I took two steps forward and looked down at the prick that had been the cause of so much fucking shit for my club. I had to fight my hand from forming into a fist. I had to resist the urge to plow it right into his face.
“Do this. Let me help you do this . . . then . . . then just do whatever the fuck you want to me. I won’t resist. I . . . know I deserve it.” He swallowed, then schooled his features. “There are innocent women and children in that commune, and some innocent men too. They need help. They don’t want to fight, they’re shit-scared, but have no way out.” His gaze got more intense. He looked at every brother in the room. “I know I fucked you all over.” He looked at Ky. “I know I allowed shit to happen to the women that I should have stopped. But the only way to stop Judah is to get him first . . . and for that you’re gonna need me.”
“Why, when we can just go in and blow everyone apart?” AK asked, his eyes narrowed.
“I have people on the inside that have Judah for you. Then I—as Prophet Cain—can get the innocent people out safely. And I can gather the guards and elders for you to take out. Then there’ll be no one left to continue the faith.”
“I get your brother,” Ky snarled, never moving his blue eyes from Rider’s. I read the pain on Rider’s face over signing his brother’s death warrant, but he would agree.
We all knew that cunt had to be stopped.
Rider nodded his head once, unable to fucking speak those words.
Tanner burst through the door. He gave me a single nod of confirmation. Rider slumped back down to the ground.
Turning to my men, I signed, “Church. Now.”
“What are we doin’ with the proph’?” Viking asked, pointing at Rider.
I stared down at him on the floor, broken and shackled in heavy chains. “Leave the fucker here. He ain’t goin’ nowhere . . . not until we decide if he gets to help us end this cult shit once and for all. Or if we decide to sink a machete through his heart. Whatever the fuck comes first.”
I led the way out of the barn and across the yard to the clubhouse. The brothers filed in behind me and we took our usual seats in church.
Ky leaned forward on the table and put his head in his hands. “Can you believe this fuckin’ shit?”
I tapped the gavel on the wooden table; all the brothers looked my way. “So,” I signed, “How the fuck do we play this?”
Ky translated, then a silence fell on the brothers. It was AK who spoke first. The brother always took the lead in these kinda things. “We go in. For once—and I can’t believe I’m gonna fuckin’ say this—I think Rider is tellin’ the truth. I say we go with what he said. There’s people in there I ain’t down with killin’—kids, women . . . ” He cleared his throat. “The people who brought Bella back need to be got the fuck out—especially the dad. Then we’ll take the rest of the fuckers down. Anyone that gets in our way dies. Man, woman or child. We go in thinkin’ anyone Rider hasn’t got out is an enemy, and we fuckin’ stick to that shit.”
“The ammo they have is serious. If they’ve been gearin’ up to attack like that asswipe said, we gotta go in when they don’t expect us,” Tanner said.
“Offense is the best defense,” Cowboy drawled in his thick Cajun twang, sitting back in his chair like he had no fucking care in the world.
I roved my eyes around the table. All of the brothers nodded their heads in agreement.
“And afterwards?” Ky asked. I knew what he was asking. So I responded with my own fucking plan for when we returned to the compound. All the brothers were in agreement with that too.
“Shit,” Bull said and poured himself a shot of tequila. “Can’t believe we’re goin’ in to that fucked-up hell again.” He knocked back the shot and slammed the glass onto the table.
Viking took the tequila and knocked back a shot directly from the bottle. “Well, I for one have a huge fuckin’ boner right now. Things have been too fuckin’ quiet ‘round here lately. Ain’t the same if we don’t got some delusional fucker to take down. It’s just the fuckin’ cherry on the fuckin’ sundae that it gets to be the cult pricks. I love watchin’ those cunts run from us in their long white dresses. Most of ‘em die ‘cause they can’t move their legs fast enough under all that long fabric. Fuckin’. Hilarious.”
“They’re tunics, not dresses,” Hush informed Viking dryly.
“Yeah?” Viking turned on his seat toward Hush. “Tunics, eh? Well we don’t see your tight pretty-boy ass struttin’ about in a dress, do we, blue eyes?” Viking smiled and winked suggestively. “Then again, you and Cowboy are fuckin’ each other, aren’t ya? Boyfriends, bumfuckers and all that shit? If you’re the designated cumbucket outta the two of y’all, the tunic might make things easier. Quicker access for the pink cue to sink the black hole, so to speak.”
“For fuck’s sakes, we ain’t fuckin’ each other! I’ve ‘bout had enough of your fuckin’ loud mouth!” Hush roared back.
“I wanna kill,” Flame growled, his outburst just about stopping Hush from launching off his chair to kick Viking’s stupid pale ass. Flame was running his knife along his arms. But the blade never drew blood. He just made the action, in fuckin’ sets of eleven. He looked up at me, and his eyes seemed even darker than usual. “I wanna kill ‘em, Prez, for what they did to my Maddie. I wanna feel their hearts stop in my hands.”
“You will,” I signed. “We all will.” Flame smiled. A fuckin’ psychopathic grin.
“Then we’re goin’?” Ky asked.
“Aye,” said each brother in turn.
“Then we’re fuckin’ goin’.”
“Tomorrow,” AK announced. “I’ll get a better plan together tonight. But we go tomorrow. I ain’t takin’ no chances. If we wanna take the fight to the cult, we gotta go tomorrow before someone finds his brother in those cells and changes the whole fuckin’ game.”