“Good,” Sly said. “It matters that you know that letter she has is wrong. I’m not saying I did right by Darcy. She was a hot mess back in the day. And way too young for me. I was young too though. I should have left her alone. But I swear to you, I had no idea she got pregnant. She never told me. She took off and never came back. When I heard she hooked up with Manny Torre, I didn’t want to have anything else to do with her. I mean, it was already over and all ... but ... if he knew ... if that fucking bastard actually knew about the baby and laid a hand on her …”

I stopped him. “It doesn’t matter. It’s just one more thing to weigh in the column against him. He’ll pay.”

“Yeah,” Sly said. “But it’s too late for Darcy. I didn’t say it to Kitt. But I heard rumors. A couple of years after she left Green Bluff, I heard Manny turned her out. They were saying he got her hooked on dope and she was turning tricks for the club. I should have done something. I’m never going to forgive myself for that.”

It was hard to hear. So many things might have been different if Kitt’s mom had just come to Sly in the first place. “Would you have believed her?” I asked. “If Darcy came to you?”

He let out a sigh. “I would have had questions. I’m not going to lie. But I don’t run away from my responsibilities, Switch. I think you already know that about me. None of that matters now.”

“She said she’ll take a DNA test …”

Sly stopped me. “Yeah, maybe. But ... I don’t know ... when I looked at her ... when she finally said it. I see myself in her. It’s like ... I already know it’s true.”

I dropped my head. Sly Cullinan was a good man. I just hoped Kitt would have the chance to see it.

“Yeah,” I said.

Sly slapped me on the back. “So do right by her. Or so help me, I’ll cut your balls off.”