Bear: Chapter 10:
I practically tore the door off its hinges going back into the clubhouse. I’d left Ilara at the house hurting and wanting to be alone in her misery, all because some dumb fucking prospect had mouthed off about something he and his buddy, Eddy, knew nothing about. There was still shouting going on. Bull was there now and the other guys had come home from work. It was a madhouse. None of the women or babies were here, thank God. They had Tate sitting at a table in the back. I went straight for him. Payne saw me coming. He didn’t exactly get between us, but he did ease forward.
“You motherfucker! How dare you say that to her. You fucking devastated her. She’s at the house in a ball on the bed. She won’t even let me comfort her. You have no fucking clue what you were talking about and neither did your buddy, Eddy!” I shouted. I had my fists clenched at my sides, so I wouldn’t strangle him. I was shaking, I was so damn angry. He looked pale and worried. Good.
“B-bear, I’m sorry. Okay, I didn’t know. Eddy said he knew this guy really well. Said he was a great guy who wouldn’t do something like that.”
“How the hell did she even come up in conversation?” I yelled back at him. Was he telling people about us? What else had he blabbed about the club and its members? We might be legit in business, but we still did things that could land us in prison if we were caught.
“I heard Ilara tell one of the women she was from Philly. Eddy lives there. I told him about her and how I was worried she might be using you. He asked her name. I told him. I didn’t think anything of it. A couple of days later, he called and told me the story. I guess he thought he recognized her name and went back to the guy to ask him about her.”
“Todd knows she’s here in Hunters Creek? Are you fucking kidding me? She’s been afraid he’d find her,” I hollered as I went for him. I grabbed him by the neck and squeezed. It took Payne, Tank, and Demon to get me off him.
Tate was gasping for breath as he rubbed his neck. “I didn’t know,” he croaked.
“We need to have her locked down. If he comes looking for her and finds out about Hope, it’ll kill Ilara,” I told the guys. Tate’s eyes got wide as he realized why I said something about Hope. I leaned over the table toward him. He leaned away from me. “That’s right, he left her with something to remember him by. And she’s so fucking strong, she kept her. Because in the end, she’s more a part of Ilara than she is that monster. With Ilara as her mother, nothing of that fucker will ever show. You just exposed my woman and daughter to be attacked and taken. You’re done,” I hissed at him.
I wanted to kill him. I wasn’t sure what the club would say. It would have to be voted on, but no way was he ever getting his patch. It had to be a unanimous vote. I’d never say yes. He was shaking and sweating as he looked at me then the others.
“I didn’t know! I know that’s not good enough, but I didn’t. I would never intentionally put anyone at risk. I admit, I was an ass when she first came because I knew someone else who’d been suckered by a woman supposedly down on her luck, who claimed to have been raped. She took him for everything he had then he found out she’d lied about the rape.”
Bull yelled to be heard over the angry clambering. “Alex, Jake, and Mitch. You’ll all stay in here with Tate. You make sure he doesn’t go anywhere. The rest of you, we’re having church right now. Let’s go.” The other prospects stood around Tate, looking pissed. I wasn’t sure it was safe to leave him alone with them. Not that I gave a damn, they could kill him if they wanted.
After we got into our seats, Bull called the meeting to order. He looked over at me. “Jesus Christ, Bear. They told me what happened and how Ilara reacted. Shit, do you think I should have one of the women see if she’ll let them sit with her?”
“Thanks, Bull. I’m not sure if she will, but I’d appreciate it if they tried.” He took out his phone and sent a quick text. When he was done, he sighed.
“What a shitshow. I never thought Tate would do something like this. God, this makes me feel old. We need to talk about what to do with him.”
“He’s not going to get my vote to patch in. I won’t have someone like him in this club!” I told Bull. I saw him grimace.
“Yeah, I figured you’d say that. I’ll be honest, I hate that we have to do that. Until this, he’s been a model prospect. However, could we really ever trust him again? If he talked to someone about one of us, what’s to say he wouldn’t talk about other shit? Things that could land us in prison,” Bull added.
“Exactly. Was he stupid or was he negligent? Either way, we now have a rapist who knows where his victim is. If he’s been trying to find her, he knows exactly where to find her now,” Tank said with a growl in his voice.
“I spoke to Bear right before this all went to hell. I did some digging into Todd Hamilton and a background check on Ilara. He knew that we’d do it on Ilara anyway.” Outlaw looked at me. I nodded. “Ilara came back clean. She did work where she said and left without notice when she told Bear she did. I can track where she was a lot of the time, at least when she was making money over the table. Todd Hamilton is a whole other kettle of fish. This guy is majorly fucked up.
“After Ilara left Philly, this guy appears to have gone off the deep end. He stopped going into work. He hasn’t shown his face for the last year in the office. He still owns a share and gets his payout, but he doesn’t do any of the work. He was accused of rape by another woman after he’d raped Ilara. The same deal happened. A prominent friend was his alibi. It wasn’t the same guy either. After that, he’s been moving around the country. Here’s the scary part. He’s been to every state I can trace Ilara has been to in the last two and a half years. Most of the time in the same city.”
That’s what I wanted to talk to her about alone. When Outlaw had told me that, I got pissed and scared. The fucker was looking for her. Someone was telling him enough that he was finding her, only it was after she’d already moved on. If they knew what they were doing, Outlaw said it wouldn’t be hard to do. Now, to hear that Tate had outed her, it made me even more determined. I was killing Todd Hamilton. The question was, did I include Tate on the kill list?
Swearing erupted all over the room. Bull let them vent for a couple of seconds then called us to order again. He sighed. “She has to be on lockdown, you know that, brother. At least until we find Hamilton and he becomes fertilizer. You decide how much you tell her about him and what he’s doing. We’ll follow your lead. As for Tate, do you think what he did deserves him being kicked out or do we kill him? I know we won’t get a unanimous vote, so it’s majority wins. Can we all agree to that?” He went around the table. All of us agreed.
“Fine, does anyone want to say anything before we vote?”
Ace held up his hand. Bull gave him a nod to proceed. Ace stood up. “I know what he did was wrong. I understand the desire to even kill him. However, I know Tate the best out of anyone here, I think. I do believe he didn’t do it intentionally, though talking about any of us to anyone is a no-no, even innocently. It needs to be stressed to all our new prospects. I hate to see him flush his whole year over this. We were going to patch him in any day now. However, I’ll go with the option to ban him versus killing him.” Ace took his seat. A couple more made their reasons for voting to banish him not kill him. When it was over, the majority thought he’d fucked up royally, but not intentionally. He would be thrown out and not patched in as a Warrior.
“Let’s go tell him and get this over with. Bear, you need to go check on Ilara. I think Devyn still has Hope,” Bull told me.
“We’ll bring her over when you’re ready. Just text me,” Ace offered.
“Thanks, I’ll do that. I want a chance to talk to her first, before we bring Sugarplum home.”
Demon laughed. “God, I love that name. She’s got you wrapped around her little finger, just like her momma does.”
“You’ve got that right. I’m ready to do this.” We all stood up and went out to the common room. The prospects were still all gathered at a table. Tate was looking even more miserable than before we went into the meeting. We went over to them.
“Tate, for betraying details about an old lady, even though you didn’t realize the danger behind it, and we now have her rapist knowing where she is, we can’t let you slide. He’s been tracking her for over a year. You led him right to her,” Bull told him. Tate went pale.