I saw Tripp and Hawke shift in their seats, seemingly uncomfortable with Marek’s retelling of the past. Or was I reading them wrong?
“The war between us and the Savage Reapers dated back to when Stone and I were kids, when our fathers were in charge, and it seemed to all come to a head a few years before we finally ended it for good.”
“What happened?” Ace asked, and at first, I wasn’t sure if Marek was gonna take offense to the question or not, but I had to admit that I was just as curious. Thankfully, our prez answered without reservation.
“Those fuckers were gettin’ greedier and more careless. They’d show up at our establishments and threaten to take us out one by one. They wanted to replace us and take top position with the cartel, but what they didn’t know, and what we would never tell them, was that we planned on exiting anyway. And while we dealt with them here and there…” He stopped speaking, blew out a breath, and elaborated. “And by dealt with, I mean killed. We ended them before they could end us, although sometimes we weren’t as lucky.” His eyes found Cutter briefly before continuing. “The breaking point for us, the moment we knew we’d have to end as many of them as we could, came when they left Tripp for dead outside our gates. Shot four times and clinging to life.”
“Seems like only yesterday,” Tripp said, a half-smirk appearing on his face. “Thank God Addy was there to watch over me.” He looked to Stone, and his grin widened, but instead of my ol’ man barking at him because of his comment, he simply shook his head.
“Mom helped?” I asked, looking at my dad before Marek. I’d heard comments here and there, but no one ever went into any details, and because I knew they’d never elaborate, I figured it was pointless to ask, after the first ten times, anyway. Come to think of it, it did seem like my mom and Tripp had a special relationship, nothing inappropriate, but if she was the reason Tripp didn’t die, then I could see why they appeared to care for each other.
“Your mother helped us out a lot back then, patching up these bastards whenever shit went down,” Prez responded, looking surprisingly comfortable in revealing all sorts of details now. “She was a godsend for sure.” I leaned forward in my seat, eager for more information, every question I ever had about what our club dealt with before I came along on the precipice of being sated. “When we finally decided to hit back, and hard, we raided their club, killing whoever we could before kidnapping Psych’s daughter.” Marek looked at Kaden. “Your mother. Then I married her the next day, essentially sending the biggest ‘fuck you’ I could to the Reapers. Integrating one of their own was one of the worst kinds of insults between clubs, so to wed the rival president’s daughter was highly offensive.”
I couldn’t help but think about the similarities between what happened with Sully and what I’d done by taking Maddie from the same club, albeit different members. It was only then that Tripp’s comment of “just don’t marry her,” made a lick of sense.
“I can imagine that didn’t go over well,” Brick said, eager to hear more, just like me, Kaden, and Ace.
“Not at all,” Cutter responded, something that took me off guard because the man didn’t say much. But the look on his face told me whatever happened next, he wasn’t opposed to. Maybe even enjoyed? I remembered the coldness in his eyes when he stood over Tag.
“While Sully adjusted quickly to our club, and to me, her father wanted her back. Most likely so he could kill her. I wasn’t gonna let that happen, especially after I’d fallen in love with her, and she with me.” Marek lowered his eyes to the table, gripping the edge so tightly he lost most of the color in his hands. “The things they did to her while she lived with them….”
“You don’t have to rehash that, brother,” our VP said, placing his hand on Marek’s shoulder as a show of support.
“No, I have to. To make these guys understand why we did what we had to. Exacting justice for someone changes you, gives you purpose. To right the wrongs is the only outcome that’s acceptable.” I didn’t need to ask him what he meant because his words resonated deep in my soul, the image of Maddie infiltrating my brain. “That piece of shit Psych raped and abused his daughter before passing her off to Vex when she was fourteen. He took over making her life as miserable as possible. Sully bears the reminders of what they did to her, physically and emotionally. They burned her with cigarettes, stabbed her, raped her, passed her off to Carrillo’s righthand man, Yanez, as an offering. Everything horrible you can imagine… they did to her.” Marek looked at his son again. “Vex is the reason your mother could never have children of her own.” For a moment, Marek’s breathing became shallow, a pained look crashing over his face. The rest of the resident members hung their heads. “During one of his tirades, he violently raped her with a bat after he could no longer do it himself, leaving her tied up for a day to bleed out. There was too much damage afterward for her to ever bear a child
