Page 44 of Ruptured

“A lot.”

“You haven’t told.”

“That’s been the hardest part. Not telling Mom and Dad. I didn’t tell because I wanted to protect you.” He hesitated, folded his arms, and glanced away. “And them. They love you as much as they love me. As much as I love you. Just because you forgot we’re your family and you are supposed to protect us doesn’t mean I didn’t remember.”

Ryan floundered for words. Guilt dug a little deeper into him.

“If you don’t want to tell Uncle Christopher, tell CJ.”

“Why?” he demanded, surprised at how accepting he was of the idea. He felt no insult. Just curiosity, even if the word sounded unnecessarily sharp.

“His punches are probably less lethal than Uncle Christopher’s and he’d also convince his dad to go light.”

“Mom’s Uncle Christopher’s sister,” Ryan argued. “He’ll go light on me without CJ.”

“You’re cavorting with an enemy club, spending weekends with the Scorpions. Listening to Willard. It’ll make you look so guilty Uncle Christopher might not care you’re his nephew.”

“It’s a free country,” Ryan said, testing the waters. If going to the American Scorpion’s clubhouse was what Devon ‘knew’, then that was minor compared to the bigger secrets. “I can go where I please. I was thinking about becoming a Scorpion.”

“What about me?Idon’t want to join another club. I want to be a Death Dweller.”

“What the fuck does that have to do with me, cuck?”

Devon met his gaze. “Do you want to be Prez one day?”

“CJ has that locked in.”

“That isn’t what I asked.”

“Does it matter, Devon?” Ryan asked crossly. “Refer to my previous answer.”

Devon glared at him.

“Fuck, fine,” Ryan relented. “Not really. Fuck, not at all. I cannot imagine that level of responsibility.”

“Did Rory tell you he wants to be an enforcer?”

“Are you fucking kidding?”

“No. I do have more communication with the cousins than you. Have you ever heard of a tail gunner?” Devon asked, changing the subject yet again.

“Yeah. Duh. We, uh, the Dwellers don’t have one, but a lot of other clubs do.”

“Rory was going to ask CJ to call another meeting. We came up with the officers under CJ’s leadership.” Devon dug in his back pocket and pulled out his phone. “So CJ as Prez, of course,” he said, looking at his screen. “Diesel as Veep. Rory as Sergeant-at-Arms and Top Enforcer. Grant as Secretary. Bishop as Treasurer.” His phone disappeared back into his pocket. “Youas Road Captain and me as Tail Gunner. We’ll honor Dad’s position and work together.”

Swallowing, Ryan gave his brother a half-grin, touched more than he thought possible. “That sounds like an excellent plan, Dev.”

“There’s also Mark JB, Lou, the Triplets, Narci, and Torrin that we have to account for, but we’ll figure something out if CJ likes this idea.”

“CJ might want to fill the positions with his brothers.”

“He isn’t that short-sighted. He’s like Uncle Christopher. He’ll know the necessity of this plan. Even if we’re all family, we aren’t all Caldwell boys.”

Ryan wouldn’t point out all the guys not a part of the family.

“Do you want to play a video game later?” Devon asked hesitantly, moving on from their discussion. “How we used to.”

Ryan smiled. “About six years ago?”