Chapter 110
-Hailey-
I drove Talon’s truck back to the clubhouse, following the taillights of his and River’s bikes.
My knuckles were white on the wheel as we got closer to the reckoning I knew was waiting. Anatoly’s words were a snake coiled in the back of my head, and I still didn’t know if I was going to tell Logan or not.
When the chain–link fence finally appeared in the distance, a strange thing happened. Instead of the usual flood of relief, a fresh wave of dread washed over me, so cold it made my teeth chatter.
The place was lit up like always, but it felt wrong. The light was harsh and interrogating. It didn’t promise safety this time.
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The two prospects were at their post by the gate, just as we’d left them. But they weren’t lounging against the fence or smoking. They stood up straight and tall, with their AKs held at the ready. It looked deeply unnatural on them.
As Talon and River rolled to a stop in front of the closed gate, they didn’t immediately move to open it. They just stared. Not at the truck, not at their VP. Their eyes were fixed on some point in between, and their faces were carefully blank.
One of them finally moved, heaving the gate open just wide enough for us to pass.
As we rolled through, I chanced a look out my side window. The prospect closest to me, a kid with a wispy mustache, refused to meet my eyes. He stared at the tires of the truck with his jaw clenched so tight I could see the muscle twitch.
It was a look of pure, unadulterated *don’t fucking look at me*.
They knew. Whatever had happened here, they’d witnessed the aftermath and wanted no part of what came
next.
The crunch of broken asphalt under the tires was obscenely loud. No one came out to greet us. No curious faces peered from the windows and doors. It was just us, the two bikes leading us in, and the weight of what we’d done.
I parked the truck in its usual spot, then sat for a second with both hands still on the wheel, staring at the clubhouse door.
When I turned to look at Stella, she was staring at it too.
“They’re probably not going to be very welcoming right now,” I said, and she looked at me. “But this is the safest place for you right now. I already had Nikki cancel everyone’s appointments for a while and lock up the shop… I hope you’ll stay.”
She stared at me for a minute, then gave me a small smile and a barely perceptible nod.
“Thanks, Hailey,” she murmured.
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Chapter 110
I pushed my door open and climbed out, handing the keys to Talon. Stella scrambled out too, hugging herself against the chill. River dismounted his bike slowly and came to stand beside Talon.
The two of them exchanged a look I couldn’t decipher a whole conversation passed in a single glance.
Together, the four of us started the long walk across the parking lot. I could feel the eyes of the prospects on our backs, watching us walk into whatever hell we’d carned.
Two more prospects pulled the doors open for us, and the smell of spilled alcohol was overwhelming. Then the sight of it registered, and my breath caught in my throat.
The main room looked like a bomb had gone off in the middle of a frat party. Broken tables and barstools, a number of gaping holes in the wall.
Glass shards glittered all across the floor, swimming in pools of booze.
The mirror behind the bar was a spiderweb of cracks, reflecting the scene back at us in a hundred broken pieces.
It was a still life of pure, undiluted rage. And it was utterly, terrifyingly silent.
Every head in the room had turned toward us at once. The murmured conversations just stopped.
Scarlett was on her knees by the pool table, sweeping up a pile of glass with a dustpan. Mason and Link were fixing a couch that had been flipped onto its back. Laura and Trina stood near the kitchen doorway with their arms crossed.
The relief on their faces was real, but it was instantly complicated by a dozen other things – lingering anger, worry, pity, judgment.
Then a blur of motion came from my left. Abby launched herself across the room before I could even process it. She slammed into me and wrapped her arms around my waist so tight it knocked the air out of my lungs.
“You dumb bitch,” she hissed in my ear. “You absolute, stupid, fucking dumbass.” She squeezed me tighter, her fingers digging into my back like she wanted to both hug me and shake me to death at the same time. “Don’t you ever do that again. I swear to God, Hailey.”
I hugged her back, but my own arms felt like lead. Over her shoulder, I saw the rest of them.
Monty gave me a slow, grim nod from where he was stacking pieces of a broken table against the wall. His expression said *glad you’re back* and *you really fucked up* at the same time.
Ruby just shook her head, taking a long drag off her cigarette with her eyes narrowed at Talon and River.
But the anger in the room had a specific target, and it wasn’t really us.
It was Jake.
He was standing near Trina and Laura. He was holding a glass of whiskey, but he wasn’t drinking it. He was just staring into it.
11:45 Fri, Jan 23
Chapter 110
He’d given the order. He’d sanctioned the lic. He’d made them complicit in keeping a secret from his own nephew, their brother. The president’s call had fractured the very unity he was supposed to protect.
And Logan… Logan was the epicenter of all this. His absence was a louder presence than anyone else in the
room.
I knew he was upstairs waiting for me. I could feel him up there, a storm contained behind a closed door, crackling with energy.
This mess was a monument to his pain. A pain I’d caused.
“Is she okay?” Trina asked, breaking the silence. She was looking at Stella, who stood slightly behind me, looking lost and wildly confused in the middle of the carnage.
“She’s fine,” Talon answered. His voice seemed to kickstart the room back into motion. “Shaken up. But she’s fine.”
Scarlett dropped her dustpan with a clatter and stood up. “Well, thank Christ for that,” she said, brushing plaster dust from her knees.
The club members went back to their clean–up, but the energy was different now. The quiet murmurs started again, and I caught snippets.
“…lucky they came back alive…”
“…Talon’s got a death wish…”
“…Jake never should’ve…”
The guilt I’d felt when Stella went missing was nothing compared to this new guilt from driving a wedge into the club.
Even though I had no choice.
Talon’s voice cut through the hum of tension again. “Scarlett,” he said, without taking his eyes off the wreckage of the bar. “Take her into the kitchen. Get her some coffee. Tea. Food. Whatever she wants.”
Scarlett nodded, all business, and gently took Stella’s elbow. “C’mon, sweetheart,” she said. Her voice was softer than I’d ever heard it. “Let’s get you away from all this… testosterone.”
She guided a shell–shocked Stella toward the kitchen, and the door swung shut behind them.
Then the eyes in the room swung back to me, and I almost flinched.
I cleared my throat and summoned whatever courage I could find.
“I’m sorry,” I said. It felt inadequate. I didn’t look at Jake. I looked at the club… at the faces of the men and women picking up the pieces. “For the mess. For the worry. For… all of it. I had no choice”
I wasn’t apologizing for going. I was apologizing for the fallout. For forcing the lie. They seemed to understand the difference. A few nodded grimly. Others just looked away.
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Chapter 110
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Then I asked the question that was burning a hole in my chest. Though I could have assumed the answer.
“Where is he?”
Monty was the one who spoke up, leaning on the broom he’d been using to sweep glass. He jerked his head toward the ceiling. “Upstairs.” His voice was heavy with a sympathy. “He’s… not good, Hailey.”
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I knew that. The evidence was all around me. I nodded once. My feet felt rooted to the spot, but I made them move. Not toward the stairs. Not yet. I turned and walked toward the bar.
What was left of it.
My boots crunched on glass. I ignored the sticky patches on the floor. A few bottles had miraculously survived the purge on the lower shelves. I found a bottle of bourbon, half–full.
Or half–empty.
I didn’t bother searching for a glass, I just took a long swig. Liquid courage. Or maybe just a liquid goodbye.
I was raising it to my lips for a second dose when a hand landed on my arm. Not hard, but firm. Talon.
“Let me talk to him first,” he murmured. His green eyes – Logan’s eyes, only wiser – searched my face. “Let me… try to smooth this over.”
I looked down at his hand on my arm, then back up at him. I shook my head slowly. “Thank you. But it’s my mess, Talon.” My voice was quiet. “I’ll clean it up.”
I saw the conflict in his eyes – the vice president who’d sanctioned the op, and the father who knew his son. I hoped he saw the resolve in mine. His hand loosened, then dropped away.
“Alright,” he murmured. The word was heavy with resignation. “Good luck.”
I knocked back the bourbon again. It burned a path of fire down my throat, warming the knot in my stomach.
It didn’t make me brave. It just made the path ahead seem a little less impossible to walk. I set the bottle down on the bar and looked out at the room again, at the weary faces of the Warriors.
“Maybe have the fire department on standby,” I muttered. “Just in case.”
