Bear cleared his throat. “As the president of the Atlanta charter, I want to officially extend my condolences to each and every one of you. Abel was one of the best men I had the pleasure of knowing and he will be missedimmensely.”
Holt nodded to Bear. “Thank you, brother.” He turned to look at the rest of us before continuing, “There is a lot that has been kept from this club but the secrets end now. Ryder, Bear and I have spoken a great deal about everything that happened leading up to Abel’s death and it needs to be shared with theclub.”
Ryder put his hand on Holt’s shoulder and then added, “This information should not affect your memories of our fallen king. Abel was a great man and always had the best interest of this club in hisheart.”
Bear stood and started to pace. “This is not going to be easy for me to explain but I am going to do my best. Before I begin, please know that, not all dealings having to do directly with this tragedy have been terminated, by myself, Holt, and Kane Buckley. For those of you who do not know Kane, he is the president now of the charter in Killeen,Texas.”
My mind tripped back to my old friend and that day that he saved my life with Abel and Rave. I had no idea that he had moved up the ranks thatquickly.
Bear continued, “I got wind of a heroin and cocaine shortage up the coast. I set up suppliers and delivery systems but it was all too much for just my chapter to be able to handle. Abel came into this deal as my number two. I had no idea that the Sinners were the original suppliers in y’all’s area. This is and will always be on me. Their retaliation was in response to a number of situations, but mainly the loss of the drug business and that income. Abel and I became aware of their involvement when one of our larger shipments wentmissing.”
He hung his head, sucking in a deep, sharp breath. “I should have stopped all dealings then and figured out another way to clean up this mess, but we just kept working our deals and my guys were able to recover that lost shipment before it left Georgia. That was when I decided to come up here and help y’all out. Abel and I still thought we had it under control. We should never have been so arrogant to think that we could handle this on our own. Holt was not even aware of most of the things I have just toldyou.”
He took his seat again and lit acigarette.
“Fuck you!” Red leapt to his feet. “You’re the reason Abel is dead and you think that just because you wear the same patch as us that you can sit at thistable.”
“Red, sit your fucking ass down.” Ryder’s eyes were narrowed. I could see his hands shaking abit.
“We all have done things that we regret. Most of us have done even worse shit than this in our lifetimes.” Holt was always the damn voice of reason. “We need to move forward, not go at each other’s throats. That’s how those sons-of-bitches will actuallywin.”
“What is the plan?” Iasked.
“We are going to lay low. We will not continue this violence now. There is too much at stake and we are wounded. We all need time to heal and pick the pieces back up. Bear is going to head back to Atlanta. If he hears of any other threat or something related to this, he will report directly to me on the matter and I will bring it to this table right away. No one will be kept in the dark from this moment on. We will keep moving forward and play out the cards as they are dealt.” With that, Ryder slammed the gavel down onto the wooden table and that wasthat.
Chapter 1
Trent
A Eew MonthsLater
“Hey handsome, want a lap dance?”I glanced up over my shoulder at a lanky middle-aged woman. In the dimly lit club, all I could tell was she had a decent rack, pounds of eye makeup on and long blonde hair that nearly touched her ass cheeks. She seemed cute enough and the dancer that was on the stage was not doing it forme.
“What’s your name, darlin’?” I asked, having to shout over the loud thumping of bass. I grabbed her hand, pulling the petite stripper onto my lap. She plopped down, making her tits nearly pop right out of the dark purple bra that was at least a size toosmall.
“I’m Diamond. What’s yours, stud?” She giggled, batting hereyelashes.
“Tre,” I saidflatly.
Her flirty grin twisted as she rolled her fingers over the patches on my cut. “Are you a Sinner?” she asked, her eyeswide.
I shook my head no. “Is that aproblem?”
“Actually, it’s fantastic.” She bit herlip.
She started to grind a little on my lap, biting my neck a fewtimes.
“Why is it good that I am not a damn Sinner?” I pushed her away a little. I had been drugged once in a strip club, I wasn’t going to let it happenagain.
“Come with me.” She stood up, grabbed my hand, trying to drag me out of the backdoor.
I stopped her before she could push the metal door open. “Mind telling me what the hell is goingon?”
“They can’t know I’m talking to an Unacceptable,” she whispered and motioned for me to followher.
I reluctantly followed her as she rounded the corner and starting down a vacant backstreet. She stopped under the street light next to a dumpster that reeked to high heaven. The yellow lighting revealed a fading shiner covering her left eye that went all the way down her cheek to herjawline.
Grabbing her chin, I asked, “Need me to take care of the cocksucker that gave you that?” I turned her head to get a better look before she pushed my handaway.