Page 32

(Kong)

The nerve of that bastard. Of all of them.

Sending him back for the flatbed and Sawyer’s bike when he should have been with Scout at the hospital.

Fine, if Creature wanted to play it that way, if he wanted to take what was Kong’s, then they could take that shit to the sand and sort it out between them.

Either way, he and Scout were having the conversation they should have had before Kong’s dumbass left him on the sidewalk so he could race out to factory row and then back to the compound to start digging into those old tapes of Lucky’s.

Stupid.

Stupid.

Goddammit, sometimes being a hot head had more drawbacks than Kong cared to admit to.

Fuck.

He’d made a mess of this and charging up to the hospital right now would probably make a bigger mess, so he headed into the clubhouse to grab a few drinks and see who was around once he’d stashed Sawyer’s bike in the garage beside Scout’s.

If he couldn’t be up there by Scout’s side, then he could damn sure start poking around into that fight ring the way they’d been poking around into the porn.

Not only was he not used to sitting idly by when someone he cared about was hurting, but Kong was too pissed to focus on a starting point, at least until he spotted Danger sitting alone at the end of the bar, scowling down at something in a manilla folder that he closed the moment Kong dropped onto the stool beside him.

“Is that about tonight?”

“You’ll have to talk to Mark.”

“That really how you wanna play it, Brutha?”

“There’s nothing to play,” Danger replied. “Couple things went down tonight, so unless you wanna be more specific about what you’re asking, I’ve got nothing more to say.”

“The fight ring?”

“No.”

“The porn?”

“Nope.”

“Fine, but you do know what’s going on there, right?”

“I’ve been trying to track down a paper trail on the owners of both of those buildings, that’s all I can tell you right now,” Danger said.

“And before you ask, it’s not because I’ve been instructed not to it’s because I don’t have any information to give.

I’ve been too busy drowning in another issue that literally blew up in our faces earlier tonight. ”

“What the hell?”

“Now that you will have to wait and ask Mark about.”

“Fine,” Kong said as he reached beneath the bar, hoping to feel a bottle stashed there.

“You’re too late on that,” Danger said, inclining his head to the pool table, where a bottle of whiskey was being passed between several of their club brothers.

“Son of a bitch.”

“I know, was gonna grab for it myself.”

“Shocked your not up at the hospital,” Danger said. “I thought you and that Scout kid had something going, or I’d have made a play for him before Creature claimed him.”

“Word already got back on that?”

“Went around the room like wildfire. Was just shocked that it wasn’t your name connected to his.”

“Shit happened.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“What’s it to you, anyway!”

“Nuthin’ but you dropped down next to me, remember, so I figure something has to be eating at you and it’s probably to do with why you’re not up at the hospital.”

“They’re letting people almost die out there at that fight ring. No medics, not even wanna be ones, and from what I did gather when we found Scout, they’ve got gambling going on as well, and some pretty hard-nosed bastards when it comes to collecting. Pretty sure they’re the reason Scout got hurt.”

“Damn. It’s a good thing you found him.”

“Just wish I’d found him on my own without interference.”

“If we all got what we wished for, some of us would be truly miserable men, indeed.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean,” Kong grumbled.

“If you don’t know, then me trying to explain it to you won’t do a lick of good.”

“You’re a pain in the ass sometimes, brutha.”

“So my subs have told me over the years.”

They chuckled at that, and leaned over the counter to refill their beers. Kat would have their heads if they left a mess so Kong made a mental note to check the floor and mop up anything they spilled.

Thinking about that got him thinking back to the night the wanna be stripper boy had danced all over him while Scout had been busy cleaning up messes and helping keep his club brothers full by helping Night in the kitchen.

“You know who set up that sad little stripper show the night I dropped you on your head?” He asked Danger.

“Wish I did, I’d have tipped them for the show with a bonus if they sent him Copper’s way next.”

“If I find out, I’m gonna take their head off,” Kong threatened. “Saw it on Scout’s face that he wasn’t happy with the show. I can’t help but feel like that contributed to his refusal to open up to me when I asked him to.”

“I seriously don’t know who did it or why,” Danger said. “But I’m sure it was all in good fun.”

“Hrumph.”

“Brutha, we’ve been doing shit like that to one another for years,” Danger reminded him. “You coming back home made you the go-to target, after how long we had to wait to fuck with you.”

“The timing left a lot to be desired.”

“Doesn’t help that you’ve run hot and cold when it came to Scout.

If you wanted him you should have claimed him and offered your protection.

Instead, you left him twisting in the wind.

No matter how you try to cut it, you set yourself up to lose him.

Now you gotta own that shit. You had to see how a lot of the guys looked at him.

He was a breath of fresh air around this place.

A true service sub. Looking at his face, each time one of the guys gave him a nod or a murmur of appreciation was enough to tell me that. How’d you not see it?”

“I did see it!” Kong snapped, drumming his fingers on the bar. “And if it wasn’t for Teddy warning him off me I might have had the time to build up enough trust to get him to confide in me.”

“In all fairness to Teddy, which he hasn’t received enough of lately, you don’t have the best reputation among the subs and Scout being as green as he is, well, you know how protective Teddy has always been towards the hang-arounds.”

Nodding, Kong swigged his beer and stared down at the bar.

“See, now that’s what I don’t get,” Kong said. “He’s always gone to bat for them, helped them assimilate and even helped match a few with the perfect Dom, so what the hell went so wrong with Sinn that he got himself exiled over it.”

The grim mask that tightened Danger’s face into hard planes and angles practically promised that he was about to hear a piece of the puzzle no one had shared with him yet.

“Maybe because each of those hang-arounds was forced to earn their place the way Teddy earned his,” Danger stated.

“I dunno if it was his blindness or the fact that he’s, well, sinfully gorgeous in every possible way, but Mark, Kat, and Saint took to him without hesitation.

If I had to venture a guess, I’d say Teddy got jealous, especially when Mark ordered Cody and Teddy to take Sinn along on the project he’d given them.

Wouldn’t want someone looking over my shoulder when I was trying to prove myself, so I doubt Teddy felt any different. ”

“Why would Teddy think he needed to prove himself with as long as he’s belonged to them?”

“You’ have to ask Teddy,” Danger said. “I’m just giving you my take on what my motivations would be in the same situation. A guy like you doesn’t have to work for the club’s respect the same way some of us constantly have to do.”

“Excuse me!” Kong growled, head snapping left so he could glare at him.

“You think it was easy making a place for myself with my background? Mark wasn’t exactly convinced that me and my architecture degree could be of much use when I first rolled in here.

It took redesigning the clubhouse and showing him how he could incorporate all the features he wanted without having to level the place for him to begin to see my usefulness, and there are times when I still feel like I’m not doing enough, no matter how many projects he heeps on my shoulders. ”

“Was referring to your size, not your qualifications,” Danger snarled.

Kong felt his cheeks pink up a little and grumbled into his mug before he took a drink.

“Ain’t always easy being this size either,” Kong muttered.

“Maybe not, but people see you and they know not to fuck with you,” Danger declared. “It’s a good thing I like fighting or I might have given up on being a Joker after the first week.”

“We all had our reasons for coming here, and for staying.”

“Exactly. And for Teddy, it was the chance at a home and a sense of security. At belonging someplace where he didn’t have to worry about if he was gnarly or awkward. He was like that little wanna be stripper boy who can’t dance worth a damn. Exactly like him from what I’ve heard over the years.”

“Yeah, I heard the rumors too,” Kong admitted.

“That Mark and Kat met him after scouting talent at the place he worked. From what I heard he was such a disaster that the manager sent him packing and they picked him up as he was trudging up the road in the rain. He couldn’t tend bar, he couldn’t keep messages straight, and when they tried him out as a club sub he couldn’t even flirt worth a damn.

He had to learn all of that and then some, before he earned Kat and Mark’s approval. ”

“So then how’s he expected to feel when after all he’s been to them, they give it so freely to a smoking hot newcomer without a flaw outside of his vision.”

“We’ve all got flaws that run deeper than skin and ink.”

“I won’t argue with you there,” Danger said. “But we’ve all got insecurities too, like, anytime someone cracks off a remark about you not breaking anyone.”

“And yet you fuckers still do it.”

“Isn’t it human nature to prey on the insecurities of others as a ploy to mask our own?” Danger said. “Or maybe some of us give you shit because you’ve never tried to break us and we’re curious about what it would be like to have a guy like you take control of one of us.”

Well, shit.

Kong’s eyes had always drifted to smaller men, despite his reluctance to entertain a night with one of them.

And while his own desire to switch and be taken by a man his size, like Creature, his inner voice hissed, he’d never made advances towards men like Danger, who’d been out about having the same desires and needs.

“Just don’t judge Teddy too harshly for whatever he said to Scout,” Danger said.

“I know I’m in the minority when it comes to still trusting him and having his back, but if Sinn had proved to be a traitor, we’d have all been looking at him differently right now, for not being suckered in while so many jumped to embrace him. ”

Nodding, Kong had to admit that the whole sequence of events, as Danger explained them, seemed out of character for the club as a whole.

When he thought back to the way they’d all eyed Scout’s Hound ink, including him, he didn’t get how they could have openly and rapidly embraced someone who’d admittedly come from a club they weren’t affiliated with.

“Teddy said what he said in an attempt to be protective, I’ve forgiven that already. Just don’t like the way the road gods put Scout in front of me only to snatch him away.”

“From what I heard, Creature told you exactly what you needed to do to get back what you lost,” Danger said. “If I were you I’d figure out how before he changes his mind.”

As much as it galled him to hear, Danger was right Kong thought as he leaned over the counter to refill his mug again.

Creature had told him he’d have to earn Creature’s willingness to share.

The other Dom had put him in his place without having to do more than slam him against a wall and pin him in place with that intensely wicked glare.

If he hadn’t been so furious and upset over the entire situation it would probably have left him horny and hopeful that no one interrupted them before they got to explore what they’d only tiptoed around.

“You’re an asshole, you know,” Kong muttered.

“Pretty sure you’ve already said that to him twice tonight.”

That slow, deep, rolling drawl came from out of nowhere, startling Kong enough that he splashed some of his newly refilled beer over the rim of his mug.

“I’m used to it,” Danger said as he peered up at Pope with a look that was half puppy dog and all yearning.

Pope didn’t seem to notice, or if he did, he didn’t let on, choosing to ignore Danger as he slotted himself between them, forcing them to scoot their barstools apart while Pope leaned until he dangled over the counter.

When the man righted himself with a bottle of Jack Daniels in one hand and a shit eating smirk, Kong knew he planned to tie one on tonight.

“Where?” Danger sputtered on the other side of Pope.

“Third shelf down,” Pope explained. “You fuckers always forget about that one.”

“Fuck!” Danger groaned, Kong’s thoughts echoing his sentiments.

“Here’s my two cents,” Pope said, staring Kong down until his non-drinking hand started a restless, twitchy movement along the seam of his jeans.

“Quit lying to yourself. Quit trying to be someone you’re not.

And for fuck’s sake learn to make that architectural mind of yours think outside of the box.

Get creative somewhere that isn’t on paper or a computer screen, put in the work, and go earn what you’re after before you blow your shot.

Or don’t. Fuck if I care. But if you walk around here being a miserable prick ‘cause you couldn’t get your shit together, you and I are going to have a different sort of words. ”

For a moment, all Kong could do was stare at his rapidly retreating back as he stalked away, Pope’s words echoing on loop through his thoughts. Until he saw the misery and disappointment on Danger’s face and got distracted wondering what the fuck that was all about.