“Vienna, you’re not helping!” Crash snapped.
“She stabbed him in the dick?” Ant laughed. “Look, you guys can say what you want. The girl gets my respect. Macbeth was built like a fucking machine, and she’s destroyed him. I’m not about to get on her bad side.”
“Why are you pushing the issue so hard?” I asked, ignoring everyone else's input.
“Because Rachel is very knife happy. She’s stabbed you,” he said, counting on his fingers. “She stabbed her ex, she stabbed Macbeth. What happens when someone else pisses her off?”
“She’ll stab you,” Vienna said with a grin. “Is that not obvious?”
“I’m just saying. It makes me uncomfortable.”
“It makes me fucking uncomfortable that you think you’ll be talking to her long enough to piss her off. She’s my old lady, so how about you just stay the fuck out of her way and don’t give her a reason to annoy you?”
“That’s another issue,” he snapped back. “You already beat the shit out of Noob for Rachel. You don’t see reason when it comes to her.”
“Oh, fuck off,” I nearly laughed. “Are any of you honestly going to sit here and pretend you would accept your old lady being disrespected and not do a thing about it?”
This was pissing me off more than I cared to admit. There had been discussions about Laura in the past – namely, if she had the mental capacity to stay a member of the old ladies' club. That hadn’t bothered me in the slightest. In fact, I used to agree that she wasn’t stable enough for this life, but we had Bee, so there wasn’t much I could do about it. The kid needed her mother, and I wasn’t about to let Laura take my kid out of here.
But now that the discussion was about Rachel, it was sending my blood to boiling point, and I didn’t know how much I had left in me before I exploded completely.
“I can put an easy end to this discussion,” Crash said, finally speaking up. “Rachel fucked up. That much is true. However, Rachel has done a lot of good for the club since she’s been here. The most important one being she was the one to go rushing into the fire and saved my granddaughter. If any of you want her punished for what she did today, speak now.”
The room grew silent as he looked around, waiting for someone to speak up. No one did.
“Don’t go silent. Say what’s on your mind. If Rachel needs to be punished, we’ll vote on what she’s receiving. Just know that I will be taking the punishment for her. If you vote for her to meet Mr Maker, I will happily be gunned down right now and consider it a debt repaid. You can swear Dante in as president before the meeting is over, and the matter will be done with.”
Still, everyone remained silent.
“I’m going to assume by your silence, none of you want to see Rachel punished? You have until I slam this gavel down to speak up, otherwise, the matter will never be brought up again.”
The gavel hovered for a second or two before it slammed down, echoing throughout the room.
“Right, that’s over with. Now, on to the final point. War is coming. I think we all know that. Which means we have an issue, Dante.”
“What issue?” I frowned.
“The only way we can offer Rachel adequate protection is if she's your old lady. Officially. None of this back-and-forth nonsense. You're not Ross and Rachel, so cool it with the ‘will they/won't they’ bullshit. Get her position here secured, and we can keep her safe. The Riders won't touch your old lady. But we can guarantee Macbeth told them she's here against her will. Find out where she stands, Dante. But if she rejects you, you fucking let her go. If you don't, she will be killed.”
“Fine. We’ll let her sleep off the effects of the sedation, and then we’ll get it done. Shark, ask Jenna to go collect her from her room in around two hours. The rest of you get your old ladies and gather on the lawn outside the main house. May as well get this shit over and done with.”
“In front of us all?” Crash said with a frown.
“Why the fuck not? You may as well all hear it. But if she says yes, she gets the same treatment as every old lady here. She gets her helmet, her jacket, and her acceptance ride.”
“What do we do with the body?” Shawn asked, his eyes growing wide when we all turned to look at him.
“Clean-up is definitely a job for the prospects,” I grinned at him.
“Good fucking luck,” Vienna laughed. “And take some buckets with you. He’s not in one piece.”
Chapter 32
Rachel
I woke up a few hours later, my head feeling like someone had punched me in it repeatedly. I saw a note on the bedside table from Dante telling me that we would talk soon. I rolled my eyes, unable to summon up the energy to care about what he had to say.
I looked down at my body, grimacing at the state of me. I was covered in dry blood, and my arm was stinging from the stupid fucking needle Doc had shoved in me.
