Page 38

“Listen,” Vienna said, his voice firm as he took on his role as peacemaker.

“Rachel fucked up. That’s true enough. But we can’t punish her for killing a club member if we’re not willing to give that same member of the club a proper biker funeral.

You’re all mentioning the rule book, whilst cherry picking the rules to suit yourself.

It doesn’t work like that. Macbeth was either a member, or he was not. ”

“If we’re following club protocol, then Macbeth was still a member. His patch had not been removed, and his tattoo had not been blacked out. He wears our mark. He’s still a member. ”

“Well…” Vienna said, his head tilting to the side as he sucked in his breath, his lips downturned.

“What?”

“He wasn’t wearing our mark.”

“Excuse me?” Crash blinked.

“None of you have seen the body yet, right? Yeah, Rachel sliced that tattoo straight off. I saw the skin laying on the dining room carpet.”

“She cut his tattoo off his body?” Ant asked with a laugh.

“Clean off. Pretty deeply too. I could see the muscle in his chest underneath it.”

“Shit,” he grinned even further, nodding his head.

Sick bastard. This was right up his street.

“So, he didn’t die a club member. He was not marked. And he was not wearing his leathers. Rachel stripped him naked and laid his clothes on the sofa. He was in black sweats.”

“Which means not a member, no funeral,” I said, directing my statement at the poultry boys.

“Which also means Rachel didn’t kill a club member.”

“Since when did you become a fucking lawyer playing technicalities?” Rooster scoffed.

“Do you have some sort of problem with Rachel?” I scowled at him.

“I have an issue with a brother being sliced open.”

“He also had his fingers chopped off. And she stabbed him in the dick.”

“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.”