Chapter Seven
Bentley
When I see Brant come to a stop in the parking lot, I am almost relieved. As much as I trust Gunner and Johnny with my life, I don’t trust the rest of their merry band of idiots. Gunner is family and Johnny was part of the Saints in Vegas before he and Dax decided to start the charter out here.
Dax turned on his own brothers and helped Gunner’s old man kidnap him and torture him. Now, I don’t trust any of these fuckers as far as I can throw them.
Now that Johnny is president and Gunner is VP, I don’t feel as antsy being here. If Dax was still in charge here and that shit didn’t happen, I wouldn’t have come down here to hide out. I would have just sucked it up and fucked other women while trying to forget all my damn problems in Vegas.
I’m sure I would have slipped more than once with Brynn, but I still wouldn’t want to ruin her. Her pureness is something that I crave about her, but she needs the white picket fence. She needs the happily ever after that I can’t give to her.
“Hey, fucker,” I say clapping him on the back when he reaches me.
“Hey, dick,” he says hitting me right on the side I took that fucking bullet. I grunt out in pain which causes him to laugh.
“Sucks, doesn’t it?” He grins as we start to make our way toward the clubhouse.
“Fuck does it ever,” I grunt. I’ve taken my fair share of punches and have even been knocked out cold from that bastard who hit me with the butt of his gun when he kidnapped Anslie, but nothing compares to taking a bullet to the side.
“Your girl met someone,” he states casually just as he goes to pull the door open. I stop him before he can enter and level him wth a look. “I fucking knew it. When you showed up at my house on Valentine’s Day, you were all torn up over a girl, but you wouldn’t say shit because your sister came out.”
Instead of responding to him, I reach for the door and try to open it, but this time he stops me.
“If you like her, then why the fuck did you leave? Don’t make the same fucking mistakes I made.” I take a step back and cross my arms over my chest and stare at the ground by his feet.
“She doesn’t need someone like me to fuck with her already simple life. We bring this shit home with us. I see the way my sister reacts when she finds out one of us got shot at. I watched the pain and shit written all over your face when Ans was taken. I can’t do it. I can’t bring her into this life and the life I lead outside of the club and be okay with it.”
He raises an eyebrow at me, and I curse myself for even bringing that shit up. My brothers don’t know a whole lot about the shit I like in bed. They don’t know I go to the BDSM club to fuck women.
“I don’t do shit all vanilla like you and the others.” This, of course, peaks his damn interest.
“You mean you like that Fifty Shades of Grey shit,” he grins. “Don’t get your panties all in a bunch, your sister reads that shit and so much worse.” I can’t help but grin at that. Of course, she does, she and every other female have read that fucking book.
“More like the shit that Robbie’s buddy Hudson is into.” He gets a shit-eating grin on his face, and I just want to get the fuck away from him.
“Maybe I can get your sister into that.” He rubs his hands together, and I just shake my head.
“I don’t need to know what you and my sister do behind closed doors.” The thought of it makes me want to murder him, but I won’t tell him that just yet.
“So why not just explain it to her instead of breaking her heart like you did?” He gets all serious, and I really don’t want to talk about this shit right now.
“Because she’s pure. She’s the girl you want to take home to mom, well if I had one still.” He frowns for a second before he gets ready to ask something else but I stop him by continuing. “Plus, if I broke her heart, she wouldn’t be moving on so quickly.” I raise an eyebrow at him, and he frowns again.
“Now, can we get this shit over with so I can send you back home to my sister? If you’re gone too long she might have to come down here herself and I rather she stay out of harm's way.” He grunts out a response, but I ignore it and pull the doors open and make my way inside with him right on my heels.
As soon as we make it inside, the booming voices of the brothers arguing about how to retaliate are in full swing. Half of the guys want to kill every single member of the rival club, while Gunner and Johnny are just listening. Neither of them says a word as the guys continue to argue until they see us walk in.
“Shut the fuck up!” Johnny finally yells after a slight period of time.
The room goes completely silent, and I walk over to the bar and take a seat on the first empty bar stool. One thing about this club is that they don’t have a church like we do. They conduct their shit differently than we do back home, and pretty much anyone can hear our shit if they find a way to hide out of sight.
It’s one of the reasons they are having this problem. Someone could have heard club business and decided to attack when they knew Gunner would be here at the clubhouse instead of at home with his pregnant wife.
It was pure luck that I happened to show up when I did. Casey and Gunner didn’t even know that I was headed here and since I don’t know too many others, that was my first stop.
“We aren’t going into this shit guns blazing. We need a fucking plan, and it needs to be a fucking good one. I want to retaliate just as much as the rest of you, and I know Gun here feels the same damn way. It was his ol’ lady and unborn child that they went after.” He looks over to Gunner and Gunner just nods his head. He doesn’t say a word, but he doesn’t need to. Brant and I can both read him like a damn book. I guess it was the years of us growing up together or just the fact that we all would do the same shit.
Going in blind will do nothing but get us killed, and we’ve already had enough death in our family to last us a lifetime. I’ve lost a blood brother already this year, and I don’t think I can handle losing a club brother too.
I look around the room and see the anger written all over their faces. They don’t like being told to wait, but it’s the right thing to do. Gunner’s eyes meet Brant’s, and it’s almost like they have this way of communicating without even saying a word after all the time they spent together while Brant was sent to Oregon. I heard he was making trips up here to Seattle, but I didn’t know how close they had gotten.
“As much as I want to kill the fucker who shot up my house, I know that retaliation takes time. We need a plan, and I won’t go in half-assed. If we do, we are good as dead, and I won’t make my ol’ lady a widow and a single mother because of my anger. We brought Brant in to help us get a plan together. We will strike when the time is right and not a second sooner. Until then, the clubhouse is on lockdown. No one in or out unless they are escorted by at least two Saints members. Get your families here tonight.” With that, he nods his head to Johnny and walks out of the room.
“Fuck,” I mutter as I take in the expressions left on everyone’s faces. They aren’t going to wait. They will try to take care of this shit without a plan and men are going to die as a result.
“We need to make these assholes see that going after them without a plan is going to get them killed,” I whisper to Brant. He nods his head and makes his way over to Johnny who is still watching his men. They talk quietly to each other for a second before Johnny whistles and tells everyone to shut up again.
As the room goes deathly silent, Johnny looks over to me. I freeze, knowing what he wants me to tell them. He wants me to talk about Raef. He wants me to tell them that if they do what my brother did, people are going to die.
As all their eyes hit me, I feel the dread pool in my stomach. Just thinking about that shit makes me sick. Having to watch my brother die in my father’s arms reminds me just how short our lives can be.
“I know you guys are dead set on going after the fuckers who lit up Gun’s house. Trust me; I’m pissed too. He’s family and I would do anything for him and Casey, but what is running through your heads right now isn’t the answer. Going in guns blazing without some sort of plan will only get you fucking killed and then what?” I look around the room before continuing. “Then you end up like my brother Raef? You die because you wanted to get retribution so badly that nothing else mattered? Your family and your brothers have to live with your actions. I hate Raef for making that fucking decision every damn day. He thought that taking out one fucker was better than waiting to get his revenge.”
I run my finger over the tattoo on the inside of my wrist. The one where his name is inked onto me forever. The one the reminds me that this life isn’t pretty, that this life is violent and shitty. All we have is the family around us, and one bullet can take them away.
“He didn’t give us enough time to plan out an attack. He led us right into a trap, and he paid the price for that, and now his girl is alone and grieving the loss of the love of her life. She hates us because he is gone and now it’s only us here to pick up the pieces of her broken heart. Don’t let this happen to your families. Gun knows the deal. We won’t let anything happen to Casey or him. We will protect him with everything we have in us or die trying, but we need to be prepared. I won’t lose more brothers for no reason.”
I clear my throat and walk out of there, not caring what is said after I walk through those doors. I need to get out of here before I break down. I still haven’t cried for my brother. I can’t. If I did, then this shit would be real, and I can’t handle that. I want him to walk through that door one day and tell us we are all being whiny bitches, and that we need to check our vaginas or something stupid.
“Fuck, I miss that bastard,” I mutter more to myself than anything.
“We all do.” Brant puts his hand on my shoulder and squeezes. I should have fucking known he would have come out here after me. The pain hurts me right in the center of my chest, and I close my eyes, rubbing at the invisible hole that will always be a part of me now.