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Once the smoke cleared, this shit with the Shirleys would finally be over.
For fucking good.
He only hoped to fuck that was true.
More explosions rocked the van as they sped through town and back to the crematorium where most of them had parked their sleds near the loading dock.
The street lights were flickering and every type of alarm system—car, business and home—was going off. Judge stuck to the side streets and stayed off Main Street to avoid being spotted.
Main Street was busy with emergency responders, anyway.
Just as Judge turned the van into Tioga Pet Services, it happened.
Like the finale at a fireworks show, but on major steroids.
Powerful booms came in quick succession and the ground actually rocked and rolled under the van as he pulled it around back and parked it.
“Jesus Christ,” Judge grumbled, jerking on his long, bushy beard. “And that right there is why this club’s now fuckin’ broke.”
“Had to be the big house, the barn and all the outbuildin’s on the main level,” Shade said. “That should be the last of them.”
Sitting next to Whip, Cage said, “Worth every damn penny.”
“Sure as fuck hope so,” Dodge said. “Otherwise, we spent all of that for fuckin’ nothin’.”
Ozzy was the first to climb out of the van. “Gonna head back to the motel and check on shit before I head over to Pete’s.”
“Yeah, good idea to stagger our arrivals like Mercy said,” Trip told him. “I’m gonna guess Sig and Dutch are already there.”
The Original disappeared and his 883’s exhaust could barely be heard over the sirens and alarms going off through town. Including the pet crematorium’s.
Shade climbed out next. “Gonna go home and check on the kids before headin’ over.”
“Red and Saylor should be there by now with the three little ones. If not, you get ahold of me or Judge right away. Dutch and Sig were supposed to accompany them and then head directly over to Pete’s.”
Shade nodded in answer to Trip and disappeared into the dark.
Everyone else took their time climbing out of the van, talking amongst themselves about who was heading over to Pete’s next.
“You can go in pairs,” Judge told them. “That ain’t gonna be a problem. Let’s just all get there ASAP.” He turned to Whip. “‘Cept you. Need you to clean up your damn face before showin’ it anywhere. You look like you ran into a fuckin’ brick wall.”
He didn’t doubt it looked as bad as it felt. His face throbbed with every damn heartbeat, he was forced to breathe from his mouth and he needed to rinse out the metallic taste of his own blood. He was just thankful as fuck his jaw wasn’t broken or dislocated.
“Got the keys for the crematorium. You can clean up in there while I shut that fuckin’ alarm off,” Easy offered, pulling the keys from his front pocket and waving them in the air. “Also got a spare shirt inside you can change into. It’s got the business name on it, but fuck it, better than nothin’.”
Whip glanced down. No surprise his shirt was stained with his own blood.
“We’re forgettin’ one thing.” Whip tipped his head toward the van.
All eyes turned that way.
“Fuck,” Deacon muttered. “What are we gonna do with her?”
“Trip…” Whip murmured, not really wanting to go into details at that moment but a warning needed to be given.
Trip blew out a breath. “Yeah, don’t gotta say it. Figured you had a good reason to take that motherfucker out. We fucked up. This is on us.” He pulled his baseball cap off and whipped it out into the dark parking lot in frustration. “What happened to her is on us.”
“We don’t know what the Shirleys did before—” Rev started.
The prez cut him off. “Don’t fuckin’ matter what those assholes did. We know their intent. The problem is we made it fuckin’ worse by turnin’ that goddamn psycho loose up there.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Deke assured him. “No one expected him to do somethin’ like that.”
“We should’ve known,” Trip said in a tone that told everyone not to bother arguing with him. “We couldn’t control what the Shirleys did but we should’ve been able to control one of our own. It’s on us.”
“It’s on me,” Rook corrected him. “I brought him in. I fuckin’ sponsored him. I fucked up.”
“The committee had to approve him and we did. Ain’t all on you,” Judge said. “It’s on all of us. We knew he was bad, but hoped he’d be an asset. Turns out he wasn’t.”
“We gave him too many chances,” Rook said. “One too fuckin’ many.”
“Nobody’s gonna disagree with that fuckin’ fact. But now what? What do we do with her?” Trip asked.
Dodge spoke up. “Why don’t we get through what’s currently going on and afterward we can figure it out. Ain’t nothin’ gonna be done tonight. We just gotta cover our asses for the next day or so. Once we’re on the other side of this, we can help her. Whether that’s findin’ her family or whatever needs to be done. But think it’s smart to keep her hidden ’til then.” He turned to Whip. “She got family?”
