Royal Mess - Winter Travers Page 0,1

going to take five minutes and everything was going to back to normal.

“Let’s go, Marco. We’re all waiting for you,” Slider called.

I sighed and dropped my chin to my chest.

I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to sit across from the guys I had pretty much grown up with and called my family to tell them I had fucked up royally.

Not my idea of how I wanted to spend my day.

None of this was going to get better until I walked into that room and tried to figure out how I was going to make shit right again.

Or, at least, better.

I wasn’t going to be able to bring Grit back, but I was damn sure going to figure out how to make sure no one else died because of me.

King sat at the head of the table, like always, with Rigid on one side. An empty chair sat on the other side. Apollo stood behind the empty chair. I wasn’t completely outnumbered in here.

Slider nodded to the empty chair and then took his seat next to Demon.

King reclined back in his chair and watched me. I sat down in the empty chair and rested my elbows on the table.

“Never thought we would be sitting here like this,” King murmured.

“Same,” Slider grunted.

Slider may not have been my biological father, but he was still my dad. Mom had married him when I was sixteen, and from that day on, he had been my dad. I hated that I had fucked up, and he was going to know all about it. Every fucking detail, he was going to know.

“As if I’m the first guy to ever fuck up,” I grunted. “I seem to remember things like this happening all the time.”

King shook his head. “Nah, things settled down by the time your mom and Slider hooked up. But now, shit seems to be going crazy again with a psycho killer on the loose, and now, whatever shit you pulled over the Meeks.”

“I did the exact same thing Leo would have done. I don’t think you guys would be all over him like you are me.” I got that I wasn’t the boss of the Banachis yet, but I should have some respect from these guys.

“Yeah, except Leo doesn’t get people killed,” Demon chuckled.

“That we know of,” Hero piped in. “There is probably a ton of shit happening that we don’t know about. This time just happened to have to do with us.”

Hero and I always did get along growing up. Granted, he was more than a few years younger than me, but we still were buddies.

“Why don’t you start from the beginning of your deal with Meeks, and then, we can hopefully figure out what the hell to do next,” King suggested.

Apollo cleared his throat.

I held up my hand to him. I wasn’t going to say anything I shouldn’t. “I met with the Meeks. They were seventeen hours away from selling Royal to a sleezeball in Mexico when I spoke to them.”

“Which obviously didn’t happen,” Frost spoke. He was a big part of the Banachis even getting involved in the whole Royal business. I put my neck on the line for his ol’ lady, and now, it was coming back to bite me right in the ass.

I nodded. “Biff was looking for a sure fire way to get up and down 95.”

“He’s been running up and down that highway for years. Pretty sure he’s got that shit down pat,” Rigid scoffed.

I shook my head and leaned back in my chair. “He did. He’s got a problem with the new sheriffs in three counties the highway runs through. It’s put a big kink in his normally well-oiled machine.”

“And you told him you could help, and then, you couldn’t,” Frost grunted.

I held up a finger. “Yes, I offered to help.” I put up another finger. “But I didn’t because people like Meeks deserve to die, not prosper.”

“So what the hell did you do then?” King asked cautiously.

I shrugged. “I might have passed on some information to a few friends of mine who happen to live in those counties he’s having problems in.”

Apollo chuckled. “Friends who happen to be the new sheriffs.”

“Fucking shit,” Slider grunted. “And now Meeks knows it was you.”

I grimaced. “Yes.”

“And Grit is who paid for it,” King mumbled.

“First,” I muttered.

“What the hell do you mean first?” Slider asked.

I loosened my tie. “Well, I don’t know for certain, but I am assuming that Grit isn’t the end of this.”

“What the fuck