She looked up at Leo, who appeared not to notice the tension in the room at all. He leaned down and kissed her forehead, and then said, “I’ll be right back. I have to drop in on Danny for a moment.” He took the stairs and she could feel the crowd watch him go.

 

The expectancy remained the same as their eyes followed him through the room. She could tell where he was by the feeling of everyone’s focus.

 

She smiled at this, told herself she was getting paranoid, and went to the bar area. Spotting Jay, she gave him a wave and he motioned to the stool beside him.

 

Conversations were picking back up around the room as she sat down next to Jay.

 

“It’s not usually this crowded on a Monday night, is it?” she asked casually.

 

“Perceptive as always, my dear,” Jay agreed.

 

“What is going on?” she asked him.

 

“I believe the technical term is ‘witch hunt,’ where Leo is the witch and Crash has been promoting himself as the man with the burning oil.”

 

“No peep as to what he’s going to drop?” she asked.

 

“Not a word, but he has made it sound like it is on the level of pureeing live babies,” Jay told her.

 

“Oh, shit,” she hissed.

 

“You know something?”

 

“Not really, but I feel something, and I’m thinking this could get ugly,” she murmured, and she signaled for a beer.

 

Leo came down the stairs. The focus of the crowd once again moved with him while he moved unhindered and went to the middle of the bar, ignoring her waved invitation.

 

He ordered a beer and left cash on the bar for future drinks, letting everyone know that he planned on staying for a while tonight.

 

Then Crash was behind him, but distant enough for polite conversation.

 

“Four years, Leo. That’s a long time,” Crash began.

 

Leo turned slowly and leaned casually back on the bar with his elbow. “You’ve got something to say, Crash, and most of these folks are here for the show, probably at your invite. So, just say it so I can get some dinner and these folks can get back to real life.”

 

“I know what you’ve been doing,” Crash said. “You’ve been running drugs.”

 

“And?” Leo said, extremely bored.

 

Bev tensed up. “Oh shit,” she hissed.

 

Crash smiled. “You’ve been running them for Nomar Vasquez.”

 

The bar was suddenly as still as a morgue.

 

Leo set his bottle down and took out his phone. He speed dialed a number. “Yes, it’s me. You were right all along. I never saw this one coming, but it’s deranged, even for him. I’m asking for tribunal.”

 

Leo nodded his head twice, listening, and then hung up the phone.

 

The room was even quieter than before.

 

“You deny it?” Crash said, but there was a hint of insecurity in his voice.

 

“Not only that, Crash, but I’m saying you are seriously twisted to even think of using that subject for your own petty problem with me.”

 

“I saw you in daylight at his house!” Crash swore.

 

“I don’t know what you saw, and I don’t care. You’re so fucking deranged you could have seen Bugs fucking Bunny there and decided it was me,” Leo said, his body language calm, easy, and completely cool.

 

“Take hold of the accused,” Danny’s voice rang out from the bottom of the stairs, and the crowd parted for him.

 

Three men stepped forward and took hold of Crash. “What the fuck? Let go of me! He’s in bed with god, damn, fucking, Vasquez!”

 

Danny walked up to Crash as he struggled. “I don’t care about your current derangements. I have enough, ten times over, to take your patch. You have brought police investigations to this club, to me, to other members. You have incited brother against brother, tearing at the fabric which holds us together. More than once I have heard you say — and I have it on police transcript as well — Fuck the bros. Well, Mr. Bennett, I say, fuck you.”

 

Danny turned to the crowd. “I need two officers willing to stand with me.”

 

“I will,” said Jay, and he rose from his stool beside Bev.

 

“I will,” said Hugo, the VP, and he came over from the staircase.

 

“Will anyone stand for the accused?” Danny said, and he waited. Many shuffled their feet, but no one moved. “No one? No patch holder will stand? Jay, doesn’t there need to be at least one to stand with him?”

 

Angel stepped forward. “Only to serve the purpose of the tribunal, I’ll stand with him.”

 

Danny nodded. “Then it’s as you say, and do what you can.”

 

“Yes sir,” Angel said, though obviously not happy about the request.

 

“Danny, I saw him!” Crash pleaded. “So did Yvette. Tell them, Yvette!”

 

Bev looked for Yvette, who was standing more or less alone behind the gathering crowd with her fists pressed to her mouth as she bawled. Bev got up from the stool and went to her. She was in so much pain, she couldn’t ignore her, not with this going on.

 

Yvette was shaking her head violently from side to side and pressing her fists so hard into her teeth when Bev got there that she was afraid the woman might draw blood.

 

Danny’s eyes met Bev’s as she put an arm around Yvette and held her. Was that a look of warning? Of anger? She didn’t know, and at this moment, she didn’t care. Yvette did have someone to stand for her, and Bev wasn’t leaving her side.

 

“Crash,” Danny said. “You fail to understand so many things. They are right in front of you and you fail to see them. All you see is your hate. You have no sense of brotherhood at all.”

 

Then Leo lifted his voice so that everyone could clearly hear him. “I know exactly what you saw, Crash. The middle of the day, the possible bag of coke. Nomar on the other side of the motorcycle. I will address this once. Only once, and I will hear no more of it! Not only do I know about it, I was there! So was Hugo! We watched our plan to gather information. Leo did what he did because I told him to do it.”

 

Danny sighed. “As it happened, the plan was a failure, and I have apologized to Leo several times for putting him through that with nothing to show for it except opening the wound he carries — like all of us — for Woody and Emma.

 

“But for you, Crash, that wasn’t even a possibility. No. All you saw was a chance to hurt your brother. All you saw was a way to cause more pain and more strife. So I will hear nothing about what you saw, from anybody, ever again. That is my shame, not Leo’s. And if any of you hold Woody and Emma’s memory dear, then you will not speak of this to anyone, not even amongst ourselves, for fear or loosing another chance at reprisal.”

 

Nods and voiced promises came from around the room.

 

“Good. Now, Angel, I believe it is your turn,” Danny said, and stepped back.

 

Angel stepped forward, his face a mask of concentration, and Bev could see his fingers were shaking slightly. From the look in his eyes, they were probably shaking with rage.

 

When his voice came though, it was clear, and even passionate. And Bev realized that he really was going to give his position his best shot.

 

“Crash has spoken out in the past. Yes. Normally when he’s emotionally charged. He has said some hurtful things at these times — but who hasn’t? Who, in this room, while enraged, or in pain, or hurt the way only love can hurt, has not lashed out and said something they knew they shouldn’t have?”

 

Crash eyed the room, and he boldly looked at the trio. “No one? Not a single man or woman in this room has done exactly what we are bringing to Crash’s door?”

 

Angel paused, and took a breath. “Because the truth is, Crash has broken no code. The truth is, he is an asshole, and since coming out of prison, he’s been a serious asshole, but never has he broken a single code. Not once! I defy anyone to name a code that Crash has broken!”

 

Again he searched the room and boldly met the tribunal’s eyes. “Again? No one? This man, our brother, is being held like an animal, and he’s broken no code, and though an asshole, who probably needs some serious help, has done nothing more than anyone else in this room has admittedly done.”

 

Angel finished, and then he turned away from everyone and walked out into the night, and he stood there in the cold air.

 

“Hang on, baby,” Bev said, squeezing Yvette a little with her arm.

 

Yvette shook her head. “It’s not over,” she whimpered.

 

Danny nodded his head and stepped forward again. With a further nod he said, “No, Crash never mentioned any names. So, he never actually broke the word of the code. He said, ‘My partner in this crime is tall, with brown hair, green eyes, a stupid spider tat on the side of his neck, rides a blue Lowrider, and he hangs out in a club bar, in rural Lakeside.’ But, no, he used no name.”

 

Chuckles and laugher broke out throughout the room.

 

“When he was told that his lawyer was there to sit with him during questioning, he said, ‘Makes a better fence.’ Result? Jay faced possible disbarment for nine months during an investigation which tore his life apart for that whole period of time. But Crash did not mention his name.

 

“Crash did not mention the name of this club bar, but they didn’t seem to need to know the name. They came here, and for almost a year, they harassed, prodded, and searched everything they could. I personally was investigated by the alcohol bureau commission. My liquor license was nearly lost, which would have been a cost to the club of more than the million invested in that one piece of paper. But, Crash broke no word of code.”

 

Danny took a few pacing steps, and then said, “Angel asked very good questions, and did a fine job for Crash. When Angel looked me in the eye and asked me his questions, I felt doubt. I really did. I began to wonder at the trueness of this tribunal, and at the trueness of my own motivations over the last few years to push Leo to have it.”

 

He stopped his pacing and looked around. “Yes, I too have bad days, and yes, I too have said things in anger, or in pain, or in emotional turmoil, that have hurt and even maimed my brothers and sisters in this club. But afterward, when I recognized what I did, I said I was sorry, and I sought to make amends. Whether those amends were a beer at the bar and a few moments of time to assure my brother or sister than I really did not mean to harm them, or to be there when that brother faced a dark mile so I could ride with him, I did my best to earn back his respect.

 

“What I did not do,” Danny said, turning back to face Crash, “is to go home and devise new ways to continue the pain, increase the mayhem, and bring my brothers down even further.

 

“Hugo gave me a sheet not long ago which listed the financial damages done to members of this club as a direct result of Crash’s actions. The total is over one million. The damages he saw were mostly time taken to deal with audits and investigations, lawyer bills, and loss of income due to loss of business.

 

“Crash is not unaware of these damages, but no one on that list has been offered any type of amends or apology.”

 

Danny took in his breath and let it out. “So, as a member of this tribunal, I say no, I do not see a brother before me.”

 

It took a moment, and it obviously caused Hugo some pain, but he said, “Nor I.”

 

Jay was quicker but just as distressed when he said, “Nor I.”

 

“Oh god, no,” whimpered Yvette, and Bev held her tight, both of them in tears.

 

Danny nodded, and he looked at the men holding Crash. “So be it. I feel that simple banishment is enough. Remove his patch and get him on his bike. Crash, you have thirty days to move out of our territory since your apartment is in downtown Lakeside. The consequences will be harsh if you fail in this or if you return. Get him out of here.”

 

They dragged Crash out of the door, and only the choked wails of Yvette followed him.

 

Danny turned his attention on her. “Yvette?”

 

She looked at him like a doe looks into the headlights of an oncoming truck.

 

Danny didn’t wait for a verbal response; it was obvious he had her attention. “If you leave with him now, it is too symbolic. I’m sorry; you’ll be banished with him. But I like you, and I can’t think of a single member who doesn’t. So, I’m asking: Let him leave alone. Anyone in this room will let you ride behind them to follow him home as soon as he hits the road, but please, let him leave alone.”

 

The sound of hits and angered pain came from outside through the glass as three men took Crash’s colors, leaving him on the blacktop in the process. Then they hauled him to his feet and got him on his bike. Crash’s bike started after another kidney shot to urge him on. He seemed to wait, though, even with the punches urging him to take off.

 

Yvette wailed and ran for the door, and then stopped and ran back to Beverly’s arms. “Why am I staying?” she screamed, “He can’t come back here!”

 

Then Crash’s bike roared to life and shot out of the parking lot and onto the road.

 

“Tell him that we held you back,” Beverly whispered. “Tell him we said he had to leave alone. Now, come on. I’ll ride you home.”

 

She held Yvette close all the way outside as sobs wracked her body. Two other sisters came to her, telling her to call them, that they would come get her any time. They told her they could also help with the move if she wanted. They were honestly concerned.

 

Yvette got on the back of the Lowrider, and she held Bev tight as she started the engine and left the club.