until every single one of them is dead.”
Brothers nodded in agreement. Some smiled, excited for the cartel murders that were on the horizon. Styx looked at us all in the eye. He raised his hands. “Fuck your bitches tonight. Tomorrow night we bury Slash, then we plan how to take out the cartel. Because make no mistake about it, Hades is about to fuck up a small piece of Mexico.” Styx dropped his hands, downed the whiskey that had been put before him, then walked out of the room.
Tank ran his hand over his shaved head. “Shit brother,” he exclaimed and dropped to the table closest to us. I sat down beside him. “Did you see Beau today?” I nodded. “He was glaring at you like he didn’t even know you. The piece of shit. He’s your fucking brother. Never thought he was that far in with the Klan. But the way he was today . . .” Tank exhaled, cutting himself off from whatever he was gonna say.
My pulse kicked into a sprint when I asked, “Did you see him go down? In the fight?”
Tank met my eyes. He knew me better than anyone here. Only Adelita knew me more. He had to see that even after everything, pathetically, I was still worried for my kid brother. Tank lost some of his anger. “I didn’t see him in the fight at all. Then again, I didn’t see much apart from my knives stabbing necks and my bullets shredding through hearts.” I relaxed. But that meant shit. That battle was a mindfuck of blood and flesh. “Took out some of our old brothers,” Tank said.
“And how did it feel?”
Tank smiled. “Good, brother. Real fucking good.”
I tipped my head back and ran my hands down my face. It was a shitshow. All of it. I had no idea if Beau had survived. If Landry had either. But I knew Diego had. Of course that slippery fucker had. I tried to think what his next move would be. But my head was filled with Slash’s face as he hit the ground and Adelita’s cries in bed as she blamed herself.
“Fucking Lil Ash,” Tank said, voice shocked. I looked around the bar. There was no sign of Flame, Ash, Zane, or Vike.
“He snapped,” I said, and Tank blew out a slow breath in agreement.
“That kid . . . in that moment, he was Flame.”
I thought back to Ash grabbing guns and starting the battle. The seventeen-year-old kid raining down bullets on the cartel and Klan like he killed for fun. Tank’s hand came down on my shoulder. “Brace yourself, Tann. I got a feeling this war is just beginning.” Tank got to his feet. “I’m gonna find Beauty.” He paused, then looked me in the eye. “You sure you’re okay? That was heavy shit today. Especially for you.”
“Yeah.”
Tank’s eyes narrowed on me like he could see through my bullshit. But he slapped my back and left the bar. I walked outside. I needed some fucking fresh air. The tents from the visiting chapters took up most of the grounds.
Shutting my eyes, I pulled out a smoke and leaned against the wall as I let the nicotine work its magic. When I was done, I flicked the butt to the ground and went back inside. Shucking off my clothes, I climbed in bed beside Adelita and wrapped my arm around her waist. I was keeping my bitch close.
Adelita had always been full of light. A damn firecracker from the minute I met her. But when Slash fell tonight, I saw that fire in her die out.
I kissed her damp hair and moved my arm around her chest. And I fucking held on all night while she slept. I replayed today in my head like a damn record stuck on repeat . . . Beau, Landry, Diego, Slash . . . everything.
It was all going to shit.
Chapter Twelve
Adelita
I thought it fitting that the rain fell hard on our heads. My body was numb as I stared at the coffin. It was closed, the wound too severe on the prospect’s head to have an open casket.
My skin shivered, but it had nothing to do with the rain. I trembled as the casket was lowered into the ground by Hangmen. My eyes fixed on Slash’s cousin. Smiler’s face was racked with pain so severe that I felt it crack my heart. I looked around the people here. At the men who had lost a brother. A man