“Mayor Walsh!” I called out roughly, my arms still folded in front of me.
He looked up slowly, his irritation written over his face.
“Hi.” I beamed, raising a weak hand to wiggle my leather glove-clad fingers.
“Mr. Tucker,” he all but growled.
“Sorry.” I gestured to the event going on around us, and I shook my head, my smile turning upside down. “Do you mind starting over? We missed the first part of this little speech of yours.”
The Mayor’s mouth pressed into a thin line as he glared at me.
That’s right, snake. I’m right here. Come and get me.
“All this will be a matter of public record soon enough, Mr. Tucker. I’m sure you and your…men…can catch up with it then.”
I curled my lip and reached up to remove my shades, making sure he saw the look in my eyes as I played this fucker like the greasy puppet he was. “Me and mymen?What, exactly, does that mean?” I tucked my shades into the top ofmy cut, letting both my hands fall by my sides.
Mayor Walsh glanced at the man next to him before he looked down at Winnie. She hadn’t taken her eyes off me once. I could feel her stare burning into my skin, studying me like a little science project she couldn’t quite understand.
“Either take a seat, Tucker or leave,” Mayor Walsh called out, failing to hide his irritation.
“I’ll take my chances standing. Me and mymenare citizens of Babylon. Over the last few months, more than ever, the welfare and safety of our fellow townsfolk is a major concern of ours.”
“A concern of yours?” he scoffed in response, raising his brow. “You? The very men whoarethe concerns of this town? The ones who treat it and its residents like sub characters in some crazy world they’ve created that brings criminals, dishonesty, violence, and even death to our streets?”
“Why don’t you tell us how you really feel, Mayor?” I smirked.
His nostrils twitched—his top lip, too—as he fought to remain professional.
“Probably best you don’t do that in front of these people, though, right? We wouldn’t want them seeing a side of you they couldn’t even imagine exists.”
The man next to Mayor Walsh leaned forward, whispering something and reaching for a radio that was attached to the waistband of his trousers, but the Mayor simply held a hand up in his face, never looking away from me, and the man stepped down again, quietly removing himself and his opinions from the situation.
“Ah,” I sighed happily, spinning on the heels of my boots and turning to look at all my brothers behind me. “I don’tthink our Mayor thinks too highly of us, boys.”
“Shame,” Slater muttered, his amusement clear.
Jedd was stony-faced, watching the Mayor like he had a target on his forehead already. Which, he kind of did.
Deeks looked calm, Kenny confused. Rubin was at the back, and I wasn’t even sure Walsh had seen him yet. As much as I hated to do this to the kid, I knew when to play my hand and when to hold it back. Now was the time to play.
Stepping through my men, I began to call back to the small crowd. “Nobody cares about this town more than I do, Mayor, I can assure you of that. Every single one of these men would die to save Babylon’s honor. They’d lay down their lives if someone tried to hurt this place. We don’t just ride motorcycles, do we, brothers?”
They responded in low grunts of no, their heads shaking as they looked up at the enemy.
“We are so much more than bikes, repos, buying and selling gold, and keeping our own little slice of Heaven away from the main streets of this place, Mayor Walsh.” I spun back around, now at the end of a line that the men had parted to create in my honor. To my left was Rubin. To my right was Owen. Both of them hidden behind other brothers as I stared up at Mayor Walsh and waited to strike. “We love our town. We wear it on our leather, and we wear it on our skin. We’re not The Hounds of Navarro or The Hounds of Silver City. We are The Hounds of Babylon. We’re the eyes in the shadows, protecting the borders we love so much. We protect the land that belongs to all of us. We keep it safe when others sleep, but we do it silently, without causing anyone in this town any harm.”
“Jacob would argue against that.”
“Jacob didn’t like the fact that we knew he was dealing drugs in our safe space,” I hit back. “Perhaps you knew about that before we did.”
The small crowd of people gasped, each one looking at the other, their mouths moving as they asked if it could be true.
Walsh cricked his neck, the heat rising in his cheeks as he reached for his tie again.
“But we probably shouldn’t talk about that publicly, should we?” I smiled flatly, both brows rising. “Not many of Babylon’s issues are discussed in public, are they, Mayor?”
“You need to leave, Mr. Tucker. This is a public announcement concerning—”