“It seems Butch wasn’t working for just us,” Alex
said. “I had no idea he was talking to another club. I should have looked into
it.”
“No, he wasn’t working for us,” a blue-haired woman
said, appearing in the room. Tiny recalled seeing her blue hair in the town
hall. What the fuck was she doing here?
Whizz tensed up. “What the fuck are you doing here?” He
was speaking
Tiny’s
thoughts aloud. The man was
refusing to be cleaned up. He was determined to wait for Sandy to fix up the
cut along his side. Whizz was a stubborn bastard when he wanted to be.
“You’re one of them,” Tiny said, glaring at her. It
was against his principles to kill a woman. He never killed women, but with his
anger right now, he was more than ready to kill.
“I had to come and make sure you didn’t kill Butch.”
She had her hands fisted at her sides. “He didn’t give away your location.
Danny—he’s our leader—he found out that Gonzalez was at the town hall today. I
tried to get him to stop, to back off, but he wasn’t listening. I’m sorry about
what happened and for the damage we’ve caused. There was no talking him out of
this revenge. He’s been determined to get what he wants for a long time. I did
try, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He’s not trusted me for a long time.” She
stopped, and Tiny saw her eyes were on Whizz. “Butch isn’t a traitor. Danny asked
him, and he talked about their fathers and stuff.
He’s a loyal Skull. Please, don’t take this
out on him. I promise you all, Butch didn’t want to hurt any of you. You
shouldn’t kill him or hurt him. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
Tiny looked at the door to see Cheryl standing in the
doorway. “He didn’t want to help the Savage Brothers,” Cheryl said. “He was
scared, and by the time he realized what he was doing, he was scared that you’d
turn on him. After everything that happened he didn’t want to tell you for fear
of what you’d think. He knew The Skulls was his home. He just wanted to end
Gonzalez. That man had hurt all of us at some point, and another MC could have
helped.” Tears were falling down her cheeks. “He’d never put any of you in
danger nor would he put the women. They’re all at the warehouse outside of
town. I lied to you so that you’d take care of him. He told me to tell you. He
didn’t want you all here waiting for their location. I’m sorry for lying to you,
but Butch, he means everything to me and to Matthew.” She wiped the tears away.
“They’re all in comfort as well. Butch saw to that. He didn’t want any of the
women to suffer. He followed your orders exactly, Tiny.”
Looking into the room, Tiny knew he had a choice. He
could kill Butch or believe that the brother who’d been serving loyally for the
last ten years truly had the club’s best interest at heart. Tiny had once been
part of another MC,
The
Darkness, but they didn’t
deserve any kind of loving loyalty. They’d been a bunch of monsters intent on
causing pain. Butch had been part of a very different MC. For all he knew,
Butch had been with a loving club that had been taken from him. Some of that
club had survived. Fuck, he didn’t know what to do.
Looking over his shoulder at the blue-haired woman,
Tiny nodded his head. “Thank you for telling me. Get the fuck out of this
hospital before I kill you my fucking self. I don’t give a fuck that you’re a
woman. Get out of my fucking sight, now.”
She scurried away, giving Whizz one last look.
“You’d kill a woman?” Whizz asked.
“Right now, I’d kill anyone related to the Savage
Brothers. They invaded our town and almost got
us
all
killed. One of the brothers shot Butch. I don’t trust them.”
Tiny turned toward the room holding Butch. He didn’t
want to kill Butch as he believed the brother’s heart was in the right place.
Ten years of loyalty, he wasn’t going to throw it out of the window. Tiny was
better than that. He was going to find out the truth before he did anything he
might regret.
Entering Butch’s room after Cheryl agreed to let him
inside providing he didn’t kill Butch, Tiny stared at the brother. He was awake
but could barely speak.
“I’m sorry,” Butch said, licking his lips. The fear in
his eyes was clear to see, but Tiny also saw acceptance. Did Butch expect to be
killed?
“No, I don’t want you to speak yet,” Tiny said. “You
were a fucking idiot to do what you did. By doing this alone you risked the lives
of our club and our women. The moment you knew the Savage Brothers were in town
you should have come to me.”
“I tried to get them to come to you. They wouldn’t
listen.” Butch stopped talking. Tears leaked out of his eyes, sliding down his
cheeks. “I’m so sorry. If you’re going to kill me, will you please send Cheryl
away?”
“Butch, no, I’m not going to let them kill you,”
Cheryl said. “You’re not getting rid of me. You didn’t do anything wrong, not
really. This is wrong, and they should see that.” She sat on the chair beside
him, taking his hand.
Tiny didn’t want to kill Butch. Butch had been used by
the Savage Brothers to get what they wanted. “I’m not going to kill you, Butch.
The Savage Brothers used your compassion against you. I’m not interested in
taking out one of the men I consider a friend. If you want to remain a Skull
then you know the Savage Brothers need to go, and I don’t mean to take a
vacation. I want them dead. I will forget all about this, but you’ve got to
make that final choice, Butch.
The Skulls or the Savage Brothers.”
The town was in chaos because of this. Tiny would need to spend a great deal of
money repairing the town hall and also reassuring the locals that they were, in
fact, safe.
Butch nodded. “I know.”
“Then you need to start now. You need to make a choice.”
“Butch, baby, you know what you’ve got to do,” Cheryl
said. She squeezed Butch’s hand. “It’s them or us.”
“I don’t want to be part of the Savage Brothers. I’m a
Skull, through and through. I fucked up, but I know how to fix it.” Butch
turned from Cheryl to look at Tiny.
“I want them gone, Butch, and I need you to write down
where they were.”
Cheryl grabbed some paper and a pen. She didn’t say
another word as Butch wrote the address down on paper. “They’re not going to
come to you, Tiny. I can lure them out, help you resolve this,” Butch said.
Taking the piece of paper, Tiny looked down at the
address. It was an old, crumbling house. It made sense for a group of people
who were not part of The Skulls to locate at a part of town where they wouldn’t
be noticed. No one would pay attention to men coming and going out of this old
house. Tiny had been so preoccupied with Gonzalez that he hadn’t paid any
attention to his own town.
After everything that happened, Tiny wasn’t prepared
to take a chance.
“Will you let me live?” Butch asked.
Cheryl gasped, tears falling down her cheeks. “I’m not
going to let them kill you.” She turned to look at Tiny. “Please, don’t kill
him. He didn’t mean to do this. Please, you can’t turn your back on him.”
Staring at Butch, Tiny knew the man had meant well.
“I’m not going to kill you, Butch. I understand what you did and why you did it,
but until further notice you’ll no longer be part of meetings. You’ll be with
the prospects. Until I can completely trust you, you’re back down there.”
“I understand.”
“Good.” Tiny stared at the address. Gonzalez was gone,
and now it was time to take out the other MC that had put all of their lives in
danger with their stupidity.
“Thank you for this. Now you concentrate on getting
better.” He turned to walk out of the room then stopped to look at Cheryl. “You
surprised me today.”
“Why?”
“I never had you pegged for the kind of woman to lie
or to risk the lives of the other women.”
She shook her head. “The Skull women were never in
danger. I’ll lie, cheat, and fucking steal to protect Butch and my son. I’m an
old lady, Tiny, and I’m part of The Skulls in a way. I’ll do whatever needs to
be done to protect the club.”
Respect for Cheryl grew as she turned her attention
back to her man. Butch was a good man, but he was fucking lucky to have a woman
willing to go that far to protect him. If Cheryl hadn’t been willing to lie, Tiny
would have let him die back in the town hall without a second thought. He
walked out of the hospital room, moving toward Devil. The leader of the Chaos
Bleeds crew wouldn’t be part of the hospital meeting nor any other meeting for
that matter. They were done as far as he was concerned. Eva had already kicked
his ass over what he’d said to Devil. Calling the Chaos Bleeds women whores had
been a low point, even for him. Tiny, thinking back to what he
did,
was ashamed of it. He was much better than that, but
their relationship was dead, gone. Hearing Devil was going to leave when he
needed him had filled Tiny with hate. Gonzalez had sent a man to kill Eva, and
then Devil was leaving. It was all too much for Tiny, and he’d lashed out in
the worst possible way. The verbal insults were not something he could take
back. They wouldn’t be at war as far as Tiny was concerned, but they were no longer
friends to call in a fight. He’d come to rely too heavily on Devil and the
Chaos Bleeds crew. The Skulls would never change who they were. Tiny had his
rules whereas Devil lived by as few rules as possible. Neither of them was ever
going to change who they were. This was it. From this moment forward neither of
them was going to be calling on the other in a fight.
“Tiny, I need a word,” Whizz said, invading his
thoughts.
Glancing at the other man, Tiny nodded.
“We’re going after the Savage Brothers?” Whizz asked.
“Yeah, I’m not allowing them to live. Butch gave them
up, and we’ve still got time to get them before they try to escape.” He held up
the piece of paper holding the address that held their location.
Whizz ran fingers through his hair. “We’re not backing
down from Butch?”
“No. He gave their location. He’s back to being a
prospect to a point. We’ll give him time. I understand why he did what he did,
but I don’t agree to him lying to us or keeping shit from us.”
“I want Lacey.” Whizz didn’t beat around the bush; he
stated what he wanted.
“The woman with the blue hair.
She’s the woman I’ve been seeing. I don’t want her as part of this.”
“You know I can’t let that happen. She’s a Savage
Brother, and she needs to die.”
“You’re not a murderer of women. She killed Gonzalez,
and I need her. Ever since Alan attacked me I’ve not been able to focus. The
nightmares, the memories, they claw at me every day. When I’m around her, she
makes me feel different. I wouldn’t ask this if I hadn’t thought it through. I
wanted to kill her in the fucking town hall, but I couldn’t. I’m asking for you
to let me have this.”
Whizz hadn’t needed anyone in such a long time. Simply
hearing the words from Whizz made
Tiny
pause. Could he
take away the brother’s crutch? Ever since he met Lacey, Whizz had been
different. He’d started whistling, smiling, and looking like his old self.
There was no way that Tiny could take that away from him, no matter what he
wanted to do.
“Fine, but you’ve got to keep her away from the group,
as otherwise she’s dead along with them. Get her away from the rest of the
Savage Brothers, but you better make sure she doesn’t try anything. I’m not in
a mood to be fighting a crazy bitch when she realizes the rest of her club is
dead.”
Whizz nodded and rushed off out of the hospital,
holding his side.
Tiny didn’t know what the other man had planned, and
he wasn’t interested.
“Did you get the girls’ location?” Devil asked.
“Yeah.
Butch hadn’t moved them anywhere else. They’re at the old warehouse.
Cheryl lied to save her man. I respect her for it. I’d have let him die, and I
wouldn’t have listened to him back at the town hall. I wasn’t interested in
listening to anyone.” He started to talk about an attack about to happen, but
Devil cut him off with a fist to his face. The blow was unexpected.
“We’re done, Tiny. I mean it. Gonzalez was the last
person we’re dealing with. I’m taking my woman and my crew, and I’m getting the
hell out of here.”
Tiny followed Devil outside. He watched Devil climb
behind the wheel of his car, starting up the engine.
“What about our women? They’re friends,” Tiny said,
accepting the punch. He leaned on the open window. “I’m not going to stop Eva
from talking with Lexie.”
“I’m not going to stop Lexie from talking with Eva
either. There’s no way we could stop those two women from talking to each
other. They’ll do whatever the hell they want. I can’t blame Lex. She knows
what she’s doing, and I trust her. We’re done though, Tiny. I’ve got a town to
protect.” Devil started his engine and pulled away from the curb.
“You’re just going to let him get away with punching
you in the face?” Alex asked, standing beside him.
“I had no choice. I insulted his woman and his club.
I’d do the same to him.” Tiny was filled with regret. He’d fucked up big style,
and there was nothing he could do to change it. Glancing at the rest of his
club, he saw they were waiting for him to take charge. “I’m not going to turn
against Butch. I know why he did what he did.”