Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
“So, what you’re saying…” Bear shifted his position, bringing focus back to him. It was a move he did when he thought I might make a move on someone and he wanted to give me the best chance he could. “Is that we’ve kept a woman prisoner for over a year?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
He gave a deep sigh. “This is gonna be complicated.”
“I’ll take care of Gina.” Lemon moved to stand more fully beside me. Like we were partners in the club instead of just in the bedroom. Which we were. It was time the rest of Grim Road recognized it too. “If that’s taken care of?” She raised an eyebrow at Crush who nodded. “The real problem here is this whole situation could have been prevented.” She let that statement linger, piquing the curiosity of everyone around. “If you’d just talked to each other.”
“Not following.” Bear narrowed his gaze at her.
“She means we keep too many secrets from each other.”
“Crush knows every-fucking-thing,” Falcon said from the back. “Who else needs to know?”
“Well,” Lemon drawled. I winced because this was going to be epic. It was like watching a train barreling down the track, blaring its horn for the stupid motherfucker who drove his car onto the track when the light was clearly flashing yellow only to have it stall. There was going to be carnage and there was nothing you could do about it. All you could hope for was that said stupid motherfucker had enough sense to abandon his vehicle and run like hell. That… wasn’t Falcon. “If Claw hadn’t been so obsessed with keeping his secret, Scarlet would never have been abused the way she was. If Byte had felt comfortable bringing Hammer’s secret to Rocket, Gina might have been spared pain and humiliation. How many incidents have happened in this club that might have been prevented if you knew even the most fundamental things about each other?”
“Girl, you’ve got no idea what you’re talking about.” I’d give it to Falcon. He wasn’t one to quit while he was ahead. Well, he wasn’t ahead. But sometimes it’s best to know when you’re beaten and throw in the proverbial towel.
“Oh, really?” Lemon drawled. “How about the fact that you left Rocket to his fate when he came to mine and Effie’s aid?”
“Told you, girl. We don’t risk the entire club for one person. I didn’t want to leave Rocket, but I didn’t have a choice.”
“Until I took the choice away from you. We made a huge-ass mess, then you called in peeps to clean the place. Anyone figured out what happened? Come running to the compound gate accusing Grim Road of murder? Wanting to raze this place to the fucking ground?” When Falcon merely lifted his chin, Lemon continued. “You guys are a fuckin’ family. Fuckin’ act like it! And you.” She moved to stand in front of Falcon and poked him in the chest with her finger. “If you ever leave any of your brothers shot and bleeding in a place not a hundred feet from where you’re standing, I will fuckin’ bury you.”
“I’m makin’ changes to Grim Road,” I said, picking up where Lemon stopped. Mainly because I liked Falcon. I didn’t want him to lose his balls. “From now on, we have each other’s backs. No matter what. We always choose the missions we go on. None of us are under contract because the shit we do isn’t officially sanctioned. We all know the risks. From now on, we run this club like we would a paramilitary business. All requests for our services will go through Crush. He will bring them to me and the vice president. We will decide which ones are worthy and which ones are shit. We’ll also decide which shit missions are important enough for us to risk our lives to complete them. Once that decision is made, we will assign teams to do them. And we will always have each other’s backs. No fuckin’ matter what.”
“That leaves only one question.” Bear looked amused, but that couldn’t be right. Bear didn’t get amused as far as I knew. He was always stoic and all business.
“Yeah?”
“Who’s gonna be vice president? Claw’s been dead over a year and we’ve never discussed it.
“I wasn’t ready,” I admitted. “Claw was my friend. He wasn’t the man I thought he was, but he’d had my back more than a few times. We’ve never operated like the usual MC, so the vacancy hasn’t been a problem. Until now.”
“So? Who’d you have in mind?”
“Actually, Bear, I thought you might be up for the job.”
Bear chuckled. “No fuckin’ way, Rocket. Not me.” He shook his head. “How about we give you some ideas. Let the club work it out.” He spread his hands to indicate everyone in the barn. “You said we should work together more, to have each other’s backs. Well, I think it should start now.”