Jesus.

Shit.

Shit.

He felt that burn in his throat too. So bad he had to suck back a long pull to douse the flame.

Tack lifted up from the bar and turned fully to Joker.

Then he laid it out.

“That motherfucker, he taught you to think you were garbage. You took that on. You were a kid. You had no fuckin’ choice. But he was wrong, Joke. And the only person who doesn’t get that shit is you. Get it. Get over it. Get your head outta your ass. And find what you deserve. Find some fuckin’ happy. If it isn’t this girl, it isn’t. But whatever it is, I want it for you. Your brothers want it for you. Their old ladies want it for you. The only one who isn’t lookin’ for that for you is you.”

Joker turned away, lifted his beer, and took another tug.

“Your call not to let that sink in,” Tack said, and Joker felt him move to drain his beer and slide off his stool.

But he wasn’t done, and he left his kill shot for last.

“Now, not many people on this earth I would rather sit and have a beer with. But, see, my woman is up the mountain with my sons. And you got my love, Joke, I got all the time in the world for you. But straight up, I’d rather be up the mountain watchin’ my kids tear my house apart and my woman struttin’ around thinkin’ that shit’s cute when it’s not than down here with you, watchin’ you wallow in shit that’s history. You know how I feel about my Club. Think about that.”

Kane Allen was a wise man and a strong one, so Joker thought about it.

And Joker thought about Rider and Cutter and the fact that Tack was not lying. Those boys were hoodlums and neither of them had reached double digits yet.

He then thought about Tyra, her tight skirts, her ass in those tight skirts, the class act she was from top to toe, and the fact that the only man on earth she’d let tap her ass was sitting next to him.

And then he thought that he did not want to be the kind of man who wallowed in history. But he was thinking he was.

And last, Joker thought all of that was something to think about.

“Go,” he muttered, throwing back another swallow and not looking at his brother.

“Tyra will reach out. We’ll get Carissa in that house.”

Joker gave him his eyes.

Tack kept going.

“I see I didn’t sort your shit, and that troubles me, but they’re your terms to come to, you choose how you do it. Now you need time. But you need this again, Joke, I’m at the stool next to you. I’ll repeat it until I can’t talk anymore. I’ll do it as many times as I have to until you get it. That’s what you mean to me. So now, I’m goin’. But you need me back,” he tipped his head to the bar, “that’s where I’ll be.”