Mark
At around 8 p.m. the next night, Mark drove up to Stormwatch, patting his pocket to make sure he had what he needed. He caught his own reflection in the rearview mirror of his car, staring at himself for a second. “I can do this,” he said out loud. He had no other option, really. He had to do this. For Stella. For the baby.
Mark inhaled deeply, gathering as much inner courage as he could muster before exiting his vehicle, striding up confidently to the front door. He stared blankly at the bouncer of the club for a second before the smaller man stepped aside, allowing Mark to walk inside without a fight. There were crowds of young women gathered around the bar, all of whom turned their heads to gape at Mark as he stepped further inside the clubhouse.
But he didn’t pause for a second, heading to the back of the room, where a door was slightly ajar. It was Cameron’s office; Nicole had told him how to find it. Mark headed across the bar and walked through the unlocked door, shutting it hard behind him to send the message that this was a private meeting.
“What the fuck?” Cameron said, his mouth full of some kind of noodle dish, while his legs were propped up on the desk in front of him. “What are you doing here?”
“Thought we should have a little discussion,” Mark said, forcing a thick, snarly smile. He felt smug and satisfied as he watched the indignation slip off of Cameron’s face, replaced by something that looked an awful lot like fear. “You know, man to man. You deserve to hear the big news straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Cameron asked, putting his plate full of noodles off to one side and taking his legs off the desk, scooting up in his seat to get as close to Mark as possible. His eyes were wide and hard, burning with some primal hatred. In the past, such an emotion would have terrified Mark, having seen it in too many men right before they tried to kill him in battle, but now he was beyond that. He had a purpose now. A reason to fight. A reason to survive.
Mark shrugged. “See, I figured you would have guessed the truth by now. Me and Stella. We’ve been fucking for months now,” he said as casually as he could.
Cameron’s mouth fell open in slow motion, his eyes narrowing as he stared across at Mark. “What. Did you. Just say?”
“I’ve been screwing her for the past couple of months,” Mark said, smiling a little at Cameron, honestly surprised the other man hadn’t already leapt across the table to beat him into a pulp. “She’s really good in the sack, except the only problem is she’s knocked up now.”
Cameron sputtered for several seconds as he struggled to come up with a response. “W-what the fuck?” he finally managed to force out.
“Yep,” Mark said, stepping a little closer to brace his hands on the desk and lean closer to Cameron. “Listen, I’m not really into the whole baby thing. I’m not even really into her, if I’m being honest with you. She was just a convenient lay, someone I could fuck at work whenever I wanted. But it’s boring now, you know? You can only fuck the same hole so many times before you get sick of it. So I’m leaving town tonight. But she’s got this crazy idea in her head about keeping the baby rather than aborting it. So I thought, hey, why not tell the guy who’s been obsessed with her ever since she was a teenager?” Mark shrugged again, nodding to himself like he’d come up with the best plan ever, even though inwardly his stomach was churning as a result of all the fucked-up things he’d just said.
Cameron slammed his fists down on the desk in front of him, his entire face screwing up with anger as he looked up into Mark’s eyes, his own pair fuming with rage. “You knocked her up? And what, I’m supposed to take her back after you’ve fucking ruined her?” Cameron spat out.
Mark was so tempted to just reach across the table and slam the guy right into the wall, crushing his skull against the concrete as punishment for talking about Stella that way, but he knew that at the first sound of an altercation, all of the Marauders would storm in here. He had to be smart about this. He had to keep a clear head.
So he just nodded and smiled as sweetly as possible to Cameron. “Yeah, I mean, I’m done with her, right? But you seem to still want to tap that, so why not just take her and the baby both? It’s not the kid’s fault the mother will fuck anything that moves.”
Cameron roared then and got to his feet, grabbing the edge of the desk and flipping it over, sending papers scattering in every direction around the room as he continued to scream like a beast. “Motherfucker!”
Mark had only barely enough time to grab the gun out of his pocket before six Marauders forced their way into the office, fists raised and ready to go before Mark swung his gun into Cameron’s face. “Back off,” he warned them through clenched teeth, gripping onto the gun as hard as he could.
The Marauders all looked at each other, fear written plainly across each of their faces even as they looked to Cameron for instructions.
“Get him!” Cameron screamed, even though he was backed against the wall, as far away from the gun as he could possibly get.
But none of the men moved, too terrified that Mark would blow their leader apart at the first sign of movement. “Boss…” one of the MC members said, practically squeaking in fear.
Mark slowly began shuffling forward, keeping his arm outstretched so that the gun was pointed at Cameron. “Nobody fucking move, or I’ll unleash a stream of lead right into your fearless leader’s face,” Mark grunted as he approached the door. “Now, you’re going to let me walk out of here, or a lot of people are going to die.”
None of the MC members moved an inch, all of them watching with wide, worried eyes as Mark finally walked through the door out the main room of Stormwatch. He kept going, keeping his gun pointed at the most vulnerable-looking target in the room, feeling a little pang of guilt at the sight of the crowd of girls huddled against the wall in fear. But finally, he made it to the front door, dashing for his car and jumping in as quickly as he could, backing out of the parking lot and onto the main road.
Mark blew out his breath, tossing the gun onto the seat next to him as he tore off down the road, heading for his apartment. He’d done his part, at least for now. Now he could only trust his friends to do their part.
It was weird, having people in his life to trust. He hadn’t felt that in so many years, even before his stint in the military. In the back of his mind, he still worried that they were going to betray him, that they were going to cower in the face of the Marauders and feed him to the dogs.
But he had to believe in people, for once. He had to believe that the world wasn’t designed to hurt innocent people. He had to believe there was hope.
It was a strange, unfamiliar sensation, feeling like he had a chance to be happy. But Mark would be damned if he wasn’t going to fight like hell for it.