They can’t hold me much longer, and why it’s taking so long for my dad to get my attorney down here and get me moved to our county is troubling.
They made an excuse to get me in here. They must want something from me, or want me for something they think I’ve done but have no evidence of. I have no doubt this is about the sheriff’s son.
The familiar sounds of squeaky police shoes coming down the corridor announce company. “Walker?” a uniform barks, and I rise to my feet and go to the cell door.
I’m led down to an interview room. It’s just tactics to sleep deprive, starve, and dehydrate a prisoner, making them confess to shit they didn’t do. Well, you’ll be needing more then a few hours to make me delirious, motherfuckers.
I’m shoved into a chair with a push of my shoulders.
A few minutes later, the door re-opens and Sheriff Myers enters. He slaps a folder on the table and I raise a cocky brow. “That your homework?”
He opens it and flicks some pictures across the desk. The body of a young boy, bruises marring his features and bullet holes in his back. Another one shows a guy wearing a cashier uniform with a bullet to his skull, and the third is of a boy in a hospital bed, tubes going in and out of him like a spaghetti junction.
“That.” He taps his finger down on the one in hospital. “Is my son. My only son.”
“My condolences.”
“Fuck your condolences.”
“I don’t know what this has to do with me, or what I was brought in for.”
He smirks and leans back in his chair. “You were a mistake. They were supposed to pick up that runt of a brother of yours.”
My back stiffens and I shift in my chair, my brow collapsing. Every feeling in my bones tells me to lash out and tell him he has nothing, but looking at his smug face, I know that’s not true. This fucker does have something.
“Then why am I still here?”
He folds his arms and grins at me. “You’re still here so you’re out of the way.”
I’m sick of this shit now. “Do you want to stop talking in riddles and beating around the bush. I’m bored,” I announce on a yawn.
“If your brother is still alive, I’m going to put him behind bars and make sure he won’t ever see daylight again.”
My hands fist. What the fuck does he mean?
“Marie was there that night your cunt brother shot and killed two people.”
Ha, makes sense why she’s dead then.
“Two?” It’s out before I can stop myself.
“I leaked three bodies to the press so you bastards didn’t come for my son. He’s in a coma but he will wake up.”
Ha. Well, fuck.
“Marie is AWOL and I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Marie had a drug problem and your brother fed that addiction.”
Motherfucker. Brenner was the supplier for the surrounding colleges. Prez sent him and the Brothers Grim because of their age. They could blend in on campus and at campus parties to an extent, and be a presense to keep the frat boys in line; we supplied them, they supplied their friends.
“Marie was a whore and had a gambling problem, not drugs.”
He laughs and slaps his hand down on the table. “I’m surprised you stupid fucks survive this long, you have no idea what’s going on in your own club.”
“Be careful, Chief,” I warn and his eyes spark.
“Or what?”
“You don’t want Lilith’s Army as an enemy.”
“Oh, having me as an enemy is the least of your problems. Your club has enough of those already.”
What the fuck does that mean? And why is he being a snarky, shifty cunt?
Something buzzes and he pulls out his cell phone, smirking at it and nodding his head at me. “You’re free to go, but I’ll be seeing you again, and just so you know, I let your wife’s family know how she really ended up at your club.”
I grin at him but I feel anything but happy. Fuck.
As soon as I’m kissing moonlight, I call Brenner but get no reply. No big surprise there, the fucking asshole. He’s probably none the wiser that I haven’t returned to the club yet.
My old man also goes straight to voicemail and my hackles rise. Something’s not right. My thumb hovers over Avery’s number but my guts are churning and I can’t face it if she doesn’t pick up either.
Buzz’s cell rings. He picks up on the second ring and I exhale a relieved breath. “Where the fuck is everyone? My shitface brother isn’t answering his cell.”
“I don’t know. Tats isn’t replying to my messages either.”
“Where the fuck are you?”
“Tank ordered me to bring Rhiannon home, but your brother had a hissy fit, so I’ve been staying clear of the club until he’s blown off steam. You know how he gets about Rhiannon.”
Brenner hates Rhiannon being with any of the brothers, so I don’t blame Buzz for staying clear. My old man must have been really strapped for brothers to let Buzz take his daughter home.
“I can’t get through to Prez,” I bark.
“Prez and Gears went to take care of the mishap that Brenner caused but he should be back at the club now.”
I fucking hate that Prez left the clubhouse when my old lady is there. She knows better than to come out of my room when Brenner is lurking around, and Kiwi won’t leave her, but it doesn’t sit well with me.
“I’m going to ask you a question, and bear in mind I already know the answer, so lie to me and you’ll be stripped of your colors.”
The silence hangs in the air for a few seconds and then he sighs down the line. “Fair enough, but remember, I just take orders, I don’t create them.”
“Why kill Marie?”
Silence.
“What did Brenner have her doing that he didn’t want us finding out about?” I ask.
“He will kill me if I rat him out.” He exhales down the line. There’s not much that scares the Brothers Grim, but they know that Brenner is unpredictable and always given a pardon from the Prez, which makes him lethal and untouchable.
“Let me worry about him and he won’t have to know it was you. I have other sources. I just want to hear it from you.”
I’m about to flag down a cab when Scorch appears like a knight in shining armor with my truck. “How’d you know I was here?” I mumble, holding my hand over the receiver so Buzz can’t hear.
“I saw them fucking take you. I knew you’d be here a while so I cleared the mess and came straight here to wait.”
I hold up a finger and uncover the receiver.
“Buzz, just fucking answer the question.”
Scorch raises a brow and I roll my eyes. I’m sick of these brothers causing shit that I have to clean up. They went too far this time. Echo died and I want my fucking retribution! Brenner sure as hell is going to pay.
“Marie is a crackhead,” he finally answers. “Your brother made her party one night and then it rolled into two. It was while Stormy was on the road and the bitch was lonely. He capped her on free shit and she started paying until her funds ran out and then she was paying with her body.”
“So Brenner made her a fucking whore?”
“He sent her to Terry Dabble. Told him she liked to bet.”
“Why?”
“Because we would place bets and then get her to stay over with the fat fuck, wear him out, and then open his computer and create a sharing file so I could see and access his network and alter our bets.”
“So you were fucking over Fat Freddy and using Stormy’s wife to do it.”
“Brenner has mommy issues.”
“Brenner has more than fucking mommy issues. I can’t get hold of him or the Prez. Get your ass back to the club.”
“Sure.”
My cell chirps, alerting me to a call waiting, so I hang up on Buzz and take the call from Brig.
“Father-in-law,” I jest, but silence greets me on the other end and the chief’s sly warning that he told Brig about how Avery ended up with me rings alarms in my head. “You going to speak or you just gonna start breathing heavy down the line?” I taunt when he doesn’t say anything.
A growl crackles the line. “This didn’t have to go down this way. If you’d just been honest from the start we coulda worked something out.”
My blood curdles, turning to cement in my veins. “Is this about Avery coming over there to tell some jacked up prick she isn’t into him and is married to me now? Because it ain’t gonna happen, Brig, and it’s insulting you even asking for that shit.”
“Oh, that’s insulting? You have nerves of steel, motherfucker. Your punk ass brother kidnaps my girl and you fucking marry her to keep her quiet.”
“It isn’t like that. I love Avery.” I find the words tumbling from my mouth without thought, or even processing them, it’s just truth.
“Your old man should have dealt with the situation like a leader. Like a brother. Your brother should have been handed over to me for me to deal out punishment however I saw fit.”
“Let’s not tread over old footprints, Brig. Avery is where she wants to be. No one is forcing her, and since when did you take a cop’s word as gospel?”
“You expect me to believe you? You think I trust anything that comes out of your mouth? You thought you could make a fool out of me and take what belongs to me, belongs to my club. So, I’ve repaid the favor.”
The line goes dead and my heart beats a thousand thuds a second. What the fuck does that mean?
Scorch jerks his head for me to get in the truck. He knows without asking that we need to get home now.
There are hardly any bikes in the lot when we make it back to the club. With Dad ordering everyone to stalk the drop offs and then ordering a lock out to clean up another one of Brenner’s messes, it’s nothing to be alarmed about. Even so, the eerie empty spaces make my insides hum with unease. A part of me wants to rush inside, and the other part is fucking terrified of what awaits me behind those walls.
“This don’t feel good.” Scorch conveys my thoughts as he pulls his Glock from his jeans and nods his head to a spot on the floor. I follow his gaze to some small drops of blood highlighted by the floodlights. If that motherfucker has hurt anyone and taken my girl, I’m going to kill him so fucking slow he will beg me for mercy, and I won’t gift it to him.
A familiar rumble sounds from the gate and Buzz rides in on his Harley. He sees that we’ve armed ourselves and are staking the place out from the safety of the truck.
He frowns, coming to a stop right in front of me. “What the fuck’s going on?” He demounts his bike and stares between us and the club entrance.
“Something’s not right. Cutters?” I say, and the word alone is enough. Buzz pulls a blade from his boot and a gun from the inside of his patch.
“Wait!” I snap, but he turns and scowls.
“My brother’s in there.” And with that, he takes off running.
Scorch growls his disapproval but follows behind and I take up the rear. Quiet, dead air greets us when Buzz opens the door. My head swims with possible outcomes of what I’m going to find, and none of them are good.
“Son of a bitch.” Buzz lifts his chin in the direction of the couch where Gears’ vacant eyes stare straight ahead, dead to this world, a bullet hole in the side of his temple. A bottle of Jack sits in front of him and his foot is up and resting on a chair. If blood wasn’t decorating his clothes, from this angle, you wouldn’t even know he was cold.
Broken glass lays over the bar and a grunt sounds from behind it. Buzz is the first one over the bar, hissing when glass pierces the palm of his hand.
“Frost, get over here!” he shouts.
I look over the bar to see Brenner gazing up at me. He’s holding a hand over a blood patch on his hip.
“They took her back. They took Avery back,” he pants, out of breath. Sweat beads his forehead and my feet are already moving to my bedroom. The door is wide open and I can count the slow pounds of my heart as I reach the entry.
One.
Two.
Three.
Kiwi lays slumped on the floor, a bullet in her back. There’s blood all over my bed sheets. And no Avery.
This doesn’t make sense. He wouldn’t hurt her. Not here at least, and not enough to cause that much blood.
My legs feel weak and I want to sit but I can’t.
I need to get her back.
Pulling my cell out, I dial Brig’s number. The room spins as it rings. My hands shake. I want to go to his club and light the place up. Burn the motherfucker with the brotherhood he holds to such a high standard, the brotherhood he cared more about than showing his daughter real love.
“That didn’t take long.” He chuckles, dark and sinister, down the line.
“What the fuck did you do?” I growl.
“An eye for an eye.”
“You will bring her back!”
“I’ll tell you what. You decide which princess is worth the most to you and I’ll keep the loser.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means, give me Avery and I’ll give you your sister back.”
My mind can’t focus and hold on to what he’s saying. My sister?
“She’s a pretty little thing. Maybe I’ll just marry her and we’ll call this all fair game.”
I end the call and dial Rhiannon’s number. It rings twice before dark laughter ricochets down the line. “It’s cute that she has you down as big bro. I hope she likes them big. I have plenty of big bros for her here,” Brig taunts.
“Don’t you fucking touch her.”
“Don’t you fucking think you hold the power here. Bring me Avery and then you get your princess back. It’s simple and you’re grinding my last nerve.”
I end the call and raise my arm to throw my cell at the wall, but I can’t. I need it. Nothing makes fucking sense. Where the fuck is Avery? I dial her number, but nothing.
I storm back through to the lounge, and Scorch has got Brenner into a chair and is examining his wound.
“It’s superficial. Bullet went straight through and only hit flesh.”
I nudge Scorch from the seat in front of Brenner and lower myself into it.
“You need to start making some sense right the fuck now, brother.”
“What do you mean? The Cutters came with fucking guns blazing, shot us and the place, took your bitch and left. I hit my fucking head when one of them shot me and I was out cold until you got here.” His dark eyes are almost completely swallowed by his shot pupils. He glares at me, not even blinking.
“They. Don’t. Have. Avery.” I bite out each word.
He flinches, his head rearing backward. The crashing of his brow and the confusion written in his eyes convey honest bewilderment. Lifting his hand to his face, he rubs the palms over his head. Getting to his feet, he hunches over a little and paces. “That doesn’t… I mean…”
“Where’s Buzz?” I ask Scorch, standing. He nods in the direction of the corridor leading to their rooms.
Marching down there, I push open their bedroom door. He’s kneeling on the floor with his brother’s head cradled in his lap. Motherfuckers.
“Buzz?”
“The killed him. They will burn for this. Every one of them.” A mix between a sob and a scream rips through the room, right from his lungs. I fucking hate that I can’t just let him grieve in peace but I need to know if they really do have Rhiannon.
Walking farther into the room, I place a hand on his shoulder and squeeze. “They will pay in blood for this, I promise you that. I’m sorry, Buzz. I know how close you were and words don’t mean shit right now.”
“I need to bury him.”
“All that can wait.”
“I need to tell Rhiannon.” He sniffs and lays Tats back on the floor then gets to his feet.
“Why does Rhiannon need to know?”
He turns to look at me and blinks away the water in his eyes. “Because he loved her, Frost. He fucking loved her and he would want her to know he’s dead.”
He is losing it. I don’t want to address his brother’s infatuation with Rhiannon; it wasn’t reciprocated on her end. She always acted creeped out by the brothers, and with good reason. That’s why it’s so hard to believe Brenner would willingly allow Buzz to escort her home.
“Listen, I need you to think real hard for me. When you left Rhiannon, did she have her cell phone with her?”
“You think I should call her to tell her?”
“No. No. Just think back to when you dropped her off.”
“Yeah, she was texting on it when I left.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
If Brig really does have Rhiannon then who the fuck has Avery?
“Brenner!” I yell, coming back through to where he and Scorch are moving Gears into a laying position and closing his eyes.
“The Cutters don’t have Avery, they have Rhiannon, so we need to go back through everything you remember. And why the fuck isn’t Prez here? Did he take those bodies to the desert?”
Brenner is staring at me and so is Scorch, the same look etched on both their features. Shock. “What did you say?”
“I said where the fuck is our father? Our baby sister is with the Cutters.”
“No. No, that doesn’t make sense.” Brenner stumbles, almost falling over.
“Let’s look at the video feed,” Buzz says from behind me.
Why the fuck didn’t I think of that?
“Scorch!” I bellow, chasing his shadow as he runs toward the exit.
“Where the fuck are you going?”
“I can’t leave her with them. Those motherfuckers have Rhiannon.”
“And you think I don’t want to get her back? We can’t go in there, one man fucking demanding shit. Call every brother back home to church. They’ve just declared war.”
“Dad was home,” Brenner pipes up, staring at our old man’s office door.
I shake my head to clear it because he said Dad is home. He must be confused.
“What?” Scorch, Buzz, and I ask in unison.
“He was here when they came.”
We all move toward Prez’s office.
My hand hovers at the handle but I can’t push it open. Mirages of me at seventeen opening the door to find my mother dead assault me. I don’t feel like a man, a brother of Lilith’s Army right now. I feel like a kid, learning the world is cruel and the people who promise to protect and love you can leave you with a big ‘fuck you’ on their way out.
“It’s okay.” Scorch moves my hand and pushes me back only slightly with a tap to my shoulder. He opens the door and rushes inside.
I’m fucking numb. I can’t move.
The silent seconds are the loudest I’ve ever lived through.
“He’s alive!” Scorch shouts.
The breath I was holding expels from me in a gush. Tears burn my eyes as I race inside and find my old man lying on the floor, a bullet wound to his shoulder, and an ugly purple bruise to his temple.
“His pulse is steady, but call an ambulance just in case.”
Buzz wastes no time in booting up the computer. Scorch signals for me to help him lift my old man on to the couch. He doesn’t stir as we lug his huge frame around.
“The feed was deleted.” Buzz growls. “Why would they bother deleting it? There’s a backup server. Dice always reroutes the feed to a backup drive for this reason. Stupid fucker who played around on here doesn’t know computer software very well.”
Scorch reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small vial. Unscrewing the lid, he holds it to Prez’s nose. “Smelling salts?”
I grunt. Who carries that shit around on them?
“She will be alright,” he says out of nowhere.
“I know. She’s a Walker.”
“Not Rhiannon. Avery.”
“I know. She’s a Walker,” I repeat. Where the hell is she?
I want to be happy that my father is okay, but Gears, Tats, and Kiwi are dead. Avery is gone and Brenner is shifty as fuck. I don’t know what to think or believe.
I didn’t want to fall for her, I just wanted to fix a problem for our club but she worked her way into me and filled a void I didn’t even know was vacant, and now she is missing and the clubs are going to war anyway.
Will she want to stay by my side once I’ve killed her father and all the brothers that follow him?
“Here,” Buzz announces, turning the screen for us to see.
The place is almost empty. Bullseye is lounging in the bar area and our old man and Gears leave, saying something to Brenner and Bullseye as they go. There’s no sound, just video, but body language gives us a good understanding of the mood. Brenner is asking Bullseye for something and Bullseye is questioning him on whatever it is. When Brenner loses his temper, Bullseye shakes his head and gets out his cell phone, rattling off a number that Brenner punches into his cell phone before slipping it in his pocket and walking off the screen. Bullseye’s eyes follow him, and then he jumps from the stall and hurries out of the exit, his cell phone pinned to his head.
“Switch to the outdoor camera,” I tell Buzz.
His fingers dance over the keyboard, bringing up the external camera, catching Bullseye as he sidles up to the side of the building. “Audio?” I ask, and Buzz smirks up at me.
“It’s only the bar camera that doesn’t have audio due to the music in there. It’s pointless.”
He hits a volume button and the gruff murmurs of Bullseye’s voice fills the room.
“Yeah, he’s going to call, and I gave him your number to intercept whatever the fuck it is he’s calling for. Can’t be anything good.”
My fists clench. “Who the fuck is he talking to?”
“No idea, but whatever the number Brenner wanted, he didn’t get.”
“Brenner!” I shout, but my voice echoes in the room and no reply comes. Scorch raises a brow and pulls his gun, creeping toward the office door then disappearing through it. When he re-appears, his eyes are wild and his jaw is tight.
“He’s gone.”
Cagey motherfucker.
“Bullseye left after this.” Buzz nods to the screen, showing his bike disappearing out the gate.
“Call him, put him on speaker, and then find where Brenner went after getting the number on the feed.”
Buzz brings up the cameras for the corridors while Scorch calls Bullseye’s cell phone.
It rings four times before his gruff reply. “Scorch, what’s up?”
“It’s Frost. Where are you?”
“Uh… in bed, it’s the a.m., why?”
“You’re sleeping when your Prez needs you?”
“I’m dying, Frost. I need to rest.”
Rest when you’re dead, asshole.
“Brenner asked for someone’s number from you. Whose was it?”
Silence and then a heavy sigh. “Brig. He didn’t say why but you know that asshole has his own agenda. I thought I’d let your old man sort it out.”
Buzz taps the screen, showing Brenner coming out of his room and calling someone.
“Hold for a second. Mute it,” I tell Scorch, and nod for Buzz to turn the audio on so we can hear the call Brenner is making.
“I have something you want. Frost has finished using your daughter’s cunt as a play pit and she’s ready to come home,” he snarls, pacing the corridor and checking to make sure he’s alone. “She’s not our fucking princess, she was a mistake, and you’re welcome to her.” He rolls his shoulders and places a hand on the wall and smirks. “You just have to come get her.”
My fists clench.
“You have one hour,” Brenner continues. “After that she gets put out with the rest of the trash.”
Tats appears from the room he shared with Buzz, and Brenner nods his head. “We’re on. You remember what to do?”
“Yeah, but what if Buzz comes back?”
“Then we will tell him the plan and he will execute it with us.” Brenner places a hand on Tats’ shoulder and smiles. “This is what we want. VP will be temporary, a few years of Frost being Prez and then he will have an accident, and I’ll take the gavel and you’ll be VP.”
Tats pops the lid of a bottle of pills he’s holding and tips it to his lips, nodding his head manically. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s do it.”
“Okay. First thing’s first. Let’s deal with this bitch.”
“Why don’t we just kill her?”
They’re talking about Avery, my fucking wife. I want to rip them through the screen and stamp on their tiny fucking heads.
Revive Tats so I get to kill him.
“They wouldn’t come here and kill her, they would come to take her.”
“Right. Right. Right.” Tats shakes his head, high as a fucking kite.
“Go keep watch for anyone coming back. Kill anyone that enters.”
Buzz’s fist pounds the table and he looks at me, torment storming in his grey eyes. “What the fuck is going on?”
I gesture for Scorch to unmute Bullseye. “Whose number did you really give him Bullseye?”
Silence. “I gave him Brig’s number.”
“Where are you now? Your place?”
“Listen, Frost, I don’t answer to you. If there’s something you need to know, get the Prez to call me.”
The line goes dead and I want to fucking rip everyone limb from limb. Our whole fucking club is on the brink of collapsing around us.
“Can you track where he is by his cell phone?” I ask Buzz.
He nods his head. “Yeah. I’ll get my computer from my room.”
He leaves us and Scorch checks Tank’s pulse again. “He okay?”
He nods.
“Is the ambulance coming?”
“We’re an outlaw motorcycle club. How high on their priority list do you think we are?”
Screams tear through the screen and my heart skips a beat. Scorch races over to look at the screen but it doesn’t show inside the bedrooms, just the corridors. That’s Avery. I can’t listen to her, whatever the fuck he’s doing to her. My eyes close and I will it not to be true. If she’s dead…
Scorch slaps my shoulder, my eyes spring open, and the air in my lungs expels. I can’t take in another breath. Brenner is dragging Avery through the club; there’s blood all down her back. I quickly flip from camera to camera as he moves through the club and exits with her.
Two Cutters brothers are waiting for her; neither I recognize. He throws Avery to the floor and they scoop her up and take off with her.
“Wait!” I pause the image on the screen. “Buzz!” I get to my feet to go look for him.
He meets me at the door, laptop in hand. “What is it?”
I march back to the desk and tap the screen. “Can you zoom in here?”
Placing his laptop down, he nudges Scorch out of the way and fiddles around. One of the Cutters’ faces expands on the screen and I recognize him, not as a brother, but as a fucking pig. He was with Sheriff Myers at the hospital. “He’s a cop!”
“Bullseye played Brenner and is a fucking rat.” Scorch growls. “The shipments.”
My brain is being tossed around my skull like a soccer ball. Bullseye has been my brother since before I was even a blip on this earth. How could he turn rat? The cancer. He’s not fucking dying, it’s his out. Tank wouldn’t question his illness, and would let him go off to die in peace. When, actually, he was no doubt going to be put in witness protection and given a new Identity, a new fucking life, while all of ours went up in smoke.
“Did you locate his cell?”
Buzz nods his head, picking up his laptop and turning the screen to me. “He’s at the hospital.”
“Can you search for health records?”
“I just need his name.”
“Robert Hazels.”
He nods and brings up other screens and flits his fingers over the keys effortlessly. It’s takes him less than a minute to bring up Bullseye’s entire health records.
“Any cancer?”
“No.”
Fuck! I didn’t want to be right.
“Let’s take Tank to the hospital ourselves, shall we?” I grind out.
“Fucking right,” Scorch agrees.
I stand but Buzz grabs my arm. Looking down at him, my stomach twists. So much pain in his eyes. “I need to see who did it first,” he tells me.
Knowing he means who killed his brother, I take his hand from my arm and place it on the keyboard. “That’s fine, I want to know as well. They shot our Prez and killed Gears. Whoever it is will pay with their life.” I try to convey that I mean Brenner as well because the hazy stirring in my soul is telling me Brenner set this whole thing up and Tats had no clue he was going to become collateral damage. Brenner wouldn’t risk him running his mouth.
“Let’s get Tank in the truck and come back for Buzz,” Scorch says.
“He’s a heavy bastard.” I groan, taking him under the armpits while Scorch gets to his feet.
“The smelling salts should have brought him round. I reckon he’s just pretending to get us to carry his fat ass.”
“It’s a good job he’s unconscious because he would shoot you for calling him fat. You know he’s sensitive about his weight,” I jest, feeling anything but amused, but we need to have this lightness between us or we’re going to go insane.
Copper comes through the door as we almost make it there. He’s so relaxed and casual. If he only knew what a shit storm he was walking into. “What the fuck?”
“Don’t just stand there. Help us get him to the truck.”
He hurries to take a leg. “Is he dead?”
“No!”
“We’re taking him to the hospital. Once all the other brothers arrive, lock this place down until I get back. Tell them to prepare for war.”
“What the hell is happening?”
I pull open the back door of the truck and we manage to pull and tug his body into the small space.
“If Brenner returns, don’t fucking trust him or let him leave.”
“What’s he done now? Tell me this wasn’t him.” He points to our Prez and I have no answers for him.
“Scorch, get the engine going. I’ll get Buzz.”
Copper follows me back inside and his feet falter when he sees first Gears and then Tats. I don’t stop to explain things, I go straight back to Buzz. I almost trip over when I enter the room and he’s standing up and aiming a gun at me.
My hands raise in surrender fashion. “What the fuck?”
“It was Brenner.”
“What?”
“He fucking killed my brother.”
Motherfucker.
“He was so loyal to him and he betrayed that.”
“Just calm down and stop aiming that fucking gun at me.”
“I should kill you. A brother for a brother,” he mumbles, his free hand pushing over his head, rubbing back and forth.
“And you think Brenner will give a shit If you kill me? You’ll be doing him a favor.”
Copper appears behind me with his gun out. He aims it over my shoulder at Buzz.
“It’s okay,” I reassure Copper, but he doesn’t lower the weapon.
“You’re right. He hates you.”
Well, that’s shitty to fucking hear. I gave that selfish prick everything and this is how he repays us?
“He needs to pay,” Buzz chokes out.
“And he will, in blood.”
Buzz’s head shakes. “It’s not enough. He needs to feel the pain.”
“And he will.”
“He fucking did it, you know?”
“Did what, Buzz?”
“He stabbed Stormy. Marie called him, freaking out. He knocked her up and she was going to tell Stormy everything. He had me track Stormy’s GPS. Went there to catch Marie before she could get to Stormy, but she was a no show and he said maybe she called him instead so he couldn’t risk it.”
So he tried to kill Stormy and has killed Marie and his own fucking baby.
I’m going to throw up.
“I’m leaving. Don’t stop me,” he barks.
“Don’t do this, Buzz. Don’t leave like this. You’re one of us.”
“I’ve never been one of you. Your old man just put up with the troubled sons of a brother who gave everything for his Prez, and look where it got us all?”
He moves around the desk and toward me. “Don’t leave,” I tell him one last time, but he disappears through the door.
I exhale the tension that is keeping every muscle in my body coiled.
“I need to get Prez to hospital. Try and keep everyone calm when they arrive. The Cutters have declared war and they have Rhiannon. I need you to move the bodies as soon as you have someone here who can do it. We can’t risk a raid with fucking bodies everywhere.”
“I only count two.” Copper frowns.
“Kiwi is in my room.”
I leave him without waiting for a reply. Time is ticking and he knows what to do.
War is inevitable in the eyes of some of the brothers, Copper being one of them.
“And if Brenner comes back?”
“Shoot him.”
Avery’s cell phone keeps pinging to voicemail, and I’m going to lose my mind if I have to hear her soft voice telling me to leave a message one more time. It’s like a cruel tease. I need to get her back.
“One consolation; she’s not with that Axe bastard. Plus, if the cops have her, at least she will get medical attention,” Scorch tells me, indicating to come off the exit. How the fuck he always knows what I’m thinking about is eerie as fuck. “Why they would want her is what’s troubling.”
If he forces her to talk, we all go down for kidnapping, holding her hostage, and forcing her to marry. Fuck. This is bullshit. She could cry rape. She wouldn’t.
She might if she thinks us all going down would save her old man. There’s no war if we’re sent down.
“Get out of your head,” Scorch growls. “Let’s focus on getting Prez patched up and killing Bullseye, and getting Rhiannon home.”
There are groans from the back seat, and my old man sits up and hisses in pain. “Motherfuckers,” is all he says, his eyes unfocused.
“We have you, Prez,” I assure him.
“That little bastard shot me.” He growls, sounding like a dormant dragon coming to life.
“Brenner is AWOL.”
“He shot me and told me to play dead, and then hit me in the head.”
“Who?”
“Tats, that’s fucking who. I heard gun shots and then I opened the door. The little cunt shot me and hit me in the head with his gun.”
“He saved your life. Brenner killed him, Gears, and Kiwi.”
Deadly silence then he says, “Avery?”
“Gone. He handed her over to what he thought were Cutters brothers.”
Silence.
“I should have put Brenner to ground at birth. There was always something wrong in him. Evil to the core, but he’s my son. My responsibility.” He gasps and pulls his tee away from his shoulder to eye his wound.
“Prez, there’s something else you need to know.”
“What the fuck can be worse than my own son turning traitor?”
Scorch snorts and looks over at me. “We think Bullseye is the rat behind the shipments being seized.”
The back of my seat shifts when Tank’s giant hands slam down on it, scooting himself forward. “No way. He’s been my brother longer than you’ve been my son. He would never turn rat.”
“Prez, it doesn’t look good for him,” Scorch adds. “He’s not ill. There’s no medical records of him being treated for cancer or anything fucking else.”
He drops back against the back seat and exhales. “I’ll need absolute proof.”
“I know, and we’ll get it from him. He’s at the hospital.”
“Do I want to know why he’s at the hospital?”
“We don’t know.”
Pulling into the hospital, I turn to look at my old man. “Gunshot wounds. They have to call it in. We need a story.”
“Fuck that. I’ll call our doc.”
“You’ve lost a lot of blood and took a bitch of a hit to the head,” Scorch tells him, and gets a disapproval snarl in return.
“Do I look like some pussy to you? Our doc can sew me up. Now let’s go get Bullseye.”
“We should spread out.”
“We don’t need to.” Scorch smiles, his hand twitching. I follow his gaze across the parking lot and see Bullseye arguing with the sheriff.
Dad is out of the car and marching toward them before we can rein him in.
“Fuck!” Scorch and I say in unison, chasing behind him.
“You rat piece of shit!” my father bellows, and Bullseye’s skin loses all color. My old man throws a punch and Bullseye hits the deck.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he hollers down at him.
So much for wanting absolute proof.
Rubbing his jaw, Bullseye looks grey as he props himself up on an elbow but makes no effort to get back to his feet. “They have me, Tank. They have the Cutters’ Prez’s office wired. I’m the one who conducts deals on Lilith’s behalf there and they have me. They have too much.”
Motherfuckers. They had Brig’s club wired?
“So, you turned rat?” Tank bellows, his mind on betrayal.
“I’m looking at the rest of my years behind bars otherwise.”
“That’s the risk. You’re old as fuck anyway, you piece of shit,” Scorch growls.
“I have kids, asshole. They need me!” His kids are a little older than Brenner and Rhiannon. Plenty old enough to cope without him. He’s just a pussy.
“They will pay for your mistake,” Scorch threatens, triggering Bullseye to get to his feet and point his finger in Scorch’s direction. I grab his finger and snap it backward until it breaks.
We close in around him until the piece of shit sheriff shouts for us all to back up. “I’ll have more than just him. The Cutters are as good as dismantled. And your brother. Your club is next.”
“Brenner will thrive in prison. Go ahead,” I taunt him.
“Oh, not with what I have planned for him in there, and when I take down your club, your fucking brainwashed trash wife will go down with you.”
My back stiffens at the mention of Avery and I want to pull my gun and put bullet holes where his eyes go.
“Where the fuck is she?”
His shoulders relax and he looks up at the sky and then back at me, chuckling. “She didn’t come back to you? She chose her daddy, huh?”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means she got herself patched up and discharged herself. Your brother really did a fucking number on her. She’s too scared to admit what he did to my fucking son.”
If she’s gone home, Brig will have no reason to trade Rhiannon.
I signal for Scorch to follow me toward the truck. “We need to get back to the club and prepare. We take the Cutters’ club at first light.”
“Agreed.”
I whistle for Prez to get his ass back in the truck but he won’t move.
“We have to go, now.”
“Not without Bullseye.”
“He’s not going anywhere. I’m afraid I need him breathing.” Sheriff Myers smirks.
“We will be seeing you,” Tank tells him, hissing like a snake and thumping his hand against Bullseye’s chest where, beneath his clothes, lays his Lilith’s Army tat. A warning that his days are numbered. Snakes get their heads cut off. It’s the only way to stop the hemorrhaging of our club’s blood.
Leaving our bikes, we creep toward the Cutters’ club, but it’s fucking swarming with the law. They’re everywhere. Red and blue lights highlight the sky and there’s no way we can go in there now. Cutters brothers are being led out in cuffs. There’s an ambulance, and I’m praying my baby sister is safe.
“If she’s in there she will be carted off with the rest of them and processed,” Copper whispers next to my ear.
“She’ll get a phone call. She’ll call,” Scorch says.
I came here for not just Rhiannon. My wife went home to the Cutters. She left me for them. Brenner fucking hurt her after I promised her he never would. I let her down. She’s traumatized by her girl’s death and I left her.
“Avery will call as well, brother. We can’t stay here.”
I want blood tonight. Get all this fucking rage and uncertainty out of me and pounded into another with my fists. If they have shit on Cutters they will have shit on us. We could be the next target to be raided. We need to tighten our inner circle and cut off the rotting meat. Brenner. Bullseye. Everyone that can do us damage.
“Copper, go back to the club and shred back up files, the other drive, erase everything. Buzz got into your network and past the firewalls with ease. We need to have nothing left for anyone to find.”
Exhaustion washes over me, followed by a saturation of hopelessness. There’s nothing I can do now. Avery and Rhiannon are at the mercy of the law, Brenner is in the wind, and Buzz is out for revenge. We lost brothers and I thought we lost Kiwi, but she was still breathing. I didn’t even check her pulse.
Stormy is still in a coma and they want to shut his machines off.
“Go home. I’ll stay at the club and wait for news and keep an eye on Prez,” Scorch tells me.
I want to tell him no, but the truth is, I can’t face going back to the club, defeated and surrounded by the stench of death, or seeing Avery’s blood all over my bed.
I lost so many brothers tonight, and almost my father. Rhiannon was taken, and Avery chose her father over me, proving to me how fucking damaging it can be when you open your heart to love.