It’s over as fast as it started.
The bikes roar back to life and they disappear down the street.
“Are you okay?” I ask T-Bone as he falls onto his ass.
God, my hands are trembling.
He spits out a wad of blood and nods. “They fucking cracked a tooth. It’s not my first broken one and it won’t be my last.”
I help him to his feet and then rush into the bar. The boys are laid out everywhere. Buzz is out cold on the pool table. Bulldog is on his knees, hacking up blood.
The bar is destroyed. There’s broken glass and smashed wood everywhere.
This is the only home I’ve ever had.
And it’s been attacked.
I rush over to Bulldog and drop to my knees in front of him.
When he sees me, he wraps his arms around me and pulls me in for a fierce hug that almost crushes me.
“It’s okay,” I whisper as I run my hand up and down his back. “It’s over.”
He leans back and I shiver when I see the ferocity in his dark eyes.
“It’s not over,” he hisses through gritted teeth. “This is war.”
Chapter Two
Stella
“Wow!” Roxanne says when she walks into the bar the next morning. “This place is fucked up! What the hell happened?”
I can’t walk anywhere without the crunching of broken glass under my feet. The bar looks even worse in the sunlight. I don’t think there’s one thing they didn’t smash.
The Heartlands’ President Troy is hissing out angry breaths as he looks at the huge sign of The Heartlands’ logo on the wall. The Outlaws is spray-painted over it in red.
“The Outlaws think we’ve gone soft because we’re trying to stay right,” the Vice President Gage tells him.
Troy grits his jaw as he yanks the sign down. “Well, they’re about to find out just how fucking hard we really are.”
“What happened?” Roxy asks as she comes behind the bar. Cat and I are starting to clean up all of the broken glass. Everything is sticky from the alcohol and Cat already cut herself twice.
I tell her what happened and she’s in tears by the end of it. We all love this club. It’s our only family and the men treat us right. This whole thing sucks.
“I heard Bulldog is in the hospital?” Roxy asks. “Is he okay?”
“Yeah,” I tell her. I called Ranger who is the manager of the bar and a Heartlands member to tell him what happened and he came over immediately. He brought Bulldog to the hospital and texted me to let me know that he broke two ribs, but he’ll be all right.
One by one, the guys arrive, each looking shocked and then pissed when they come in and see the damage.
“We can’t let this go,” Killian says with an incensed look on his face.
“We’re not,” Troy hisses back. “Get the boys around the table. Club meeting. Now!”
“We better get some beers ready,” Cat says as Killian gathers the guys.
I open the freezer and start pulling out frosted mugs. Luckily, the assholes missed these and the taps. They still work.
“What’s going to happen?” Cat whispers as I hand her the mugs while she fills them up.
I glance at T-Bone who’s in the kitchen cleaning up. He’s a tough old son of a bitch who never misses work.
“I don’t know,” I whisper back. “Bulldog said we’re going to be at war.”
“I hope not,” she says with a shiver.
I know what she’s thinking. She’s thinking of her man, Saint, getting hurt or worse…
Even at a time like this, my heart twists, wishing I had a man to worry about.
“What is that…” she says, trailing off as she narrows in on my right eye. “Is that make-up? Did you get hit?”
I sigh as I hand her another glass. “Just once. I’m fine.”
She grits her teeth as she yanks down the handle of the tap with more force than necessary. “Those fuckers. Now I really hope we go to war.”
“Really,” I say with a heavy breath. “I’m fine.”
I have a nice little black eye to commemorate the night, but I covered it up pretty nicely with make-up. Thank God for YouTube instructional videos.
The guys start sitting down around the huge table as Troy paces at the head of it. He’s not in his suit today and he’s looking good in jeans and his leather vest with the Heartlands logo on the back. The club has been trying to go clean lately, but something tells me it’s about to get a lot dirtier after this.
Cat and I perk up our ears as we walk over to the table and start handing out the beers.
“Are you okay, Stella?”
The deep voice catches me off-guard and I nearly drop my tray. Troy is looking right at me. So are the other boys. My cheeks start to heat up.
We’re all family, but the boys are a brotherhood. They don’t usually talk to us girls during the club meetings.
“I’m fine, Troy,” I squeak out. “A little shaken up, but okay. Thanks.”
He nods at me as he sighs. “Just know we’re going to get these guys back for this. No one touches my family and gets away with it.”
They start their meeting and we’re not asked to leave, which is new. I guess I stepped up a spot in their eyes now that I’ve survived my first biker brawl. And Cat, well, Cat is Saint’s girl so she’s as good as in too.
“It wasn’t just the bar,” Troy says as he twirls an unlit cigarette through his fingers. “They hit our storehouse too.”
The table explodes with angry shouts and slams of fists that nearly topple over the beers.
“What?!” Buzz barks as he bursts to his feet. “Fuck this! I’m going to go slice these fuckers up.” He barely looks recognizable with his swollen black eye and cracked lip. Poor Buzz got it pretty bad last night.
But
