Corrupted (12 page)

I take Tracie’s hand helping her up from the floor. “We need to go find Jordan. Now.” She doesn’t answer me. “Trace, he needs to know everything. Now that Viper is back you can’t live with this secret.”

“I don’t know if I can tell them.” Her eyes hold fear as her unusually weak voice whispers out the words.

“You can. You are strong. I have always looked up to you because of that. I’ll be there for you.” I squeeze her hand trying to reassure her before I open the bathroom door.

We walk down the hallway and into the now empty common room.
Where the hell did everyone go?
I see Danny sitting at the bar and walk up to him. “Hey where is everyone?”

“They’re all in church. With Viper just getting back they need to catch him up on everything, said it’s probably gonna be all night.” He takes another swig of his beer.

Church is a meeting that only brothers participate in so that’s why Danny is out here. Tracie and I can’t interrupt that, or we would be in deep shit. Goddamn church. I shake my head, laughing to myself. Never thought I’d think that coming from where I did.

“Let’s go hang out in your room ‘til the boys are out.” I loop my arm through Tracie’s as we make our way to her room.

We talk a bit as we lay there neither of us bringing up Viper again. We try to avoid the subject as much as possible. I have never seen Tracie the way she has been today. Usually she is so vibrant and in your face, all day she has been withdrawn and silent.

I think back to the day I saw Andrew and I know how she is feeling. Facing your demons isn’t easy when no one knows what haunts your dreams.

***

I wake up with an intense need to pee. Tracie is draped around me in a way that is completely uncomfortable when I’m conscious. I peel her arm off me before quietly getting out of the bed. Stretching I look at the clock on the end table, it’s three am. Jesus, I hope they’re out of church by now.

I decide to head to the bathroom then go find Jordan. If they are still in church maybe I’ll just wait for him. Tracie and I are best friends, but I can’t knowingly go back there and be the little spoon. I laugh as I close her door and see her clutching onto the pillow like it’s a body, the girl is definitely a cuddler. I pad down the hallway doing a penguin walk trying to get to the damn bathroom.

Once I’m done, I try to fix the crazy mess that is my hair. I mean I swear when you go to sleep it is like little elves come in and have an orgy on your head. I don’t even know how it could even get this bad. Once it looks acceptable and not like I just got banged seven ways from Sunday I open the door, but I stop dead in my tracks. Viper.

“You disappeared just when things were getting fun earlier.” His voice is deep and menacing as his eyes graze over my body. Even though I’m wearing jeans and a t-shirt I feel naked.

“Maybe that was fun for you, but it wasn’t for me. I’m with Jordan and you know that. There are rules.” I try to walk past him but he braces his arm against the doorframe, blocking my way.

“Yeah, well I don’t give a fuck about the rules.” He takes a step forward. “I did four fucking years in the hole for this club. If I want some pussy I’m gonna have it, I don’t care what brother claimed it. This club owes me and I am choosing you to repay that debt.”

My eyes dart around the tiny bathroom. I’m stuck. There is nowhere to go. Nothing I can grab to protect myself. I’m defenseless. As I start to sweat realizing my predicament, I can feel my heart ready to burst through my chest. “Don’t you dare touch me.”

“Or what? I like it when they fight princess. I have been dreaming of pussy and all the things I want to do for a long time. We are gonna have some fun.” He goes to grab for me and I smack him across the face. His face twists in anger. “You little bitch.” He returns my strike with ten times the force.

I fall to the floor from the power of the strike. Instinctively I curl into a ball, my past experiences readying me for another blow. I feel my shirt rip from my body and I tremble in fear. I can feel him looming over me, his promise of torture hanging between us.

“What the fuck?” Jordan’s voice bellows from behind us. Thank God.

I look up at him. His eyes focus in on my face which I’m sure is already swollen and red from Viper’s blow. Shock and anger flash as he takes me in.

“You piece of shit.” Jordan doesn’t bother to ask anymore more questions. He grabs Viper by the long ponytail that hangs and yanks him out of the small room. At first, they are a ball of twisting bodies on the floor, before Jordan gets the upper hand. He is on top of Viper repeatedly punching him in the face, relentlessly plowing into him.

I can hear the crushing of bones.

I should feel bad.

I should feel empathy for a human in pain.

I don’t.

I hear shouting before I see the brothers pulling Jordan off him. Curses and “what the fucks” are being thrown around. That’s when Twisted looks into the bathroom and sees me crouched on the floor. I try to cover myself crossing my arms over my chest since I’m only wearing a bra. “Shit,” is all he says as he looks at me. “Pres.”

Shooter appears in the doorway. “Lucy?” He walks in offering me his hand. “You a part of this?”

“Yeah,” I say my voice soft and apprehensive. It was clear how much everyone cared about Viper when he arrived at the club today. Tracie told me that was one reason she never mentioned anything.

“Come with us.” I nod and follow them down the hallway, but pause at Tracie’s room.

Twisted turns and sees me stopped. “What ya doin’?”

“I need to get Tracie.”

He looks at me, confusion in his eyes. “Why?”

“She’s a part of this too.” I reach for the doorknob as I wait for realization to set in.

“Fuck.” He runs his hand over his head. “Grab her, I’ll wait for you.”

I nod, walking into the room I gently shake Tracie. “Get up, girl.”

She blinks a few times before looking up at me. “Lucy? What happened to you?”

“You’ll hear about it in a minute. We need to go talk to everyone, now. Pres and the boys are waiting for us in the chapel.” Her eyes grow wide. I see my jacket on her dresser and throw it on so I’m wearing more than just a bra. She stands up, and takes my hand. We walk down the hallway behind Twisted.

When we get to the room, all of the brothers are sitting down around the table. Jordan and Viper are on different sides of the table, each with a brother at their side.

Twisted walks around whispering quietly in Shooter’s ear. Most likely telling him why I insisted on getting Tracie. Shooter stands. “Y’all tell us your stories. Tracie, then Lucy. After that y’all leave, the brothers will need to have a few votes.”

Here goes nothing.

I sit at the table with Twisted and Torch on either side of me and my traitor of a brother across from me. When I went to take a piss and saw Lucy on the ground with Viper standing over her, I thought I had to be hallucinating. This man was a fucking mentor to me. He was someone I wanted to be like. Now I want to rip him limb from fucking limb. My fists clench and I turn my attention to Tracie as she starts to talk. I don’t understand why the hell Lucy brought her in here or what she has to do with what went on tonight. She starts to talk but none of us can hear a damn word she is sayin’.

“Speak up, darlin’.” Pres orders from the end of the table. His tone is clipped and his patience seems to be short.

Tracie begins her story talkin’ about the night before Viper got sent away. I wasn’t old enough yet to prospect in. I was here earlier in the day. Saying goodbye to Viper. He made me promise to come back and see his brothers when I was old enough to join the ranks and become a part of the family. I came back two months later on my birthday ready to be a part of the family he always talked about. I freeze when Tracie gets to the part of the story where Viper raped her. The brothers all break out in whispers and grunts of disapproval. Our eyes all trained on the monster among us.

Tracie becomes silent and all eyes fall on Lucy. Everyone is waiting on her story now. The mark on her face has already become darker. Her property jacket the only thing covering the top of her and her bra. She starts her story, but to my surprise, the story doesn’t start in the bathroom, it starts before dinner in the kitchen, then continues at the dinner table. Hearing her recount his hands on her while I was sitting right there has me wanting to get up from my seat and rip his fucking throat out. Twisted grabs my forearm holding it against the armrest of the chair. I look over at him fire burning through my veins. He shares a knowing glance with me, letting me see his outrage at the continuing story.

Out of all the brothers, I think Twisted and Luce are the closest. Which is ironic considering the morning we found her he didn’t want anything to do with her. She wore him down the way she has the rest of the boys though. He has a sister and I think he sees a lot of her in Lucy. I can see the tension in his body as she is recounting the events.

When she gets to what happened in the bathroom my stomach turns. I realize how close I could have been to being too late. If I hadn’t showed up, I can’t even let my mind go to that damn place. My eyes focus on Viper across the table. He won’t meet anyone’s eyes. His gaze focused on the MC insignia that is engraved in the center of the table.

Once Lucy stops speaking, Pres stands up. “Girls, go on and head to your rooms. We need to have Church, again.”

Lucy looks over at me and I know she wants to come to me. I want nothing more than to take her to my room. To make sure she is okay, but I can’t. I have to be here. I need to make sure this asshole gets what he deserves. She walks out of the room with Tracie.

“Viper, you got anything to say for yourself? This is some serious shit.” Pres talks to the traitor. Everyone is staring at him, waiting for a response.

“I did four fucking years for this club. So what if I wanted some pussy. These bitches, this club, you assholes fucking owe it to me.” He bangs his fist on the table.

I stand up, my chair flying back and hitting the wall. “I’ll fucking kill you, you piece of shit.”

“What you think now that you got a patch you’re worth something? I made you kid. If I want your bitch, you hand her over to me on a damn silver platter. I’m the reason you’re even fucking here!” His eyes bore holes through me. His lack of remorse completely pushes me over the edge.

I lunge across the table gripping the top of his hair and slamming his face down onto the wooden table. Blood spurts across the wood as he grunts in pain. Two sets of arms pull me back and when I stand up, I see Viper’s nose dripping with blood. Good I hope it’s fucking broken.

“Enough!” Pres shouts. “Whip, sit your ass down. One more fucking word I don’t ask for and you’ll regret it.” I nod, sitting and crossing my arms over my chest. “Viper, you know we appreciate what you did but that don’t mean you can rape women. We need to have a vote. Majority rules. We will be voting on whether or not to strip you of your rank.”

“Fuck that. I’ll leave before you take my rank. I ain’t gonna be put at the same level as these other assholes.” He looks around the table his resentment toward the club clear. It seems like Viper was a ticking time bomb just waiting to blow up.

“Then you’ll leave and we’ll vote to accept it. But this ain’t okay, brother. We respect our women, and our brothers. If that’s not what you want anymore than there’s no place for you here.” Pres looks at Viper, his face hard and his tone final. If it’s one thing he is a stickler for it’s the treatment of our girls. Even the club whores, he will deal with anyone disrespecting women on his watch.

Viper looks around the table meeting each brother’s gaze. When he comes to mine he smiles. The motherfucker has balls. “Take your vote and let’s see where the pieces fall.” He says with a smirk. He must think people are on his side. What he doesn’t know is not only did he attack two women, but he attacked two women who the club values and considers family.

Tracie does so much for the brothers. She runs the strip club, and keeps the girls in line. Anything the guys need, they go to Tracie and she takes care of it for them without complaint.

Lucy has been the little sister of this club for four years. These brothers treat her like their own blood. He didn’t know the shit storm he was brewing when he touched her. Two regular women getting attacked would have left him screwed. These two women left him completely fucked.

“Let’s vote. Viper losing his rank. Yay or nay.” Pres looks around the table. “Yay.” The vote travels around the table each brother delivering a yay.

When it comes to me, I look the bastard right in his face. “Yay.” I say it with fire in my voice. Hoping the fucker feels the daggers being stuck into him.

When the vote concludes it’s unanimous. Viper stands up. “Fuck all you pussies.” He rips his cut off throwing it on the table. “I’m done with this damn club. Bunch of dickless pricks.” He spits on his once valued possession before storming out of the room and slamming the door.

“Wrench, follow him and make sure he finds his way out quickly.” Pres orders. We all sit in silence until Wrench returns a few minutes later. “We do have rules about one brother attacking another. We need another vote. Should there be any punishment for Whip’s attack against Viper while he was still a brother? Yay or nay. Majority rules.” Pres looks around the table. “Nay.” I smile as each brother relays the same vote.

“Okay, one more order of business. I need a new VP. I don’t need to wait and think it over I want to choose Twisted. One last vote. Yay or Nay. Yay.” Twisted’s face blinks in shock as Pres looks around the tables. Brothers start to vote, all of them being yay’s.

“All right, we have a new VP. Congratulations, brother. Meeting is over. Get some sleep, fuckers. Whip, you stay for a minute.” Everyone stands up and begins to congratulate Twisted.

I pull him in for a quick hug. “You deserve it. Congratulations.”

Twisted gives me a nod. “Thanks, Whip. I’ll go check on Luce for you.”

“Thanks, brother.” I shake his hand. Everyone leaves and it’s just me and Pres.

“I know you may want another shot at Viper for this shit, but you need to let it be. He has received punishment from the club and you need to let that be enough.” He stares at me like he is studying my face to make sure I completely understand.

I scrub my hands over my face in exhaustion and frustration. “Yeah, I get it. I just want to make the asshole pay. I’ll respect what you want though.”

He claps me on the back. “You’re turning into a great brother, Whip.”

I curse that damn nickname, as I go in search of my girl.