Page 8

There was a time when it would have been Birdie calling me on my shit.

I’ll get her back there, though. Even if I have to make her hate me more to do it.

After we have Birdie, Valkyrie, and the twins secured in my room, I head into the chapel with the rest of the council members.

We gather around the table, varying degrees of anger filling the room around us.

Every person in this room loves Birdie and Valkyrie.

They’re family to these men, and the thought of someone hurting either of them after the damage we had already caused doesn’t sit well with any of us.

Joker opens his mouth, but I shoot him a sharp look and shake my head as I pull the club burner phone out of the drawer and place it in the middle of the table.

I work my way through the contacts until I reach Cypher’s number and hit the call icon.

A few years ago, I talked to him and Bugsy about returning to Coral Cay permanently.

I never wanted to force my brothers into a place they didn’t want to be, so when they told me they were happy on the road, I left them alone.

They show up when they’re called upon, and that’s all that matters to me.

Two years ago, Cypher asked Scorch, Munch’s ol’ lady, if she’d make him two property kuttes, shocking nearly everyone in the club.

He’d always been vehemently opposed to having his dick tied to one person, and there he was locking himself to two of them.

We’re all captive to love in some form.

“Yo, Prez,” he answers breathlessly.

“Catch you at a bad time, brother?”

There are masculine and feminine grumbles in the background even as Cypher says, “No.”

“Need you on something.”

“One sec. Let me get set up.” It only takes him a few minutes before he’s back on the line with me. “All right, we’re secure. What do you need?”

“I need everything you can find on a Frankie Sullivan. He’s married to Birdie. When I say everything, Cypher, I mean down to the fucking time he takes a goddamn shit. Am I clear?”

“You told me five years ago to leave it be, Prez,” he cautions.

“Circumstances have changed. She showed up on our doorstep today with my children in tow. He put his hands on her. No one touches what’s mine. Do I need to be any more clear than that?”

“Understood. When do you need it by?”

“As fast as you’re able to dig it up.”

“I’ll work around the clock, Prez. I’ll get what you need.”

“Appreciate it, brother.”

“Anything else you need me for?” he asks.

“No. How quickly can you and Bugsy be here?”

“Couple hours at most.”

“Be on standby. We’ll reassess once we know what we’re looking at.”

I end the call and turn back to the council.

They wait for the meeting to start with grim faces, nobody enjoying why we had to call church today.

Violence simmers throughout the room, all of us on edge without an outlet.

The unattached brothers will leave here and find a club whore to work it out while the rest will find another channel.

“Until we hear back from Cypher, we need to get protection in place for my family. I don’t believe Birdie will feel safe here right now, so I’d like to set them up in my house here at the compound.”

“What about Valkyrie?” Cyanide asks.

I grimace. “They won’t like it, but she’ll stay with Manic.”

Manic’s face doesn’t show his thoughts one way or the other, but I can tell from the tight way he holds his body what he thinks about it.

Wonder if he’ll finally claim her ass this go-around, or if he’s still going to pretend she doesn’t mean what she does to him.

As much as he cared for Emma, and how much it fucked him up when he lost her as she was giving birth to their son, his feelings for Valkyrie went deeper.

No matter what the hell Manic says, they were on the verge of building something before I fucked up and caused her and Birdie to leave.

“Neither of them will like that,” he says emotionlessly.

I shrug. “Not my problem. My only concern is keeping Birdie and my kids safe. The other shit, they can figure out. They’ve been gone a long time, but that doesn’t mean this club still doesn’t run the same way. They came to us, they’ll follow our rules.”

“You really believe they’ll listen to you?” Cyanide asks.

“Does she look like the same woman to you? That one out there is scared of her own goddamn shadow right now. If she wants to leave here because she doesn’t like what I have to say, then they can go, but my kids stay.”

The words are sour on my tongue, but I’m still fucking pissed that she kept my kids from me. I know I did her wrong, but I deserved to know they were mine.

“You’re an asshole.”

I gasp, clutching my chest as if his words wounded me. “Say it isn’t so. Whatever shall I do?” I shake my hair out of my eyes and laugh. “You act as if that’s news to anyone, brother. I don’t give a fuck how pissed at me she gets, as long as they’re breathing, then I’ll deal.”

Cyanide smirks and folds his arms over his chest. “It’s your funeral, Prez. She may not be the same woman right now, but my sister is still in there. When she shows up, she’s going to fist your nuts so hard, they’ll hear your bitch cry states over.”

The smile I aim at him is malicious. “Looks like you get to help watch over Kyrie then.”

He groans because he knows that while Birdie isn’t her old self, her twin sister sure as hell is. If the deathly looks she was aiming at us were to go by, she’s gunning for us all. Her brother will be her first target.

“We’ll only do shifts at night for now. Birdie and the twins are safe with me at the house during the day.

If I’m needed elsewhere, we’ll put someone else on them.

The prospects will be on guard duty at the gatehouse.

Blackjack will work the security room with Ducky tonight.

They’ll switch off with Basilisk and Screw tomorrow.

Each of us will take our turns in the security room, watching our compound and our businesses.

I don’t know what we’re dealing with, and until we do, we need to stay vigilant.

Something about her husband didn’t sit right with me five years ago, but I chalked it up to me being a jealous fucker.

I should’ve listened to my head and gutted him when I had the chance. ”

“This ain’t only on you, Prez,” Pretty Boy says. “We all played a part in sending them away for their own protection.”

“Didn’t fucking like it then, don’t fucking like it now,” Manic inputs.

“You made your feelings perfectly clear when it happened. You still went along with it.”

“Didn’t have much choice unless I wanted to walk away from my brothers.”

I sigh, scrubbing my fingers through my hair and leaning back in my seat.

We worked this shit out years ago, but the women being back, especially in the shape Birdie is in, has it all coming back.

Resentment obviously still lingers inside Manic, and I didn’t know it.

Just more shit I’m going to have to deal with so we don’t have contention in the club.

We need to trust the men at our backs when shit gets dicey.

“We’ll get in the ring later. Right now, there’s more pressing matters.”

He nods sharply, his lips pressed together. “Valkyrie will stay with me even if I have to drag her there kicking and screaming.”

Shaking my head, I lift a brow. “You have issues with how I handle my woman, but you have no qualms getting yours there however needed, huh?”

Manic laughs wickedly. “Never said I wasn’t a fucking hypocrite, Prez.”

“All right. Does anyone else have anything they want to add for tonight? I’d like to get Birdie and my kids situated.”

“Yeah, I got something to add. When the fuck can I meet my grandkids?” Gavel growls.

There’s so much anger in his voice, but I can’t tell if it’s aimed at me or Birdie.

Probably at both of us, to be honest. Gavel fucking hated the way we sent them out of here.

There’s not been a day since that he’s fucking not expressed his disappointment either.

Not enough to disrespect me or my position, but when we’re alone, he always brings her up.

When I asked him what he would have done if Mad Dog was put in that position, he gave me a look that told me I was dumber than he thought I was and put it to me straight.

“I would’ve trusted him. He knew this life.

He lived it right alongside me. He would’ve been angry as fuck at me if I made that choice for him, and no way in fuck would I have taken that from him.

It’s his life. When we love the person we’re in a relationship with, we try to honor them by giving them the respect they deserve.

That means letting them make their choice. ”

“Even when it’s club business?”

“Did club business threaten her life?”

“Yeah.”

“Then it’s club business she should have known.

You let her leave from here without all the facts.

What is she supposed to do if the threat follows her?

You’re not perfect, and you sure in the hell aren’t invisible.

What are you going to do when the devil finds her and you’re not there to banish him back to where he came from, son? ”

“So, you’re saying I made the wrong choice.”

“Yeah, Apollonos, I’m saying you made the wrong choice.

I understand it more than most, wanting to protect the person you love.

Every time some motherfucker spit vile shit at Darragh, every time some homophobic prick called him every slur they could think of, I wanted to call it quits.

Then I’d watch him as he faced every single bastard who tried to tear him down and smiled in their goddamn faces, and my love for him only grew.

I knew there was no way in hell I could break him when the world was already doing their damnedest to do that.

Life comes down to choices, kid. You have to make the ones you can live with.

” He shakes his head, his pepper and gray hair swishing along his shoulders.

“Goddamn gut is telling me you’re going to struggle with this one. ”

His words stuck with me over the years, especially when I struggled with the decision I made seven years ago. But I’m fucking stubborn and refused to believe it was the wrong choice. I told myself repeatedly that she was happy and living a good life.

Now, the vision of her broken and bruised jumps into my mind.

She didn’t live a good life.

Instead, she lived through a hell that I’d sent her straight to.

“I don’t know, Gavel,” I reply with a sigh, rubbing my hands over my face.

When the fuck did I get so damn tired?

“Not good enough.” He stands and places his hands on the table, leaning across it to get closer to me. “Let me make myself more clear. I want to see my grandkids, and I won’t be denied. I missed out on almost seven years of their lives. I won’t miss more.”

I try to control myself, but his words only reignite the anger I have at them being kept from me. So, I also climb to my feet and lean toward him until our noses are nearly touching. Tension flies through the room as our brothers watch us warily.

“I also missed out on almost seven years of my kids’ lives,” I snarl.

Gavel’s chuckle scrapes along my skin because there’s nothing nice about it. He leans away and shakes his head. “Fucking told you this would be a choice you’d struggle with. The thing about choices, Prez, is that sometimes they have consequences.”

I open my mouth to give him my bite, but I don’t even have the goddamn energy anymore because he’s right.

Instead, I fall back in my seat and pick up my gavel.

I stare it, remembering when Birdie gave it to me after I stepped into my position.

Fuck. She was so proud of me, and the happiness on her face is something I used to crave from her.

Then all my fears were realized when she became a target because of who she was to me.

So, instead of trusting her like Gavel said I should have done, I pushed her away then betrayed her, not just losing her but also my kids in the process.

That’s something I need to learn to live with.

My jaw works back and forth before I slam it against the sound block. “You have your orders.”

I don’t say anything else as I slam out of the chapel.

As much as I want to solely blame Birdie for missing so much of my children’s lives, it also lays heavily on me.

Gavel said choices have consequences.

I’m suddenly living mine in full color.