“Yes.”
“And you understand that if you lie there will be consequences?”
“Yes.”
“Whatever happens in this room is to never be spoken of outside of these walls, yeah?”
“I understand.”
“Good. Let’s proceed.” He leans back in his seat and fires up a joint. He takes a hit then passes it around the large table with our club insignia burned into the wood. A skull with two motorcycles, one on each side. “Tell us how you know our Prez.”
“I started seeing this guy, Todd.” Alexa pauses, fidgeting with her fingers, twisting them together at the knuckle. “He gave me a bag of weed to keep for him, but my mom found it. She flushed it then kicked me out. He was angry and wanted his money. I had him drop me off at Ja—Murder’s house because Rochelle and I are friends, and I thought I’d be safer there. Todd left for a while, but then he came back...” Bottom lip trembling, she sucks in a deep breath and wipes at her eyes.
I nod for her to go on.
“He attacked me. Started hitting me, threatening me. He knocked me to the floor and proceeded to rape me. Someone else entered the house. I couldn’t see him, but I could hear him and smell him. The man hit Todd and took his turn with me. He smelled like menthol and there was a tattoo.” She rubs a finger over the back of her hand. “A lion’s head with a crown.”
“What happened after that?” Reed prompts.
“Todd took me somewhere. I was gone for weeks. He kept me drugged and one day he decided to let me go. I don’t know why. I expected to die. I woke up one day at a park near my parent’s house. I was scared and didn’t know what to do.”
“That’s the day I saw you walking up and down the road,” Grudge says.
“Yes. Murder took me to a safe house for the night. The next day he brought me to Lily, and I stayed there for a while. Then I came back because people were looking for me. My parents put me out again so Ruthie said I could stay until I found a more permanent situation. That’s where I’ve been until tonight. I walked into the living room. Lion was sitting there waiting for me. Again, he attacked me. This time he took me to the bedroom, and we fought as he tore at my clothes. Ruthie came home for something. She interrupted his plans. Then Murder showed up and here we are.”
“Left out the part where you and Murder been fucking,” my bastard of a Prez states.
“Any truth to that, Alexa?”
She stares at her feet, moving her head back and forth.
“Lex, look at me,” I demand. Those green eyes meet mine swirling with fear. “You don’t have to protect me. I’ve got nothing to hide.”
“Going to ask you one more time,” VP tells her. “Are you having an affair with Murder?”
“I asked him to take the bad away and give me something good in its place because I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. I could feel their touch. Smell their breath. Hear their grunts. They filled me with poison and James took it away. He showed me not all men are bad. Made sure my body healed with antibiotics. Gave me a place to hide until I felt safe and a place to lay my head. There’s nothing nefarious about that. He’s the best man I’ve ever known. He may be a killer, but he’s no liar. That man sitting there.” Hand trembling, she points to Lion. “That man is pure evil. His name should be Lucifer because he’s the devil. If you let him walk next time it could be your daughter or Old Lady he goes after. What will you do then?”
“That’ll be all. Grudge, take her back to the bar.”
“Want me to grab Ruthie?”
Nickel holds his hand up. “Won’t be necessary. I think we’ve heard enough.”
**
“Your club has denounced you as Prez. You are hereby stripped of your colors and your position within the Royal Bastard MC.” Nickel takes a knife and jabs it into Lion’s cut to remove the President patch. “Your wife will no longer receive any benefits from the club. You will not be buried with club honors nor will we speak of you after today. Your existence will be scrubbed. It will be as though you disappeared. I, Nickel acting in my role as Vice President sentence you to death. Not only did you go against our code, but you violated one of the most sacred rules of all.”
“Fuck you. Get on with it. I’d rather you put a bullet in my brain than bore me to death.” His cold eyes cut to me. “I hope I put a baby in your whore so that every time you look at her and her bastard all you see is me. Whenever you sink inside that tight little pussy you remember that my dick was there first and that she moaned for me before she ever did for you.”
At those words I lose what ounce of control I had left. I look at his left hand. The one with the lion’s head tattoo. “Hold him,” I snarl. Two of my brother’s take control. I go to the wall where the weapons hang. The ones we use to interrogate a difficult person of interest. I grab an axe. “Cuff him to the table.”
Lion jerks but it gets him nowhere. With his hand locked in where I want it, I line the sharpened blade up above his wrist and bring it down with one swoop to chop off his hand. Blood splatters and spurts. He cries out once before passing out.
I take off his other hand. I’m saving his head for last. Tonight I’ll bathe in his blood and fuck Alexa in it while he listens. Her crying out my name will be the last thing he ever hears. Tomorrow I’ll sew the President’s patch
