“Let’s go before Marek sends someone lookin’ for us.” I walked around him, deposited my cell on the table outside Chambers, and eventually took my seat next to Trigger, Brick following closely and sitting to my left in his assigned chair.
Marek leaned back in his seat, running a hand over his face in what appeared to be frustration. He had a lot on his plate as it was, and me bringing Maddie here had only intensified the situation.
After he came clean about all the past dealings with the club, I felt even worse about engaging the Reapers, but even through my guilt, I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
My concern for her, even when I didn’t know her, had continuously plagued me, and every time I saw her with them, it was like a knife to my gut. It was a no-brainer when their prospect shoved her at me during our last fight.
“Tag.” One word garnered everyone’s attention, especially mine and Kaden’s. Sitting upright, my focus solely on our leader and shoving the errant thoughts of Maddie to the back of my mind, I listened intently to the words that followed. “I gotta take care of some stuff first, but at the end of the week, I’m goin’ to the safe house, putting all this to rest once and for all. And I want you, you, and you there as well,” he said, looking at Ace, his son, and me. “Cutter will be there, too. Everyone else will remain behind. We still don’t know what the hell is goin’ on with the Reapers, and I don’t want to pull too many people away from here. God forbid anything go down, we’re an hour away.”
“What’s gonna happen once we get there?” I asked, completely aware I pushed against his patience. He didn’t answer, so I closed my mouth, knowing if I continued to ask questions, forcing him to speak more on the subject when he clearly didn’t want to, I’d be on the receiving end of one pissed-off man. Not wanting to cause any more upset than there already was inside our club, I simply nodded when he arched his brow at me.
“We should ask Mom what she thinks about all this,” Kaden suddenly blurted. Apparently, he didn’t mind pushing his ol’ man’s buttons. And while I was relieved he spoke up, I wasn’t looking forward to the fallout. If the change in Marek’s demeanor was any indication, we were all gonna feel the hit any second.
“What did you say?” Prez’s expression morphed from astonishment to confusion to fury in the span of seconds, his grip on the edge of the table frightening. I had to give Kaden credit for the size of his balls, though. Not only did he have to deal with Stone’s anger toward him constantly now that he was with my sister, but he had no qualms about adding his father’s outrage to the list.
“Sounds to me like you’ve made up your mind about Tag, and you want me and Linc to go along with it, possibly even witness his death.” Kaden would’ve continued to vomit his words, but Marek slammed his hand down on top of the table so hard it was a wonder he didn’t flinch in pain.
Ignoring his son’s ranting, he repeated, “What the fuck did you just say?!” The room became eerily quiet.
“I think we should ask Mom what—”
Marek stood so fast, his chair skidded behind him and hit the wall, the thump causing me to wince even though I was already on edge and paying close attention to what was unfolding.
“I told you what that fucker did to her!” he shouted. “Do you think for one second I’m gonna tell her about any of this? Remind her what happened to her all those years ago? Let her know Vex’s son is at our safe house? That he infiltrated our club? That he was close, too close to her?”
“But Tag is innocent,” Kaden replied, tripping over his words when his father moved closer to him.
Admittedly, Marek wasn’t making a hell of a lot of sense, speaking as if Tag was indeed guilty, that he was as evil as Vex, which wasn’t the case. The only thing I understood was that Marek wanted to keep Sully as far from this shit as possible, which I couldn’t blame him for, but a man’s life hung in the balance. At what point did you put someone’s emotional state at risk to save someone else?
“It doesn’t matter,” Prez yelled, first at his son, then at the rest of us. “I’m not bringing my wife into this. She won’t know a goddamn thing about what’s goin’ on here.” He pointed at his son, then snarled. “Don’t you even think about tellin’ her, Kaden. She will NOT find out about this.” This was the first time I’d seen Marek not only enraged but fearful as well. His eyes darkened, but a look of panic flashed over his face. It was brief, but I saw it.
“Remember the last time you hid stuff from Sully?” Ryder asked, leaning back when Marek swung his focus onto him.
“That was different.”
“How?”
“It just was. I couldn’t tell her that back then, not when I didn’t know if it was true or not.”
“Yeah, but do you remember how hurt she was? How distraught she became?” Jagger asked. What are they talkin’ about? “You almost lost her, Prez. Don’t make that same mistake again.”
“What the hell is wrong with all of you? Do you not remember the vile things they did to her?”
“We do.” Trigger replied that time. “But maybe the boy’s right,” he said, referring to Kaden’s request.
Having no idea what they were talkin’ about, I spoke up again. “If Tag’s life hangs in the balance, all because of what his father
