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I want to wash it off and do it freestyle, just like she asked. It would be done a lot quicker than this.
I want to etch into her skin with every fiber of my being. One word. Just one.
A word I can’t explain, a word that I’ve never used before when it comes to a woman, yet, here I am, warring with myself. After the bullshit that was last night, and the way my body calmed when I saw her in the yard with Axel earlier, I know it with certainty.
I can’t do it.
I won’t.
Not yet at least.
But the four letters are burned into my mind forever, waiting desperately to be inked on her flesh.
Mine.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Axel
Gray glaresat me as we take our seats in the Church. The empty spot reserved for our VP is noticed, but we all know he’s home and well, despite the bruising on his face. Gray needs to get the fuck over himself so we can focus on what actually matters here; the club and dealing with these fuckheads who have decided to become the bane of our existence.
“Is my son home?” Eric asks from the opposite end of the table, the bags under his eyes heavy and dark from a lack of sleep. It will likely have more to do with losing himself in a bottle yet again than pacing the floor with actual worry for his son, but out of all of the people here, I’m the last one who should judge.
“He is, but the details that come with his return leave more on our plate to handle,” Ryker states, slouching back in his seat.
“Hit us with it, Prez,” Briggs grunts from beside Eric, his hands balling into fists on the table top as he nods at Ryker. It makes me smile on the inside, even though I give nothing away on the outside. Knowing our brothers are ready to go into battle with little information as to why always fills my veins with adrenaline.
Smashing some skulls with my bare hands will take a load off my shoulders for sure.
“During the haze of the cops storming us last night, we didn’t catch a real glimpse of the new deputy in town. Porter Hallman. He was a classmate of ours in high school. He was a no-good cunt then, and an even more inconvenient one now,” Ryker spits.
I thought we had seen the back of that guy when he left to join the Army, but clearly I was wrong. I may have also been wrong to stay behind to get the damn bike for Scarlett because now I’m learning this information along with everyone else. It gives me no chance to react to the shit that went down last night, so I bottle it up.
“To add to that, when Emmett and Euro got put in the holding cells, the good old sheriff's department let in two Devil’s Brutes members to try and slaughter them.” Curses murmur around the room, anger getting the better of everyone as tension rises. “If you see Emmett, you’ll notice he’s sporting a black eye and a gash on his nose, a consolation prize for killing one of their men before they came for one of us instead.”
“Thank fuck for that,” Eric grunts, slamming his fist into the table.
“And Euro?”
“He’s good, beaten too, but the new deputy decided to check in before either of them could make another example of the remaining Brute.”
“Good, he can send a message back to them,” I state, leaning forward to brace my forearms on the table as my brothers nod in agreement.
“They clearly see us as weak since the loss of our old Prez, but they don’t realize how much we’ve grown from that movement, how much our backbone has strengthened despite the loss.”
I nod along with Gray’s assessment, knowing it couldn’t have been put any better. With Ryker in charge, we’re only going to be stronger than we ever have before, and they’re going to need to learn that sooner rather than later.
“We need a response, an aggressive and measured retaliation that shows how our club now operates. There will be no more confusion over where our strengths lie.” I shake my head, hearing my own words in my ears as I stare around the table. “You would have expected them to know that already with how we took out the Reapers,” I add, annoyed as fuck.
“True, but to them it probably looked like a hasty response. Which it was, we blew up the fucking clubhouse, leaving no surviving member of the Reapers on a whim,” Gray states with a shrug. It looks like it doesn’t make any sense to him either.
“Were there any rumors that the prospects picked up?” Ryker asks, turning the question to Briggs who is the unofficial prospect organizer.
“Nothing official, but there were a few guns on the streets that they weren’t familiar with, and when they asked one of the guys about it, he was shifty as hell and ran off.”
“They’re threatening our men, our livelihood, and our fucking town. Enough is enough. We’ve given them far too much room to play with already.” I can’t hide my anger any further, my hands clenched on the table and the cords in my neck straining with every breath I take. “Someone has to pay, and it sure as hell isn’t going to be one of us.”
“This is exactly why you’re our sergeant at arms, Axel. Between you and Ryker, we’ll fucking follow.” Briggs pats his chest, the vein at his temple throbbing with every breath.
