Levi sat in the office, waiting for Cheney. He had spent the past few days working and trying to keep his mind off everything that was happening. Some days, it was just too much. He finally talked to Grant about what he found out about Matthew Bledsoe and Spider Johnson’s family. Grant urged him to tell Cheney. Normally, it’s what a brother would do. When one of them had an enemy, they all did. But things had been so fucked up lately that Levi wasn’t sure where his loyalties even lay any longer. So, instead of going straight to Cheney, he’d gone to his Pops first.

He told his Pops the story and the old man wrinkled his brow and said, “What do you plan to do about it?”

“I don’t know. I know what I want to do. I want to track down both of Spider’s parents and kill them with my bare hands. But I know that’s probably not my best course of action.”

His Pops chuckled. “Yeah, I figured. I wouldn’t mind doing it myself. But you’re right. You’ve managed to keep yourself outta prison longer than most of your brothers and I’d prefer you kept that up. I’m not going to be around much longer and I don’t want your mama being left all alone.”

“Don’t say things like that.”

His Pops rolled his eyes and said, “I’m an eighty-two-year-old veteran with diabetes and one foot, son. I’m sure not going to live forever. But we’re not talking about me. We’re talking about how long the man that’s responsible for killing your daddy and your lady will live. You know I’m no fan of Cheney, but in this case, I’d have to say that going to him is your best option. I’ve got no doubt that once the club finds out Johnson was ballsy enough to take one of them out, they’ll deal with him so you won’t have to.”

So there Levi sat the next morning, waiting to tell Cheney what he’d found out. “Hey man, sorry,” Cheney said as he rushed in the door. “After I got your text I got a call and had to deal with some business. I’m all yours now. What’s up?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure that what happened to my dad and Krissy wasn’t an accident.”

Cheney sat down and wrinkled his brow as he lit a cigarette. “You’re saying it was set up…murder?”

“Yeah. That’s what I’m saying.” Cheney listened as Levi told him all he’d found out. He didn’t mention thinking that Cheney was responsible, of course. When he finished talking Cheney said:

“That arrogant son of a bitch! First his son nearly takes this club down and then that fucker thinks he can take out one of my brothers. He’s got another fucking think coming.” He took out his phone and started texting wildly. Levi just sat and watched him. It wasn’t five minutes later before the door opened and Jackie D told Cheney he’d gathered all the men who were at the clubhouse and called the rest of them to come in. “We’re gonna take care of this,” he told Levi. Levi felt a little bit guilty for believing that Cheney had anything to do with killing his dad and Krissy…but just a little bit. Cheney was still an asshole. It turned out, he was just a loyal asshole.

Levi followed him out of the room, and dead quiet fell across the noisy room as soon as they saw their president. “I have news,” he said, in a grave tone. “I just found out that someone was paid to tamper with Levi’s brakes the night that his father died. It was in retaliation for killing Spider Johnson. That man mistakenly tampered with Mac’s brakes, and Mac and that pretty little girl, Krissy, are dead because of it. The man that paid him to do that was Spider Johnson’s father.”

There was a rumble through the crowd. Some of the men, the ones that had been close to Spider, still held a grudge against Levi, he knew. They wouldn’t dare say so out loud in front of Cheney, however, but he wondered if that was what some of the grumbling was about. They were probably disappointed that it hadn’t been him instead of Mac. “So what are we going to do, boss?” one of the men, a guy named Rainmaker, asked.

“I haven’t had time to come up with a plan just yet, but I will, soon. In the meantime, I want you all to put the word out that nobody pays that motherfucker for so much as a lug-nut. That goes for the street gangs we are allied with and the Invaders as well.”

“Um…you think the Invaders will go along with it?” Rainmaker asked.

Cheney looked at Levi and said, “If they don’t, remind them that one of their lieutenants would be dead if not for our boy here. I think they’ll see it my way then. Now go! I want you all back here tonight at six p.m. I’m holding church and by that time, I’ll have a plan.”

The room emptied out; even the club girls found somewhere to go. When they were alone again except for Jackie, Cheney looked at Levi and said, “I have to tell you that when you said you needed to see me alone, I thought you were leaving. You haven’t seemed happy around here lately.”

Levi decided that this was his chance. Maybe if he told Cheney the truth, he’d understand. “I haven’t been, happy. Of course, that has a lot to do with losing Dad and Krissy. But I don’t like the direction this club has taken. I’m not happy doing security at a meth lab, or even being involved with that shit at all. This club used to be involved with things in the community. We used the money we made to better the community, not spread more misery. That shit we’re pushing out there ruins lives, Cheney. It tears families apart. It makes kids lose all sense of direction in their lives. I was okay with our being in the weed business. I got no problem dealing in car and motorcycle parts. I don’t object to the porn business. Those people are all adults and they know what they’re doing. But I do take issue with this meth shit.”

Cheney waited until he was finished and then he said, “You sound just like your old man.”

“I’m not ashamed of that. My old man was a good man at heart. He loved this club and he was loyal to a fault, but it nearly drove him to his death. That heart attack he had was directly related to the stress of what was going on around here.”

“So, I’ll ask you the same question I asked your old man. What would you have me do? That lab brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars in a month’s time. Weed wouldn’t do that, and we would never be able to steal cars and bikes fast enough to make that kind of cash. The porn business has gotten so competitive that making a straight-up porn video with lots of tits, cock, and ass, is not good enough anymore. None of it is going to bring in the cash we’re making off the crystal.”

“I guess that’s the problem. I just can’t understand why we need that kind of cash. But I haven’t put the kind of thought into this that my dad did. Dad thought he could change the way you did things because he was an old-timer. I know that I have no say in what this club does or doesn’t do to make money. But I’d like to know that I do have a say in what I choose to do in my own life. I’d like to know that if I did decide to leave, it would be on good terms and I wouldn’t have to worry about my family, or spend the rest of my days looking over my shoulder.”

“You think I’m an animal?” Cheney asked, sounding more insulted than Levi would have guessed he would be.

“No, of course not. I’ve just been…confused, I guess.”

“Don’t do anything until this shit with Johnson is handled…and we’ll talk again, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.” Cheney turned to walk back into his office. “Hey, Cheney?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

“It’s what I’d do for any one of our brothers, Levi. You might disagree with the decisions I make around here, the same way your old man did, but you can’t ever question my loyalty.” Levi nodded. He wouldn’t question it again.

* * *

When Levi left the clubhouse, he went to see his mother. She was in the back yard, pulling weeds out of her little flower garden. “Hey, I thought you had a gardener.”

She looked up from where she was kneeling in the mud. “He mows the lawn and trims the trees. He doesn’t mess with my flowers. This is my therapy.”

He sat down in a lawn chair and popped open a soda he’d grabbed on his way out. “Is Pops napping?”

“Yeah, the crotchety old man went down about half an hour ago. He should be awake soon to torment me some more.” Levi chuckled. His mother loved her father more than anyone in the world, other than Levi. You couldn’t tell it by the way they talked to each other, though.

“I have something to tell you,” he said. “Can you come sit up here with me for a minute?” She gave him a worried look and stood up and brushed off her jeans. She slipped off the gloves she was wearing and went over and sat down in the chair next to him.

“What happened?”

“Dad’s brakes were very likely tampered with and the car they hit that night was a set-up. They were murdered, Mom.”

She stared at him for a long time. The look on her face was heartbreaking. It was like she hadn’t already considered it. Hearing it confirmed hit her hard. With tears in her eyes that she was obviously trying to hold back she said, “Was it Cheney?”

“No. It was Spider Johnson’s father.”

“Jesus,” she said, but she looked almost relieved. “So now what? Honey, you can’t bring them back. All you can do at this point is get yourself hurt or into trouble…”

“I told Cheney, Mom. The club is going to handle it.”

Again, she looked relieved. “Good. Thank you.”

He smiled. “You’re welcome,” he said, somewhat sarcastically. “You’re glad it wasn’t Cheney?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Your dad was so damned loyal. He was miserable for so long, but he was loyal to a fault and it’s what kept him there for so long, besides worrying about you. It’s good to know that his loyalty wasn’t as horribly displaced as I was afraid that it was.”

Levi nodded. “I should take a page from his book, I guess, huh?”

“No.” she said. Levi gave her a confused look and she said, “I know I told you that you shouldn’t leave. But that’s when I thought they might have done something to your father. There’s a fine line between being loyal and giving up on your own dreams and passions for someone else’s. You were happy when you came back from Massachusetts, and I tried to discourage you because I was afraid for you. I don’t think you should stay here, Levi, if you’re unhappy.”

“Does that mean you and Pop would consider going with me?”

She put her hand over his and a tear slowly rolled down her cheek. “No. I hate the thought of being so far from you, but honey, Tennessee is my home. It’s all your Pops or I have ever known, and he’s too old and I’m too content with my little house to pick up and move to Massachusetts. But I don’t want that to stop you. You can visit and so can I. I want you to be happy. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. I want you to find a way to go on with your life. I know that you and Krissy had your future mapped out and when you lost her, it put the brakes on everything. But you have to find a way to move past it and start rebuilding your own future. It’s what I want, and I’m sure it’s what Krissy would have wanted. She loved you so much. She would want you to be happy.”

Levi didn’t want to be fifteen hundred miles away from his mother and grandfather, especially with Pop’s declining health. But he knew his mother was right…he had to find a way to move forward. He was more and more convinced that he wasn’t going to be able to do that in Tennessee. “I talked to Cheney about it a little this morning. He said we’d talk more after we settled this business with Johnson.”

“How did he take it?”

Levi smiled. “I think I hurt his feelings.”

His mother snorted. “Right. Don’t you have to have feelings, before they can be hurt?”