Savage
Kitty’s letter was bugging the shit out of me. I couldn’t get what she wrote out of my head. What the hell did she mean not to trust Reaper? He was the club president. I’d die for that man, my brother. Hell, I’d die for any of my brothers.
“What’s wrong?” Jess whispered, leaning closer to me.
“Nothing,” I muttered, pushing my food across the plate. Dinners were a lively affair at the compound. Brothers sat together, ate, laughed and generally chewed the shit but lately the club dinners had become more sedate. Almost as if we were all waiting for the next shoe to drop.
When I returned from the bank, I gave Reaper the messages from Jason and Patty. When he asked about the safe deposit box, I lied to him for the first time in my life and only said it was documents concerning Hailey, leaving out the letter.
That was for me and my eyes only.
I wasn’t about to open another can of worms if I could help it.
However, on the flip side my sister never steered me wrong. She wouldn’t just say something to say it. If she said not to trust Reaper, she had her reasons. Which was causing me to take a really good look at the men I called my brothers.
Like Kitty, I grew up around the club. Most of these men had known me from when I was little. We all played together, went to school together, got into trouble together. We were a family.
Or at least I thought we were.
I knew that as people got older, they changed. That was a given. But this brotherhood, the oath we took before putting on our cuts meant something. At least it did to me. Each one of us had our own reasons for joining the Golden Skulls. No one ever asked. Yet what was supposed to bring us all together was slowly tearing us apart. This brotherhood we all pledged ourselves to wasn’t the same.
Deceit, revenge and treachery ran deep in this club. This club was not our fathers club. Far from it. When Reaper took over, he made changes that still affected us but we were all trying to do the right thing. To fix what our former brothers had broken.
Maybe that was what Kitty was trying to say. That the damage to the club was too severe. That the Golden Skulls would never be what it was intended to be. So many brothers have died over the years, fighting for something they knew nothing about.
In a way she was right. Over the last two years, this club had lost so many brothers. Some died because they turned their back on the code, while others flat out let greed overtake them. Then there were the brothers like Judge, Maverick and my dad, who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
How many more of us were going to die because of the sins of a few? I knew I wasn’t. I refused to. I couldn’t. Not with Hailey and now Jessica.
Watching Reaper with Remi, I could clearly see that he loved her and their son. It was written all over his face when he looked at them. Then there was Ghost and Ari. That man went through hell for his woman. Chaos and his sisters were still so young and had their whole lives ahead of them. Brothers all around me had someone they cared about and I knew they would kill to protect them. But was their devotion enough?
I didn’t know if I was willing to stick around and find out. I had to much at stake right now. My sister entrusted me with her kid, my niece. My woman was pregnant and had voiced her concerns about the club on several occasions. I knew that Jess would never fully trust the club. She had ample reason not to. Bullseyes message was crystal clear. He wanted me to take care of his daughter. My sister said as much in her letter. Then there was Player. A brother so devoted to the club, was willing to hand over his cut and severe ties with the Golden Skulls to protect his family.
My own mother, the woman who raised me, stayed away from the club, having hardly any interaction and still she was killed.
For what?
Some persons sick twist at vengeance.
“Come with me,” Jess whispered, getting up from the table. Following her, no one said a word to us as we left the club dinner and headed upstairs. We stopped to check on Hailey and after making sure she was sleeping, we headed to my room.
Jess closed the door behind us and locked it.
Sitting on the bed, I rubbed my hands through my hair, not knowing what to say. For the first time in my life, I had no silly comeback, smart remark, sexually suggestive comment. I was good at bullshitting myself through any situation, but this one I couldn’t.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?” she asked, as I looked up to her. I opened my mouth to reply as she held up her hand and said, “If you even think of saying club business, I will walk out of this room.”
Instead of saying anything, I reached into my cut and pulled out the letter Kitty wrote me and gave it to Jess. Watching her as she read it, I waited for anything, some inkling of what to do.
“What does she mean, trust no one, especially Reaper?” Jess asked, looking at me.
“Caught that did you?” I sighed. “That one line has been bugging the crap out of me since I read it at the bank.”
“Did you show Reaper this letter?”
“Hell no,” I said standing. “He’d catch it too and I didn’t want to create anymore shit. Why couldn’t Kitty just tell me what the hell is going on? You know like, hey stupid the sky is falling, take cover?”
“Maybe she is protecting you. Like the more you know about the club the more you could get hurt?”