Page 22 of Ruthless

Chapter 9

Rebel

Past

"Everyone shut the fuck up!" Wildman shouted from his place at the head of the table. One of the club whores was sitting on his lap, naked and obviously high.

It didn't take long for everyone to quiet down and focus their attention on the bastard that was enveloped in a thick cloud of cigar smoke. The table was too small for all of us to sit at, so the men who hadn’t been able to get a seat found a place to lean against. It was obvious that the room had once been used as some kind of break room, the table not much more than an oblong, cafeteria-style table that you would see in a school. There was an old fridge against the wall, next to a small sink and a cupboard area. One large window, the kind that didn't open up, gave off the only light and a view of an overgrown field beyond. The whole fucking clubhouse was a joke, just like Wildman.

No serious MC that I knew of would hold church in a room that was so easily assessable. Hell, the one at Dark Menace was sound proof, windowless, and under tight security. Women weren't allowed in. Personal files of all the members and clients were kept there, along with information on pending jobs and shit that involved other clubs. It was also where we kept the safes.

It was the first time that I'd been in this room. Glancing around, I didn't see anything that would be useful to my club, so I hoped the information that Wildman was about to divulge would make up for that. My president, Stone, and Lynch, the president of Wild Marauders, was getting impatient, especially after a move on Lynch's woman, Kat, had been made. I hadn't liked it, but I'd been involved in that mess. Thank fuck I'd managed to get a message to Stone about Kat’s whereabouts in time for her to be rescued before too much damage had been done. Fuck, she'd done her own damage by taking out Killer, the president of the club, who Wildman had wanted to patch over.

Kat had done Wild Marauders, Dark Menace, and Phantom Riders a solid by taking him out.

"Fucking Dark Menace has something that belongs to me," Wildman grunted out, while playing with the whore's tits. She seemed oblivious to what he was doing. "And we're going to get her back."

Fuck, who was “she?”

"Who?" Rocky asked, sucking on a joint.

"My step-daughter." Shocked murmurs traveled around the room at his comment."Been looking for her and her fucking mother for years since they ran out on me. The bitch is dead, but I just found out Rachel is being held with Stone as collateral until a debt is paid by her brother-in-law."

"How'd you find that out?" Bud, his road captain, snarled.

The grin that came over Wildman's craggy face was anything but humorous. "Her brother-in-law is Ronald Manson. The stupid fuck shared some information with one of our boys when he stopped in at Ronald's shop to get a tattoo. He was whining Dark Menace tacked on a large chunk of interest on some money he owed them," he snorted. "Fuckers cut off his fucking fingers."

"How the hell he still doing tats?"

"Cut them off his right hand, Ronald's a lefty."

"Convenient," someone murmured in a cynical tone.

Wildman nodded, his tongue coming out to play with the piercing in his lip. "Yeah, I thought it could be a fucking set-up too. That's why I sent a few of our brothers over to pick up Ronald and his bitch wife. She's Rachel's half-sister. I figured we'd use her to get to Rachel."

"Never knew you had a wife and step-daughter, brother. You don't exactly come across as a family man." My comment drew chuckles from the men, including Wildman.

"That shit happened a long time ago. Kept the mother around because the girl was fucking hot. Got hotter as she got older. The mother watched over her like a fucking hawk, so I knew I'd have to bide my time until the girl was old enough to fuck." I laughed along with him to show him that I was on board. I thought about Ginger and what I'd had to do to her to keep her alive. I wasn't any better than this sick fuck, and it left a bitter taste in my mouth. "Then one day they just up and fucking disappeared."

"I’m surprised you didn't just kill the mother and fucking take the girl," someone said, which was exactly what I'd been thinking.

"What, you think I'm an animal?" Wildman laughed at his own joke. "I ain't always been a sick fuck." More laughter rippled throughout the room. I could believe that, and I wondered what had happened in his life to turn him into the monster that he was now. If I’d had to guess I would have said that it had a lot to do with all of the booze and drugs he consumed, but he didn't seem in any hurry to share it with us.

I remained quiet after that, deciding to gather as much information about Wildman's plans as I could. I'd need to get a message to Stone about what was going on. I'd gotten wind that he had a woman, my gut telling me that it was the same one that Wildman wanted to get his hands on. His step-daughter? I could see it in his crazed eyes, he didn't want a familial relationship with her. He was going to use her and defile her as he'd done to countless other innocent girls.

"By the time church is over Dark Menace will have received a loud and clear message that I'm not fucking around." He laughed gruffly. "And my step-daughter will know that I'm determined to get her back. She'll come to me willingly if she wants to see her sister alive again."

Fuck. That was plain enough, but I was more concerned with the delivery of his message than the words themselves. It sounded as if I wouldn't have time to tip Stone off that something was about to happen. Wildman didn't do shit the way that other club presidents did. His holding church was more him telling his brothers what he'd already done than it was about bringing shit to the table for a vote. He was a fucking dictator, and his little army of soldiers was too stupid to know that this wasn't how you ran a MC.

"As soon as Ronald delivers my message to Stone I expect to hear from the bastard." Wildman’s laugh was pure evil. "Stone, that is, not Ronald--he won't be able to talk. I wish I could be there when Rachel sees what we’re going to do to her brother-in-law. That will be enough to convince her she'd better do as I say if she doesn't want her sister to end up the same way."

I could only imagine what Wildman had in store for Ronald. I had just reached the conclusion that Wildman’s version of church was a fucking waste of time when things suddenly got interesting.

"Now let’s get to the real business,” Wildman said seriously. “We're here to discuss ending the three MCs that tried to end us at the Predator's clubhouse. I want those fuckers underground."

"Gonna be hard to do, considering they practically wiped out the Predators and half of our brothers," a man who had managed to get a seat at the table spoke up. Wildman glared at him, and the man shrugged. "It's the truth, Prez. And Lynch's bitch killed their president," he reminded him.

I hid my smile. The Predators hadn't been a threat to us. They'd been a newer club that had been looking to ramp up their reputation by affiliating themselves with the Red Devils. That had backfired on them when Wildman, seeing the opportunity to bring his numbers up, had coerced Killer into patching over his entire club by threatening harm to their women and families.

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