“That's not fair,” Vienna began, but I held my hand up to silence him. It wasn’t often I got the opportunity to put Mama in her place, and no one was going to interrupt me now that I was on a roll.
“Is it not? Did she ever once tell Dante that he was wrong to kidnap me? No, she didn’t. What her son wanted, he got. So is it any surprise that kidnapping is the main tool Macbeth used when he saw how effective andapprovedit was when Dante did it?” I turned back to Mama and directed my next words at her. “Have you ever once put those boys in their place? I saw it with my own eyes, the way you coddled Macbeth whenever he and Dante had been arguing. Did you never once think to tellMacbeth to man up and accept Crash's decision that Dante was the new VP? Or were you too busy trying to be their friend and not their mother? You fed Macbeth's jealousy because it fed your need to be loved! So before you come in here shouting at me, I suggest you take a long, hard look at yourself, because your actions have led to this shit show today.”
Every pair of eyes were looking at me. Shark looked horrified, Crash looked fuming, Vienna was borderline giddy, the sick bastard, and Hacksaw was glancing at all of us and then looking away as though his retinas were burning. But Mama was the most telling look. A horrified expression fell over her face as my words registered with her.
“You’re a vicious cow,” she muttered, her voice low and uneven.
“I’m an honest one. The truth isn’t always easy to hear, but someone needs to be the one to tell it. And I bet your goddamn ass you were willing to spew a bunch of lies about me because it would have made you feel better.”
“Is this a bad time?” Monster asked from the doorway, holding two beautiful Rottweilers.
“Probably best you come back later, brother,” Hacksaw said, throwing me a nasty look.
“You been practicing that in the mirror, Hacksaw?” I sneered at him. “It’s a five out of ten. Do you want to try again, and maybe bare more teeth this time?”
“Damn. She doesn’t like you today, does she?” Vienna laughed. “Do you want me to pretend to hold you back so you can feel better about yourself and fake lunge at her?”
“Fuck off, Ven.” Hacksaw snapped.
“Hey, that was better. That was at least a six.”
Hacksaw opened his mouth to say something, but then just shook his head and laughed at me. “You’re alright you are, Rachel. But fuck me, you’re not half annoying.”
“Thank you. It's my honour,” I grinned back.
“Well. Now that niceties are out of the way, I think it's high time you all told us what the fuck happened here,” Crash said, folding his arms and glaring at the lot of us.
“Fuck,” Crash hissed as Vienna finished telling him all we knew. He went over to Shark and held his hand out to him. Shark accepted, and Crash lowered his head until his forehead was pressed against Shark’s.
“Thank you, brother. The club won't forget what you did here tonight.”
“You'd have done the same for me.”
“Wheels and camaraderie.”
“Bound in brotherhood,” Shark replied with a whisper, closing his eyes as he recited the end of the club motto.
I fought not to roll my eyes.
Bound in brotherhood, I mocked in my head, my tone unattractive and bitter. But I couldn’t help myself.
What exactly was it achieving being a part of this club? Yes, they had “brothers”, but could they not all still refer to themselves as brothers without having a club to maintain? The club and their ridiculous rules brought nothing but trouble, as far as I was concerned.
“It’s a lifestyle,”came the whispered memory of Dante.“You wouldn’t understand unless you had been raised in it, or the life called to you. It’s not something that you can easily shake off. It becomes a part of you. It consumes you.”
It wasstupid.
It was a bunch of men getting themselves in danger, all because of a self-proclaimed love of bikes. How did the two even correlate? Why did it have to be that loving bikes meant fighting with someone who didn’t wear the same patch as you? And couldn’t they just do a down and dirty street fight? I’d pay for tickets to that show.
Crash straightened and rubbed a hand over his face as he processed what he had learned. I was struck with how much he resembled Dante when he was stressed - and Lord knew I had seen enough of Dante being stressed and angry to know what he looked like.
I snuck a glance at Mama, who had yet to say another word, but had grown paler and paler as Vienna spoke.
Good.
I had no sympathy for the bitch. I meant every word I had thrown at her.
This club might be bound by loyalty, but they had a serious issue with standing up to her. It shouldn't have been up to me to tell her that she had pushed Macbeth to this. It should never have got this far in the first place. Someone should have stopped her from coddling Macbeth years ago.
