Soon we would all sail off towards a new beginning.
I pull up to the dock, and the parking lot is completely empty. When I get close to the boat, I look around and confirm nobody is around before going aboard.
I take out my list and confirm what I already realized. The boat is nearly stocked and ready to go.
I do not need to go to the market to grab a few more things, but it wouldn’t hurt. I make a note of a few things I should grab.
I go inside the cabin below deck and confirm the small cache of weapons is still there. A few assault style weapons and handguns should be fine for where we are going.
Carlos can help with extra security when we get to Brazil. I have been helping him in more ways than just money, such as helping his kid get a drug arrest erased from his record. Little things here and there to ensure when I needed it, I could trust him.
I pack up the cache of weapons and head back on deck. When I confirm the small list of items I need to grab, I leave and head back to my car.
It does not take me long to see the tall and thin man wearing dark leather gloves, leaning against my car.
“Hello, Mr. Cain,” Thomas Winters says with a smile.
My father comes out of the passenger side of my car. “You truly disappoint me, son.”
∞∞∞
I sit in a large chair on a stage while members of The Beasts look out at me from a crowd, chanting different obscenities. I am not forced to sit, but Winters had already shown me the handcuffs he has on him and told me what was required of me. I knew better than to not listen to a man like Thomas Winters when he made a demand.
On the stage with me is my father, Thomas Winters, Principal Aldridge, and his son, Chase.
Principal Aldridge tries his best to get the unruly crowd settled.
My father looks out to the crowd, listening to all the different things the members are yelling at me.
“Kill him!”
“He killed Jax! Fucking hang him.”
Part of me wonders if my father thought he could smooth this over. With chants of taking off my head growing louder, I think he realizes not even Arthur Cain can change my fate.
Even my own guidance counsellor, Mr. Ferlong, was calling for my death.
The guilt is stricken on his face, as if it was a natural gesture.
Chase, on the other hand, was smiling ear to ear. I think he knew what would happen tonight and hoped someone would record it as well.
I did not have to wait for Principal Aldridge to calm the crowd to realize how this would end.
Chase walks up to me. I raise my head and gaze at his rageful smile. “Don’t think I forgot about this?” He punched me in the abdomen area, and I almost fall to the floor and curl up in a ball. Instead, I take the pain and smile coldly back at him. “That’s just for pissing me off,” he whispers in my ear. “The fun will begin when I get to sic my dogs on you.” Chase turns to the violence hungry crowd and raises his hand, and they quiet down almost immediately. “Rule number fifty-nine!” he yells, pointing into the crowd and then at my father. My father lowers his head immediately. “If a member attempts to kill another, or is successful, the member attacked or another of the elders can choose the punishment of the perpetrator.” Chase smiles at me. “I choose death for Lancelot Cain!”
“I didn’t try and kill you!” I yell at him.
He looks back at me with cold eyes. “The shotgun to my head, the burn mark on my face, your threats to kill me are enough to prove it. Or do you deny it?” I do not bother answering. I wish I had.
My father storms up between Chase and me. “That rule hasn’t been used since the late nineteenth century! It was made for a different time!”
“It was made for situations like your son!” Chase yells back.
“Don’t talk to an elder like that!” Arthur Cain demands back.
Principal Aldridge steps in front of his son. “As another elder, I can speak on my son’s behalf. Chase has a point. Hell, I have the history books to confirm it in my study. Back then, it would be Chase who would be execute your son!”
My father steps closer to Principal Aldridge. Before the loud crowd chanting for violence, most could not hear what he says, but I could. “Is this about my boy, Davis? Or is this about how I won Aloha over you all those years ago? Let my boy leave tonight, and you can name your price. You can have everything and anything. Don’t take my only boy.”
Principal Aldridge looks at him with sincere thought. “Lancelot chose his fate when he murdered Nathanial and Jaxson. Did you forget about them?”
I could tell them all that Jaxson is alive. I could tell them where Elle, Danna, and Jaxson are. Hopefully, they could come up with a way of leaving town without me. I know they could not. It’s an illusion to think I could.
“We could put it to a vote,” Principal Aldridge says in a stern voice to my father. “That’s the best deal you’re going to get Cain.”
Chase walks up to me and shoves me in the chair. “Where are the bodies, Lance?” Chase looks at his father with a thin smile. “Jaxson is dead. Lance has disqualified himself. That means I win by default. I’m the Alpha!”
“That’s not how it works, Chase,” my father says to him.
“I’m sure we have a rule for this somewhere,” Chase says confidently. “We have one for almost any situation.” Chase looks back
