POWERHOUSE

We’re in church, Pops is on speakerphone as we await to hear the information he’s been digging for. “You have a bounty on your head, Gunner. Dead or alive, the Crumley brothers want you.”

“How much am I worth these days?” Gunner asks Pops.

“Twenty-five large,” Luca answers for Pops.

“Twenty-five grand?” I ask for clarification.

“Twenty-five mil,” Luca responds.

A collective of whistles reverberates around the enclosed room… one which suddenly has me feeling claustrophobic and boxed in. My skin tightens, my shoulders tense, and anger radiates from my whole being.

“There’s more,” Pops chokes out.

“What’s that, Pops?” Kruger probes, leaning in closer to the phone.

“If the entire club gets taken out, the payout is five hundred million,” Pops discloses.

“Fuck me,” I groan.

Gunner pounds the table with his closed fists, his face is a shade of red that I’ve never seen before in my life, and his temples are visibly throbbing. I’m afraid he’s fixing to detonate and no one, not even us, will be safe once that happens.

He growls out one menacing word that changes the course of all of our lives, “War.”

“We need to send the women and kids away to some place that’s safe,” Shamus instructs, his fingers tapping on the table as he considers where they could all go that would keep them protected.

“Where? Where the fuck could we send them that the Crumley brothers won’t be able to get their hands on them?” I raise the question.

“We can’t even send them out of the country, these motherfuckers have connections everywhere,” Malice spits.

“We wouldn’t be able to keep them together,” Gunner says. “It’ll be easier to get to them in one fell swoop.”

“But is it safe to separate them?” Kruger asks.

“At the moment, nothing is safe. For any of us,” Texas states.

“What are we going to do? This is going to be a global mass massacre,” I decree.

“You’re going underground,” Pops inserts. “You’re all going to disappear as if you never existed, even if that means I have to fake every damn one of y’alls deaths.”

“We can’t hide, Pops. We’ll never get rid of them if we do that,” Gunner argues.

“And that, nephew, is where we, as your family, steps in and takes care of business,” Luca hisses. “Until then, I think your Pops is right, I think you all need to die.”

“That’s gonna be quite the news article,” Kruger mirthlessly chuckles. “The pigs are going to be busy trying to figure out where all of our bodies have gone.”

“I have a plan for that,” Luca suggests. “We’re gonna sneak you all out in the dead of the night then blow the clubhouse to smithereens. There won’t be enough debris left behind but particles of ash. We’ll make a bomb that’ll emanate a grand blast that’ll shake the earth. It’ll be enough of an explanation to the crime scene team that they won’t investigate as to why there’s not so much as any charred bodies left behind to lay to rest.”

“When are we doing this?” I pose the question.

“The sooner, the better,” Pops quips.

“Tonight. We will do this tonight. I won’t take any chances with my family,” Gunner insists.

“Who’s telling the old ladies?” Texas asks.

“We’ll do it together, as a collective team. I don’t know about y’all, but I don’t want to face Cameron alone when I have to tell her this. Meeting in thirty in the main room,” Gunner says. “Talk to you soon, Pops, Luca.”

“We’ll be there tonight to extract you guys,” Luca informs.

“We’ll be ready,” Gun and Kruger proclaim, at the same time.

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Shamus sighs, clutching his hands into fists.

“Or our death underway,” Texas spews.

“By the women?” Malice asks.

“That’s the death I fear most,” Country huffs. “Charlee’s gonna be pissed.”

“That’s an understatement,” Gunner snorts.

“How much longer can we put this off?” I ask, suddenly imagining the beat down us men are fixing to receive from the ladies. “One woman mad at us is enough of a headache, with all of them pissed off at us, at the same time, we’re dead men walking.”

“I’ll go get the bullet proof vests,” Texas announces.

“I’ll grab our helmets,” Kruger adds.

“I’m gonna hide all of the sharp instruments and lock up the tool shed,” Country advises.

“Fuck that, I’m gonna lock up all of the bullets and guns,” I sputter.

“I’ll find all of their purses and make sure nothing’s hidden inside that they can use to kill us with,” Shamus dictates.

“Look for our balls while you're digging through their bags, Shamus,” Texas murmurs. “God knows they’ve probably got them dangling from their keychains.”

Several of us reach down, either adjusting ourselves or checking to make sure that our nut sacks are still attached to our bodies.

At this point, it’s a gamble.

SALEM

The guys called a meeting earlier, as all of us ladies sit in a circle on the couches, my eyes widen when the men enter.

“What the hell?” I ask as I take in their outward appearance.

Each has on a bullet proof vest, their bike helmets, shin guards, and face masks. I’m not sure if I should laugh or run maniacally for the hills.

“What have y’all done now?” Charlee asks, menace oozing from her. She’s standing up, her hands placed in the divots of her hips, her foot furiously tapping as she narrows her gaze at each and every one of the men.

The men all begin speaking at one time. A sharp, piercing whistle resounds through the room. “One at a time,” Cameron hisses, gritting her jaw while irately rubbing her temples. She very much exudes the role of the president’s old lady.

With frenzied movement, the guys all group together on the opposite side of the room. As I take them in, thoroughly looking them over, I notice the dark bags settled under their eyes, the tension straining their foreheads, and what I swear is fear compounded in their eyes.

“What’s going on guys?” I quietly ask.

“We have to die,” Gunner announces.

The room erupts as Charlee loses her balance and falls to her knees. “What happened?”

* * *

Twenty minutes later, all is eerily quiet as we absorb what we've been told. The only noise that’s heard throughout the clubhouse is from the kids who are currently in the playroom, peacefully playing, with a couple of the bunnies as their caretakers, obliviously unaware of the upheaval the adults are in here facing.

“Where are we going to go?” I ask the men.

“We don’t know, sweetness,” Cole answers, coming over to me and wrapping me in his embrace. “Pops and Luca are taking care of those details. All we know is to keep us off the Crumley brother’s radar, they have to believe we’ve all been blown up and that there weren’t any survivors.”

Bull walks up to Gunner, his fingers are fidgeting at his sides, he looks as if he’s fixing to blow a gasket. “I’m going to get Dottie, Gun. I’m not leaving without her.” Dottie is my neighbor, she and Bull have recently started seeing each other, and from what I can tell are on the brink of falling madly in love.

“Are you claiming her, brother?” Gunner asks Bull.

“I am,” Bull answers.

“Then go get her and bring her in. Don’t let her pack, she needs to come with nothing more than the clothes on her back, we’ll provide her anything she needs.”

Bull nods, then hastily leaves, going after his woman.

“Do you think she’ll come?” I ask Cole.

“She will, darlin’. That’s a man on a mission and I don’t see him taking no for an answer,” Cole remarks.

“No. I don’t think that he will,” I whisper.

“C’mon, babe. Let’s go catch a nap. It’s gonna be a long night.” With that, all of the couples separate and head off to do the same thing as we are. Everyone grabbing their kids along the way. I’m not sure what the plans are for the bunnies, or what our future holds, but I pray we come out of this alive on the other side.