Inflamed: A Shadow Riders MC (17 page)

"What does that mean?"

"It'd be over for him, darlin'." He stared straight into my eyes long enough for me to realize just exactly what he meant.

"
Oh
."

"About a month after a few deals went down, making the club so much goddamn money they were swimming in it, the Feds came in and raided the entire place. But the club was tipped off about it beforehand, so by the time the boys in suits showed up, nothing could be found. By then, every member knew that there was a snitch amongst them, they just didn't know that my father was the one who ratted them all out. He didn't want the club to go down in flames because of what he had done, but he didn't want his life to end because of something he didn't believe in either."

"So what happened?"

"When he saw the newer members and prospects being threatened and knew he'd have to take part in all but beating the truth out of each one, he finally spoke up, not wanting anybody else to go down for what he had done. Nobody wanted to believe that a member of their own club had turned--"

"You mean had morals," I said. He glared at me, but kept his thoughts on what I had said to himself. "What happened then?"

"After realizing he had no reason to lie about it, knowing that he never wanted any part of the deals in the first place, every member of the club voted to have him stripped of his patches and of his cut. They burned off his insignias, the tattoos on his arms and back with gasoline and a set of matches--"

"Oh my God--"

"And threw him out." He stopped and for a few seconds, lowered his eyes to his hand as it gripped even tighter around the steering wheel. "They told my mother what happened, but never told her where he was because they didn't want her going to him."

"Was he ever found?"

He nodded. "About ten days later, some jogger found him in the woods covered in nothing but a skirt."

My eyes widened. "Why a skirt?"

"The club considered him a pussy for what he'd done in snitching on them," he told me. "He had already been dead long before she even got to him."

I sat back in disbelief, shaking my head and trying as best as I could not to throw my head out of the window and vomit. "How old were you when all of this happened?" I asked.

"Just turned thirteen."

"And you knew about it then?"

"I didn't find out shit ‘til just before I decided to switch from just being a mechanic at the garage, to actually joining the club itself."

I scoffed. "And what you found out didn't deter you from it? I mean, if these men did all of that to your father, why in God's name would you want to have anything to do with them or any part of the club itself?"

"Why did you?" he shot back.

"Me?" I threw my hand over my chest, shocked that he even asked. "I
wish
I had a choice. I literally exhausted every other alternative I had before showing up there this morning -- What's your excuse?"

He paused and wrapped his other hand around the wheel. "The club is a brotherhood," he replied. "Maybe not blood, but it matters all the same. Despite what my old man did, the club never turned their backs on us. They knew my mother would be in a rough place without him, mentally, emotionally, financially and they helped to carry us every step of the way. They didn't blame her for what he did and we were never banned from them like other families had been banned from other charters for the exact same shit." He stopped, allowing a single beat to pass. "I've had to prove myself more than anybody else, show them with each step I take that I'm not my old man which is why they’ve yet to patch me in, but I'm fine with that. So if it takes two years or five years or even ten or fifteen to show them that I’m better than he was and that I deserve a spot alongside them more than he ever did, that's what I'm gonna do." He gulped. "You don't turn your back on family and you don't betray them. I know that. But it's something my old man could never seem to grasp."

"Hm." I sank down in my seat. "This all sounds very...
strange
to me. It's like some kind of gang initiation and then when the person screws up, the only way out is jail or death."

"The club's not a 'gang'," he said.

“How the hell did you get all those scars?” I retorted.

He stared down at his hands, then quickly returned his eyes to the road. “I’m a mechanic.”

“Well then you must not be a very good one because the most I’ve ever seen on the hands of even the most basic mechanics is grease and motor oil spilling out from an overheated engine.”

He grinded his teeth. “You’re pushing it.”

“Obviously not too far enough,” I said. "I’m sorry, but everything that you just told me sounds exactly like the things I hear about on the news every day. It sounds
exactly
like Ricky and the mob and cartels. The only difference is that it’s slightly more organized, or was before the fire. That and it seems to be so much more exclusive to the 'light brights' of the world."

Slowly, he turned his head to me and arched a brow. "Light brights?"

I ticked up the corners of my mouth in a slight grin. “Do you really need me to spell it out for you?”

He slid his tongue back and forth across his bottom lip and shook his head as he returned his eyes to the road. “No.”

“Okay then.”

Nothing but silence filled the car from that point forward.

Chapter Nine

A little less than an hour later, we finally arrived back to the Compound which was a hell of a lot more crowded than it had been earlier in the day, with bikes and cars covering nearly every inch of the entire parking lot. This made me even more nervous than I was when I first showed up to see River because I knew that not only would people I didn't know and had never seen before be looking at me and wondering who the hell I was and why I was there in the first place (
and with a child in my arms on top of everything else
), they would probably start asking me questions I was in no way prepared to answer, even for myself.

After parking near the back of the lot along with the other prospects and shutting off the engine, Styx quickly jumped out of the truck and raced around it to open the door on my side.

He nodded toward Avery. "You want me to take her?" he asked.

"No. Thanks." I wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist and eased out of the truck.

He slammed the door and shuffled in behind me as I moved toward the club. "Prez is probably gonna wanna talk to you about some shit when you get in there," he said.

"I figured as much," I mumbled. "Any advice on how to handle him?"

"Be you, and be honest. All you can ask for when it comes to Prez, really."

"Okay." I gulped, because being 'me' was exactly what I
didn't
want to be in that particular moment. Hell, I wasn't even looking forward to being the person I was pretending to be!

When his phone started dinging inside his back pocket, he snatched it out and flipped it open. He pushed a few buttons up, a few buttons down and furrowed his brows. "Shit. VP's saying he wants to talk to you about some shit too, I guess," he blurted.

I glanced down at his palm. "Yeah, well, your 'VP' is the one I won't have a problem saying a single word to--" He placed a hand on my arm and stepped in front of me before we went any further. He slid his phone back into his pocket and as the other prospects gathered around us, I stared up at him and frowned. "What are you doing?" I questioned.

Styx eyed the other prospects and nodded in a way that made me think they were speaking in some kind of coded language, right before refocusing on me. "You might wanna give her over to me before heading in there." He pointed at Avery.

I clutched her even tighter and took a step back from him, only to bump into Eightball. He slithered around me like a snake in the grass and smirked while grabbing a cigarette from his pocket and quickly lighting up.

I turned back to Styx and anxiously shook my head. "I'm sorry, but I'm not handing her over to you--"

"Darlin'." He pointed behind him at the club. "There's some shit going down in there right about now that you more than likely won't be wanting her to see."

"I can only imagine." I blinked once and inhaled slowly, then exhaled between my lips. "Where exactly would you be taking her?" I asked.

"There's a way of getting her into that back room you two are gonna be sharing without going through the actual club." He raised his hands up and gestured toward mine. "We get her through there, she won't see a goddamn thing."

I peered at every man standing around me as each one kept their eyes completely focused on me. I was starting to feel like the main attraction at the Ringling Brothers Circus.

"I know that you and Trucker picked her up from school and that she's esthetically fine. But, I still don't exactly feel all that comfortable about handing her over to you or anyone else here," I said. "At least not yet."

"I understand. Um..." He wrapped a hand around his chin, thinking. "Look, why don't we do this, alright? Since she's still sleep, we'll all walk into the club with her as a group. Then once the boys spread out and distract the others, I'll ease you both to the back and you can place her on the bed yourself. Verna's here and she's never too fond of any of this shit like she used to be, so she can watch her while you talk with the Prez and VP. That a deal?"

"Well, I don't really know her all that well either. I mean, she seemed nice enough this morning, but--"

"She's good people, babe. Your girl will be in good hands. A hell of a lot better than any one of those assholes inside."

I looked around at all the others once again as they nodded in unison.

Feeling outnumbered on top of being completely out of my element, I anxiously bobbed my head right along with them and said, "Yeah. Yeah, okay. Let's just get this over with."

"Alright." Styx nodded toward the others and with the exception of Eightball, who decided to stick around outside and finish up his cigarette instead, they all hurried inside. "Come on." He placed a hand at the center of my back to keep me steady and once we were inside, it was as if every nightmare I had ever had about being in a place like this was slowly starting to come true. And despite how hard I pinched myself, I couldn't wake up from it and pretend that it was never real to me in the first place. More like
surreal
. And in the worst way imaginable.

"Oh my God."

Between the blaring rock music and smell of booze, joints, cigarettes and open sex that some seemed to be having in various corners throughout the whole place, I wasn't exactly sure which one had managed to actually hit my nose first. Though the combination of it all was sure as hell begging for me to reach the nearest trashcan and toss my own head inside.

"Oh my God," I mumbled again as I scanned the room; though this time it was more in fury rather than absolute terror or dread. "Oh
my God
."

Behind the bar, someone who looked even bigger than Trucker had placed a girl on top of it, yanked down her tube top and bra, and started licking and sucking and pinching her breasts with his dirty, greasy looking fingers. It was just right there and out in the open for all to see as if they were filming a random scene for a straight to DVD porno flick. The girl swung her stringy brown hair over her tanned shoulder and started giggling like a wild hyena on crack, and when the big burly guy shoved his hand between her legs, she wrapped her hands around his neck and screamed so loudly that the noise nearly shattered my eardrums, and a few mirrors.

I immediately averted my eyes, hoping someone was nearby with a bottle of bleach for me to wash them out with, only to land on another man, who apparently thought absolutely nothing about receiving a blow job in front of the pool table from a girl who looked even younger than
me
, while he could've easily given Santa Claus a run for his money in both the age and weight department.

Yuck.

When I turned again, my focus landed directly on River, who was sitting in a chair off to the side and enjoying not only a beer, but the pale, bare asses of two women in his face, while another was playing with her own breasts and preparing to stick her hand down the front of his pants.

“
Oh. My. God.
” I spun back around to Styx and rattled my head. "Please get me the hell out of here." My voice started shaking as my heart raced. "There is no way in
hell
that I can stay inside a place like this – even
IF
that crazy SOB is after me. I can't subject my child to something like this, I can’t--!"

"Mama," Avery muttered, her voice groggy and weak. She gently lifted her head and started rubbing her eyes.

"NO!" I threw my hand over her face and forced her head back down on my shoulder.

"This is why I didn't want either one of you coming in this way, babe. Especially the 'lil bit in your arms," he said, staring down at Avery. "All this shit she'd have to see--"

"This isn't just about sneaking her in through another entrance of this place as if something like
this
could actually be avoided. Any later and we'd probably find a few of these people strung out or screwing on the lawn," I said.