“Uh, we were. But... I was only looking for something casual, and there's the other matter.”
“What other matter?”
“He's about to be my brother in a few weeks.”
“Huh?”
Taking her eyes off of the road for the first time since they'd gotten into the truck, Roxy studied Jackie for a long second before turning back to the road.
“Did I hear you correctly?”
“You did. I didn't know that when we... spent time together, but we know now, so...”
Creasing her brow, Roxy flicked her blinker and passed over into the left turning lane.
“Rewind to the part where you said you wanted to keep it casual. When did this version of Jackie emerge?”
“It's a long story.”
“I've got all night, Baby girl.”
Liam
Clinking brews, Liam leaned back against the wall, tilting the bar stool up slightly as he took in the bar. He hadn't been to Dwight's in ages. It was one of Rico's haunts, and someplace he rarely came to after a sparring match. But he'd been able to get loose today after several days of tension, and it just felt right to follow everyone back there.
The whole experience was wholesome in a way that his current circles weren't. Most of the people who stopped in there were hard-working people letting off steam after work or snatching a bit of peace before heading home to less than happy domestic situations.
They reminded him of the kind of life he would have lived if his early, home life had been even moderately functional. If he hadn't had something to prove, he wouldn't have had enough ambition in the fuel tank to launch Raw Ink. So being here with people who represented his roots was a reminder he needed of where he'd come from.
Taking a swig of beer, he settled into that warm feeling of home he'd never really had. Funny how he still lacked that feeling, even with tons of money and notoriety.
“Yeah, Mother-fucker? Show me something.”
Craning his ear, Liam leaned forward on his stool, setting it firmly back on the ground. He knew that voice. Shit. He knew exactly who that was. Panning the bar, he grit his jaw when his eyes fell on Corey. Little shit. Still up to the same bullshit. How many times did he have to tell him to get out of this life?
Corey wasn't like him. He didn't have even the slightest control over his taste for violence. There was so much rage pent up in him, he didn't know what to do with it. Liam had found an outlet. Corey just wanted to get it out. Setting his bottle on the bar, Liam rose up from the stool.
“Someone you know?”
Turning to meet Biz's eyes, he gave him a grim nod.
“Who's that Corey?”
Rico turned toward the direction Liam had been looking in and immediately rose up.
“Nah. This is no good. He doesn't want to start shit with the Loko MC.”
“It's alright. I got it.”
“Not by yourself you don't.”
Fire pumping through his veins, Liam hated to admit that Rico had a point. Corey was mouthing off to at least four of the bikers. Who knew how many more would join the conflict? He didn't like involving Rico in anything, though. Rico kept his nose clean, and he was too old for this kind of shit.
“Alright, but don't get too deep in it.”
“I'm coming, too,” Mike Rowdy chimed in.
Biz rose from his stool, as well, without a word.
Well, that outnumbered the fuckers Corey was about a second away from going to blows with. Making their way over to them, Liam steeled himself for the possible worst. The Loko MC were reckless bastards. The types to pull out a knife for no fucking reason. They had a tendency to create trouble where it didn't need to be.
“Everything alright over here?”
Jerking his head in Liam's direction, clearly ready to tell him off before he realized who'd addressed him, Corey's eyes widened, and in that misstep, the bald-headed biker he'd been doing the majority of the mouthing off to caught him square in the jaw.
From there, all hope for peace dissolved in a calamity of trained blows met with reckless, wilder blows. Liam had acted without thinking, knocking the bald-headed due in the jaw. Corey took on the long-haired brunette moving in for Liam, who'd fashioned himself like a Native in a cut-off jean jacket with the Loko MC emblem sewn onto a stretching patch over the back.
It didn't take long for little bro to handle him, but before he had a chance to catch his breath, the rest of the bikers had taken notice and dropped their pool sticks to rush over and break up the mayhem. Surprisingly, they were using their heads. A bar brawl would attract cops, and that wasn't good for a crew that dealt in illegal trading.
“Woah, Woah. Woah,” the Pres called out, yanking back several of his brothers by the shoulders. Little Mike (who as it happened, wasn't so little). Liam knew him from the gym. Before he'd chosen this path, he'd had a hell of a boxing career ahead of him. Locking eyes with Liam, he gave him a nod of recognition.
“You think you can calm your men down?”
"If you can rein in yours."
"I can do that."
It took some doing, but between Liam and Little Mike, they managed to put an end to the flying fists and poised beer bottles. But the good will had long left the air by the time they'd finished. It was time to go.
Liam couldn't hang around here now without feeling the need to watch his back every five seconds. Giving Rico and the others a knowing look, he gave them a final farewell with his other hand gripping the back of Corey's shirt, tight.
“Thanks. Sorry about fucking up the evening.”
“Oh nah, man. This was fun. We don't get a lot of action outside of the ring,” Mike Rowdy assured him.
Liam didn't hang around after that. He'd been trying to get his hands on Corey for a minute, and now that he had him, he was going to lay into him, verbally, but forcefully. This shit had to stop. He refused to watch his brother throw his life away.
The cycle had to end somewhere.
Passing through the exit, his stole a glance at the bikers, giving Little Mike a nod while taking note of the cold glances the others were giving them. He didn't get the best feeling from that. They'd probably be looking for some sort of reprisal. And that wasn't the sort of shit Liam needed in his life right now.
Turning his eyes ahead of him, he started at who he saw waiting outside of the door to get in: Jackie and a Japanese chic with electric blue hair trailing down to her elbows. What in the hell was she doing coming to Dwight's?
They held one another's gaze a long moment before he gave her a half-nod and kept it moving. His whole purpose for coming out was to get her off of his mind, even if the universe had other plans. He had a different set of problems to contend with right now.
~
“You trying to get yourself killed or something?”
Liam was nearing the end of his rant, but he was flipping pissed at the arrogant expression pasted on his brother's face. Tossing a towel his way, he took a seat across from him. If he had to lecture him for the next three hours, he was fully prepared to do that. Shit, he'd failed to do it enough before, apparently. And it wasn't like their father was even trying to get him on a better road. He doubted Corey even knew their father was getting married.
Corey represented the sort of element that would be bad for press.
Their father was a fucking jerk. Plain and simple.
“Look, man. I heard you, alright?”
“You heard me, huh? Little man, you haven't heard jack. You're going to get your shit together, or you'll have a lot worse than the Loko MC to worry about. I don't care if I have to give you a fucking job mopping the floors here until you apprentice up and earn your ink. The street phase of your existence is fucking done. You hear me, kid? Done.”