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14

WRAITH

“ W hat do you need?” I ask as I stride through the chaos of the clubhouse bar to Butcher.

There’s a hierarchy when we call a lockdown. Senior patched-in members have their own rooms. Then there are two outbuildings behind the clubhouse, each sleeps eight in bunks. Usually, they are used by other patched-in members and prospects.

So, the bar becomes a campground with sleeping mats and inflatable mattresses for those who don’t have a bed.

“Need you to stop thinking with your dick and focus on locking us down tight. I want rotas for surveillance. And I want each senior member paired up with a prospect so they can learn what we do in this situation.”

“On it. I’ll build a two-hour rotation until it’s dark, then switch it up to four-hour blocks through the night. They’d be fucking stupid to come at us after hitting the grow-op. They have to know we’d be prepared for them.”

Butcher shrugs. “Who the fuck knows? Didn’t think they’d hit the grow-op. They obviously know more about us than we know about them if they knew where to find it.”

“Then we got to assume they’re heading this way and will come straight for us until we decide they aren’t. Let me get to it.”

“Where’s the girl?”

“Raven? My room, with Ember. She’s gonna be safe there, right?”

Butcher shrugs. “We’ll all be too busy to pay her any attention.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Butcher starts to walk away, but I grab his shoulder to stop him. “I’m serious, Butch. What the fuck is that meant to mean?”

“It means we’ll all be too fucking busy to look out for her because a shit ton of armed Bratva could be headed our way. If she wants to be here, she needs to find her own way to exist because I’m not her fucking nanny.”

“Not asking you to nanny her. Just asking for a bit of backup, should I need it, as to why she’s here.”

Butcher rolls his eyes. “Wraith, you can’t even explain it to yourself why she’s here. Hardly grounds for me to stick my neck out for you or her.”

“Fine. But stop treating her like she doesn’t matter. It’s irritating the fuck out of me.”

“Then claim her and show the rest of us that she does.” He stares me down for a second.

“It’s not that easy, Butch. It’s?—”

He doesn’t wait for the rest of the answer before he walks off in the direction of the armory, likely to talk with Atom.

“Fuck,” I mutter.

“That went well,” Smoke says. “Are you sure you want to piss Prez off just before we lock up with him for fuck knows how long?”

For the first time in my life, I realize I don’t even want to be at the clubhouse, followed swiftly by the thought that Raven and I should have holed up in her apartment. Could have barricaded that door and defended from the top of the stairs.

The idea of just the two of us in that shithole of an apartment being better than here with my brothers is wild, and yet…

“Not really, but I couldn’t leave Raven alone. Not after…”

Not after I rode ahead to the club picnic on the Fourth of July because Lottie was fussing that morning, and four members of the Midtown Rebels went into my house looking for me and killed my wife and daughter.

I don’t need to say the rest to Smoke. He knows what happened next. He knows how Tanner, a fucking police officer who hated the fact he was never able to pin me down, was overheard telling the assassins where my home was.

Tanner swore in his testimony they said they were friends, and from their dress and cuts and bikes, had no reason to believe they weren’t. But a cop knows how to read rockers on cuts, so I never bought it. I don’t trust a single fucker in the town now to not point out those who are important to me to people who would hurt them.

While we were all at Lottie and Hallie’s funeral, two men beat the shit out of Tanner. The man was in the hospital for three weeks. Butcher arranged it because he didn’t want me to go to prison for doing it myself. Which is why Butcher’s refusal to accept my confusion about Raven seems so fucking unfair.

“Butcher will come around if you stay focused on the lockdown. It’s gonna be a long night.”

It takes me five minutes to block out time and people. I try to pair us up with prospects who complement us. Smoke has eyes like a hawk, so I partner him with Will, who is a crack shot with a rifle.

I put myself with one of the newer prospects, Josh. Never met a guy capable of being so still in my life. He has the patience to watch while I stalk.

When it’s done, I send it out to everyone on the emergency group chat we have. From there, I head to the armory.

“You brought Raven to lockdown?” Atom asks when the door to the armory closes behind me.

“Don’t know what I was thinking.”

Atom puts down the ammo he was loading. “Yeah, you do. But you don’t need to say the quiet parts out loud to me. People are talking.”

While his words are true, they annoy me. “Let ‘em fucking talk. Even I don’t know what this is, so they sure as fuck don’t know what’s going on between us.”

Atom shoves the crate of ammo at me. “I find fucking them senseless is a good way of coming to your senses. Easy to determine who’s a cum-bucket and who might be more.”

I put the crate back where it belongs on the shelf. “With life lessons like that, I wonder why you’re single.”

“Hey. I’m just panning for gold out here, like everyone else.”

Both our phones vibrate at the same time, and I look at the message.

2 vehicles. 14 men. Parked on the edge of town, stationary.

The positive of living in a small town is there is only one main road in and out. And to get to us, everyone has to ride it. So, we put a camouflaged shelter back off the main road but with a clear line of sight to it.

Whenever we’re expecting trouble, we send a prospect out to man the seat and report in what they see.

“No more than fifteen minutes and they’ll be at our gate, if they come this far,” I say, opening the images the prospect has attached.

“Armored vehicles,” Atom says, staring at his own phone. “That rules out shooting at them from the lookout like Butcher planned.”

“I’ll go talk to him.”

It takes me ten minutes to find him out on the lot, standing by the gate, cigarette in his mouth.

We both watch off over the horizon. One of the benefits of this property is that our backs are to the mountains, and we can see traffic rolling in.

The sun is shining finally, and while it’s not warm, it’s definitely not wet any longer.

“Sorry ‘bout that shit I said earlier,” Butcher says. “Raven is welcome here.”

I want to dismiss it. Say that it’s no problem and we’re cool. “It’s complicated enough.”

Butcher looks up at the sky. “Thought Ember’s mom was different until she left town with that asshole who did our taxes.”

“Pretty sure it was the fact she found you in bed with two club girls that pushed her over the edge.”

Butcher chuckles. “Yeah. Probably that too. Anyway. I get it. Your dick’s saying yes. Your head’s saying maybe. And your heart or some shit is saying not yet. Hallie was a good girl. Club sluts fill a void. But sometimes it’d be nice to know there was someone waiting for you at home.”

I nod. “Yeah. Something like that. Hard to know which it is.”

“Are you asking me for advice?”

“No.”

“Well, I’m gonna give you some, anyway. Fuck her and see if you fall into her. Try her out. It doesn’t work out, then you ask Margie to quietly fire her, and you give her five grand to leave town. Never have to see her again.”

I open my mouth. “What the fuck, Butch? Why would I?—?”

Now, he downright belly laughs. “Should see the look on your face.”

He’s messing with me. “Fuck you.”

“I think you know what’s going on but just aren’t ready to admit it.” Butch looks down at his watch. “Why haven’t we seen them yet?”

“False alarm?”

Butcher nods. “Don’t like that they’re in our town. The less they know about us, the better.”

“We handled this wrong,” I say.

“What do you mean?”

“Two fucking vans? We should have ridden out as a club. Attacked rather than defend. We had time to rally. There were enough bikers here. I’m sorry I’ve been distracted, Butcher.”

Butcher looks at me like he can’t decide what the right thing to say next is. Like I just confused the shit out of him. “What?”

“You heard me. We’ve all gotten distracted.” I suddenly feel like a veil has been lifted and Spark’s words to me have settled within me. “We’re losing our nerve. We’re jaded. We don’t have the cohesion that King’s club does. We still have the fight, but somehow, when it hits the world, it’s diluted.”

Butcher huffs. “Pretty sure the number of guys you disemboweled in the last year would disagree.”

“You get what I’m saying. We’ve become complacent. It’s gonna change, because this is on me as sergeant at arms.” It becomes clear. This is where my attention needs to be: bringing us all back together.

“Are you pushing to replace me, brother?”

I shake my head. “Not at all. But I am challenging you to lead us into something better. I’ll walk every step with you if you do that.”

Butcher looks back into the clubhouse. “We’ll call church, Monday morning. Nine o’clock. You’re right. It’s time.”

“I’m gonna work up a plan and structure for us to consider.”

Butcher slaps my shoulder. “Like this girl even more if she’s bringing you back to us.”

I walk back into the bar and am stopped by Isla. Her fingers slip beneath the edges of my cut. “It’s pretty crowded in here. Got room in your bed for one more tonight?”

I glance over to the bar, where Nola and some of the other club girls stand. They’re all looking at the two of us, then turn away quickly when they see I noticed. Not fucking obvious at all.

They know about Raven.

“Pretty certain you know the answer to that already.”

Isla looks up at me through thick lashes and pouts. “I thought I was your favorite.”

“You were the most convenient,” I say, shrugging out of her hold. “And, as of right now, convenient is something I don’t need.”