Renny (The Henchmen MC 6)

"I only want to tell it once and it's a short drive. You'll just have to wait."

I knew he wanted to say something to that; I could feel the air in the car getting thicker, more oppressive and I knew that fun-loving Renny was taking a short vacation and dark Renny was making an appearance. But, really, there was no time to coddle him.

We pulled into the garage and flew out of the car in unison, both getting to the door at the same time, but Renny held it open for me despite his mood.

Everyone was in the common room, kids included.

Reign's head jerked up when the door closed. He looked at me for a long minute before turning to Summer and giving her a look that managed to communicate that the kids needed to disappear.

"Come on guys, let's go see the glass room!" Summer declared cheerfully, but I could hear the tension there. She was stressing out. And given that she was pregnant, things needed to calm down so she and Maze, who was also expecting, could finish out their pregnancies with as little stress and worry as possible.

The kids jumped up, excited, knowing they weren't usually allowed to go up there and it was novel to be able to. Even though Ferryn was old enough to give everyone a look that suggested she knew she was being shooed away so the adults could talk and that she didn't care for that one bit.

She was going to be a handful when she was a teenager. I hoped Reign and Summer were aware of that.

"Alright," Reign said when it was just the men left, Penny going with the women and kids because she was the only one who could climb the ladder with them. "What'd they say?"

I swallowed a little hard, not particularly liking being the one bringing the information to them. Again, it was messy. I never had to be the one to deal with the outrage and the questioning and everything like that. I was hoping Lo was hauling ass so I only had to deal with it for a few minutes.

"The Abruzzo family."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Reign seethed, standing suddenly to pace a few feet, raking a hand through his hair.

"Who the fuck is the Abruzzo family?" Duke asked, looking at his brothers.

"Remember that time Wolf got locked up?" Reign asked the group at large.

"Which time?" Duke snorted. Wolf's uncontrollable temper was not exactly a secret to anyone.

"The time he ripped mother fucking Lex Keith to shreds," Reign said, stopping pacing suddenly and standing almost freakishly still.

"Know Lex Keith was a rapist scumbag..." Duke offered, shaking his head.

"Yeah, he was. And once upon a time a long fucking time ago, he got ahold of Janie. Way before Wolf and she shacked up, but when she told him, he flipped his shit and got locked up for it. But, along the way, Janie kind of lost her shit around here..."

"Janie loses her shit all the time," Renny said, smiling affectionately.

"Yeah, no. She snapped. Was ordering us around and shit. It was nuts. And the cop on the case, Marco, would not be bribed. He was a fucking hardhead. Was in no one's pockets. Janie enlisted Eli and had his ass kicked, found out something was off with him, did some digging, and realized he was an Abruzzo."

"And that is a bad thing because..." Duke went on.

"Janie just wanted Wolf out of jail. She went to the Grassis and told them the Abruzzos were in town, figured she would create some chaos. The Grassis don't want any other Italians stepping in on their turf, understandably enough. Marco was never heard from again, though we have no proof that they killed him. We thought that was the end of it."

"You never stopped to wonder if they were after the arms trade?" Renny asked. "Taking out Wolf seemed pretty planned. Especially over something like Lex Keith's murder. The cops wanted him put down just as badly as everyone else..."

"We considered it," Cash said, running a hand up the shaved side of his head. "But that was the end of everything. Wolf got out of jail. Things went back to normal. None of us have heard the fucking Abruzzo name since then."

"Until now," Renny said, exhaling hard.

"So they were having a meeting with the Grassis," Reign said, tone deceptively calm. "The were making a power move, trying to get in good with the importers before they took over fully. Getting connections."

"They're fucking glorified goddamn pimps on Long Island," Repo said suddenly, jaw clenched tight. "The fuck makes them think they can overtake the gun trade in Jersey?"

"The fact that they obviously have almost already accomplished that goal?" I asked, realizing my mistake when all their eyes snapped to me, angry. All except Renny who was pressing his lips together like he was trying to hold back a smile.