“He needs to pay, not his daughter,” I muttered like a broken record, still hoping against reason that my club brothers would listen.
“It’s Earl’s decision, boy,” Gunnar said diplomatically.
“Has her pussy clouded your judgment?” Cody asked. I gave him the finger. Then I went in search of Earl. I wasn’t even sure why I was still bothering, maybe to convince myself that he hadn’t lost his conscience completely.
I found him at our meeting table, lost in his thoughts, which was never a good thing. The last time he’d made that face had been when we’d found out about a mole in our rows. Only this time I was the fucking mole. “Is it true what Cody says that you want to tattoo Marcella?”
Earl snapped out of his thoughts and narrowed his eyes at me. “She gets what she deserves. I thought we agreed on that last night.”
I shook my head. “This is taking things too far. Let’s grab Vitiello and make him pay.”
Earl shot to his feet and got in my face, and I could tell that I was losing him, his trust and what little affection he was capable of. I wanted to save him, save us, whatever bond we had, but I wasn’t sure how to do it without sacrificing Marcella, and whatever conscience I still had. “I’m not sure you’re still on the right side, son.” For a while I’d loved hearing him call me by that name, but recently it hadn’t sounded like a nice term. I doubted Earl had ever really seen me as his son. He’d appreciated my desire for revenge and that my sad story had created a stronger bond among our men. “Are you going to be a problem?” he snarled.
Cody stormed into the clubhouse. “Gray’s out in the woods. Someone knocked him out.”
Earl followed Cody at once but I turned on my heel and rushed toward my leather jacket thrown over one of the barstools to grab my motorcycle keys then I hurried into the armory. Before I could grab a machine gun, something was smashed against my back and I dropped to my knees with a grunt of pain. My forehead collided with the wall, making stars dance in my vision. I blinked to catch myself. Blood dripped from a cut in my forehead and ran into my left eye as I looked up. Cody stood beside me with a baseball bat in his hand. “Your uncle was right to be suspicious of you. Told me to keep an eye on you while he had a chat with Gray. If the boy tells his Pa that you knocked him out for the whore, you’re dead.”
I lunged at Cody, trying to rip the baseball bat out of his hand, but Earl appeared in the doorway and pointed his gun at me. “Down or I’ll put a bullet in your skull, Mad.”
I sank back down to my knees, my vision dancing before my eyes.
Earl towered over me with a hard smile. “Gray told me you called Vitiello so he could save his little whore.”
Fuck, Gray. I’d hoped the kid would listen to reason and not blindly follow his old man’s judgment, especially when Earl had lost his fucking mind.
“You went too far, Earl. I warned you.”
Earl leaned down, spit flying as he snarled, “This was our revenge.”
“We should leave the premises,” Cody suggested, looking around nervously as if he expected Vitiello to jump out from behind a curtain any moment. It was ironic that Vitiello’s appearance was my only hope right now. Who’d ever thought that day would come?
“We won’t run. We have his daughter. He can’t risk too much. Make sure the perimeter is safe and get Gray inside.”
With a nasty smile in my direction, Cody sauntered away.
Earl’s eyes settled on me. For a long time, he’d taken the spot as my father, and he was still the only family I had next to Gray and Mom. I might have lost them with my actions. Maybe I could win their trust back by helping them in their fight against Vitiello. I still wanted the man dead but not at the cost of risking Marcella’s life. No matter how much I hated her father, my feelings for her were even stronger. I was a doomed fucker.
Earl shook his head with a harsh laugh. “Stupid boy.” He aimed the barrel of his shotgun at my head and everything turned black.
I peered out of the window, the heavy feeling deep in the pit of my stomach increasing with every passing moment. Maddox hadn’t come to bed last night, for the first time since he’d taken me into his room. I’d tried to listen at the door for snippets of conversation that might give me a hint why, but no one had come close to the room.