It was my leather cut.
Fuck, right before everything went to hell and back, the MC had been falling apart. There were outside wars, wars inside, and the authorities were taking us all down one by one for dumb shit. By the time I stripped myself of the leather cut there wasn’t much left of the Reap. That sort of made the death row stuff a little easier to digest.
But not anymore.
The Reap was back and in full swing.
“This is yours,” Knox said. “From the second I put my cut back on, I put yours on this chair.”
“Hell yeah,” Slam said. “Lost brother… not fallen.”
I nodded to Slam. “Thank you.”
“So now we make our final stand,” Knox said. “If you should get the leather cut back or not.”
Or not?
“I say yes,” Knox said.
He walked the cut to Noah. He gripped it tight, nodding. “Of course.”
He passed the cut to Matteo. Then it went to Elijah. Then Ari. Down to Liam. And finally, Slam.
“Fucking hell yes,” Slam said without hesitation.
He took a step forward and the door to the chapel opened.
In came Uncle Jakey.
Old, rough, wearing dirty flannel, his weary eyes looking straight to mine. Without saying a word, he grabbed the leather cut right from Slam’s firm grip and he lowered his hand down. He wobbled toward me, the leather cut almost dragging on the floor.
“Well, well, well,” Uncle Jakey’s beat up voice said. “Look who’s back from the dead.”
“I never died, Uncle Jakey,” I said. “Just put away for a little while.”
“All the outlaw bullshit in the world and we’re haggling over legal bullshit,” he said. “That’s what’s going to end this?”
“The guards were rough,” I said with a grin. “And I’m told that perhaps there’s evidence with the bullets that could prove I didn’t actually commit a murder.”
“You know what you did,” Uncle Jakey said. “A real man would take that to his grave.”
“Which I plan to do,” I said. “I just don’t plan on being sent to my grave in prison.”
Uncle Jakey fell silent. I felt the tension swirling around the room, thickening like smoke. He looked over his shoulder at the rest of the guys.
“We all vote?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Knox said.
“Good,” Uncle Jakey said. “That’s good. A good vote. An honest vote. Ain’t that right, King?”
“Always,” I said. “No matter what happens now, Uncle Jakey, I need to talk to you. The entire club, actually. This isn’t by accident that I’m out.”
Uncle Jakey held the leather cut up and looked at it. “It was never meant to end up like this. So let’s start today. No. Right now. We start right now. We fix it all.” Uncle Jakey pushed the leather cut to my chest. “You are a member until you die or you’re voted out.”
The boys started to go wild, cheering and slapping each other, hitting walls, anything to make noise.
I took the leather cut and put it back on. Throwing my arms through those cut-off sleeves was a fucking great feeling. Better than when I got the cut the first time.
The entire group ran to me and jumped me like they had done before.
Hugs. Punches. Yelling. Screaming.
Just another day with the Reap.
Before I could really hammer my point home, Uncle Jakey slipped out of the room and was gone.
Knox had an arm around me, patting my chest. “Let’s go for a ride, brother. I’m sure you’re dying to take that bitch on the road.”
I gritted my teeth. “I still need to talk to you.”
“Of course. We’ll talk. Anything you want.”
“Bro, what can I get you?” Slam asked. “What can any of us do for you?”
I said the first thing that came to mind.
I wanted trouble.
I wanted to…
“Find Lindsey.”
10
(Lindsey) *NOW*
I HATED the idea of going to a bar to talk to Nelson. Okay, it wasn’t just a bar. There was a restaurant area too. And it didn’t help that Nelson was on his third drink when I showed up.
I sat next to him and ordered a soda.
“Not having a drink?” he asked.
“Not right now, no.”
“So that means it’s going to be rough news.”
“What news though?” I asked. “You want to talk, then we’ll talk. But you can’t act crazy on me. I don’t even want to be here like this right now.”
“I do,” Nelson said. “I can’t stand being alone in my apartment, letting my thoughts go fucking wild.”
“I’m sorry it got this way,” I said. “This is all my fault.”
“But what is it? Tell me. I thought we were happy. We were happy, right? At one point?”
“Sure,” I said. “You could say that, Nelson. You know how I grew up…”
Nelson waved a hand. “That’s bullshit. Complete bullshit. There are lots of people who had rough lives growing up. Whatever you don’t want to tell me, that’s on you. Just know that I cared about you.”