Shay shook his head. Erik watched him, unconvinced.
“So we have nothing,” Blaine said.
“No,” Miller said. “We have places to go. Things to do. Gaige, I need you to get another meeting with Strokner. Maybe this gold tooth and scar will help him remember something.”
“Man, we’re getting in deeper with Strokner,” Griffin said. “I don’t like it.”
“Nobody does,” Gaige said. “But we have to find Jonesy. We have to find out who tried to take out Shay and almost killed Erik. I don’t care how we do it.”
“He’s like a squirrel, man,” Griffin said. “Keep feeding him and he’ll keep coming back.”
“At that point,” Miller said, “we’ll take care of the problem… we'll stop feeding the squirrel.”
Griffin shook his head. “Fair enough then.”
“What do we do now?” Nate asked.
“Tomorrow we hit it again,” Miller said. “For right now, we’re all together and safe. Keep it that way. Stay in the clubhouse, have a drink or two, find a woman. This situation is a lot worse than we originally thought. We know now that it isn't just a bullshit beef with another club. This is a front for something much more dangerous. That’s why we need Strokner. That’s why need everyone to focus and think. Shay, I’m counting on you, brother. It’s not going to stop. They have Jonesy. They deserve to die. Do we agree?”
“YES.”
That was the single answer from every man at the table.
“We’ll get this,” Gaige said. He stood up and put his cigarette out. “We will get this worked out. Nobody is going to fuck with Back Down Devil and get away with it.”
“What about Eight Under?” Blaine asked. “They tried to set us up today.”
The table fell silent again. Miller turned and rubbed the back of his neck. “They seem to be getting ballsy. Maybe we should treat them the same. Ride right into their shit hole club and send a message.”
“We’ve done that,” Gaige said.
“We should wipe them right out,” Nate said.
“I second that,” Blaine said.
“We have to much happening,” Griffin said. “If we stretch too thin…”
“I know what will happen,” Miller said softly. “We’ll deal with that tomorrow too.”
Erik wasn’t satisfied with the answers at the table. Everyone started to shuffle their way from the room, exchanging the seriousness of life for a night of debauchery. Erik wasn’t having it at all.
He remained seated, only Gaige and Miller left in the room.
“Erik,” Gaige said.
“I can’t wait much longer,” Erik said.
“For what?” Miller asked.
“The urges, man. I want to hurt someone bad. I want to kill.”
“You did that today,” Gaige said.
“I want more. I want the world to feel my pain.”
“Christ,” Gaige said.
“Gaige, go get a drink,” Miller said.
Gaige walked around the table and slapped a hand to Erik’s shoulder. He squeezed and said, “We love you, Erik. If I could go back to that day, brother, I’d take the bomb. It should have been me. I’m VP. I should have my life in front of everyone else’s in this club.”
Erik nodded.
Gaige left the room.
“I don’t want you to pull back on anything, Erik. But you can't be a loose canon. Your instincts last night with that little kid paid off. You did what you had to do today. What about tomorrow?”
“I don’t know,” Erik said. “You seem to be putting everything off until tomorrow."
Miller leaned against the table. He crossed his arms. “My best friend was killed execution style. We were tied up, three of us. We were too tough to admit defeat and would rather die than be made out to be assholes. My best friend tried a fucked up move and took a bullet between the eyes. We weren’t supposed to be shot. Just scared. I watched his brains scatter out of the back of his head. Dead.”
“I’m sorry,” Erik said.
“That’s his ashes in the middle of the table here. A reminder. Honor to him. But it was the other guy we were with. He couldn’t stand it. He couldn't take what had happened. Sure, it fucking hurt me. I went crazy for a little while myself. Drinking. Riding. Fucking. Killing. But the other guy couldn’t stop. It only stopped… when I stopped it.”
Miller put a hand to Erik’s shoulder. Erik looked up at Miller and saw the fire in the President’s eyes.
“It’s about the club,” Miller said. “Not just one person, but all of us. The brotherhood we share. The love we have. It's the only way this club works, Erik.”