irrevocable

{Twenty-Six}

Chapter 1, Waste a Moment // Kings of Leon

Jackson

"Well, well, well, how the tables have turned." Brax saunters into Grinder's hospital room with a satisfied look in his eyes and an even more satisfied smile. He ceremoniously drags the bedside chair to the middle of the room and plops into it, putting his boots up on Grinder's bed, legs crossed at the ankles and arms behind his head.

"I hear it's just a flesh wound but you're so old they're keeping you overnight."

"He was knocked unconscious," my dad says.

"From a flesh wound," Brax says flatly.

"I fell on my fucking tailbone. Broke it. That's why I blacked out." Grinder narrows his gaze. "Not 'cause I'm old, son."

"Still not your son. You got a nasty scrape on your leg and broke your butt. Did I get it all?" Brax stifles a smirk but I see it ready to burst from his mouth.

"Get the eff outa here." Grinder waves him off.

Brax leans forward, resting his hand on Grinder's forearm.

"Consider this payback from when you visited me. My boots aren't as muddy as yours and I came through the main entrance not the back. Guess I don't have the same effect on security guards as you." He leans back into the chair, returning to his previously smug posture.

"Leave my dirty boots outa this." Grinder narrows his eyes directly at Brax. "And real Reapers never use the main entrance."

"Thank fuck I'm not a real Reaper. You're only in here overnight, by the way. I didn't really need to visit but I couldn't resist."

"I shouldn't have wasted my time visiting you, but Maria had that damn burner phone she wanted me to get to you. Turned out alright in the end, I guess." Grinder's tone softens just a little.

"I was laid up for over two weeks, Grind. Remember that? I had physical therapy for months. I was way more messed up than you are now."

"You wiped out on your motorcycle traveling at unsafe speeds in bumper to bumper traffic. That's basically self-inflicted. I was shot."

"You were grazed."

"Anyway," I say, hoping to pause the weird pissing match. "We need a plan. Judge isn't going to slink into the night never to be seen again. He's roped my mother into his family neglect. He's already threatened Holly with some kind of scam involving money. I don't trust him to leave her alone."

I have the urge to take Holly into hiding, but I know that's a mistake. A false sense of security. We need to take Judge down one way or another. I don't care if it's vigilante crap that the Reapers pull or by calling in more law enforcement. Whatever it takes to keep him away from Holly permanently, I'll do.

Brax wipes the hint of a smirk from his face, all seriousness taking over his features.

"I haven't interacted with him much over the years, so I'll take your lead, Grinder."

"Finally, you defer to my expertise."

"Yes, I'm willing to listen to your vast knowledge of criminal exploits."

I can't tell if they're messing around or serious. I decide not to care.

"What do we know that could help figure out where he is and how to take him out." I say the words as images of him being arrested fill my mind. That needs to happen, and it needs to stick.

"Brax, I hate to say this, but Judge did get along well with your old man and your ma." My dad offers his quiet observation from the corner of the room.