RAFE
Beth almost looked surprised to see me sitting in the waiting room when she walked out at seven o’clock. Almost. The rest of her looked relieved, as though she worried I wouldn’t be there. That damn discharge nurse took so long to get everything straightened out, and then the fucking cops came back for a few more rounds of questions I didn’t have answers to. At least none that I was willing to give them. By the time that circus ended I only had to wait half an hour for my girl to finish her shift.
My girl. I took to thinking about her in that way. I’d never wanted to see a girl the following day after I got a good fuck out of her, but Beth wasn’t my usual conquest. She had a fire inside of her that matched mine. She had said earlier she wasn’t my girlfriend, but she didn’t understand the way my world worked. I claimed her. She belonged to me, and she wanted it, too. Something held her back though.
When we got to her shit car I couldn’t help but laugh. She’d given me a sullen look and gotten into the beat up shitwagon. The damn thing sputtered so much at the red lights I wondered if it would even get us to the club. I wanted to tell her to wait for me, to hang out in one of the bedrooms in the back of the building, but she looked worn out from her shift. Besides, I didn’t know how long this meeting would take. We had to make plans, figure out who exactly was behind Jason’s murder and elect a new president.
When she pulled up outside the club gates, I leaned over and pulled her toward me for a kiss. I meant it to be a soft kiss, something gentle, but once I had her lips beneath mine all bets were off. My hand slid into her hair, holding her firmly against me as I pushed my tongue past her lips. She didn’t try to pull away, instead she leaned into me, her hand resting against my good shoulder. When I broke it off, her eyes were dark, ad her breath hit my face in short bursts. Fuck, I wanted her bad, right there in the car.
“Text me when you get home. And I promise you, if you disobey me a second time, it will be more than a spanking you get.” Her shocked gasp made me grin, and my cock get even harder in my pants. I needed to get inside her again, and fucking soon.
“You’re going to be late for your cub scout meeting.” She pulled back from me, a grin playing on her lips. She thought she was clever.
“Sass will only make your punishment worse,” I promised, but I couldn’t stop my lips from betraying my threat. I gave her one more hard kiss then threw open the door to her rust bucket and hopped out. “You have thirty minutes to get your ass home and send me a message,” I warned her, and shut the door.
“We’ll see.” She waved a hand out the window and tried to peel out, but her car sputtered again and she ended up rolling away barely hitting the speed limit. I shook my head and put my focus on the club. I’d worry about her car later, and plan out that spanking she had coming.
***
Most of the members were already in the main room sitting at the table. The president seat was left open and I took my chair to the left of it, as I always did. The mood in the room was somber as we all took in the enormity of the evening. Our leader, our friend, our brother, was dead, killed by some coward on a bike.
Across from me sat Gray, his narrowed eyes fixed on me as I began the meeting. “We’ve lost our president, but more than that, we lost our brother,” I began, looking around the room at the faces. Some looked back at me, others looked down at the table. Jason had been close to every member. No one sitting among us that night didn’t feel the impact of the loss. “Hell’s Spawn will pay for what they’ve done tenfold. I will make it my mission to find the shooter, but the whole fucking club will pay for what they did.”
“Why jump to that conclusion?” Gray stopped me as I continued to speak.
“Are you shitting me? The fucking Hell’s Spawn have been up our ass for years, wanting more of our territory. And Jason told me he thought they were starting to get back in bed with Javier.” I slammed my hand down on the table.
“I think we have bigger fish to fucking fry than the Hell’s Spawn.” Gray shoved away from the table and stood up, walking to stand behind Jason’s chair. The hand carved wooden throne-like chair represented the power and respect the club handed over to our president. Gray standing behind it, with his hands on the back, made me want to throw him out the window.
It was no secret that we didn’t get along. He’d had a bee in his ass since his woman left him a few years back and he found her walking out of my bedroom the next morning. I had no interest in her, fuck, I barely even remembered fucking her, but he never got over it. She was a free woman as far as the club was concerned. She’d broken it off with him, she was unclaimed.
“You think someone outside the Hell’s Spawn wanted Jason or any of us dead?” I demanded.
“No. I’m saying right now the club needs leadership. We can’t be running off like a bunch of halfcocked assholes. Jason was stepping down; we all know this.” He started walking around the table, making eye contact with each member who would look at him. “He was going to announce tonight that he was backing me in the vote for his replacement.”
I burst out of my chair at that moment and pointed a finger at him. “You fucking lie! Jason would never back you!”
“He was talking about the possibility,” Jared piped in as Gray slapped him on the back.
“He told me himself he was backing me. Said the club needed a fresh look and you would only be an extension of him.” Gray continued walking around the room until he reached Jason’s chair again. “That’s why he called you out to the warehouse, to tell you in person.”
My blood ran hot through my veins. No way was that what he was talking about, no way. I looked at the faces of the members at the table. The vote could go either way, and I didn’t need to fuck things up by forcing my hand. But I never had the chance.
“Jason was backing me, and now he’s dead.” He looked square at me. “He wasn’t backing you, but you were with him when he got shot.”
“Hey! No way!” a few members called out from the back of the room.
Gray held up his hands. “I don’t’ want to believe it either. I don’t believe it, but we have to take things as they come. Fact of the matter is Jason was going to back me. We have an empty chair and a crisis. I’m moving to take the presidency immediately.” He picked up the gavel that lay before the president’s seat and banged it on the table. “Rafe, what say you?”
The fucker just launched the vote. Before I even had a chance to say anything to stop him. Once a member started the vote, no more discussion could take place. “Fuck no.” I growled my answer.
Gray gave a little snicker. “No surprise there.” He motioned for JC to lay down his say. It took all of five minutes to get everyone’s vote. Gray pulled the chair back from the table and took his seat. “Right. Good.”
I pushed away from the table. It wasn’t a landslide; the asshole got it by two votes. I wasn’t going to sit around and listen to any more bullshit. I needed to find the shooter, and that wasn’t going to happen sitting around the fucking table having a pissing contest with Gray. “I’m going to check on Stephanie, see if she needs anything.” I started to head to the door.
“Good idea, but tell Jackson and Perry to head back. She doesn’t need any protection, and I’m sure she wants to be left alone.” He turned back to the meeting, dismissing me.
I clenched my fists, but didn’t bother responding to him. Stephanie would have protection. Fuck him. Fuck all of them.
Just as I burst out of the club into the warm summer night my phone buzzed in my pocket. I waited until I was on my bike before I checked it.
I’m home, safe and sound. Hope you earned a new patch tonight.