Page 85 of Wrath

Eden

“You need to relax, worrying isn’t going to make the time go any faster.” Peyton tries her best to keep me calm, but nothing seems to be working. It’s obvious that Saul and Vike aren’t happy that they’re stuck here babysitting. They wanna be at the fight where everyone else is. The only positive thing about tonight is the fact that with the promise of the club being quiet, I’ve managed to convince Jenika to leave her room and join us.

“I should have tried better to convince him not to fight,” I say my thoughts out loud when the idea of him getting hurt becomes too unbearable. I’ve tried convincing myself that I’m cool about this but I’m not, I know what goes on at these kinds of fights. There are no rules. Wrath stands every chance of being seriously hurt, or worse. What was I thinking, allowing him to do this all over some stupid fucking business?

“You’d never have convinced him not to fight,” Saul shakes his head and laughs.

“Oh yeah, and how long have you known him? I don’t remember you being a member before he went nomad,” I bite back at him harshly.

“We may not have been at the same charter for long, but anyone who’s a Soul knows who Wrath is. He’s got a reputation.” Saul explains.

“What kind of reputation?” I ask, noticing the way Peyton and Alicia look at each other. Saul’s gone quiet all of a sudden too.

“Come on, I wanna know.” I get up from my seat and head over to where he and Vike are playing pool.

“You don’t,” he assures me and I snatch the cue out of his hand and narrow my eyes at him.

“I’m a big girl, I can take it,” I assure him.

“All I’m gonna say is that your boy can handle himself. He got the road name, Wrath, for a reason.” He looks at Vike and sniggers.

“Explain.” I hold the pool cue hostage while I wait for him to tell me more. Raze told me a little about how Aaron earned his name, but I’ve always wondered what happened to Aaron during the years we were apart.

“Rumour is, that after he left his father and this compound, he left behind his conscience with it. Word spread from charter to charter that he’d become unhinged, a lot of brothers claimed he was dangerous. But that's all in the past. I’ve come to know him and he’s the kinda brother every charter needs. We know Wrath can fight, and we know Wrath can win, that's what you need to focus on now,” he attempts to give me some reassurance, but my stomach is still twisting in knots.

Vike smiles at me and I steadily hand Saul his cue back.

“We should play some music, cheer this place up.” Peyton tries to keep everything lighthearted, but I can barely put a smile together and when the door suddenly bursts open and Dev marches in, I can tell from the way he looks at the other brothers that something’s happened.

He stays silent as he heads straight for Raze’s office, and both Saul and Vike stare at each other, and shrug.

“Hey, watcha doin’ back here? Thought the tournament would have gotten started by now,” Vike calls after him.

“There's been a change of plan. Boss asked me to stop by and get this for him.” He comes out the office with a black holdall and swings it over his shoulder.

“What kinda change?” Saul looks intrigued.

“We found Cliff.” Dev keeps his face blank and Peyton immediately stands up.

“Where is he?” I ask, feeling my skin turn cold. I move to stand beside Anita, in case she starts to panic and when she stops knitting and places her needles down on the table in front of her, I notice how her hands are shaking.

“It’s okay.” I do my best to calm her, despite being scared myself.

“You don’t need to worry. We got eyes on him. The rest of the boys got the place surrounded.” Dev assures us.

“What’s the bag for?” Peyton’s voice sounds shaky.

“This?” He glances over his shoulder. “This is Raze’s tool bag,” he explains coolly and Peyton sinks back into her seat, covering her face with her hands.

“Where’s Aaron?” I know that he’s gonna need to be in on this action, myself and Raze spoke about his need for vengeance just yesterday. I don’t know what's worse. The idea of him fighting, or him being reunited with his father.

“Your boy refused to leave the fight, he’s still there with Ruck in his corner,” he tells me with a slight hint of a smile and when I realize what Aaron is giving up for me, my heart sinks like a stone. After ten years of carrying pent-up aggression and hate, he needed to unleash it, and he chose me instead.

“I need to get to the fight.” I look over to Saul and Vike.

“Absolutely not.” Saul places himself in front of me as a barrier. “That is the worst thing you could do.”

“I have to tell Aaron not to go through with it. I don’t care that much about the business. Not enough for him to get hurt, and this thing with his dad.. it’s important to him. He needs it.”

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