Chapter Nineteen
Not only did V just sleep beside me again, but she also chewed me a new one again the next morning, but she was right.
I had to fix things and stop fucking dwelling on the past. It was eating me up.
It’s easier said than done, but by the time I caught a glimpse of a grim-faced Micro striding across the compound, I was running toward him.
“Pres!”
He paused, waiting for me to catch up.
“Don’t do it.”
He stared me down, maybe because it was so fucking hypocritical of me at this point.
“Has to happen,” he said quietly, “No more hiding.”
Fuck. “No, man. I’m a dick, but you don’t owe me anything. I get that. I’ve been hanging onto that shit for so long, but I should have kept it to myself.”
He shook his head. “You were right.” He paused then, taking a look around him, as if he was memorising it before he lost it all.
“Reacher’s backing this. He gets it.”
Fuck. I thought he’d have a plan to stop it, not enable it!
“Brother, please. I was an asshole, I lashed out at you because I’m a fucking twat who dwells on shit that doesn’t even matter now. Everyone else forgave you. What right do I have to-”
“You were right, brother. Let the cards fall where they fall. This was always going to happen at some point. Honestly, it’s kind of a relief.
I’ve been waiting for it to come to light and fuck up my life.
I mean, that’s what I deserve, and we all know it.
I’m going to take charge of my fucking future, and grow a pair. See you in there.”
I felt so much regret as I watched him walk away, after he proved yet again that he’s not the same guy who did those things.
That fucker would have raged and argued, and denied everything, or alternately thrown it all in our faces, with a smug grin on his face.
Micro, the man we know now? He was owning up, taking whatever came from his confession, and doing it with calm relief.
He was definitely the right fucking guy to run this club.
I wish I hadn’t taken so long to figure that out.
Harley was just parking up, so I ran over to him, hating the look of disappointment on his face as he recognised me.
“I know. I’m a cunt. I wish I could undo it, but we both know that’s not how shit works. I wanna help him though. Speak up for him.”
Harley tucked his helmet under his arm, and gestured to the path for us to start walking.
“With the greatest respect, brother, haven’t you said enough already?”
Ouch. Still, he was right, wasn’t he? How the tables had turned for both of us.
“I have to try. I spoke out of turn, and I can’t undo it, but I can back him now. Show my support. Grow up and fucking back my President.”
Harley turned to see other brothers pulling in on their rides, a full fucking turnout for this meeting that could destroy everything Micro and Harley had been building.
“If they vote him out…”
“We’ll make sure they don’t.”
He sighed, waving to a few of our brothers as they started heading for Church, but Micro was walking back towards us with his hands up, halting them before they reached the room where we’d normally meet.
“What’s he doing?”
We all amassed around him in the firepit area, while everyone looked a little unnerved at the unexpected change to our normal process. He waved the prospects over, who were halfway through closing the gate, leaving it standing open. It felt like he was leaving it open for himself to be thrown out.
“This can’t wait, and we’re doing it here,” he yelled, getting up on a seat as silence fell.
“I can’t let this taint our Church. Our sanctity. The room where we run this club, and work together as a brotherhood. I have a confession to make, and I’ll do it here, where it’s on even ground. I’m just a brother right now, just like all of you.”
“Fuck me. He’s already going in like he’s lost.”
Harley moved over to flank him, standing by the bench Micro was standing on, and Grease immediately stepped to his other side.
Fuck that. I stepped up beside Harley, and people were noticing, as murmuring began and Micro paused.
I guess it looked like we were about to have a showdown, but that’s how it felt, at least to me.
“What’s going on, Pres. Is this another fucking cull? We’re all toeing the line here, just like we’re supposed to.”
Micro shook his head.
“You’re all doing an outstanding job of easing into the Phoenix ethos, and doing the colours proud. I need to tell you about me though. About what I did before I came here. About how this is my atonement. If you all want me gone after, I’ll understand.”
Fuck me. I clenched my fists as a stunned silence fell, and he started to speak, as he started detailing, ruthlessly, without skipping a step, every fucking thing he did.
Hell, he mentioned stuff I’d had no idea about too.
The key was that he was owning up to it all, and faces had gone from curious to shocked, and now most lingered on distrust and anger. Disrespect, even.
“You fucking hypocrite!” One of them yelled, and a few others agreed.
“I know. I’m here selling an ethos that I shat all over. I get that, and I’m admitting to it.”
“How the hell are you even wearing that fucking President patch?”
Micro glanced at us, those flanking him, and straightened his shoulders.
“I worked hard to redeem myself. I fought to make up for my actions, to make amends with my victims, and my fucking betrayed family. I was willing to die for it.”
“Should have,” someone murmured under their breath, and miraculously someone else yelled at him to shut it.
I was losing track of who was who, because I felt like like was watching the chapter crumble from the inside out.
Micro may have wanted to destroy the OG chapter, but he might actually have succeeded with this one instead.
Only this time it wasn’t his fault. It was mine.
“He’s a good man. I trust in him,” I spoke up, and silence fell as all eyes reached me, and fuck me, I felt like I’d just spoken out of turn at a fucking funeral or something. Shit. Maybe it was one. The death of a club. Of a brotherhood.
Harley cleared his throat and waited ’til everyone looked at him.
“He’s a good man. I stand by him. I trust him with my life.”
Grease groaned, and drew the attention next.
“Yeah, what they said. I was there when it happened. I saw a lot of it, but I saw this man… fuck me, I’m gonna say it… he’s risen from the fucking ashes himself.” He glared at Micro as the guy barked out a shocked laugh. He flipped our Pres off and glared at the rest of the club.
“This guy is solid. He took a shit club, and fucking restored it. He did most of that single handedly. He did it because he believes in making the place better. He brings the same fucking values he wants to instil in all of us, so you can start bitching, but you know him. The past is the fucking past.”
I fought the grudging sense of respect I was starting to feel for the prick, because we had our own issues, but he showed his full fucking support for the club and our President, and surely that was worth something.
“I stand by our Pres,” I stated clearly, waiting for what came next, but what came next was a muddle of argumentative voices, which were rapidly drowned out by a familiar sound to us all.
Motorbikes. A lot of them. Incoming as we all turned to the gates.
Fuck me. It was the original Phoenix chapter, and they started leaving their rides as they crammed them into our parking area, and joined the group standing by Micro.
“Reacher?”
The other President stepped forward, shooting an irritated glare at Micro.
“Shoulda known you’d jump the gun, son.”
Micro glanced around at his new ‘backing singers’.
“What’s happening?”
“I understand your President has shared some information with you all today? Bit faster than I fucking planned. You wanna take a fucking pill for that premature issue you have?”
A few chuckles filled the courtyard, before Reacher turned to face everyone again.
“He made his mistakes, and he did his time. Phoenix MC stands beside him, and we fucking back him as President of this chapter, so if any of you feel you can’t do the same, there’s the fucking door.
” He pointed, as Torch made a snarky comment about it being a gate, and I literally felt the tension drop just a touch.
Please fucking go right. I was still kicking myself about this all happening.
“He killed someone,” one guy pointed out quietly, and Ryder shrugged at him.
“Who hasn’t?”
“He tormented your old ladies!”
Has-Been stepped forward then, lifting his hands for quiet. The poor guy looked like he’d been to hell and back, but there was a lightness in his posture that I think came from finally getting his revenge, and knowing those cunts couldn’t hurt anyone again.
“He did. He came after mine several times, but you know what? She forgave him. She moved past it, and she feels stronger than ever. I’m not saying that means she didn’t suffer, but she grew. If she can forgive him, why the hell do any of you have a right to judge him?”
Wow. I never saw that coming, and he wasn’t done, either. He dragged a hand over his short blonde hair.
“He also gave me a long-overdue haircut, and honestly, I coulda killed him for that alone, but I moved on too.” To them, it probably didn’t sound like much, but he’d loved his locs.
They were his identity, and I think, now I know his past, maybe even part of his disguise, a way of distancing himself from his old life.
“Our old ladies aren’t holding grudges. Maybe they’re less petty than us guys. We’ve struggled, but we’re looking to the future, and the future is two fucking chapters, stronger than ever,” Reacher said, his strong voice drowning out any murmuring.
Torch lifted a hand, and Reacher nodded to him.