assume you two are heading in that direction and prepare to make it work?”
Lowell makes sense, but the reality is I’m bound to fuck up a relationship. “I’ve never made anything with women work. I can’t even get my sisters to lay off, and my daughters own me. Give me a man, and I’ll knock him down. Women run me ragged.”
“You like women with baggage. Topanga tried setting you up with those normal women. Remember the hot nurse? Not a firework in sight. But if a woman’s seen a little hell in her life, you’re like a kid on the Fourth of July.”
“You’re not wrong.”
“Don’t go into this shit looking to fail. Treat Lana like you would a club project. Rational rather than emotional.”
“Except I handled club shit emotionally too. The deal with Ramona and Fuse was a choice I made when emotional.”
Lowell doesn’t miss a beat as if he always knew where the conversation was headed. “What other choice did you have?”
“Make Fuse give up the shooter.”
“He was never going to do that. Fuse wasn’t in control of his club. Three of his strongest guys were locked up. His VP was fucking his old lady. Fuse was barely holding on. Fucking with you was his Hail Mary attempt to get his people in line. If you attacked, the Skullz focused on us and not their loser president. He set you up, but you didn’t take the bait.”
“You’re not wrong about that either, but the Ramona thing is bound to haunt us with the Reapers.”
“The three days were fine until Pinball. If you want someone to blame, dump it on me. I said I had things under control and you could stay home with Summer. But I misread Pinball. He didn’t normally lash out at women like that. Hell, we didn’t even know about that tattoo he gave Ramona until Majors told us. But that’s on me. I should have kept better watch, but I trusted our Sergeant at Arms.”
“You and me both.”
“Yeah, but I had my doubts.”
“You and me both,” I say when I think of his interest in Summer. She was barely a teenager, but he was always talking to her. When I asked what the fuck he was doing, he claimed he was like her uncle. I knew the man for over a decade. He’d known Summer since she was little. I trusted him. Yet never enough to leave him anywhere alone with her.
“I get how you feel guilty,” Lowell says, going the soft route with me. “Ramona was a sweet chick. She got along with everyone. Seemed to have fun. It was fucked up that her dad sent her here, but we assumed he was offering her something in return. Maybe he did.”
“Fuse was a piece of shit.”
“No arguing with that.”
“But Majors seems fine. For now, anyway,” I mutter.
“He’s young.”
“Not that young. By thirty, I’d been running this town for a decade. If Majors ever wants to extend his territory, you know he’ll come here.”
“And we’ll do what we can to push him back. But that’s why this Lana thing can be good for the club too. If she’s friendly with us, she could keep his ass in Kentucky. We don’t know the family dynamics, but maybe she has her sister’s ear, and her sister has River’s. Shit, maybe we even have a shot at making an agreement with the Reapers. Long term, that would be good since we’re getting pressure from the north.”
The thing I’m about to share is something I would never tell anyone else. Any other Executioner would push back, reminding me of how the club is family, and family comes first. Lowell remembers that I’m a man under the tats and vest. How I need shit that isn’t about the club.
“I’m not willing to use Lana to get a deal with the Reapers,” I admit quietly. “I might not trust her, but twisting up Lana to help the club isn’t on the table. She could have kept me in the dark about Carina. She might have even gotten pressure to keep quiet. I won’t use her.”
Lowell doesn’t lecture me about how I won’t run shit forever. Or that allegiances matter and all the big-picture facts. He knows me better than anyone. My girls are the only ways I ever get to be soft. My sisters and the club expect me to always remain strong. The bunnies keep score, wanting me to fuck them well rather than treat them well.
The only people I’ve