“A few weeks. Maybe a month. I have more pressing matters to contend with right now.”
Sighing, I closed my eyes. Shit. “Is there anything else I can do?”
“I warned you several times. Just accept defeat and return to the fold.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“Then you better marry that girl of yours fast and enjoy marital bliss while you can.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“You already know, Max. Before the end of the year, the Golden Skulls will be no more. You set the club on this path when you walked away. Your father tried it and it got him killed.”
“I killed Pop’s!” I shouted.
The fucker laughed. “Yes, you did. Too bad you killed the one man who could have helped you.”
Growling, I muttered. “I won’t go down without a fight.”
“I know. I also know that you won’t win. There are too many of us. You marked the whole club when you followed James Doherty’s footsteps and started interfering with our agenda. Men, women and children. Protect who you can Max. In the end, no one affiliated with the Golden Skulls will survive. We are everywhere. There is no place anyone can hide. You were warned.”
“My son is innocent. He’s just a baby!”
“With your blood running in his veins. We can’t take the chance that he will grow up to be like you. Of course, there is a way to save them all, Max. You know what you must do. You are just allowing your stubborn nature to prohibit you. Swallow your pride and accept defeat. If you can do that, I will back away. Continue down this path and everyone dies. The choice is yours.” With that, the line went dead.
Throwing my phone across the room, I watched as it shattered into pieces. Roaring out, I screamed. “FUCK!”
“How long did he give you?”
Drawing my weapon, I turned to find Healer standing near the shed door with a look of pure unadulterated hatred on his face. Healer was the one brother in the club left from my Pop’s old guard. The man was closed off and never got involved with club business. His job was to keep us all alive. He was good at it. He never interfered and stayed mostly to himself. He was also the only member of the club that my father didn’t have a file on. When it came to Healer, I knew absolutely nothing of his past.
“What the fuck are you doing, eavesdropping? I’ve killed brothers for less, asshole.”
Healer grinned, shaking his head as he walked deeper into the shed. My gun pointed at him, I waited for him to respond. He was acting weirder than usual. He was also unreadable. I never could figure out what the man was thinking. Standing in my spot, I said nothing when he took a seat and said, “Kitty was right. You really are stupid, aren’t you?”
“What the fuck did you just say?” I growled, cocking my gun.
“Oh, put the gun away, Max. You are not going to shoot me. Besides, if you do, who are you going to get to stitch up and fix the others? I must say you are doing a bang-up job getting them hurt. Too bad it’s all for nothing.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
When Healer looked at me, a trickle of fear began to spread.
He’d been around the club long before I was born. He rode with my Pop, Hellhound, Shane, Nitro and the others. He was there and survived it all. Everything this club had been through; Healer had a ring side seat. He witnessed it all and lived.
Then it hit me.
He couldn’t be.
It was impossible.
“I told him you weren’t ready to lead. He didn’t want to believe me. Even Hellhound tried to tell him, but James always did what he wanted. He just had to do the right thing and it got him killed. You are a lot like him, even if he isn’t your biological father. You know the best part of it all is that you never suspected. My brothers scattered when you took over and you never asked yourself why. Fuck Max, even Nitro, as drunk as he was, knew when to shit and get. That drunk pussy shocked me, though. I knew he had the club files. He was the only one left, but that fucker refused to give them up. I felt bad for killing him, but he knew too much and had to die. As for poor Shane, he was just trying to find a way out. That’s why he was near Virginia when he died. He knew about Jessica. He was going to tell them in exchange for his life and his kids. It was easy to call the Sons of Hell and give them Shane’s location. Our two clubs were already at war because of what William did. They took care of the rest for me. Then there was poor Kitty. Do you want to know why Toxic never showed up in Louisiana? It was because I called him. I told him to stay away. But you sealed your fate when you called my brother and asked him to return. Didn’t think I knew that did you? I knew Judge was returning when the shit went down with Bullseye. He told me it was you that asked him to return. He was safe Max. I ensured it, but you couldn’t leave him alone. When Toxic killed him to prove a point, my allegiance ended. Oh, I know it wasn’t you that pulled the trigger, but Judge believed like you did. He wanted a better life for this club. Dreamers. That’s what he was and you are. Too bad a dream is just that. A dream. His dream got him killed, just like your dream will kill you.”
“You work for them,” I said, my grip firm on the trigger.
“Take the deal, Max and everything will return to normal.”
“Fuck you,” I growled, pulling the trigger as Healer’s head whipped back, his body falling to the floor. Walking over to his lifeless body, I emptied my whole clip into him as a fit of familiar anger rose to the surface. My demon was thirsty for blood and wanted more and I was going to make sure he got it.
I knew what I had to do. It wasn’t going to be easy but fuck it. I’d come this far. If I was going to die, I was going to go out with a bang.
Fuck all of them.