Beautiful Outlaw by Emily Minton
Fuckin’ Failed
Bowie
Walking out of the Sixes’ clubhouse, I watch as Tin talks on his phone. I can tell by the sound of his voice that something is wrong, but I’m not asking questions until we’re alone. No way do I want the Sixes knowing if shit isn’t playing out like I planned. They may have agreed not to go to war with the Outlaws, but if they get a whiff of any problems with getting Cash out, they’ll be after our blood. In this world, the weak get taken out by the strong, and there’s no fuckin’ way I’m gonna let these bastards think I’m weak.
Climbing onto my bike, I look over at my brother. I wait until he places the phone in his pocket and ask, “What’s up?”
“Toke is gone,” Tin answers, his face full of rage.
If Toke is heading home, Shay could be in danger. The thought of her with no one to watch over her but a kid has my stomach churning. I wish like hell that Red was still around to keep an eye on her, but he had to head out last night to join the boys up north. He took a beating for not following Cash’s orders before he left though. “What the fuck do you mean, he’s gone?”
Tin shakes his head, frustration showing on his face. “I don’t know what the hell happened. Rollo said he went into the room he had been holding him, and the bastard had disappeared.”
“I thought he was keeping his ass drugged?”
Tin shrugs. “Rollo said he was barely able to open an eye, he was so out of it. He didn’t know how the fucker got away.”
“Fuck! We should’ve put a bullet in his damn head.”
When I put together my plans for delivering the guns to the Sixes with the others boys, Topper refused to take part in killing off a brother. He said if it came down to bloodshed during the takeover, he would deal with it, but he wasn’t having shit to do with killing Toke before it was absolutely necessary. To keep peace, I took a vote. Surprisingly, the vote went in Topper’s favor. So, instead of being dumped on the side of the road with his throat slit, Toke was drugged. Rollo was supposed to be in charge of watching his ass, but he fuckin’ failed.
“Too late for that. Now we gotta do some clean up,” Tin replies.
I’m not sure if this is something that can be swept under the rug. If that bastard has made his way back to Rich Hill, then shit’s about to hit the fan. “How the hell are we gonna clean this shit up? You know damn well that fucker’s gonna go straight to Cash. When he does, Cash is gonna be out for our blood.”
“I don’t think so,” Tin says with a shake of his head. “I think Toke is a lot like Topper. He does what his president tells him to, but he doesn’t like it.”
“What the hell gave you that idea?”
“Watch him with Cash. He hates his ass,” Tin explains before going on. “I didn’t notice it until the day we left. Cash said something, and I swear that Toke looked like he wanted to gut the motherfucker.”
I don’t agree with the shit my brother’s saying, but I still ask, “What did he say?”
Tin’s eyes go hard as his hands tighten on his handle bars. “Domino started some shit with one of the other girls over Cash taking her to his bed. The bitch was stupid enough to come to him about it. He knocked her around a bit and told her to get out. Then he said that he shouldn’t have gotten rid of his spic whore, and that she was the only bitch he’d ever met that knew how to keep her mouth shut.”
“What did Toke do?” I growl out, pissed as fuck I wasn’t there when the dick said that shit. I would have taken his ass out. President or not, no fuckin’ way I would let him get away with calling Nina a whore or a spic.
Tin shrugs. “Nothing much ‘cause he was in the same spot as me. There wasn’t much he could do if he wanted to keep his head on his shoulders. He just walked off and didn’t stop when Cash was screaming for him to get his ass back. I swear, man, I think it was taking every bit of self-discipline he had not to pull out his piece right then.”
I think back to Toke’s last words to me and Rollo. “He thought he was a dead man.”
Tin’s eyes come to me, but he doesn’t say anything, so I go on to explain myself. “I could tell by the look in his eyes, he thought he was dying when he got drugged. I figured he’d try to fight it. Instead, he just told me to take care of Nina.”
“What the hell is going on with him and Mamá?” Tin asks in a hushed voice, one filled with anger and suspicion.
“I don’t know, but we’ll find out as soon as we get back,” I say, determined to get an answer.
“If he hurts Mamá, the bastard will die.”
I lift my chin to Tin in agreement. Without us there, all our girls are in danger. We need to be there with them, not here talking about this shit. I start my bike, letting him know the discussion is over. “Let’s get home.”