I turn around to face Scar, I must have heard the words coming out of his mouth wrong. There is no way that the vice president just suggested that I'm going to take over one day rather than him. Sure, the guys listen to me today, but they're all scared of what my father would do if they didn't, they don't respect me like they do him, and I'm OK with that. I never expected there to be a permanent spot for me in the club unless it says someone old lady. Mobsters and Gangsters don't let women lead.
“We are not having this conversation.”
With the number of men that are standing around us right now I find it hard to believe that no one heard him, but no one says anything. I notice a few of the brothers even giving me a look of respect.
This is something to tackle on another day. But I am sure that all of these men have lost their damn minds.
The drive back to the apartment is relaxing and I consider asking Scar to drive around the city a little bit more. I'm still in a constant state of anger and I have no idea what's going to happen when the horror of what just happened settles in. I want to scream and cry and curse at the sky. How could the powers that be allow something like this to happen to somebody that had a childhood like Zoe? You would think that she's been through enough in her life it's not fair for her to have to deal with this too.
As I stand in the parking lot of the apartment building smoking a cigarette, I make a vow to myself and to Zoe, these men will see justice.
I agree to let the police do their job, let them find these men arrest them and try to have them brought to justice, but I know how the justice system works around here. If the guys that are doing this have a brother, or a father, or a mother in politics or on the City Council the whole thing will be swept under the rug. If that happens, I'm going to step in.
Either these men spend the rest of their lives in jail, or they get dismembered and dissolved in a barrel of acid. There's no in between, and if by some miracle they go to jail and ended up getting out on parole they're still going to die. I know that this happened to Zoe, but I don't know that I can sleep peacefully knowing that these men are out there and could be doing this to somebody else.
“You can't control everything Fin.” Bell has come outside to check on me a few times. When we first got to the apartment, I had asked them to go inside, I just needed a minute alone.
“I could have stopped this. I put that tracker on her phone.”
“There is no way you could have known that she would be taken while you were in class, and while the tracker is helpful you can't watch it 24 hours a day seven days a week.”
“But I could have checked it, I could have checked it every hour. If I had, if I would have just fucking looked, I would have seen that she wasn't on campus.”
“Would you have known to go after her?”
“Zoe knew that I put the tracker on her phone, she wouldn't have left campus without telling me where she was going. She would have known that I would have freaked out, I would have called her immediately and when she didn't answer I would have called in the calvary. They might have been able to take her, but they wouldn't have succeeded in everything else.”
“Fin, this is not your fault.”
“It sure feels like it's my fault.” I dropped the butt of one cigarette and light another, I could really fucking use a drink. I don't know exactly what's going to happen tomorrow at campus, but I know people are going to be talking about the club. I imagine more than a few are going to have something to say to me too.
God, I wonder how the sisters in the freaking sorority are going to react. I know a few of them as well as I know Zoe and Raven but we're not as close. They won't feel as obligated to forgive me for lying. On the bright side, if they ask me to move out of the house the guys apartment is close enough that I can commute to class.
Bell stands outside with me until my cigarette is gone. For a moment I consider lighting another one, but I take his hand and we go inside instead. The guys must know that I don't feel like talking—I don't feel like doing much of anything—I walk into the bedroom and plop myself down on the bed letting out a heavy sigh. Bell follows me first, laying behind me and pulling me against his chest, sometime later Pyro joins, running his fingers across my cheekbone and into my hair. Right as I'm starting to fall asleep Scar hikes one of my legs up and uses the inside of my thighs a pillow.
They might be in different places, but this is the same type of pile we fell asleep in that first night. It might be just what I needed.
22
Finley
“I heard that she's dating one of them.” This isn't the first time that I've heard somebody whispering about me today but it's the first time that somebody had the audacity to do it while sitting right behind me in class.
“Only one I heard she was dating five of them.” Where in the hell do people hear things like this, I mean sure I am dating three of them but 5? That's a lot, and there is also no way that anyone would know that I am dating any of them. So, someone just thought that it would be funny to say whatever they wanted and see what happens.
“You know Casey from Alpha Delta Pi? She told me that the bikers are the reasons for the rapes.” I don't even know a Casey from ADP.
“I wouldn't be surprised, you know this campus has never had gang activity until now, and isn't she new here?”
They go on like that for most of the class, I wouldn't even be surprised if they didn't hear anything that the professor said. I take notes and try to focus on the words coming out of his mouth but it's hard to, the biker part of me really wants to turn around and slap the shit out of whoever is sitting behind me. Sadly, the dean has already requested my attendance at a meeting in his office at three today and I don't feel like going in after hitting somebody on campus is going to be a great idea. I had a meeting with the dean when I transferred here, he told me that he likes to meet with all of the new transfers and that's proven to be true. He was a nice enough guy, help me work with my schedule and find me an advisor, I really didn't get any malice from him, but I don't imagine that this meeting will go the same way.
“Do you think that she's, you know, killed somebody before?” One of the girls behind me asks near the end of the class, this is the last straw for me. I slap my pencil down on the desk and turn my body around to face them.
“If I had, do you think it's a good idea for you to sit behind me and talk shit? Really?” I don't recognize either of these girls from outside this classroom. I'm sure they've been to a few parties at the house, and I might have even been in a study group or two with them but outside of school I've never talked to them before and yet they seem to talk about me a whole lot.
“I'm… I'm….” The girl on the right stutters, I guess my comment scared them just a little.
“You're just not that smart. Yeah, I already knew that part.” The people around us laugh and somebody calls out burn from the other side of the room, but both of the girls that are sitting behind me look horrified.