Chapter 6
Ryan
“Just make yourself at home.”I looked over at Raine in my kitchen after showing her around the house abit.
“We’ll be fine.” She scooped Abel up into her arms, bouncing the babygently.
Tank trotted over to Raine, pushing her free hand with his nose. Abel’s small hand gripped the tip of Tank’s pointed ear as the baby giggled away, blowing spit bubbles. It was one of the most endearing sights I had everseen.
“If anything, the Doberman will protect them.” Ryder walked in while pulling his cut on. “You ready to headout?”
“Be a good boy.” I patted Tank on his big head before following Ryder down the front steps of myporch.
“How’s Raine holding up with all this?” I asked while putting my skull bucketon.
Ryder glanced up to the front door before swinging his leg over his bike. “She misses her dad. Fuck, we all miss Abel, but having the baby has been a good distraction forher.”
“It was sweet that you named him after her oldman.”
“It was only right. We probably would have even if he was still alive.” Ryder checked his phone, rattled off a quick message and then revved his engine. “Trent is already with Buck and Holt. You ready for this,brother?”
I sucked in a sharp breath. If I was being honest, I was more than ready. Our club had been hit hard, and it was time to get everything back ontrack.
“Let’s go get this shit intogear.”
Ryder followed me to my president’s house, around the back to the old black barn we called home. From the outside, it looked like any other beat-up shack, but looks can be deceiving. Inside it was a biker’s paradise: two fully stocked bars, a bunch of pool tables, a meeting room, a storage room that had been converted into a weapons arsenal, a full mechanic’s area in the back with lifts and every tool needed to do our own tune-ups and repairs, and five bedroomsupstairs.
We parked our bikes at the end of the row of hogs and stallions and made our way inside, where the rest of my chapter was waiting along with a few members from otherchapters.
Buck walked over to me with gritted teeth and clenched fists. His voice was low. “About damntime.”
I patted his shoulder. “Had to make sure Raine and the baby were settled in before we could come over. You don’t want her getting worried about anything we’re about to do, now do you?” I made sure Ryder couldn’t hear me as I spoke to my president. Yes, I was the vice president of my club, but I still had a boss, and he didn’t like to be kept waiting. It was Kane Buckely’s biggest petpeeve.
“Nice to see you, Buck.” Ryder came over, saving me from my impending lashing. “Is Bear going to make it to this run? He said he was going to see if he could sneak away for abit.”
Holt shoved his phone back into his pocket and walked over to his son. “That was Bear, he’s right down the road with Jaxon. I think we should all get around thetable.”
Trent walked up to Buck and me. I barely knew the guy, just knew he was from Vilas with Ryder and Holt. I also knew he was one of their better men, and someone Buck knew from being in the Marines. They were a few years older than me and we had never served together, but it was comforting having other Marines wearing my cut. It added another level of understanding to ourbrotherhood.
Quickly, I poured three fingers of bourbon into the white coffee mug I had hidden under the bar for safekeeping. We all tossed our cellphones on top of a pool table after turning them off. Most of the guys thought it was an over-the-top and paranoid move, but rules wererules.
I took my seat to the left of Buck as the rest of the men filed into our meeting room. Before a word could be spoken, Bear’s huge frame took up the doorway with Jaxon right behind him, peering over hisshoulder.
“Right in the nick of time,” he said with a chuckle before walking over to Ryder and giving him a quick hug. Even though the reunion was nice, it was not under the best ofcircumstances.
Holt and Ryder were from our main chapter in Vilas. Ryder was Holt’s son and the newest president of their club. Abel Hellock, Ryder’s father-in-law, had been the president before him. After Abel was gunned down while saving his daughter, Raine, from being kidnapped, Ryder took over Abel’s title. It was weird to me that Holt hadn’t moved up from his vice president position, but it seemed to be working well for them, and that was what trulymattered.
Trent cleared his throat. “I think we should get right down to the business we’ve all gathered here for. Let’s not sugar coat it, I fuckedup.”
I whipped my head around to look at Trent, and he didn’t look ashamed or upset. He was resolute in his posture as he went on with hisexplanation.
“Not too long ago, a woman told me her husband, Ralph, was the one who killed Abel, and we took her word on it. Retaliation was swift, and we were extremelycreative.”
Buck interjected, “Bread knife,anyone?”
Everyone snickered a little. The guys in Vilas were not men to fuck with. They were led to believe their president had been murdered by this guy, so they’d taken his left thumb and cut off his balls with a bread knife. I had to hand it to their imaginations—that was some twisted, dark shit. I thought back to the night Bear and I had tortured and killed the douchebag. The entire situation was truly turning into an organization-wideaffair.
“He was one of the men that was there that day. He helped kidnap Raine and held her captive. We are not sorry that he was maimed,” Trentexplained.