Was it possible for someone’s eyes, which were normally blue, to darken to black? Because I swore Prez’s did. I couldn’t remember a time when I saw him this furious.
As I looked around the room, the older guys had their heads hung low, their shoulders tensing as if they were preparing themselves for something dramatic.
With a worried gaze, I looked to Linc first, who shrugged at me, then to Ace and Brick. None of us seemed to comprehend why the others appeared so downtrodden. Nobody seriously got hurt.
Our leader’s fist connected with the solid wood of the tabletop, the sound reverberating around the room and making most of us flinch.
“What part of keep your distance from the Reapers was lost in fuckin’ translation?” Marek locked eyes on me first, then Ace, Brick, Linc, and finally Jagger. “You of all people know the consequences of what can happen,” he barked. Jagger didn’t say a word; instead, he kept his mouth shut and nodded.
“It was just a fight.” The moment my words flitted through the air I regretted them.
“It’s not just a fight,” Marek shouted. “You have no idea the shit this club has gone through because of them. You don’t know how many times our lives were in danger, how many times one of us was left for dead.” He glanced over at Tripp when he said that. “Fuck! Two of our men from this very charter died because of those bastards.” His reference to Zip and Breck, Cutter’s son, wasn’t lost on any of us.
He punched the table once more, the tension mounting in the room to a suffocating level. “Don’t sit there and tell me it was just a fuckin’ fight. You don’t know anything. When I tell you not to do something… DON’T!”
Everyone else kept their mouths shut, which was something I apparently should’ve done in the first place. I realized now that even though some of what he said confused me, I would never make light of a run-in with the Reapers ever again, no matter how small.
“What are we gonna do?” Ryder asked, leaning back in his chair and awaiting our leader’s response.
“Nothing for now. Watch yourselves. While I don’t believe these guys are as dangerous as their predecessors, I’m not gonna underestimate anyone.” The gavel came down hard, indicating the meeting was over. As we rose from our seats, Marek pointed toward me. “Kaden and Linc… stay.” Stone sat at the table unmoving, but everyone else filed out.
Once only the four of us remained, Marek leaned back in his chair, the rage that painted his face moments ago vanishing.
“What started the fight?”
Jagger had been the one to tell him about the fight in the first place, and I found it odd Marek hadn’t asked this question when he was first told about it. Then again, maybe he was, and he was testing us, seeing if we would lie. But I wasn’t stupid enough to do that.
I looked over at Linc, who was three seats away from me and raised my brows. Was he gonna start? Because he needed to be the one to tell my dad that this shit all started over a girl he didn’t even know.
The silence unnerved me more than the upcoming conversation we were about to have. While I’d been complicit in the fight, I hadn’t been the reason we got into it with them in the first place. Whereas I didn’t blame Lincoln for defending himself when that guy shoved him, I did blame him for sticking his nose into their business by continuing to ask about the girl who was with them. I wasn’t heartless. Anyone could see she didn’t want to be with them, but we couldn’t go around kidnapping people, so to speak.
What would that say about us if we stole someone from our enemy?
“One of you gonna answer?” Stone asked, leaning forward, his usual intimidating self vibrating across the table.
Linc chewed on his bottom lip before finally answering his ol’ man. “They’re keeping this girl with them, against her will. I know it.”
“So, why’s that your business?” his dad retorted.
Instead of answering the direct question, he diverted. “You didn’t see her.” Linc raised his voice a level. “I’ve seen her a few times at my fights, and each time I lay eyes on her, she looks more lost than before. I don’t even wanna imagine the things they do to her.”
“Again… why is that your business?” Stone repeated.
“Because someone has to help her.”
“And you think that someone should be you?” Marek asked, folding his arms over his chest, the rustle of his leather cut putting me on alert. His expression was calm, but he could erupt at any moment.
“Yes.”
“How do you plan on doing that without inciting retaliation from them?” Stone’s question landed more on the side of rhetorical because there was no way the Reapers wouldn’t come after us if we tried to remove the girl from their clutches.
His son shrugged.
Stone mimicked his gesture. “What the hell kind of answer is that?” He didn’t give Linc a chance to respond before he pointed at him, his face contorting in anger. “Keep away from that girl.”
I continued to remain silent, watching all three of them and assessing the situation. Marek and Stone weren’t having any of it, laying down the law and so help Linc if he disobeyed. But when Linc clenched his jaw and his eyes formed into small slits, I knew he wasn’t gonna listen to a word they said.
My lungs deflated at the realization.
“You two can leave. And put somethin’ on your eye. You look like shit.” His command was directed at both of us.
Prez and Stone huddled close together, and right before we walked out of Chambers, I thought I heard our VP mention my mom’s name.