Justice

This weekend, the board was riding to Virginia so I could visit the Lady Guardians Hampton Roads chapter, since they were having a Unity Day. Their President Billi Madison was new to running a chapter, but not to the MC world. Her dedication and ability to bring greatness to the club was more than I could ever ask for.

The club board met to deliberate about the new wave of chapters that applied to be apart of the Lady Guardian charter. Once they were approved, they would go to Razor and the Legion of Guardians to make it official. After the board met to deliberate, our phones started going off. All at the same time.

“What’s wrong?” I asked grabbing my phone.

Apparently, one of the guys we had a hit on, popped up on our radar. The club had a Google Alert of people who had wronged, assaulted or violated any member or client of ours. If their names came up in any media format, we were notified.

The name that popped up on my screen was Mark Wringle. I looked up and saw that Brooklyn had seen it as well, because she went stark still. Her pen was in mid-air, her face was white and mouth open in surprise.

“Oh babe,” Goldie muttered and reached for her first. “He’s going to trial. This is great news.”

Cut looked up from her phone and pinned those eyes on me.

“What?” I mouthed to her, since I figured she didn’t want to say anything in front of Brooklyn.

A sound played from Silva’s phone, which sounded like a press conference, then the familiar voice of Alaric Hunt, came through. “My client, Mark Wringle, was framed and made to be perceived as a predator, when in fact it was all a lie. The district has decided to take on this case, because it needs to be clear that false accusations will be taken seriously, as the livelihood of many people has been tanked. This is in no way, to negate, the shame that has been done to the real victims, but Ms. Shelly Leechy is no victim. She, my fellow citizens, is a predator.”

All eyes, every single one of them hit me at that moment and all I could do was sit there with my mouth wide open. At least five minutes passed by before I got up and went to my office.

Cut, hit the gavel, letting them know that our meeting had adjourned, because I was not in any place to close out our official board meeting. Sharp pain crossed through my chest and a looming migraine began to dance over my eyebrows. With blurred vision, I sank in my chair as I replayed what I just heard over the phone. In complete unbelief, I shook my mouse so the computer would wake up. There was a need to actually see this happening in real time. It just couldn’t be believed. Not my Alaric. Not my man. Defending a known sexual predator and calling the women, predators and not victims.

This was too fucking much. A hot tear ran down my face and then more joined the goddamn party. A knock rang on the door, but I had no answer, as I clicked to see Alaric standing behind the podium, with the real predator right next to him, in an expensive ass suit. There was no reason to click on the volume, because I don’t know if my heart could take much more assault at that point. It was him. In the flesh with all his bones.

It was Alaric Hunt.

That night, I didn’t go home. Hell, five minutes after seeing him, I didn’t even stay at the compound. I hopped on my bike and rode until the tears had dried up, my body was ragged and I feared having an accident. My phone had been left at the compound and for a good reason, to be honest. There was no one that I wanted to talk to at this point and no one would understand anyway.

This was a big part of my issue, as I took over things. My friendships dwindled because I was the President and had to make decisions that were bigger than one person or my friend, but for the larger organization. This had not always made people happy, even those closest to me. My board had a different understanding about this, since we were also making decisions as a team. It was not just me and that was something I spent the first two years trying to instill in them, we were a team. What we did is what would stick. None of us liked Roe and how she ran it, then let’s do something different, but it required us to think differently.

That was the cost of leadership and like now, as I checked into a hotel by my lonesome, I was not sure who to call. I didn’t have girlfriends, I had sisters. Only God knew, if Goldie was slashing his tires, Brooklyn was probably burning down his house and Silva was torching the man with fire and brimstone.

Alive.

Alaric was someone that I let inside. The man had actually been inside of our compound and men are rarely ever there, even with the husbands. The club is not really where they go. Alaric was also, associated with me. Someone I picked to date, inside my heart, my life, and hell, even my body. Yet, he was just like the asshole, Talbert from all those months ago. I was a lawyer, but damn, these people lacked integrity. There was nothing there and the sad part about all of that, is, I didn’t see it before. Shit, maybe I did and ignored it, like the many women before me. Hell, this was probably a repeat of the R.W.E scandal from over six years ago. Now, my judge of character would be called into question. I was fucking an engaged man for six months and did not even know that his fiancée worked in the same building. Let’s not forget the same firm.

I wasn’t fit to lead. Fit to run shit. Hell, fit to even argue on someone’s behalf.

One night turned into two, as I tried to figure out where I went wrong and how I could have allowed myself to actually fall for someone whose heart was for someone else and now, who represented a sexual predator that had assaulted one of my team members.

Normally, I was stronger than this, but I really wanted to cry.

So, I did.

Then on day three, I showered, grabbed some food and headed back home. It was time to take out the garbage.