since she was what… seventeen? Seriously, the only fucking difference between you two is the way you conduct business and get what you want. You use brawns, she uses information. You’re the only one with this problem because you’re the only one dealing with a woman who totally embraces the life. She gets it.” Zed paused and rubbed his jaw. “I mean… I don’t know if you know this, but Buddha asked her to help him die if the time comes. And she agreed.”
“What?” Torch hissed through clenched teeth, trying not to let his rage loose on the messenger. Why the fuck was he just hearing about this now? “Did she tell you that?”
“Nope. I tried to see if she’d spill today, but your woman knows how to keep her mouth shut.”
“So who told you? Buddha?”
“Yup. I brought him some pot cookies last night and he got a little loose. Said it was the only reason he agreed to keep going with his cancer treatment and let us try to find a donor.”
Torch picked up a rock and threw it at the water as hard as he could, fucking done with Buddha’s shit. He knew there was more to the sudden change of heart, but this? Where the fuck did he get off? This was the same guy who’d been adamant about not taking money from Liv to pay off Cora because she’d already done too much. But asking her to put him down like a dog and then live with it, that wasn’t asking a lot?
“Son of a bitch,” he huffed. “What the fuck, man? Buddha’s the one who didn’t want her doing dick for the club, but then he goes and asks her to do some shit like that?”
Zed cocked his head and shrugged. “That’s why you don’t let anybody inside your marriage except you and your old lady, brother. Buddha’s running on fumes, his head’s all off kilter—”
“Yeah, well, hers isn’t. She’s pissed at me for keeping shit from her and she’s doing the same goddamn thing—”
“Her shit wasn’t a sure thing,” Zed pointed out. “She was probably just waiting and hoping the situation didn’t manifest, which is also probably the same reason she agreed to it in the first place. A transplant is Buddha’s one shot. Maybe we’ll get lucky, maybe not, but she did what it took to make him keep going and you can’t hold that against her. And Pres didn’t think she’d actually go for it—”
“Of course he didn’t, he doesn’t know her like I do. She’d do whatever it takes.”
“Exactly my fucking point, why the hell did you even listen to him?” Zed asked with an air of exasperation. “And back to what we were talking about, it’s like this… You found a fucking lake in the desert. But instead of drinking from it, you’d rather just stand on the shore and admire it for its beauty like an idiot. Does that make any goddamn sense to you either?”
Well, no, not when he fucking put it that way. Torch frowned and asked, “So you’re saying I should just pull her into our shit, full stop?”
Zed groaned like he was dealing with some dipshit kid who couldn’t grasp what he was getting at. “I’m saying you’ve got it made and can’t even see it, you don’t have to live a double-life like your brothers do with their women. You do illegal shit, she does illegal shit, nobody’s turning. And that sassy mouth you say you hate but you actually love? She keeps all that behind closed doors. She keeps everything behind closed doors because that’s what she knows. Torch, your woman’s as smart as she is tough, if something happens to her it definitely won’t be caused by her own stupidity.”
“Plenty of enemies make for plenty of other causes,” Torch argued. “How the hell would I live with that?”
Zed smirked and squeezed his shoulder. “Assuming you’d be the one to survive? I don’t know, man, I get the feeling we haven’t seen shit from Liv yet. I do know there’s nothing in the bylaws about a situation like this, according to those it’s up to a member how much he wants to tell his old lady. As long as she’s not making decisions or stepping out of line, there’s nothing wrong with bringing her into the fold and letting her help when she can. You’re standing in your own way. Look, I know none of us wanna think about it, but Buddha’s probably