There we were, Crunch and I, back from the dead.
You could have heard a pin drop when we walked through the door. Before voices erupted everywhere.
Blaze stood in the front of the room. "I know - " he said, holding a hand up, waiting for the room to return to silence again. "I know that this is not what you expected, to see Crunch and Axe here today."
"No shit," someone said.
"What the fuck is going on?"
The murmurs rippled through the group again, and Blaze held his hand up, his face weary. "We need to explain some things, and the club needs to make a decision today, about where we go from here, about who we are. What kind of a club we are going to be. The decisions we make today are about loyalty. Brotherhood. Family."
Then he began his explanation, let Crunch present his evidence that Mad Dog was stealing from Benicio, stealing from the club. He got one joking comment almost immediately when he started to talk numbers and the books, and shut it down.
"You think it's no big deal, this shit?" he asked. "That it's a fucking joke or something? My wife died over this shit. Mad Dog had my wife killed over this shit."
After that, no one in the room moved a muscle.
We took the club through everything.
It was the longest club meeting I'd been present at.
And when we were finally finished, and Mad Dog's fate came up for vote, I was filled with this sense of inevitability. Finality.
The vote was unanimous.
Mad Dog would die.
When Benicio's men brought him inside, bound, and stood him before the club, the air seemed charged with electricity. I stood, facing him, ripped off the tape from his mouth. "They all know what you've done. Who you are."
Mad Dog looked at me, then spit on the floor.
I smiled. I would have no remorse when I did what I was going to do.
"Do you have any last words?" I asked.
"See you in hell," he said.
I unsheathed my knife. The blade I'd saved for Mad Dog. Then I stepped in front of him. "I'll see you there," I agreed. "But not today."
I stabbed him, right above the stomach, and pulled out the knife, slick with blood. I handed it to Crunch, like it was a goddamned ceremony.
Passing the torch.
Crunch did the same.
Then Blaze stabbed him.
And then one by one, the brothers followed suit, even after Mad Dog was on the floor, each of them plunging the knife into the man who had betrayed the club, who had betrayed us. It wasn't something I expected or planned, and I just stood there, not even looking at Mad Dog, but watching them, this parade of men willing to be a part of this, not just stand by and watch while we killed him.
And in that moment, I didn't feel blank.
I felt faith.
In the most warped of possible ways, I felt hope.
June
"Are you ready?" I asked, smoothing my skirt. The thought of standing there, at April's grave, made me want to cry.
"Yeah." Cade pulled on his leather cut.
"Poor MacKenzie," I said.
"You can sympathize with her," Cade said.
"Of course," I said. "Losing your parents isn't easy. But at her age? I can't even imagine it. I was older. At least I could understand what was happening, you know? Talk about it. She can't even understand it."
"Do you think she'll end up being okay?" he asked
"Eventually," I said. "It'll be a long road. Do you know what Crunch is going to do?"
"He'll hold up. I think he's going to go back to Puerto Rico with MacKenzie and grandma, at least for a while. Says he needs a break from the club. I don't know if he'll come back."
"MacKenzie will be okay though," I said. "She will." I don't know if I was trying to convince him or myself.
I was amazed by how many people had turned out, regular people and bikers, even from some other clubs who'd heard what had happened. April was a beloved member of the club family.
During the service, I gripped Cade's hand, my fingers digging into his palm to keep composed. Crunch stood still, holding MacKenzie, who buried her face in his neck, overwhelmed by all of the people. It wasn't until Crunch watched MacKenzie toss a rose onto her mother's coffin after it was lowered into the ground that he broke down, sobbing.
At that point, there wasn't a dry eye there, not among all those bikers.
Axe
“You sure you don’t want to stay, man?” Blaze asked. I looked over at June, where she stood talking to Dani after the service. June tucked her hair behind her ear, bit her lip. The circles under her eyes revealed the toll that all of this had taken on her.
Hell, I knew the toll all of this shit had taken on me.
I didn’t want to stay. Yeah, Blaze and I had once been close. Of all the Inferno MC members, I trusted him more than anyone. Crunch and I hadn’t been tight when we fled to Colorado, but now after all this, I considered him a friend.
Our friendship had been forged in blood.
But with all of that, I couldn’t stay.
It would destroy me, and I knew it.