Low Sided by A.J. Downey (best detective novels of all time txt) 📕

“What?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Listening to people’s problems, throwing out a suggestion or two, and letting them sort themselves out.”

He laughed. “It is sort of the bartender’s way, isn’t it?”

“Cheaper than therapy.” I sighed miserably. Had I the access to mental health services, I would undoubtedly take advantage of them but alas, such was the way of American healthcare. The much-needed services were typically overloaded and out of reach unless you made a hundred thousand dollars a year or more.

We stopped in front of my door and I looked up at DT. He looked down at me and I felt incredibly small. Tiny. He was massive.

“Thanks for listening and for not judging,” I said.

“No problem,” he said back and cleared his throat. “It’s how family is supposed to do. That’s the thing about us. In a lot of ways, we work how society is supposed to but doesn’t. At the same time, we don’t always work how we’re supposed to. It’s a mess, but down at the bottom of it all, you won’t find any other group of people half as loyal or dedicated to each other. We don’t quit on one another when the shit gets real – remember that, Raven. I think you’re the same kind of people and I would hate to see you quit while you’re ahead. You and Mace both.”

I nodded slowly and considered his words.

“I miss him,” I said. “I just don’t know how to get around this immovable object that is this break in trust.”

“You hear him out, I mean really sit and listen. I think he might surprise you,” he offered.

I nodded slowly, and we both looked up the street at the chug of an approaching Harley. Fenris swept up to the curb, and he looked at us both. He settled on me and a weird look flickered across his face.

“Mace,” he said, and I felt myself blanch. I didn’t even think about it. I just got on his bike.

25

Mace…

“Shit, man. I knew this was bottom of the barrel shit, but I didn’t know it was this bad.”

I looked up and over from the sheaf of letters in my hands to Mav picking his way through the shelves of pottery and shit up here to where my corner of the barn loft was at.

“It’s not so bad,” I declared. “What brings you up here?”

“Figured I’d come check things out for myself.” He pulled over a milk crate and waved me down when I went to sit up off the mattress on the floor that I called my bed.

I kind of froze in a half sit-up crunch thing and finally eased back down.

“And?” I asked.

“And ask you some questions about your parole and shit, get caught up on what’s going on with you other than Raven.”

“Need me back on runs?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yes, but no at the same time.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“We protect our own, you know that. I’m not going to ask you to do any shit that’s going to get you locked back up and put another strike on you. That would be fucked up, and it’s not how this club operates. Our members ain’t disposable.”

“We all take risks, Mav. We know that shit when we sign up. Nothing’s changed about that.”

“Calculated risks, bro… calculated risks. We live our own lives by our own creed, sure, but we don’t go buck wild like the rules don’t exist. We know they exist.”

“We just don’t care,” I said grinning, and he grinned back and nodded.

I filled him in about how much time I had left with Kim and how that shit was going. He raised an eyebrow when I came clean and told him she’s where I got the tea on Max and his whereabouts.

“For real?” he asked.

I nodded slowly.

“For real, and I didn’t exactly ask,” I told him. “She volunteered.”

Mav gave a low whistle.

“Best keep Ms. Kim in your hip pocket,” he said.

I nodded. You never knew when someone like Kim would come in handy.

“You playing model prisoner?” he asked.

I nodded again. “System had one thing right, Mav. I was and can be one angry S.O.B. It was a painful lesson to learn to chill the fuck out.”

“Pick your battles,” Mav agreed, and I nodded.

“I don’t regret taking out that pig,” I said. “I didn’t do it from a place of anger or passion. The rage was there and real, but it was cold as ice. I was careful. I wanted you and the club to have plausible deniability.”

“I know what you were doin’ just like you know the rules and why Glass and I did what we had to do.”

I nodded. I knew. They couldn’t look weak. There had to be consequences for something like that. Doing something so large and that could impact the club as a whole without the club’s knowing or a vote wasn’t something you did. It just wasn’t. It could give other brothers the wrong idea and as much as the citizenry wanted to look at us like we were a bunch of fuckin’ animals – we weren’t that. The rules we had were a lot fewer, and looser than society’s, but they had to be ironclad. It was the only thing keeping us from going full Lord of the Flies or some shit which would just have all our asses up on charges and leave what families we had to struggle. We weren’t about to fuckin’ go there. Especially Mav who had Marisol and her kid brother relying on him.

We talked about a lot of things, basically catching up. Before I’d been locked up, Mav and I had been thick as thieves and right after? Well, his duty as pres kept him from visiting as often as he liked. We traded letters but most of them didn’t get to me, intercepted by cops and the fuckin’ COs looking for shit on the club. I don’t know how much of my shit got to him, either