“Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.”
The deadly cloud slowly began to fade as she recalled the moment she first met Smokey. How she knew without a doubt he was a good guy. That instinct within her that she trusted had been tested badly the past few years, just like it had when she’d been young. How she hadn’t seen the truth until it was too late.
She slowed her breathing down to a manageable rate, and then she dropped her hands.
No one had driven past, at least, not anyone she had seen. Someone could have still been watching her.
The memories were coming forward, and that wasn’t good. She normally had a hold on them.
As she got to her feet, her legs felt wobbly. She had to get back to the clubhouse, to hit something, to gain back her power.
Back on her bike, she ignored the sickness once again, started her engine, and took off. The town was a blur as she made it through. She saw the new club whores’ faces, but again, she tried not to think about what that meant.
Smokey wanted a meeting with her.
Smokey was cleaning shop.
No one noticed. No one saw. But she did.
She was next.
For Ava and for his club.
She was a weak person. Always so fucking weak.
This time, she didn’t park her bike. She arrived at the clubhouse, turned off the ignition, and let the beast of a machine fall to the ground as if it didn’t matter to her. It didn’t. Nothing mattered to her. None of this did.
She was going to lose it all soon.
Several of the guys tried to stop her, but she ignored them. Instead, she went to the small gym Smokey had set up for everyone to let off steam when he would lock down the club. It hadn’t happened in a long time, but there was always a chance of him doing so.
Punching bags hung from the walls, a sparring mat, and some treadmills. Not much, but enough for brothers to work out their aggression.
Raven didn’t even bother to deal with her hands. Clenching them into fists, she directed the first blow into the bag. Pain shot through her wrist, all the way up her arm, and expanded out. She ignored the pain, like so many other times before.
She remembered Creed. That son of a bitch hadn’t held back. He’d tested her, expecting her to cave, to give in. She hadn’t. She had taken every single ounce of pain that he had to dish out, and she relished it.
Another punch to the bag, this time, harder than before. With each blow she landed, the better she felt. This was her being in total control. The ultimate control. She hadn’t been able to hit back at Creed. She hadn’t been able to fight him.
If only he was here now. She would completely obliterate him. Finally show him just who he was messing with. It didn’t matter that the old leader of the Twisted Bastards MC was in the ground. She didn’t get her chance to kill him.
There was no way she would ever be able to stand up to him, to show him that she wasn’t afraid of him, and Raven didn’t know if that hurt more than knowing he was dead.
****
“I don’t like secret fucking meetings,” Kinky said.
“We’re not secret. We’re standing right out-fucking-side.” Brick glared at his club brother. For the past couple of weeks, he’d been trying to get Kinky alone, to talk to him, to see if he realized what was going on.
“Whatever. What’s so important?” Kinky asked.
“Are you … do you realize what is going on?” Brick asked.
“Dude, I don’t talk in no riddles.”
“The club whores!” Brick said, having to grit his anger between clenched teeth.
Kinky’s lips pressed together as he looked off to the side.
“So you do see it.”
“See what? There’s nothing to see.” Kinky went to walk off, but Brick grabbed his arm.
“Smokey’s removing all the people who hurt Ava,” Brick said, finally saying what he was observing out loud.
“Dude, club pussy moves on.”
“Really, the only people that have disappeared were the ones who directly hurt Ava. You don’t think that is suspicious?”
Kinky’s jaw twitched.
“So you’re noticing it.”
“Yeah, okay, I’m noticing. The club pussy, which then leaves you, me, and Raven. She’s not going anywhere. We were following direct orders.”
Brick shook his head. “I heard Hunter, man. He’s arranging for another meeting with Lewis and Verge.”
“No.”
“I think he’s going to try and get rid of us,” Brick said.
Kinky rubbed at his eyes.
Brick had been wondering if he should say anything. From the way Raven had started to behave after she had fully recovered from Abriana’s house, he believed she already knew. If not, then he had to tell her. She was a club brother. They had all followed orders. All believed the truth of a single picture. Ava had been innocent, and every single time he looked at her, Brick had to deal with the guilt of his part in her pain. When Raven finally came home from the hospital, she would wake the clubhouse screaming. Ava did the same from time to time.