CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Rage filled Saks as he walked out of the diner. Luke’s own face was twisted in pure disgust, mirroring exactly the way Saks felt. In silence they walked to Luke’s truck, and climbed in under a tense silence.
“That was bullshit,” Luke grumbled as he started up the truck.
“Agreed.”
Luke put the truck into gear and didn’t say another word, obviously fuming about Okie’s lack of support. Saks’ gut soured, too, but he wouldn’t let one obstacle impede his goal.
“Fucking Okie,” Luke grumbled. “Maybe it’s about time he retires as president.”
“What? Luke, he put together this club.”
“I don’t need a fucking history lesson, Saks. Everything was fine until Okie went to prison.”
“That wasn’t his fault, man.”
“I know whose fault it was, Saks. That’s not the fucking issue. The deal is Okie hasn’t acted right since he returned. He should give the reins to someone else.”
“Who? You?”
“No. I’m too busy.”
“Well, Spider, as good a guy as he is, isn’t president material and you know it. You say you don’t want it, and hell, I don’t either.”
“You’d make a great president.”
“Sure. If I wasn’t a Rocco and carried the weight of one hundred years of crime history on my back.”
“A hundred years? Really?”
“Yeah. We got in on the ground floor. It was the Serafini who were the latecomers.”
“But you have almost nothing to do with them.”
“They’re still my family, Luke, where I spend Thanksgiving and Christmas. Whatever happens to them makes its way to me, as we recently found out.”
Luke pulled in to the shop property and parked his truck behind the garage, but didn’t get out. Instead, he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, his face twisted in concentration.
“I’ll go with you,” he said finally.
“What? That will screw you with the police.”
“Fuck the police. When have they helped me? You’ve been the one who had my back every turn of the way. When Okie tossed me out you walked away from the club, too. When those Rojos kidnapped Emily you kept me sane, and you handled the phone calls from the kidnappers.”
“You saved me from the Rojos,” Saks returned.
“It was my shit that got you kidnapped,” Luke retorted. “It was my own fucking uncle. It wouldn't surprise me if he was behind the hit on you.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Doesn’t it? What if he thought that, if he destroyed my business, I would be more willing to follow down his happy trail? And what better way than to take down my best and most irreplaceable employee?”
Saks admitted it made a twisted kind of logic, one that fit the mind of Raymundo Icherra, Luke's uncle. But it didn’t feel like the right answer. No. Something else was going on.
Rob Gibson rumbled in on his Harley and parked next to the truck. He gave them a wave as he walked to the back door.
Luke grunted. “Well, time to make the coffee.”