Chapter 29
W e line our bikes up outside the scrapyard that we know the Reapers are using as a compound and we rev our engines loud until someone’s brave enough to come to the gate.
It’s just a boy who shows his face, and his eyes nearly pop out his head when he sees how many of us are here.
“Go tell ya prez to open his gates,” Raze tells him, as we take out our weapons and get ready. The place is locked up like a fortress, there’s no way of storming in, but we knew that before we got here, and we will smoke those fuckers out if we have to.
Raze promised me that we’ll take Ronnie alive, I want him to suffer the price of what he did to my sister for days and nights. I want him to beg me to put an end to his rotten, waste of a life. It’s given the new kid a reason to tag along on his first field trip. He’s driving the cage, and this will be one of many tests he’ll be faced with before he gets to call himself a Soul.
The boy on the other side of the gates races off and I look over to Ruck while we wait. For me this has been a long time coming. Usually Ruck is the loudest of us all in these kinda situations. Always full of energy, ready to cause a ruckus . It’s how he got his name, but there's something off with him today, he ain’t right.
I know we buried Saul earlier, but this is the kinda grief therapy we all need.
“Tank says he’ll speak with ya, but only on civil terms. No guns.” The boy returns. “Well, tell Tank, we ain’t got nothin’ civil t o say,” Raze calls back at him.
“He wants you to know it’s Ronnie who ya got ya trouble with. Not the men here.”
“What men?” Raze laughs.
“I don’t consider those who hide behind a kid as men?” He makes sure his voice is loud enough to be heard. “Right now, I got trouble with any fucker wearing a Reaper cut.” The boy nervously glances sideways toward one of the rusty storage containers and when the 7ft brute steps out from behind it with his chest all puffed out he stands the boy down with a flick of his chin.
“Get a load of this guy,” Ruck laughs under his breath, as the guy lifts his shades on top of his head and spits the gum he’s chewing at the ground.
“What’s your plan, Raze?” he asks, standing alone.
“My plan is to kill every one of you,” Raze gives it to him straight.
“There anyway I can convince you to make a deal?” He steps closer to the gate and if he’s putting on the act of not being afraid, I’ll give him his dues, it’s a fuckin’ good one.
“There ain’t no negotiations on the lives you took,” Raze tells him.
“Come on, Raze, you’ve taken a few yourself, we had a fuckin’ massacre not so long back, then there was JW. Even if I killed half the men behind you, we still wouldn’t be even,” he points out, and I can see Jessie getting impatient from the corner of my eye. I know how he fuckin’ feels.
“We both know you haven’t got the manpower for that. All I’ve seen so far is a boy.” Raze laughs.
“Ronnie’s been making a lot of decisions solo lately. We never agreed to have your guy killed.”
“That guy’s got a name,” Vike speaks up, looking as thirsty for it as I am.
“Was it fuckin’ stupid? ‘Cause it ought to have been. Ronnie was never gonna let him get away with puttin’ rotten seed in his daughter.”
Vike gets off his saddle and starts marching toward the gate, and when Dev and Ruck both move in to hold him back, I stare at the wise assed fucker, on the other side of the gate and decide I need to ask a few questions of my own.
“And what about my sister, my dad gave her to you for protection and you…” My voice gives out on me, because I can’t even think about what they might have done to her. “We ain’t leaving here without some kinda justice, so you go back to your boys and you tell ‘em to come out and fight.”
“What if I give you Ronnie.” Tank looks as if he just laid a royal flush out on the table, and Raze does his best not to look surprised by it. “Killing the girl and shooting your boy, was all on him. No club vote was taken, so why should the men behind this gate suffer for it?”
“Because he’s your fuckin’ leader,” I yell, starting to lose my patience. I’m done fuckin’ talkin’ I want blood on my hands.
“Aaron Wrath Adams.” He laughs as if he just realized who I am. “ The prince of Long Beach. Your father was your leader, too, right? Should we punish you for his sins, cause I hear he got quite the rap sheet?” I got no words to throw back at him, just enough anger and hate to beat the life out of his 7ft body a hundred times over.
“Like I said, your trouble is with Ronnie, not with us.”
“We’d want more than just Ronnie,” Raze shocks me when it sounds as if he’s about to make a deal. “I want the driver, the shooter, and I want you to leave here. Go back to Sacramento. Quit with this vision you got, because it ain’t ever gonna happen.”
I stare at Raze as if he’s crazy, we came here to kill. Not to fuckin’ talk terms and conditions.
“Have I got your word on that.” Tank steps closer to the gate, and puts his hand through the railing, and when Raze starts moving forward, Ruckus steps into his role as Sergeant and moves up to the gate beside him.
“You got my word.” Raze shakes his hand and I shake my head in frustration.
Tank heads back toward the storage container, sliding the metal to open it, and when he steps inside I look around to the others and make sure they’re on their guard. He could have twenty armed men in there for all we know. I hear muffled cries echo from inside, and Tank returns, gripping two gagged and tied men in each of his hands, they’re eyes squint tight when the sunlight hurts their eyes.
“Ronnie Wilkins.” He shoves the decrepit old man up against the railings, “And his shooter.” Then tosses the other, making them rattle. “Take ‘em.” He shrugs like it ain’t a big deal.
“How long they been like this?” Raze looks as shocked by the sight of the Reapers’ president as I am. “And how did you know what I’d want?”
“Because, it’s exactly what I’d want if I were you. We ain't so different, Raze, we both had leaders who tried to be dictators. If my brothers had voted to have the girl killed, and your guy shot, they’d be out here facing the consequences. This…” Tank kicks his ex-president in the back. “…We did take a vote on. I knew soon that you’d be coming, we gave him a second chance after the girl and we weren’t gonna regret giving him another. Take what I’m offering Raze, no one has to die here today. It’s the last you’ll see of us, I can promise you that. I never liked the beach anyway.” He sniggers.
“And the driver!” Vike shouts out. “He’s part of this deal too, where is he?”
Tank drops his head and closes his eyes.
“Kid.” He looks a little hesitant as he turns his head toward the boy.
“No… No. Please. Tank, I…” The kid shakes his head and starts to panic, and when he refuses to step forward, Tank grabs his arm and throws him at the gate too.
“Take ‘em, and we’ll be outta here by tomorrow mornin’. Let this be the end of it.” Tank unbolts the gate, opening it enough to allow Raze and Ruck to drag the men that are bound out
“Sorry, kid.” I hear Tank speak to the boy when Raze grabs him by the arm too.
The gate quickly shuts behind them and he looks defeated as he steps out of sight.
“What the fuck, Raze?” I shake my head at my prez as he heads back toward me, dragging Ronnie and forcefully pushing the terrified boy forward.
“You got what you wanted.” He dumps Ronnie in front of my bike and I look down at the piece of shit that killed my sister.
“That prick was right, in what he said. The club has shown what they thought of their leaders' decisions.” He looks down at Ronnie, reminding me that his own men did this to him and I nod my understanding before I crouch down to the fucker’s eye level.
“Look me in the eye and tell me you did it.” I pull the gag down over his chin so he can confess that he killed an innocent girl. There's still a tiny spark of hope inside me, that Willow could still be alive. That my father just wanted to hurt me one last time before I ended him.
I hear something feral come from behind me and Tawk comes outta nowhere, fists flying, attacking the man who supposedly took her from us.
“You killed her, you killed her.” He punches him again, and despite being helpless, the old man laughs at him.
“No, her father killed her, when he decided to leave her with me.” I grab Tawk and rip him back, before pressing my boot into the old man's throat.
“Grunt.” I look over to the cage and wait for Josh to rush his way over to me. “Load him into the cage, take him to the warehouse, me and Tawk will meet you there.” I hold Tawk back so the new kid can do as I requested. “We take our time, we make him suffer.” I remind him, as calmly as my voice will allow.
“Now… That's exactly what I did to your sweet baby sister.” Ronnie finds his voice again and I reach my limit. Instinct has me taking out my gun and pulling the trigger in one fast movement that not even I could predict. Josh, screams, dropping Ronnie’s body from his hand and frantically rubbing the bastard’s blood and brains off his face. The kid Raze still has hold of starts to cry, and Tawk drops to his knees, clutching at the dirt with his fists.
“Wrath.” Ruck approaches me cautiously, and I let the gun slip outta my hand so I can clutch my stomach and try and make the pain go away.
“I gotcha,” Ruck whispers, holding me up as I grip his arm and scream.
“She’s dead, she’s really fuckin’ dead.” I look up at him, and when he nods his head back at me, with eyes full of pity, I don’t care how many of my brothers are here to witness it. I break.